Compact heating, ventilation and air conditioning system for automobiles

A heating, ventilation and air conditioning system for use in an automobile, comprising:

• a casing having a vent outlet and a rear wall located rearward in a fore and aft direction of the automobile;
• a blower chamber accommodating a blower fan discharging air, said blower chamber being disposed within the casing;
• a descending air passage communicated with the blower chamber to permit the air from the blower fan to flow downwardly therethrough;
• an inner wall cooperating with the casing to form the blower chamber and the descending air passage, said inner wall being formed with a recessed portion located near a boundary between the blower chamber and descending air passage;
• a cooling heat-exchanger adapted to cool the air passing therethrough to produce cool air;
• an ascending air passage communicated with the descending air passage and the vent outlet to permit the air passing through the descending air passage to flow upwardly therethrough into the vent outlet;
• a heating heat-exchanger disposed within the ascending air passage and adapted to heat the air passing therethrough to produce warm air, said cooling heat-exchanger being disposed between the blower chamber and the heating heat-exchanger;
• a bypass air passage juxtaposed to the heating heat-exchanger and communicated with the ascending air passage to permit the cool air from the cooling heat-exchanger to bypass the heating heat-exchanger and flow into the ascending air passage;
• an air-mix door adapted to control a proportion of the warm air passing through the heating heat-exchanger and the cool air passing through the bypass air passage;
• a foot vent passage communicated with the ascending air passage, the foot vent passage being arranged above the heating heat-exchanger and between the blower chamber and the ascending air passage;
• and
• a partition wall cooperating with the rear wall of the casing to define the ascending air passage, the partition wall separating the foot vent passage and the ascending air passage from each other,
• wherein the heating heat-exchanger is arranged substantially horizontally at the recessed portion of the inner wall and has one end portion adjacent to the recessed portion and an opposite end portion adjacent to the bypass air passage,
• wherein the bypass air passage and the vent outlet are substantially linearly aligned with each other via the ascending air passage.