Air temperature control system for a vehicle

An air temperature control system for a vehicle, comprising:

• a blower for generating an air flow;
• an air passage for receiving air generated by said blower;
• a heating heat exchanger, disposed in said air passage, for heating air in said air passage;
• temperature controlling means for controlling a temperature of blowout air to a vehicle passenger compartment;
• and
• inlet air temperature detecting means for detecting a temperature of air at an inlet side of said heating heat exchanger;
• wherein said temperature controlling means is further for controlling said temperature of blowout air to be a target blowout temperature to said vehicle passenger compartment;
• and
• when said target blowout temperature is less than an inlet temperature detected by said inlet temperature detecting means, said temperature controlling means also controlling said blower so that an amount of blowout air to said vehicle compartment per unit time is reduced in accordance with a drop of the target blowout temperature.

A vehicle air conditioner comprising:

• an air conditioner circuit including a cooler unit, a heater unit, a target blowout temperature calculator, a unit movement mode determining device, a cooler unit controller, and a heater unit controller;
• the cooler unit including a first blowout device for generating a first air flow, a first air passage for introducing air from the blowout device to a vehicle compartment, a cooling heat exchanger disposed inside of the air passage for cooling the air within the first air passage, and a cooling ability adjusting device for controlling an air cooling ability of the cooling heat exchanger, the cooling ability adjusting device being controlled so that a temperature of the air cooled by the cooling heat exchanger reaches a vehicle compartment target blowout temperature;
• the heater unit including a second blowout device for generating a second air flow, a second air passage for introducing air from the second blowout device to the vehicle compartment, a heating heat exchanger disposed inside of the second air passage for heating the air within the second air passage, a heating ability adjusting device for controlling an air heating ability of the heating heat exchanger, and an intake air temperature detector for detecting an intake side air temperature of the heating heat exchanger, the heating ability adjusting device being controlled so that a temperature of the air heated by the heating heat exchanger reaches the vehicle compartment target blowout temperature;
• the target blowout temperature calculator being operative to calculate the target blowout temperature;
• the unit movement mode determination device for determining whether the cooler unit of the heater unit should be driven based on the target blowout temperature calculated by the target blowout temperature calculator;
• when the unit movement mode determining device determines that the cooler unit should be driven, the cooler unit controller controlling the cooling ability adjusting device so that the temperature of the air cooled by the cooling heat exchanger reaches the target blowout temperature when the target blowout temperature is less than a predetermined temperature, the cooler unit controller controlling the cooling ability adjusting device so that the temperature of the air cooled by the cooling heat exchanger is maintained at the predetermined temperature when the target blowout temperature is more than the predetermined temperature, and the cooler unit controller controlling the blowout device so that a vehicle compartment blowout amount air amount per unit time is reduced in accordance with a rise of the target blowout temperature;
• and
• when the unit movement mode determining device determines the heater unit should be driven, the heater unit controller controls the heating ability adjusting device so that the temperature of the air heated by the heating heat exchanger reaches the target blowout temperature when the target blowout temperature is more than an inlet temperature detected by an intake air temperature sensor, and controls the blowout device so that a blowout amount of air per unit time is reduced in accordance with a drop in the target blowout temperature when the target blowout temperature is less than the inlet temperature detected by the intake air temperature with a drop in the target blowout.