Patent ID: 8215122

Claim:
An air conditioner, comprising: an outdoor unit including a compressor; at least one indoor unit connected to the outdoor unit, wherein the at least one indoor unit is configured to be connected to a respective interior space to be heated or cooled, wherein each indoor unit comprises: an indoor heat exchanger; an indoor linear expansion valve; and a temperature sensor that senses a temperature of its respective interior space; a valve driver that drives the indoor linear expansion valve of the at least one indoor unit; a controller that compares a temperature of the interior space, sensed by the temperature sensor, to a selected temperature, that determines an opening amount for the indoor linear expansion valve based on the result of the comparison, and that controls the valve driver to adjust an opening of the linear expansion valve accordingly; and a memory in which a target pipe temperature of the indoor heat exchanger of the at least one indoor unit is stored, wherein the target pipe temperature corresponds to a difference between a current sensed temperature and a set temperature for a respective interior space, and wherein the controller controls operation of the valve driver so that an actual pipe temperature of the indoor heat exchanger of the at least one indoor unit reaches the target pipe temperature.