Vehicle temperature control apparatus
AssigneeDiesel Kiki Co., Ltd.
InventorEiji Okura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Whether the rear seat in a passenger compartment of a motor vehicle is occupied or not is sensed and, if not, a mode door adapted to control the proportion of air flows through upper and lower outlets of an air flow duct is suitably controlled such that the amount of air blown out from the lower outlet into the passenger compartment is increased relative to that from the upper outlet which will direct the air toward the rear end of the passenger compartment. Additionally, the temperature for turning the compressor on and off are shifted to slightly higher levels compared with the temperatures at which the compressor would be turned on and off if the rear seat were occupied.
Claims8
A temperature control apparatus for controlling a temperature in a passenger compartment of an automotive vehicle comprising:
- set means for setting a command compartment temperature for the compartment;
- compartment temperature sensor means for sensing an actual compartment temperature in the compartment;
- temperature control means for discharging temperature controlled air into the compartment;
- outlet temperature sensor means for sensing an outlet temperature of the temperature control means;
- rear seat passenger sensor means for detecting presence and absence of at least one vehicle passenger on a rear seat in the compartment;
- air flow control means for controlling flows of the temperature controlled air into an upper portion and a lower portion of the compartment;
- and
- operation control means for turning the temperature control means on and off;
- said operation control means being constructed to compute a control on temperature and a control off temperature as predetermined functions of the command compartment temperature and the actual compartment temperature, turn the temperature control means on when the outlet temperature is higher than the control on temperature and turn the temperature control means off when the outlet temperature is lower than the control off temperature;
- said operation control means being further constructed to determine a proportion of the temperature controlled air into the compartment lower portion to the temperature controlled air into the compartment upper portion depending on whether the rear seat is occupied by a passenger.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.