Patent ID: 8041470

Claim:
A fan operation control method, comprising: storing a fan operating time map based on which an operating time of a fan is set in accordance with an outside air temperature of a vehicle and an idle speed increase time map based on which an idle speed increase time is set in accordance with the operating time of the fan; detecting the outside air temperature of the vehicle; detecting an operation stop command of an internal combustion engine that is cooled by the fan; setting the operating time of the fan in accordance with the outside air temperature of the vehicle based on the fan operating time map when the operation stop command of the internal combustion engine is detected; storing the set operating time of the fan in a non-volatile memory; controlling the fan to operate for the set operating time of the fan using electric power supplied from a battery; detecting an operation start command of the internal combustion engine; searching the non-volatile memory when the operation start command of the internal combustion engine is detected, and setting time to increase an idle speed in accordance with the set operating time of the fan based on the idle speed increase time map when the operating time of the fan is set; and increasing the idle speed of the internal combustion engine in accordance with the set time to increase the idle speed so as to charge the battery.