Abstract: An air conditioner for a vehicle has a heater core for heating air blown from upstream thereof and discharging the heated air downstream thereof. An air passage is arranged in parallel with the heater core, and the air flow through the heater core and the air passage is controlled by a rotatable damper. A first chamber is provided downstream of the heater core and air passage for mixing the heated air from the heater core with non-heated air from the air passage. A second chamber is provided downstream of the first chamber for distributing the mixed air to a ventilation diffuser and/or to a third chamber. The third chamber can distribute the air alternatively to a defroster or a heater diffuser. Closable bypass passages are provided directly connecting the discharge end of the heater core with the third chamber, so that extra heated air may be moved directly to the third chamber when desired, thereby allowing the passenger to have cool air around his head and heated air around his legs.

Abstract: In an air conditioner control system for vehicles, a first control signal generator is responsive to a first switch to energize an actuator to place the system in its inside air recirculation mode of operation, and a second control signal generator is responsive to a second switch to deenergize the actuator to place the system back into its outside air supply mode of operation. A third control signal generator is responsive to a third switch whereby when the output value of an outside air sensor exceeds a given value within a given time period, the actuator is energized for a given time interval to place the system in the inside air recirculation mode and after the expiration of the given time interval the actuator is deenergized to place the system back in the outside air supply mode.

Abstract: A plurality of control modes set in consideration of the comfortability in a compartment of a vehicle are previously stored in a memory medium, such as a magnetic card, and programs of the compressor control, the recirculation/fresh air change-over control, the blow-out opening change-over control, the air flow rate control, the condensation prevention control and the like which are preset in a central processing unit are performed in accordance with the data of the aforesaid memory medium. Output signals from sensors provided at various portions of the vehicle or instructions by the operator, and various controls concerning the air conditioner are automatically performed without requiring manual operations. The controls can be effected through any one of a speech recognition device, sensors, external components and manual operations.