Air conditioning apparatus for automotive vehicle

Abstract

An air conditioning apparatus for an automotive vehicle comprises: a compressor (101) driven by an engine (101) for compressing a refrigerant; an evaporator (103) for evaporating the refrigerant compressed by the compressor; engine speed commanding section (104) for outputting a first command signal to drive the engine at a first engine idle speed when the compressor is not actuated and outputting a second command signal to drive the engine at a second engine idle speed higher than the first engine idle speed when the compressor is actuated; an after-evaporator temperature sensor (105) for detecting air temperature Immediately after the evaporator; an external air temperature sensor (106) for detecting external air temperature; and an inhibiting section (107) for inhibiting the engine speed commanding section from outputting the second command signal, when after-evaporator temperature is lower than a predetermined temperature and further external air temperature is lower than another predetermined temperature, irrespective of whether the compressor is actuated or not. The air conditioning apparatus can control engine idle speed without use of any timer and without deteriorating fuel consumption rate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.