JP2011133193A - Water heater - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a water heater capable of preventing excessive temperature decline of bathtub water while reducing temperature detecting frequency of the bathtub water. <P>SOLUTION: The water heater includes a bath heat-retention bathtub circulation circuit C having a water circulation passage 3 connected to a bathtub 1 and circulating bathtub water using the water circulation passage 3. When the temperature of bathtub water is lowered to a predetermined temperature or lower, bath heat-retention operation for increasing the temperature of the bathtub water by using reheating operation is executed. The water heater includes a sound sensing part 11 sensing whether bathing action is performed by a bathroom user by sound. When it is determined that bathing action is not performed, the bath heat-retention operation is stopped. Even in the case where it is determined that bathing action is not performed, when bathing time predicted by learning of the bathing time arrives, the bath heat-retention operation is started. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a water heater having a bath heat retaining function for keeping the temperature of bathtub water constant.

  Conventionally, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a bath heating apparatus having a bath heat retaining function that keeps the temperature of bath water constant. This conventional bath heating device detects the presence or absence of a human body in the bathroom with a pyroelectric infrared sensor disposed in the bathroom, and if the human body is not detected, is the time interval for operating the bath warming means longer? Alternatively, the operation of the bath heat retaining means is stopped. According to such a structure, the temperature detection frequency | count of bathtub water can be reduced, and the temperature fall of the bathtub water by inflow of the low temperature water in a water circulation path can be reduced.

JP 2009-109177 A

  However, in the above-described conventional bath heating apparatus, when the human body is not detected in the bathroom, the method of increasing the time interval for the operation of the bath heat retaining means increases the bath water even when the human body is not detected for a long time. The temperature is detected. For this reason, it can be said that there exists a limit in reducing the temperature fall of bathtub water. Further, in the conventional bath heating apparatus, when a technique of stopping the operation of the bath heat retaining means when a human body is not detected in the bathroom is used, the hot water is heated by the heating means (refreshing operation). This is always done after human detection. For this reason, due to the temperature drop of the bath water over a long period of time, the process of raising the bath water to a desired bath temperature before the bathing may not be in time, and comfort may be impaired.

  This invention was made in order to solve the problems as described above, and provides a water heater capable of preventing an excessive temperature drop of bath water while reducing the number of times of bath water temperature detection. Objective.

  A water heater according to the present invention has a water circulation path connected to a bathtub, and tub water circulation means for circulating bathtub water using the water circulation path, heating means for heating hot water flowing in the water circulation path, and a water circulation path Temperature detecting means for acquiring the temperature of the bath water by detecting the temperature of the hot water circulating through the bath, and when the temperature of the bath water drops below a predetermined temperature, the temperature of the bath water is adjusted using the heating means. Bath warming means for raising, bathing judgment means for judging the presence or absence of a bathing operation by a user, prediction means for learning and predicting the bathing time based on the judgment result of bathing by the bathing judgment means, and bathing judgment means When it is determined that the bathing operation is not performed, the operation of the bath heat retaining unit is stopped, and the prediction unit predicts even when the bathing determination unit determines that the bathing operation is not performed. During the arrival of the bath time those comprising a start timing control means for activating bath kept means.

  According to this invention, it is possible to prevent an excessive temperature drop in the bathtub water while reducing the number of times the temperature of the bathtub water is detected.

It is a block diagram of a heat pump type hot water heater that is a hot water storage type hot water heater having a bath heat retaining function to which the present invention is applied, and a bathroom. It is a figure showing the detailed structure of the bath thermal tub circulation circuit C. It is a figure showing the detailed structure of the audio | voice detection part. It is a time chart showing the outline | summary of the bath heat retention operation | movement in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The flowchart which shows the process which starts and stops a bath heat retention operation | movement based on the judgment result of the presence or absence of the sound accompanying bathing, and the next bathing time estimated by learning bathing time (bathing time and bathing time interval) is there. It is a flowchart which shows the process which records the bathing frequency after completion of hot water filling, and the bathing time in each bathing. It is a flowchart which shows the process which sets the starting time of bath heat retention operation | movement based on the hot water filling completion time and bathing time which a heat retention operation time setting part acquires from a bathing time recording part.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a heat pump type hot water supply device 100 that is a hot water storage type hot water supply device having a bath heat retaining function to which the present invention is applied, and a bathroom. The system shown in FIG. 1 includes a hot water storage tank 101 for storing hot water to be supplied to the bathtub 1, a boiling circuit A, a bath heat retaining heat source supply circuit B, and a bath warm bath circulator circuit C.

  More specifically, the boiling circuit A is a circuit for boiling water in the hot water storage tank 101 using the heat pump unit 201 that uses carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. The heat pump unit 201 and the heat pump circulation pump 202 include Connected sequentially. The bath heat-retaining heat source supply circuit B is a circuit for circulating high-temperature water in the hot water storage tank 101 serving as a heat source for maintaining the temperature of the bathtub water in the bathtub 1, and the hot water storage tank 101 and the heat exchanger 2 for reheating. And a bath heat retention heat source circulation pump 102 are sequentially connected.

The bath thermal tub circulation circuit C has a water circulation path 3 in which a bathtub 1, a heat exchanger 2, a circulation pump 4, and a temperature sensor 5 are sequentially connected. Moreover, the bath insulation bathtub circulation circuit C has the control apparatus 6 which controls the bath insulation operation for keeping the temperature of bathtub water constant. The bath warming operation activates the circulation pump 4 and the bath warming heat source circulation pump 102 when the temperature of the bath water drops below a predetermined temperature (a memorial activation bathtub temperature T _L described later with reference to FIG. 4). Then, the temperature of the bath water is increased by exchanging heat between the high-temperature water flowing through the bath heat retaining heat source supply circuit B and the bath water flowing through the water circulation path 3 through the heat exchanger 2 (performs a reheating operation). Is the action. Furthermore, in order to determine the presence / absence of a bathing operation, the bath insulation bath circulation circuit C includes a voice detection unit 11 that detects the presence / absence of a voice accompanying bathing.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a detailed configuration of the bath heat-retaining bathtub circulation circuit C. As shown in FIG. 2, the control device 6 includes a time management unit 7, a bathing time recording unit 8, a warming operation time setting unit 9, and an automatic warming start / stop determination unit 10. The control device 6 controls the circulation pump 4 based on the hot water temperature detected by the temperature sensor 5. The control device 6 is connected to a sound detection unit 11.

  More specifically, the time management unit 7 performs time management. The bathing time recording unit 8 is based on the voice detection information in the bathroom acquired from the voice detection unit 11, the hot water filling completion time, the number of bathing operations performed by the bathroom user, and the bathing time for each bathing operation, Record. The warming operation time setting unit 9 sets the start time of the bath warming operation based on the hot water filling completion time and the bathing time acquired from the bathing time recording unit 8. The automatic warming start / stop determination unit 10 starts and stops the bath warming operation based on the voice detection information acquired from the voice detection unit 11 and the bath warming operation start time information set by the warming operation time setting unit 9. To decide.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed configuration of the voice detection unit 11. As shown in FIG. 3, the sound detection unit 11 includes a microphone 1101 that collects sound in the bathroom, a microphone amplifier 1102, an A / D converter (Analog to Digital Converter) 1103, and a measurement processing circuit 1104 in order. It has a connected configuration.

  The measurement processing circuit 1104 includes an adaptive filter 1105, an adder 1106, an LMS (Least Mean Square) calculation unit 1107, and a determination unit 1108. Here, the time is represented by a discrete value k, the output from the adaptive filter 1105 is y (k), the output signal from the A / D converter 1103 is x (k), and the output from the adder 1106 is e (k). Thus, it is expressed as a function of the discrete value k of time.

  The audio signal input to the microphone 1101 is amplified by the microphone amplifier 1102 and then converted to a digital signal by the A / D converter 1103. The digital signal x (k) is sequentially input to the adaptive filter 1105 in the measurement processing circuit 1104. The output signal y (k) from the adaptive filter 1105 is subtracted from 0 (no input) as a silent reference signal.

  In the measurement processing circuit 1104, identification using the adaptive filter 1105 is performed as a function of the audio difference between the silent reference signal (0) and the audio signal collected by the microphone 1101 at all times. In order to perform the above identification, in the adaptive filter 1105, an error signal e (k) (e (k) = 0−y (k) between the silence input signal and the output signal y (k) of the adaptive filter 1105 in the adder 1106. ) Is updated so that the coefficient of the adaptive filter 1105 becomes zero.

  In this embodiment, the LMS operation unit 1107 is used as the coefficient update algorithm of the adaptive filter 1105, and the coefficient of the adaptive filter 1105 is updated so that the error signal e (k) is minimized by the least square method. An algorithm for sequentially updating the coefficients of the adaptive filter 1105 is shown as follows.

When the coefficient vector of the adaptive digital filter in the adaptive filter 1105 is represented by W, the input signal vector of the adaptive filter 1105 is represented by X, and the coefficient update step size parameter (scalar) is represented by μ, the following equation can be obtained.
W (k + 1) = W (k) + 2 × μ × e (k) × X (k)
Here, W and X are vectors of length n as described below.
W (k) = [W1 (k), W2 (k),..., Wn (k)] T
X (k) = [X1 (k), X2 (k),..., Xn (k)] T
T represents transposition. W (k) is a feature function of speech, and the relationship between the input signal x (k) to the adaptive filter 1105 and the output signal y (k) is y (k) = W (k) T × X (k )

  When the sound accompanying bathing is generated in the bathroom, the characteristic function of the measurement processing circuit 1104 changes every moment, so that the coefficient of the adaptive filter 1105 is sequentially updated. Therefore, by observing the time change of the filter coefficient and measuring the difference of the time change, it is possible to detect the change in the presence or absence of sound, that is, the presence or absence of sound accompanying bathing.

  In the above example, the advantage of using the adaptive filter 1105 and the LMS algorithm for detection of the presence or absence of sound accompanying bathing is that the microphone 1101, the microphone amplifier 1102, the A / D converter 1103, and the like have steady sound characteristics and the microphone 1101. Even when an audio signal unrelated to bathing, such as a stationary sound in the bathroom, collected in the room is detected, it can be determined that there is no sound by the convergence of the coefficient of the adaptive filter 1105, and the presence or absence of audio accompanying bathing can be determined. This is because there is an effect that can be distinguished more clearly.

  Next, the determination unit 1108 acquires the filter coefficient updated by the LMS calculation unit 1107, and constantly monitors the temporal difference of the filter coefficient. When the difference value of the filter coefficient exceeds a preset threshold value, it is determined that a sound accompanying bathing has occurred, but when the threshold value is not exceeded, it is determined that a sound accompanying bathing has not occurred.

  More specifically, a difference between coefficient vectors W expressed by ΔW (k) = W (k) −W (k−1) is considered. This ΔW (k) represents the change amount of the filter coefficient from time k−1 to time k. The sum of squares of each component of the vector ΔW (k) is defined as D (k). Let Δt be the time interval between time k-1 and time k.

  The determination unit 1108 performs monitoring by calculating D (k) for each Δt based on the filter coefficient updated by the LMS calculation unit 1107. If the state where D (k) exceeds the threshold value continues for a predetermined time (for example, 10 seconds), it is determined that the voice has been generated. If the threshold value is not exceeded, the voice has been generated. Judge that there is no. Further, the determination unit 1108 reports the result of determining the presence or absence of sound to a device (control device 6) outside the sound detection unit 11.

  Next, a characteristic bath warming operation in the heat pump type water heater 100 configured as described above will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a time chart showing an outline of the bath warming operation in Embodiment 1 of the present invention, in which the sound detection state during bathing in the bathroom, the change in bath water temperature, the start of the bath warming operation, and It is a schematic diagram which shows the relationship between a stop and start and stop of a reheating heating operation.

  In this embodiment, even if the hot water filling is completed after the hot water bathing operation accompanied by the start of the bath warming operation is started, the start of the bath warming operation is not maintained as it is. When no bathroom sound is detected, bathing is not performed, so there is no need to perform additional heating even if the temperature of the hot water drops. For this reason, in such a case, it is possible to prevent low temperature water from flowing into the bathtub 1 from the water circulation path 3 or the like with the temperature detection operation of the bath water by stopping the bath heat retaining operation.

  The control device 6 has a function of learning and predicting the bathing time (more specifically, bathing time and bathing time interval) of the bathroom user. Such a function will be described later with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. In this embodiment, when a sound is detected in the bathroom after completion of the hot water filling, or when the bathing time or bathing time interval predicted by the learning of the bathing time has elapsed, the bath warming operation is started. .

  In FIG. 4, the time when the black circle is attached represents the time when the hot water filling is completed (or the end of bathing). In the example shown in FIG. 4, after completion of the hot water filling, the start time of the bath warming operation based on the learning value of the bathing time interval (black triangle mark), the start time of the bath warming operation based on the learning value of the bathing time (white The case where the start time of the bath warming operation comes in the order of the triangle mark) and the bathroom sound detection determination (black inverted triangle mark) is shown.

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, when no sound is detected in the bathroom for a certain period of time after the completion of the filling time, a bathroom sound non-detection determination (a white inverted triangle mark) is made. In the case of bathing), it is determined that bathing has not been performed, and the bath heat retaining operation is stopped (the heat retaining operation start / stop flag FLG is turned OFF). In this case, the bath heat retaining means does not start until a sound in the bathroom is detected or until a bathing time predicted by learning of the bathing time arrives. As a result, the temperature detection of the bath water is not performed, and the temperature of the bath water is not affected by the temperature detection but lowered by the heat radiation as shown in FIG.

In the example shown in FIG. 4, the bath warming operation is temporarily started when the scheduled start time (black triangle mark) of the bath warming operation based on the prediction of the bathing time interval based on the learning value of the bathing time interval has arrived. Moreover, the temperature detection of bathtub water is performed simultaneously with starting. In this example, when the scheduled start-up time arrives, the bath water temperature has not dropped to the renewal start-up bathtub temperature _TL , and thus the reheating heating operation is not executed. In the example shown in FIG. 4, after that, when the scheduled start time of the bath warming operation based on the prediction of the bathing time based on the learning value of the bathing time (white triangle mark) arrives, the bath warming operation is temporarily started. At the same time as the activation, the temperature detection of the bath water is executed. In this example, when the scheduled start-up time arrives, the bath water temperature is lowered to the memorial start-up bath temperature _TL or lower. Therefore, bath water temperature Reheating heating operation until it reaches the add-fired stop bath temperature T _H is performed.

Furthermore, in the example shown in FIG. 4, when the sound in a bathroom is detected after that, bath heat insulation operation | movement is started and the temperature detection of bath water is performed. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4, since the bath water temperature has not dropped to the reheating start bath temperature _TL , the reheating heating operation is not executed. After that, when the sound in the bathroom is continuously detected, the bath heat retaining means is continuously activated, and the temperature of the bath water is detected when a predetermined time interval elapses. Become.

  FIG. 5 is a process for starting and stopping the bath warming operation based on the determination result of the presence or absence of sound accompanying bathing and the next bathing time predicted by learning the bathing time (bath time and bathing time interval). It is a flowchart which shows. In the detection of bathing by the voice detection unit 11, the presence or absence of voice is used as a determination condition. Therefore, it is determined that the bathing has ended when a certain period of time has elapsed without detection of voice. Here, as an example of such a constant elapsed time, the absence determination time is 10 minutes.

  In S101, the heat retention operation start / stop flag FLG is initialized to the ON state (the bath heat retention operation is activated), and Tcnt, which is the elapsed time from the time of detecting the voice, is initialized to 0 seconds. Next, in S102, a waiting time of 1 second is provided in order to detect the presence / absence state (detection of sound accompanying bathing) every second.

  Next, after the elapsed time Tcnt is updated in S103, in S104, the time Ts (i), which is the time acquired from the heat retention operation time setting unit 9 and is the heat retention operation start scheduled time for the i-th bath, and the current time It is compared whether or not the time Treal is equal. This time Ts (i) is a value set by the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. As a result of the determination in S104, if the two times are equal, the process proceeds to S107, and if different, the process proceeds to S105.

  In S105, the heat retention obtained by adding the last bathing event time (filling completion time or last bathing time) Tprv including the hot water filling and the bathing time interval ΔTs (i) for the i-th bath obtained from the heat keeping operation time setting unit 9 It is compared whether or not the scheduled operation start time is equal. This i-th bathing time interval ΔTs (i) is also a value set by the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. As a result of the determination in S105, if the two times are equal, the process proceeds to S107, and if different, the process proceeds to S106.

  In S106, it is determined whether or not bathroom sound detection information from the microphone 1101 has been acquired. As a result, when a voice is detected, after the elapsed time Tcnt is cleared to 0 in S107, it is determined in S108 whether the heat insulation operation start / stop flag FLG is OFF. As a result, when this flag FLG is OFF, the flag FLG is set to ON in S109 (the bath warming operation is activated).

  On the other hand, if no sound is detected in S106, the elapsed time Tcnt and the absence determination time constant Tabs (for example, 10 minutes) are compared in S110. As a result, if the elapsed time Tcnt exceeds the absence determination time constant Tabs, it is determined that there is no person in the bathroom, and the heat insulation operation start / stop flag FLG is set to OFF in S111 (bath heat insulation). Operation is stopped).

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process of recording the number of baths after completion of filling and bathing times in each bath. Here, the number of bathing times and bathing times for each hot water filling (separate) are recorded in order to record the bathing for each past hot water filling operation for one week assuming that there is a hot water filling operation once a day. A data array Tarray (d, i) to be recorded is used. D in the data array Tarray (d, i) is a hot water filling sequence counter indicating the order of the past hot water filling operations. The tension is counted. i is a bathing event number counter including a hot water filling for each hot water filling. The hot water filling is set to 0, the first bathing is set to 1, and the subsequent bathing times are sequentially counted for each bathing.

  In FIG. 6, in S201, a counter i for counting the number of bathing events for each hot water filling is initialized to 0, and a hot water filling order counter d indicating the order of past hot water fillings is initialized to 6. Next, in S202, it is determined whether or not a bath function including a hot water filling operation and a bath warming operation is activated. As a result, if the bath function is ON, whether or not the hot water filling is completed is determined in S203.

  If it is determined in S203 that the hot water filling is completed, in S204 and S205, in order to update the data array Tarray (d, i) for one hot water filling, a data shift operation is performed for each hot water filling. Is called.

  Next, in S206, in order to confirm that all the bathing time records of the d-1th hot water filling have been shifted, the bathing frequency recording data array Bcnt (d-1) for each hot water filling (separate) and the hot water filling every time. The bathing event number counter i is compared. As a result, if the counter i is also larger than the data array Bcnt (d−1), the data shift operation is terminated, and Bcnt (d−1) is shifted to Bcnt (d) in S207.

  Next, in order to shift all the bathing time data for the seven hot water fillings, in S208, the hot water filling order counter d is subtracted to shift one new data, and the bathing event number counter i including the hot water filling is performed. Is initialized to 0. Next, in S209, it is compared whether or not the hot water filling sequence counter d is smaller than 1. As a result, if the hot water filling order counter d is smaller, all the data in the bathing time recording data array Tarray (d, i) for each hot water filling are shifted. It is regarded and it transfers to S210.

  Next, in order to store the data of the bathing time data array Tday (i) at the previous hot water filling in the bathing time recording data array Tarray (d, i) for each hot water filling, in S210, the bathing event number counter i is stored. Is initialized to 0. Next, in S211, the record data array Tarray (0, i) for storing the latest hot water filling data in the bathing time recording data array Tarray (d, i) for each hot water filling is stored in the recording data array Tarray (0, i). Processing for storing the bathing time data array Tday (i) is performed.

  Specifically, in S212 and S213, the number of bathing times Bday at the previous hot water filling is compared with the number of bathing event counters i. As a result, if the counter i is larger than the Bday at the time of the previous hot water filling, it can be determined that the data storage processing has been completed. In this case, in S214, the number of bathing times Bday of the previous hot water filling is stored in the data storage location Bcnt (0) at the time of the newest hot water filling in the bathing number recording data array Bcnt (i) for each hot water filling. The Further, the previous bathing event time Tprv including the hot water filling and the bathing event number counter i are initialized to zero.

  Next, in order to record the hot water filling completion time and bathing time, the current time Treal is recorded in the bathing time data array Tday (i) after hot water filling and used in the automatic operation start / stop determination unit 10 in S215. The current time Treal is stored in the previous bathing event time (water filling completion time or previous bathing time) Tprv.

  Next, in order to store data in the next data storage location in the bathing time data array Tday (i) after filling, a bathing event number counter i is added in S216. Next, in S217, it is determined whether the bath function including the hot water filling operation and the bath heat retaining operation is ON or OFF. As a result, when the bath function is OFF, the recording of the bathing time in the current hot water filling is ended, and the process proceeds to S201. On the other hand, if the bath function is ON, bathroom voice monitoring is performed in S218. As a result, if a voice accompanying bathing is detected, the process proceeds to S215, and the previous bathing event time Tprv including the current time Treal and the hot water filling is recorded in the bathing time data array Tday (i) after the hot water filling. Is done.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process for setting the start time of the bath warming operation based on the hot water filling completion time and the bathing time acquired by the warming operation time setting unit 9 from the bathing time recording unit 8. In FIG. 7, first, in order to process the bathing time excluding the hot water filling in the bathing time recording data array Tarray (d, i) for each hot water filling, the bathing event number counter i including the hot water filling is 1 in S301. It is initialized to.

  Next, in S302, the latest bathing time among the i-th baths in all the Tarray (d, i) up to the filling order counter d = 0 to 6 is the i-th bathing time Ts (i) after filling. Stored in In S302, after the time interval that maximizes the difference between the previous bathing time Tarray (d, i-1) and the current bathing time Tarray (d, i) at the same hot water filling is calculated for each bathing sequence. , And is recorded in the bathing time interval ΔTs (i) for the i-th bathing respectively.

  Next, in order to advance the bathing sequence to be operated, a bathing event number counter i including hot water filling is incremented by 1 in S303. Next, in order to perform the processing of S301 with the minimum number of bathing times of the data stored in the input data recording data array Bcnt (d) for each hot water filling, in S304, the data array Bcnt (d) And a bathing event number counter i including hot water filling are compared. As a result, when the bathing event number counter i including hot water filling is larger than the minimum value of the data array Bcnt (d), a series of processes related to the heat retention operation time setting unit 9 in FIG.

  According to the processing shown in FIGS. 5 to 7 described above, the bathing time recording unit 8 performs the bathing time by the processing shown in FIG. 6 in the state associated with the bathing order (bathing event counter i) after each hot water filling operation. Is recorded (learned), and the predicted time at which the bath warming means should be activated so that the bathing time is predicted based on the learning result of the past bathing time (bath time and bathing time interval) is shown in FIG. It is set by the processing shown. In addition, the bath warming operation is started only when a sound is detected in the bathroom by the process shown in FIG. 5 or when the bathing time or bathing time interval predicted by the bathing time learning has elapsed. Be controlled.

  Thereby, since the presence or absence of bathing is detected by the voice in the bathroom, the bath warming function (bath warming operation) can be stopped when there is no bathing. Inflow of low-temperature water can be suppressed. For this reason, it is possible to improve energy-saving property by reducing the extra consumption of the amount of heat in the hot water storage tank 101. Furthermore, when bathing is performed by learning the bathing time after filling the bath, the bath warming operation is temporarily started only at the timing when bathing is expected in the situation where the sound in the bathroom is not detected. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of a situation in which the temperature of the bath water is too low, and the comfort during bathing is not impaired. In addition, according to the processing shown in FIG. 5, the temporary activation of the bath warming operation based on the learning result can be suppressed up to twice (when the determination of S104 or S105 is established) between bathing. For this reason, since the inflow of the low-temperature water to the bathtub 1 is suppressed to the minimum, it is possible to improve energy saving performance.

  In addition, according to the process shown in FIG. 7, as the i-th bathing time Ts (i) after the hot water filling, which is the predicted time for starting the bath heat retaining means, all the hot water filling order counters d = 0 to 6 are satisfied. The latest bathing time (latest bathing time) of the i-th bathing in Tarray (d, i) is used. In addition, the time interval (longest bathing time interval) that maximizes the difference between the previous bathing time Tarray (d, i-1) and the current bathing time Tarray (d, i) when the same hot water is filled activates the bath warming means. Used as a bathing time interval when setting the predicted time to be performed. By using the latest bathing time or the longest bathing time interval as described above as the learning value of the bathing time or bathing time interval, the bath warming operation is prevented from starting as much as possible during the period when the sound in the bathroom is not detected. And the number of times the temperature of the bath water is detected can be further reduced.

  In addition, according to the processing shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the latest bathing time in a state associated with the bathing order (bathing event counter i) after each hot water filling operation (in other words, for each bathing order). Or the longest bathing time interval is obtained. By setting the predicted time at which the bath warming operation should be started for each bathing sequence by such processing, the bathing sequence after each hot water filling operation of a plurality of bathroom users (for example, daily) seems to be customarily the same. In this case, the tendency of the bathing time in each bathing order can be learned, and the time when the bath warming operation should be started can be set more appropriately.

  In the first embodiment, the presence / absence of bathing is detected by sound detection in the bathroom, but other human body detection means, for example, detection by infrared rays or images, detection by light / darkness in the bathroom, or operation by the bather It may be used for human body detection.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bathtub 2 Heat exchanger 3 Water circulation path 4 Circulation pump 5 Temperature sensor 6 Control apparatus 7 Time management part 8 Bathing time recording part 9 Thermal insulation operation time setting part 10 Automatic thermal insulation start / stop determination part 11 Voice detection part 100 Heat pump type water heater 101 Hot water storage tank 102 Bath heat retention heat source circulation pump 201 Heat pump unit 1101 Microphone 1105 Adaptive filter 1107 LMS calculation unit

Claims (8)

A bathtub water circulation means having a water circulation path connected to the bathtub and circulating the bathtub water using the water circulation path;
The heating means for heating the hot water flowing in the water circulation path and the temperature detection means for acquiring the temperature of the bathtub water by detecting the temperature of the hot water circulating in the water circulation path, and the temperature of the bathtub water is a predetermined temperature. A bath heat-retaining means for increasing the temperature of the bath water using the heating means,
Bathing judgment means for judging the presence or absence of a bathing operation by a bathroom user;
Prediction means for learning and predicting the bathing time based on the determination result of bathing by the bathing determination means;
Even when it is determined that the bathing operation is not performed by the bathing determination unit, the operation of the bath heat retention unit is stopped and the bathing operation is determined not to be performed by the bathing determination unit. An activation time control means for activating the bath heat retention means when the bathing time predicted by the prediction means arrives;
A water heater characterized by comprising. The predicting means is means for learning and predicting a bathing time,
The starting time control means sets the latest latest bathing time among the times of bathing performed within a predetermined period during which the bath time is learned by the predicting means as the starting time of the bath heat retaining means. The water heater according to claim 1, further comprising setting means. The predicting means is means for learning and predicting a bathing time in association with a bathing order after each hot water filling operation,
The hot water heater according to claim 2, wherein the start timing setting means acquires the latest bathing time for each bathing order. The predicting means is means for learning and predicting a bathing time interval in which bathing is performed,
The start-up timing control means is the time when the longest longest bathing time interval among the bathing time intervals performed within a predetermined period during which the bathing time interval is learned by the predicting means has elapsed from the previous bathing time, The hot water heater according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a start time setting means for setting the start time of the bath heat retaining means. The predicting means is means for learning and predicting a bathing time interval in association with a bathing order after each hot water filling operation,
The hot water heater according to claim 4, wherein the start time setting means acquires the longest bathing time interval for each bathing order.   The bathing determination means includes a sound detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a sound accompanying bathing, and is a means for determining the presence or absence of a bathing operation based on a sound detected by the sound detection means. Item 6. A water heater according to any one of Items 1 to 5.   The hot water heater according to claim 6, wherein the activation timing control unit activates the bath heat retaining unit when an audio accompanying bathing is detected by the audio detection unit. The sound detection means includes a microphone that acquires sound in the bathroom, an A / D converter that converts a sound signal input to the microphone into a digital signal, and a digital signal of the microphone that is converted by the A / D converter. And an adaptive filter having as an input signal,
The adaptive filter uses an LMS algorithm to update coefficients of the adaptive filter so that an error signal between a silence input signal and an output signal of the adaptive filter becomes zero. 6. A water heater according to 6 or 7.

Images