Detailed Description
The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments of the invention to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. The examples merely typify possible variations. Individual components and functions are optional unless explicitly required, and the sequence of operations may vary. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or substituted for those of others. The scope of embodiments of the invention encompasses the full ambit of the claims, as well as all available equivalents of the claims. Embodiments may be referred to herein, individually or collectively, by the term "invention" merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept if more than one is in fact disclosed. Herein, relational terms such as first and second, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Also, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising an … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method or apparatus that comprises the element. The embodiments are described in a progressive manner, each embodiment focuses on differences from other embodiments, and the same and similar parts among the embodiments are referred to each other. As for the methods, products and the like disclosed by the embodiments, the description is simple because the methods correspond to the method parts disclosed by the embodiments, and the related parts can be referred to the method parts for description.
The air conditioner comprises an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, a throttling device and a compressor, wherein the indoor heat exchanger, the outdoor heat exchanger, the throttling device and the compressor are connected through refrigerant pipelines to form a refrigerant circulation loop, and refrigerant flows along the set flow directions of different operation modes through the refrigerant circulation loop, so that the functions of heating, refrigerating, self-cleaning and the like are realized.
In an embodiment, the operation modes of the air conditioner comprise a refrigeration mode, a heating mode and a self-cleaning mode, wherein the refrigeration mode is generally applied to a high-temperature working condition in summer and used for reducing the indoor environment temperature; the heating mode is generally applied to the low-temperature working condition in winter and is used for increasing the indoor environment temperature; the self-cleaning mode is generally a user's self-selection function mode or self-starting function, and can automatically clean the heat exchanger under the condition that dust and dirt are accumulated on the heat exchanger.
When the air conditioner operates in a refrigeration mode, the set refrigerant flow direction is that high-temperature refrigerant discharged by the compressor firstly flows through the outdoor heat exchanger to exchange heat with the outdoor environment, then flows into the indoor heat exchanger to exchange heat with the indoor environment, and finally the refrigerant flows back to the compressor to be compressed again; in the process, the refrigerant flowing through the outdoor heat exchanger emits heat to the outdoor environment, the refrigerant flowing through the indoor heat exchanger absorbs heat from the indoor environment, and the indoor heat can be continuously discharged to the outdoor environment through the circulating flow of the refrigerant in the refrigerant circulating loop, so that the refrigeration purpose of reducing the temperature of the indoor environment can be achieved.
The set refrigerant flow direction during the heating mode refers to that the high-temperature refrigerant discharged by the compressor firstly flows through the indoor heat exchanger to exchange heat with the outdoor environment, then flows into the outdoor heat exchanger to exchange heat with the indoor environment, and finally flows back to the compressor to be compressed again; in the process, the refrigerant flowing through the indoor heat exchanger emits heat to the indoor environment, the refrigerant flowing through the outdoor heat exchanger absorbs heat from the outdoor environment, and the outdoor heat can be continuously released to the indoor environment through the circulating flow of the refrigerant in the refrigerant circulating loop, so that the heating purpose of improving the temperature of the indoor environment can be achieved.
Generally, since the indoor heat exchanger is a heat exchanger directly used for changing an indoor temperature environment, the degree of cleanliness of the indoor heat exchanger may directly affect the use experience of a user. Therefore, the main application of the self-cleaning mode of the air conditioner of the present invention is an indoor heat exchanger. Meanwhile, the self-cleaning mode of the air conditioner can also be used for cleaning the outdoor heat exchanger, so that in a specific embodiment, when the air conditioner performs a cleaning process, the cleaning process is a process of sequentially cleaning the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger, for example, the indoor heat exchanger is cleaned first, and then the outdoor heat exchanger is cleaned; or, the outdoor heat exchanger is cleaned first, and then the indoor heat exchanger is cleaned. It should be understood that if the existing air conditioner uses the same or similar control method as the present invention to perform the self-cleaning operation of the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers, it should be also included in the protection scope of the present invention.
Taking the flow of firstly cleaning the indoor heat exchanger and then cleaning the outdoor heat exchanger as an example, the working flow of the air conditioner in the self-cleaning operation mode mainly comprises three stages which are sequentially carried out: the defrosting method comprises an indoor heat exchanger defrosting stage, an indoor heat exchanger defrosting stage (namely an outdoor heat exchanger defrosting stage) and an outdoor heat exchanger defrosting stage, wherein in the indoor heat exchanger defrosting stage, ice can be condensed and frosted on an indoor heat exchanger of an indoor unit; in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the condensed frost of the indoor heat exchanger in the previous defrosting stage is melted, impurities such as dust and the like can be separated from the indoor heat exchanger along with the melted condensed water, and the cleaning treatment of the indoor heat exchanger is finished; meanwhile, the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger is also the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger, and ice can be condensed and frosted on the outdoor heat exchanger of the outdoor unit; in the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger, the condensed frost on the outdoor heat exchanger is melted, impurities such as dust and the like can be separated from the outdoor heat exchanger along with the melted condensed water, and the cleaning treatment of the outdoor heat exchanger is completed.
Specifically, in the operation process of the air conditioner in the refrigeration mode, if the power of the compressor is improved and the output quantity of the refrigerant is increased, the low-temperature refrigerant quantity input into the indoor unit can be increased, the redundant refrigerant cold quantity can reduce the internal temperature of the indoor unit, and when the internal temperature of the indoor unit is lower than the frost condensation critical temperature value (such as 0 ℃), water vapor in air flowing through the indoor unit can be gradually condensed into frost in the indoor unit.
In the heating mode operation process of the air conditioner, the high-temperature refrigerant firstly flows through the indoor heat exchanger, so that the cold energy of the high-temperature refrigerant can increase the internal temperature of the indoor unit, and when the internal temperature of the indoor unit is higher than the frost condensation critical temperature value (such as 0 ℃), the frost condensed in the indoor unit can be gradually melted and dripped, so that the frost can be separated from the indoor heat exchanger. The control method of the invention is that under the condition that the flow direction of the refrigerant limited by the heating mode of the air conditioner is controlled at the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the defrosting operation of the indoor heat exchanger is realized by adjusting the operation parameters of components such as a compressor, a fan, a throttling device and the like.
Meanwhile, when the refrigerant flows in the flow direction defined by the heating mode of the air conditioner, the refrigerant flowing out of the indoor heat exchanger is medium-temperature and high-temperature refrigerant, and the refrigerant flowing into the outdoor heat exchanger after being throttled by the throttling device is low-temperature refrigerant, so that the low-temperature refrigerant can reduce the temperature of the outdoor heat exchanger, and when the temperature in the outdoor unit is lower than the frost condensation critical temperature value (such as 0 ℃), water vapor in the air flowing through the outdoor unit can be gradually condensed into frost in the outdoor unit. Therefore, the ice and the frost of the outdoor heat exchanger are realized while the ice and the frost of the indoor heat exchanger are melted.
And then, the indoor heat exchanger finishes melting ice and defrosting in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, self-cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger is finished, the air conditioner enters the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger, at the moment, the air conditioner is controlled to flow in the direction of the refrigerant flow defined by the refrigeration mode again, the flow direction of the high-temperature refrigerant discharged by the compressor is changed, and the high-temperature refrigerant flows through the outdoor heat exchanger, so that the ice and defrosting of the outdoor heat exchanger can be realized by utilizing the heat of the high-temperature refrigerant, and the self-cleaning process of the outdoor heat exchanger.
In the self-cleaning process, each stage may be performed according to a preset duration, for example, the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger may be preset to 10min, the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger (that is, the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger) may be preset to 12min, and the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger may be preset to 5min, so that after the air conditioner enters the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger in the self-cleaning mode, the air conditioner may start timing, when 10min is reached, the air conditioner enters the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, after the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger lasts for 12min, the air conditioner enters the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger, and after the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger lasts for 5min, it may be determined that the self-cleaning of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit is completed.
In the process that the air conditioner is switched to the flow direction limited by the cooling mode or the heating mode, the opening/closing and the rotating speed of the fans of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit also need to be correspondingly controlled, for example, the indoor fan in the frost condensation stage of the indoor heat exchanger is generally closed or operated at a low speed, and the outdoor fan is opened for operation; and in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the indoor fan is started to operate, and outdoor air is closed or operated at a low speed. Therefore, the indoor unit and the outdoor unit are respectively timed in the self-cleaning process, and when the preset time is reached, the components such as a fan of the air conditioner and the like are controlled to carry out corresponding state switching. If a user re-inputs a new self-cleaning instruction in the self-cleaning process, the timing of the indoor unit or the outdoor unit may be cleared and the timing may be restarted, for example, when the air conditioner performs a self-cleaning operation in a defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, a main cleaning object at this time is the indoor heat exchanger, and if the user mistakenly sends an instruction to clean the outdoor heat exchanger at this time, the timing of the indoor unit is cleared and the timing is restarted, and at this time, the timing of the outdoor unit is not cleared, which causes an error in timing duration of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit in a subsequent cleaning process, and further causes a state switching deviation of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit, thereby affecting the self-cleaning efficiency of the air conditioner.
Therefore, in view of the above possible problems, the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for controlling self-cleaning of an air conditioner, which aims to avoid the problem that the self-cleaning states of indoor and outdoor units are not matched due to user misoperation.
Fig. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a self-cleaning control method of the present invention according to an exemplary embodiment. In the application scenario shown in fig. 1, the main flow of the self-cleaning control method of the present invention is as follows:
s101, when the air conditioner meets the condition of self-cleaning, controlling the air conditioner to enter a self-cleaning mode;
in one embodiment, the condition that the air conditioner needs to be self-cleaned is that a self-cleaning instruction sent to the air conditioner by a user is received. Specifically, when a user needs to clean the indoor unit and/or the outdoor unit, a preset self-cleaning option can be selected through a remote controller or a control panel and determined; the remote controller or the control panel sends a self-cleaning instruction to the main controller of the air conditioner, and the main controller of the air conditioner can control the air conditioner to enter a self-cleaning mode after receiving the self-cleaning instruction;
in another embodiment, the air conditioner may determine whether self-cleaning is required by a preset self-detection program, for example, the air conditioner may detect a temperature variation of an outlet airflow of the indoor unit per unit time, and since impurities such as dust may reduce heat exchange efficiency between the indoor heat exchanger and the airflow, if the temperature variation of the outlet airflow per unit time is lower than the preset temperature variation, it may be determined that too much dust is accumulated on the indoor heat exchanger and affects heat exchange efficiency of the indoor heat exchanger, and at this time, the air conditioner may satisfy a condition that self-cleaning is required, and the air conditioner may automatically start to enter a self-cleaning mode.
It should be understood that the self-test procedure preset by the air conditioner of the present invention is not limited to the determination of the parameter of the temperature variation, and other manners of the air conditioner that can trigger the self-cleaning mode of the air conditioner operation may also be applied in step S101 of the present invention.
S102, when the air conditioner receives a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning a non-current target heat exchanger, acquiring the accumulated running time of the compressor in a self-cleaning mode;
in the embodiment, the self-cleaning objects of the air conditioner generally comprise an indoor heat exchanger and an outdoor heat exchanger, and when the current target heat exchanger is the indoor heat exchanger, the non-current target heat exchanger generally refers to the outdoor heat exchanger; when the current target heat exchanger is an outdoor heat exchanger, the non-current target heat exchanger is generally referred to as an indoor heat exchanger.
Therefore, the fact that the air conditioner receives the self-cleaning instruction for cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger generally means that the operation state of the air conditioner indicated by the new self-cleaning instruction is inconsistent with the operation state of the air conditioner for cleaning the current target heat exchanger, and in this case, the problem of zero clearing of the timing of the indoor unit or the outdoor unit may occur.
For example, in the aforementioned self-cleaning flow of cleaning the indoor heat exchanger first and then cleaning the outdoor heat exchanger, in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the air conditioner flows in the flow direction defined by the cooling mode, the current target cleaning heat exchanger is the indoor heat exchanger, and if a self-cleaning command for cleaning the outdoor heat exchanger (i.e. a non-current target heat exchanger in this state) is received in this stage, the refrigerant flow direction defined by the self-cleaning command is the flow direction of the heating mode, which will cause the timing of the indoor heat exchanger to be cleared and restarted, and the timing of the outdoor unit will not be cleared, so that the operating states of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit are inconsistent, and the self-cleaning efficiency is affected.
Or, in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the air conditioner flows in the flow direction defined by the heating mode, the current target cleaning heat exchanger is the outdoor heat exchanger, and if a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning the indoor heat exchanger (i.e. the current target heat exchanger in the state) is received in this stage, the refrigerant flow direction defined by the self-cleaning instruction is the flow direction of the cooling mode, which causes the timing of the outdoor heat exchanger to be cleared and restarted, while the timing of the indoor unit is not cleared, and also causes the operating states of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit to be inconsistent.
It should be understood that, in order to distinguish the current target heat exchanger and the non-current target heat exchanger in different self-cleaning stages, the invention generally takes the heat exchanger in the process of frost formation as the current target heat exchanger, for example, the indoor heat exchanger in the frost formation stage of the indoor heat exchanger is the current target heat exchanger, and the outdoor heat exchanger in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger is the current target heat exchanger.
The total time of the compressor in the self-cleaning stage is the total time of the self-cleaning process, so that the cleaning progress of the air conditioner for the current target heat exchanger can be judged according to the accumulated running time of the compressor by combining the preset time of the air conditioner in different stages of the self-cleaning process, for example, the preset time of the indoor heat exchanger frost condensation stage preset by the air conditioner is 10min, and therefore when the accumulated running time of the compressor is 5min, the cleaning progress of the current target heat exchanger can be judged to be half completed; and in the accumulated running time of 10min, the current cleaning progress of the target heat exchanger can be judged to be finished. Therefore, whether a new self-cleaning instruction needs to be executed or not can be further judged according to the judged cleaning progress of the current target heat exchanger, or the original self-cleaning instruction is still executed, so that the self-cleaning process of the air conditioner is ensured not to occupy too much time.
S103, judging whether the accumulated running time of the compressor is greater than or equal to a preset time threshold, if so, executing a step S104, and if not, executing a step S105;
in this embodiment, for different preset durations of the self-cleaning stage, the air conditioner is preset with a plurality of duration thresholds, for example, for the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the preset duration of the air conditioner is 10min, and the preset duration threshold is 7.5min, that is, when the accumulated operation duration of the compressor is greater than 7.5min in the defrosting stage process of the indoor heat exchanger, it indicates that the defrosting progress of the indoor heat exchanger is 75% completed, and the completed progress of the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger accounts for a relatively large proportion, the self-cleaning defrosting operation of the indoor heat exchanger should be continued, so as to avoid the problem that the self-cleaning time is too long due to the cleaning by re-timing; and when the accumulated running time of the compressor is less than 7.5min, the self-cleaning frost completion progress of the indoor heat exchanger is less than 75%, and the self-cleaning completion progress of the indoor heat exchanger is not expected, so that the self-cleaning operation of the heat exchanger which is not the current target (namely the outdoor heat exchanger in the state) can be switched.
Similarly, in the embodiment, for the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the preset time duration of the air conditioner is 12min, and the preset time duration threshold is 16min, that is, in the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, the timing time duration of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit is 10min of the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, plus the duration of the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger, when the cumulative operation time duration of the compressor exceeds 16min, it indicates that the defrosting progress of the indoor heat exchanger is finished by 50%, the finished progress of the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger is larger, the indoor heat exchanger is required to be continuously subjected to the self-cleaning defrosting operation, that is, the outdoor heat exchanger is required to be continuously subjected to the self-cleaning defrosting operation; and when the accumulated running time of the compressor is less than 16min, the self-cleaning defrosting completion progress of the indoor heat exchanger (the self-cleaning frosting completion progress of the outdoor heat exchanger) is less than 50%, and the self-cleaning completion progress of the indoor heat exchanger is not expected, so that the self-cleaning operation of the heat exchanger which is not the current target (namely the indoor heat exchanger in the state) can be switched.
It should be understood that the preset time threshold of the indoor heat exchanger defrosting stage is not limited to 7.5min, and the preset time threshold of the indoor heat exchanger defrosting stage is not limited to 16min, which can be set by a person skilled in the art according to actual needs, and the invention is not limited thereto.
And S104, controlling the air conditioner to continuously execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the current target heat exchanger.
When the accumulated running time is greater than or equal to the preset time threshold, the completion progress of the current stage of the self-cleaning process of the current target heat exchanger can be judged to be larger, and the air conditioner is required to continuously execute the self-cleaning process for cleaning the current target heat exchanger so as to ensure that the self-cleaning of the current target heat exchanger is preferentially completed, so that the time occupation of the air conditioner in the self-cleaning process is reduced, and the problem that the self-cleaning time of the air conditioner is too long due to the execution of different self-cleaning instructions is solved.
And S105, controlling the air conditioner to execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger.
When the accumulated running time is less than the preset time threshold, the completion progress of the current stage of the self-cleaning process of the current target heat exchanger can be judged to be small, the air conditioner can execute the self-cleaning process of the non-current target heat exchanger (namely the target heat exchanger corresponding to the new self-cleaning instruction), and the purposes of accelerating the self-cleaning efficiency of the air conditioner and reducing the time occupation of the air conditioner in the self-cleaning process can be achieved.
Therefore, the self-cleaning control method can judge whether to continue cleaning treatment on the current target heat exchanger according to the accumulated running time of the compressor in the process of executing the self-cleaning process of the air conditioner, so as to ensure the cleaning effect on the current target heat exchanger, prevent the self-cleaning process from being too long, and effectively avoid the problem that the self-cleaning states of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit are not matched due to misoperation of a user.
In the embodiment, when the air conditioner meets the condition of self-cleaning, the air conditioner enters a self-cleaning mode, and an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of the air conditioner respectively start to time; and when the timing time of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit reaches the preset cleaning time, controlling the air conditioner to exit from the self-cleaning mode.
For example, in this embodiment, the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger is preset to 10min, the defrosting stage of the indoor heat exchanger (i.e. the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger) is preset to 12min, and the defrosting stage of the outdoor heat exchanger is preset to 5min, so that when the timing duration of both the indoor unit and the outdoor unit reaches the cleaning duration of 27min, it can be determined that both the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger have completed self-cleaning, and the air conditioner can exit the self-cleaning mode. Wherein the preset cleaning time length is the sum of the preset time lengths in different stages.
In addition, aiming at the condition that a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning a non-current target heat exchanger is received in a self-cleaning process of independently executing the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger, the air conditioner is also preset with cleaning time duration comprising a first cleaning time duration and a second cleaning time duration; and when the timing duration for cleaning the current target heat exchanger reaches the first cleaning duration, controlling the air conditioner to execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger, and continuing for a second cleaning duration.
For example, in the process of cleaning an outdoor heat exchanger by an air conditioner alone, the outdoor heat exchanger is a current target heat exchanger of the self-cleaning process, the cleaning duration of the whole cleaning process of the outdoor heat exchanger is a first cleaning duration, and if a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning an indoor heat exchanger is received in the cleaning process but the condition of executing the step S104 in the step S103 is met, the outdoor heat exchanger is still cleaned until the first cleaning duration is reached; and then switching to the self-cleaning operation of the indoor heat exchanger, wherein the self-cleaning time duration is the second cleaning time duration.
In order to keep the timing time of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit synchronous, when the air conditioner continues to perform the self-cleaning process of cleaning the current target heat exchanger in step S104, the indoor unit and the outdoor unit continue to time to ensure the continuity of the timing time and prevent the problem of non-adaption of the running state of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit caused by asynchronous timing time.
Preferably, after the air conditioner performs the self-cleaning process of cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger in step S105, the non-current target heat exchanger corresponding to the new self-cleaning command may be defined as the first target heat exchanger, and the previous current target heat exchanger is the second target heat exchanger, so that the air conditioner first switches to clean the first target heat exchanger, and then cleans the second target heat exchanger again.
For example, in a self-cleaning process of an air conditioner, the air conditioner cleans an indoor heat exchanger first, then cleans an outdoor heat exchanger, receives a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning the outdoor heat exchanger (i.e., a non-current target heat exchanger in the process) when cleaning the indoor heat exchanger (i.e., a current target heat exchanger in the process), and switches to clean the outdoor heat exchanger if the determination condition of step S105 is satisfied in step S103, where the outdoor heat exchanger is a first target heat exchanger and the indoor heat exchanger is a second target heat exchanger. Therefore, after the outdoor heat exchanger is cleaned, the indoor heat exchanger is cleaned again, and the purpose of self-cleaning both the indoor machine and the outdoor machine is achieved.
When the air conditioner performs cleaning operation on the non-current target heat exchanger, the timing duration of the indoor unit and the timing duration of the outdoor unit are reset and timing is restarted, the preset duration and the duration threshold of different self-cleaning stages are determined according to different self-cleaning stages of the current target heat exchanger at the moment, the self-cleaning sequence is adaptive to a new self-cleaning sequence, and the condition that the size relation between the accumulated duration of the compressor and the preset duration threshold can be accurately judged when the air conditioner receives a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger again is guaranteed.
Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of the self-cleaning control apparatus of the present invention according to an exemplary embodiment.
As shown in fig. 2, the present invention further provides a self-cleaning control device for an air conditioner, which can be used to control the air conditioner to perform the self-cleaning process in the foregoing embodiments, specifically, the control device includes:
an entering unit 201, configured to control the air conditioner to enter a self-cleaning mode when the air conditioner meets a condition requiring self-cleaning;
the acquiring unit 202 is configured to acquire an accumulated running time of the compressor in the self-cleaning mode when the air conditioner receives a self-cleaning instruction for cleaning a non-current target heat exchanger;
and the execution unit 203 is configured to control the air conditioner to continue to execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the current target heat exchanger when the accumulated operation time is greater than or equal to the preset time threshold.
In an embodiment, the execution unit is further to 203: and when the accumulated running time is less than a preset time threshold, controlling the air conditioner to execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger.
In an embodiment, the control device further comprises a timing unit and an exit unit, wherein the timing unit is configured to: when the air conditioner enters a self-cleaning mode, an indoor unit and an outdoor unit of the air conditioner respectively start timing; the exit unit is used for: and when the timing time of the indoor unit and the outdoor unit reaches the preset cleaning time, controlling the air conditioner to exit from the self-cleaning mode.
In an embodiment, the cleaning period comprises a first cleaning period and a second cleaning period; the execution unit 203 is further configured to: and when the timing duration for cleaning the current target heat exchanger reaches the first cleaning duration, controlling the air conditioner to execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the non-current target heat exchanger, and continuing for a second cleaning duration.
In an embodiment, the timing unit is further configured to: and when the air conditioner continues to execute a self-cleaning process for cleaning the current target heat exchanger, the indoor unit and the outdoor unit continue to count time.
It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the procedures and structures described above and shown in the drawings, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope thereof. The scope of the invention is limited only by the appended claims.