ES2687781A1 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

This air conditioner (S) comprises: a cleaning means for cleaning an indoor heat exchanger (102); and a control means (130) for controlling the cleaning means. In a case where the indoor heat exchanger is to be cleaned by the cleaning means after completion of a heating operation, the control means causes the cleaning means to clean the indoor heat exchanger after a prescribed first delay time, from when the heating operation stops, has passed.

Description

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an air conditioner.

Description of the state of the art

A heat exchanger of an indoor unit (indoor heat exchanger) mounted on an air conditioner has a problem that dust, microorganisms and the like (hereinafter, dust) that pass through a dust removal filter are deposited inside , and give off a bad smell. In addition, the efficiency of the heat exchanger is reduced and the energy efficiency worsens. A plurality of non-removable tubes are disposed in the indoor heat exchanger, making it difficult to remove the indoor heat exchanger from the indoor unit for cleaning.

As a cleaning technique of the indoor heat exchanger without removing the indoor unit, for example, Patent Document 1 is known. Patent Document 1 describes that "after the heating operation, the cooling operation is carried out with the in order to get the water to adhere to the surface of the fin, so that the heat exchanger is constantly kept clean by itself during the heating operation. ”

STATE OF THE PREVIOUS TECHNIQUE

Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 4931556

Patent Document 2: Publication of Japanese application No. 2016-200348

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION

However, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, the indoor heat exchanger begins to be cleaned without taking into account the presence of a user in a room. Therefore, the user may feel discomfort due to the cold air that leaks at the time of cleaning, or may think that something is wrong due to abnormal noise caused by the sudden reverse current of a refrigeration cycle.

Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide an air conditioner

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that smoothly clean dirt adhered to an indoor heat exchanger.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the problem identified above, the present invention provides an air conditioner that includes: a cleaner that cleans an indoor heat exchanger; and a regulator that controls the cleaner, where the regulator, in a case where the cleaner cleans the internal heat exchanger after a heating operation end, controls the cleaner to clean the internal heat exchanger after an first delay time determined from the end of the heating operation and, in a case where the cleaner cleans the internal heat exchanger after an end of a cooling operation, a dehumidification operation or an air blowing operation , control the cleaner to clean the indoor heat exchanger after a second delay time has elapsed shorter than the first delay time.

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention, an air conditioner is provided that cleans dirt adhered to the indoor heat exchanger.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a front view of an indoor unit, an outdoor unit and a remote control of an air conditioner in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line I-I in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a functional block diagram of devices in the indoor unit of the air conditioner according to the embodiment of the present invention; Figures 4A and 4B are schematic perspective views of the indoor heat exchanger in the air conditioner in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention;

Figures 5A and 5B are waveform images corresponding to results of differential image analysis of the indoor heat exchanger in the air conditioner in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention; Figures 6A to 6C are graphs that show the correlation between the period

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necessary for the change in an ambient temperature to reach a reference value and the volume of a room, and its correction values; and Figure 7 is a flow chart showing the operation of a main microcomputer in the air conditioner in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 is a front view of an indoor unit 100, an outdoor unit 200, and a remote control Re of an air conditioner S in accordance with one embodiment.

The indoor unit 100 is connected to the outdoor unit 200 by means of refrigerant tubes (not shown), to condition air in an installed room with the indoor unit 100 by means of a refrigeration cycle. In addition, the indoor unit 100 and the outdoor unit 200 transmit and receive information from each other through a communication cable (not shown).

Although not shown, the outdoor unit 200 has a compressor, a four-way valve, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor fan and an expansion valve. In a refrigeration circuit formed with the compressor, the four-way valve, the external heat exchanger, the expansion valve and an internal heat exchanger 102 (see Figure 2) sequentially connected in a loop, a refrigerant is circulated in a heat pump cycle.

The remote control Re is used by a user to transmit infrared signals to a remote control transceiver Q of the indoor unit 100. The signals are instructions such as an activation request, a change in a set temperature, a determination of a value of the timer, a change in the mode of operation and a request for deactivation. Depending on the signals, the air conditioner S is operated in a cooling mode, a heating mode, a dehumidification mode, or the like. In addition, information regarding an ambient temperature, a degree of humidity, an expense of electricity, etc. they are transmitted from the remote control transceiver Q of the indoor unit 100 to the remote control Re, to inform the user of the information.

An imaging device 110A for acquiring information from

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Interior image and a visible light cut filter 117A are arranged at the bottom of a front face of the indoor unit 100. The arrangement positions of the imaging device 110A and the visible light cut filter 117A can be changed from according to a purpose of acquiring the image information that will be described below, and are not limited to those of Figure 1. The reason why the visible light cut filter 117A is provided in the present embodiment will be described more ahead.

Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the indoor unit 100 in Figure 1 taken along an I-I line.

A housing base 101 houses internal components such as the internal heat exchanger 102, a blower fan 103, a filter 108 and the like. Note that filter 108 is disposed on one side of the internal heat exchanger 102, where air is received.

The indoor heat exchanger 102 has a plurality of heat transfer tubes 102a for exchanging heat between the air received in the indoor unit 100 by the blower fan 103 and a refrigerant flowing through it, to heat or cool the air. Note that heat transfer tubes 102a communicate with the refrigerant tubes (not shown) and are parts of a well-known refrigeration cycle (not shown).

The blower fan 103 shown in Figure 2 rotates to receive the indoor air through an air inlet 107 and the filter 108, and to guide heat exchange air through the indoor heat exchanger 102 to direct it to a duct escape 109a. In addition, the flow direction of the air directed to the exhaust duct 109a is adjusted by means of a horizontal air deflector 104 and a vertical air deflector 105 and is then expelled from an air outlet 109b to condition the air in the room.

A motor (not shown) rotates the horizontal air baffle 104 around a pivot axis (not shown) at a lower level, according to an instruction from a main microcomputer 130 (regulator: see Figure 3) to be described. later.

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A motor (not shown) rotates the vertical air baffle 105 around pivot axes (not shown) arranged at both ends, in accordance with an instruction from the main microcomputer 130 which will be described later.

Consequently, air conditioning is expelled to a certain position in the room.

The imaging device 110A and the visible light cutting filter 117A are arranged at the bottom of a front panel 106 that is mounted to cover the front face of the indoor unit 100. The imaging device 110A is mounted to orient down a certain angle with respect to the horizontal direction from the mounted position, to generate the image of the room where the indoor unit 100 is installed. However, the exact mounted position and the angle of the imaging device 110A can be determined according to the specification and use of the air conditioner S and the configuration is not limited thereto.

Note that the configuration of the air conditioner S shown in Figures 1 and 2 is simply an example according to the present embodiment and the present invention is not limited to the present embodiment.

Figure 3 is a control block diagram of the S air conditioner.

The main microcomputer 130 in Figure 3 controls a load actuator 150 based on environmental information detected by an ambient detector 160 and the operating instruction received by the remote control transceiver Q (see Figure 1) to control each device in the indoor unit 100 and outdoor unit 200.

As shown in Figure 3, the imaging device 110A has an optical lens 111A to adjust ranges and image approaches, an image sensor 112A to convert light from the incident room through the optical lens 111A into a signal electrical, an A / D converter 113A that digitizes the signal from the image sensor 112A and converts it into image information and a digital signal processor

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114A that corrects the luminance and color tone of the image information.

An imaging device 110B is also configured the same as the imaging device 110A.

An image detector 122 executes various types of image processing on the image information of the room acquired by the imaging device 110A. Image detector 122 may be configured to include image detectors to detect various images, such as a dust detector 122a to detect dust.

At this time, each image detector can be configured to detect an image from the same image information acquired by the imaging device 110A, or it can be configured to send a suitable image parameter to detect each image to the signal processor 114A digital on the imaging device 110A and for detecting an image using an exclusive image captured according to the image parameter.

A detection result such as the user position information detected by the image detector 122 and an operation instruction based on the detection result are sent to an arithmetic processor 132.

The arithmetic processor 132 integrally controls the air conditioning control blocks S and controls a drive regulator 133 in accordance with an air conditioning operation establishment S and the operating instruction based on the detection result for executing the air conditioning operation . The imaging device 110A captures the image based on an operating instruction on an image request signal from the arithmetic processor 132.

The drive controller 133 sends an actuator signal to the load driver 150 for the drive.

The load actuator 150 individually drives the refrigeration cycle (not shown), an indoor fan motor (not shown) in the indoor unit 100, a

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compressor motor (not shown) in the outdoor unit 200, the motor (not shown) for the vertical deflector mounted with the vertical air deflector 105, and the motor (not shown) for the horizontal air deflector mounted with the deflector of horizontal air 104. In addition, the charge actuator 150 may be configured to operate the imaging device 110A, a near-infrared projector (not shown), or a filter actuator 116 to rotate the visible light cut filter 117A.

The stores 121, 131 are configured to include a ROM (read-only memory), a RAM (random access memory), and the like. The programs stored in the ROM are recovered by a CPU (Central Processing Unit) in the arithmetic processor 132 of the main microcomputer 130 in the RAM for execution.

The ambient detector 160 can be configured to include several sensors, such as a temperature sensor that uses a thermopile, an amount of activity sensor that uses a Fresnel lens and an infrared sensor in the S air conditioner.

With the above configuration, the main microcomputer 130 integrally controls the operation of the air conditioner S in accordance with the image information from the imaging device 110A, the instruction signal from the remote control Re, the sensor outputs from various sensors, and the like. Thus, good control of the operation is achieved.

The detection result by image processing in the image detector 122 can only include numerical information such as the user's position, the amount of activity and a distance and cannot include image information that can be displayed. This helps to reduce the amount of data stored in the stores 121, 131. In addition, since the image information cannot be taken outside the main microcomputer 130, the privacy of the user in the air-conditioned room is protected.

The indoor unit 100 has an automatic cleaning operation function to clean the indoor heat exchanger 102. A regulator of the operation of

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Automatic cleaning for the indoor heat exchanger 102 will be described with reference to Figures 2 and 3.

The purpose of the automatic cleaning operation is to cool the indoor heat exchanger 102 to cause moisture in the surrounding air to adhere to the indoor heat exchanger 102, to clean the indoor heat exchanger 102 with moisture.

To cause moisture to adhere to the indoor heat exchanger 102, the main microcomputer 130 sets an evaporation temperature of the refrigerant in the automatic cleaning operation below an evaporating temperature of the refrigerant in the dehumidification operation. In a case where a greater cleaning capacity is necessary, the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant can be set at a temperature below the freezing point.

The amount of dirt adhered to the indoor heat exchanger 102 varies depending on the hours of use of the air conditioner S, the mode of operation used, the amount of dust in the room air and the like.

Next, the main microcomputer 130, if it is determined that a total of hours of use since the previous cleaning saved in the storage 131, the number of uses since the previous cleaning saved in the storage 131, or a time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioner S has reached a certain value, executes the automatic cleaning operation. This allows automatic cleaning to work as necessary, to reduce dust accumulation and dirt adhesion. In addition, the number of executions of the automatic cleaning operation is reduced to save energy compared to a case in which the automatic cleaning operation is executed each time the air conditioning operation ends.

The total hours of use in each mode of operation are acquired as follows: The main microcomputer 130 stores time information managed by a time manager 134 in storage 131, retrieves time information from storage 131 periodically or in the moment when a

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event and takes a difference between the time information in the previous automatic cleaning operation and the current time information, to acquire the total hours of use in each mode of operation.

The number of uses is also acquired through the same process as described above with respect to usage information managed by an operation information manager 135.

The time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioner S is also acquired by the same processing as described above with respect to the time information at the time of installation managed by the time manager 134.

Time manager 134 may have calendar information that includes dates, in addition to time information.

There are several ways to set a time information as described below. The user enters the time information in the remote control Re (Figure 1), and transmits the time information entered as a signal from the remote control from the remote control Re (Figure 1) to the remote control receiver in the indoor unit 100, to establish the time information in the main microcomputer 130. Also, the user transmits the time information from an information terminal through a communication network 190 to the indoor unit 100, to establish the time information in the main microcomputer. 130.

In addition, the indoor unit 100 may be configured to include an automatic time information acquisition function that automatically acquires the time information of a time management server (such as NTP) in the communication network 190.

The indoor unit 100 sets the current time information acquired in the time manager 134 in the main microcomputer 130. The time manager 134 continues to count the set time according to the time step. Consequently, time manager 134 manages the correct current time.

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The user can update the current time managed by the time manager 134 at an arbitrary time using a way of setting the time information. In addition, the indoor unit 100 can be set to periodically execute the function of automatic acquisition of time information, to update the current time managed by the time manager 134 periodically and automatically. This prevents a deviation between the current time managed by the time manager 134 and a real current time.

The various operation information is managed by the operation information manager 135. The operation information manager 135 manages the operation such as changing the mode of operation according to an input from the remote control Re (Figure 1), changing the operating mode according to an input through the communication network 190, and changing the operating mode by means of a timer integrated in the indoor unit 100.

The storage 131 stores the operating information and the current time managed by the time manager 134, to allow to acquire the total hours of use and the number of uses in each mode of operation, and the time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioner S.

Storage 131 saves certain values in advance for each total hours of use to be stored in storage 131 since the previous cleaning, the number of uses to be stored in storage 131 since the previous cleaning, and the time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioning S. An operating condition for the automatic cleaning operation is that: the total hours of use stored in storage 131, the number of uses stored in storage 131, or the elapsed time reach each determined value stored in storage 131.

As long as the automatic cleaning operation is carried out at constant time intervals or for each determined number of uses, any combination of operating conditions for the automatic cleaning operation can be selected. Simply meet one or more of the above conditions.

In addition, any method can be used to calculate the total hours of use, the

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number of uses and elapsed time. For example, the following calculation methods can be used. The values of the total hours of use and the number of uses can be reset to 0 after the automatic cleaning operation. After each determined number of the automatic cleaning operation, the automatic cleaning operation number can be counted from 0, and the automatic cleaning operation number can be multiplied by reference values of the total hours of use, the number of uses and the time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioner S, to perform the automatic cleaning operation when the product is equal to or greater than a certain value.

The values determined for the total hours of use, the number of uses and the elapsed time can be set arbitrarily by means of an input device such as the remote control Re or the information terminal connected to the communication network 190.

In a case where the operating condition for the automatic cleaning operation is fulfilled after the heating operation is completed, the automatic cleaning operation is executed after a first delay time elapses since the deactivation of the operation. heating

In a case where the automatic cleaning operation is executed after the cooling operation, the dehumidification operation or the air blowing operation, the automatic cleaning operation is executed immediately after the operation is stopped or after a second delay time shorter than the first delay time elapses.

In this case, stopping the operation means that the respective devices such as the compressor and the blower fan 103 in the air conditioner S have been stopped.

In the case where the heating operation is over, the internal heat exchanger 102 is cooled after the first delay time determined and the automatic cleaning operation can be executed, to allow the automatic cleaning operation to be executed in A power saving mode.

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In addition, the user may have left the room during the period, to prevent cold air in the automatic cleaning operation from causing the user to feel discomfort. In addition, it prevents an abnormal noise or something similar caused by a sudden reversal of the refrigeration cycle.

The first determined delay time can be set, for example, to approximately 3 minutes at the time of shipment from the factory. This time is sufficient for the user to leave the room, to cool the internal heat exchanger 102 and to quietly change the four-way valve to reverse the refrigeration cycle.

Conveniently, the blower fan 103 is operated and the vertical air deflector 105 opens at the first delay time. This cools the internal heat exchanger 102 rapidly. In addition, the ambient temperature is acquired while equalizing by the air blowing operation and a cooling temperature, etc., in the automatic cleaning operation, it is optimized according to the degree of change in the ambient temperature.

Also, a hygrometer (not shown) may be provided near the interior heat exchanger 102 to measure the humidity near the internal heat exchanger 102 in the first delay time. According to the measurement result, the subsequent automatic cleaning operation can be optimized. For example, in a case where the humidity is high and the humidity around the indoor heat exchanger 102 is abundant, a cooling time may be shortened in the automatic cleaning operation. If the cooling time is set to 20 minutes, an abundant humidity can be collected for the automatic cleaning operation even in the dry winter months, but when the humidity around the indoor heat exchanger 102 is abundant, the cooling time can be set in about 15 minutes.

The indoor heat exchanger 102 (Figure 2) in the indoor unit 100 (Figure 2) is provided with the filter 108 (Figure 2) in its upper part to remove coarse dust in order to prevent the indoor heat exchanger 102 from being get dirty The dust that is deposited on the filter 108 causes the obstruction to reduce the air that passes through the indoor heat exchanger 102 and reduces the performance of the air conditioning of

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the indoor unit 100. In order to avoid this problem, the indoor unit 100 may be provided with a cleaning filter to automatically clean the filter 108 with a brush (not shown) after the air conditioning operation has been completed.

In a case where the indoor unit 100 has the cleaning filter, fine dust falls on the indoor heat exchanger 102 when the brush rubs the filter 108. The amount of dust that falls due to the cleaning of the filter is greater than the adhered in a normal air conditioning operation, which causes dust accumulation and dirt adhesion in the indoor heat exchanger 102.

Therefore, the cleaning filter conveniently cleans filter 108 during the first delay time. This allows the dust dropped during the filter cleaning to be cleaned by the automatic cleaning operation immediately after the dust has fallen, to prevent dirt caused by the filter cleaning from sticking in the indoor heat exchanger 102.

The period of time necessary for the user to leave the room varies depending on the situation. The period required to cool the internal heat exchanger 102 varies depending on the temperature and the like. Therefore, the delay time may preferably be variable.

For example, the indoor unit 100 may have a way of entering the first delay time from the information terminal connected to the communication network 190 or the remote control Re.

In case of the first delay time, the user is conveniently alerted to the execution of the automatic cleaning operation during the first delay time. This prevents the user from feeling that something is wrong. Accordingly, the indoor unit 100 may have an alarm device such as a display lamp (not shown) and an alarm sound generator (not shown) to alert the user of the execution of the automatic cleaning operation in the first delay time, and the alarm device can change the contents to be alerted based on a remaining time until the automatic cleaning operation has started. The change of content to alert is, by

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For example, change a flashing cycle of the display lamp or announce with voice guidance.

If the user is not in the room and the automatic cleaning operation starts immediately after the deactivation of the air conditioning operation, the user does not feel discomfort with the cold air emitted in the automatic cleaning operation.

Therefore, in a case where the operating condition for the automatic cleaning operation is met, if a human detector in the indoor unit 100 does not detect a human in the room after the cooling operation has finished, the Dehumidification operation, or air blowing operation, the automatic cleaning operation can be executed immediately after the deactivation of the operation.

In addition, in a case where the air conditioning operation is stopped by remote entry from outside the room, it is very possible that the room is empty.

Therefore, in a case where the operating condition for the automatic cleaning operation is met, if the air conditioning operation is stopped by remote entry from the information terminal connected to the communication network 190 after Having completed the cooling operation, the dehumidification operation, or the air blow operation, the automatic cleaning operation can be executed immediately after the air conditioning operation has stopped.

However, even when the air conditioning operation is stopped by remote entry, there may be a human present in the room. Therefore, when a human detector detects a human in the room, the automatic cleaning operation can be executed after the first delay.

The following human detector can be used for the human detector 122b to analyze the image captured by the imaging device 110A to detect if a human is present. In addition, a human sensor (not shown)

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It can detect infrared rays generated from the human body. In this way, the start of the automatic cleaning operation is controlled based on the result of the detection of a human in the room.

In a case where the operating condition of the automatic cleaning operation is not met for a long time and dust accumulates on the indoor heat exchanger 102, the user may wish to perform the automatic cleaning operation immediately after having stopped Air conditioning operation. Therefore, in a case where an instruction is entered to execute the automatic cleaning operation by means of the remote control Re or the information terminal connected to the communication network 190, the automatic cleaning operation can be executed immediately after the entry.

The larger the room to be conditioned, the more the total amount of dust in the room will increase. Since the dust in the air passes through the indoor heat exchanger 102 thanks to the blower fan 103, the size of the room is related to the amount of dust accumulated in the indoor heat exchanger 102. Accordingly, the air conditioner S is provided conveniently of a volume detector that detects the volume or size of the room, and is configured to determine threshold values in advance for the total hours of use and the number of uses since the last cleaning to execute the automatic cleaning operation, according to the result detected.

The following volume detector can be used for an ambient temperature detector 161 to detect an ambient temperature and automatically detect the volume or size of the room based on a time (hereafter referred to as the ambient temperature change time) necessary for the Ambient temperature reaches the reference value (for example, 1 degree).

The time of change of room temperature is measured in advance for each volume of the room by means of experiments and correlation data (Figure 6A) between the time of change of room temperature and the volume or size of the room are stored in storage 131. Since the correlation varies depending on the air conditioning capacity of the air conditioner S, each air conditioning capacity performs the above measurements

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conveniently on each model of the air conditioner S to acquire the correlation data corresponding to the air conditioning capacity.

In addition, an ambient temperature affects the correlation between the time of change of room temperature and the volume of the room, the illuminance of the room, and the like at the start of the measurement. In order to eliminate the influence, an adjustment value a (Figure 6B) between the ambient temperature at the start of the measurement and the time of change of ambient temperature and an adjustment value p (Figure 6C) between the room illuminance At the beginning of the measurement and the time of change of ambient temperature are conveniently measured by experiments and stored in storage 131.

The volume detector acquires the room temperature and the room illuminance thanks to the room temperature detector 161 and the illuminance detector 162 to detect the room volume taking into account the set value a and the set value p.

In addition, the volume or size of the room can be detected based on the image information entered from the imaging device 110A. For example, Patent Document 2 describes that "the imaging device 13 recognizes information such as people entering and leaving, the number and position of people in the room, the amount of activity, a distribution of the room and an area where sunlight penetrates. ”A part of the ground can be detected in the image information entered from the imaging device 110A to estimate an area other than that of the floor such as a wall, and the volume or the Room size can be calculated based on the ratio of the area, so the automatic cleaning operation is optimized based on the volume or size of the room that will be conditioned space.

The volume detector only acquires an approximate room size and does not need to have high accuracy. However, to deal with a case in which a difference between the detected result and the actual volume of the room is large, the indoor unit 100 conveniently includes a function as described below. That is, the indoor unit 100 can be configured to include an input interface through which the user enters the volume or size of the room to be conditioned or restores the value of the volume or size to a

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initial value from the information terminal connected to the communication network 190 or the remote control Re, in addition to the automatic detection of the room volume.

The main microcomputer 130 determines the threshold values for the total hours of use since the previous cleaning and the number of uses since the previous cleaning for the cleaner to clean the interior heat exchanger, based on the volume or size of the room entered through the input interface.

In order to improve the efficiency of the automatic cleaning operation, the indoor unit 100 may conveniently be provided with a dirt detector to detect dirt in the indoor heat exchanger 102, and if the amount of dirt detected by the dirt detector exceeds a certain amount, the automatic cleaning operation is executed independently of the values of the total hours of use since the previous cleaning saved in storage 131, the number of uses since the previous cleaning saved in storage 131, or the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner S. This allows automatic cleaning to be carried out before dust accumulates on the interior heat exchanger 102 and the dirt adheres inside it, to keep the interior heat exchanger 102 clean with less electrical energy, without the need for a large amount of water to clean the heat exchanger inte rior 102.

The dirt detector may include the imaging device 110B that uses visible light or near infrared light as a light source, and an optical filter that cuts or attenuates light with a specific wavelength. The image information entered from the imaging device 110B is analyzed by the dust detector 122a of the image detector 122 in the microcomputer of the camera 120, and the dust in the image information is detected as dirt.

As shown in Figure 4A, metal plates are arranged at regular intervals in very fine steps in the internal heat exchanger 102. When the imaging device 110B generates the image of the interior heat exchanger 102, the images of the parts of the metal plates are generated in white because the light is reflected, and the air layers between the passages of the metal plates are generated in black because the light is not reflected. Therefore, an image is acquired showing that the metal plates are arranged at regular intervals.

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When a differential analysis is executed on the image along an analysis line 301, an image waveform shown in Figure 5A is acquired.

As shown in Figure 4B, if the imaging device 110B generates the image of the indoor heat exchanger 102 having powder 401A adhered thereto, an image is acquired with a dark boundary between the white part and the black part, which fails to show that the metal plates are arranged at regular intervals. When a differential analysis is executed on the image along an analysis line 302, an image waveform shown in Figure 5B is acquired, showing an image waveform 401B without a peak due to the adhesion of powder. Dust adhesion is detected based on the image waveform 401B.

The following can be used, for example, as a technique to improve the accuracy of the imaging device 110B. Namely, image data that only has a specific wavelength can be acquired using an infrared light emitter (not shown) and the visible light cut filter 117B (Figure 3) to eliminate an alteration influence from the data of the images, in order to improve the recognition accuracy of the dust detector 122a (Figure 3).

The amount of dirt adhered to the indoor heat exchanger 102 varies depending on the mode of operation such as the cooling operation, the heating operation and the dehumidification operation. Therefore, the values of the total hours of use since the previous cleaning, the number of uses since the previous cleaning, or the time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioner S are conveniently set for each mode of operation such as the operation of heating, cooling operation and dehumidification operation.

The user may want to perform the automatic cleaning operation even if the values of the total hours of use since the previous cleaning saved in storage 131, the number of uses since the previous cleaning saved in storage 131, and the time since the Installation of the air conditioner S does not reach the threshold values and the filter 108 is not cleaned. To prevent the user from feeling discomfort and the like, a reservation is established for the automatic cleaning operation to start when the user is out of the room. The

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indoor unit 100 may have an input interface, through which a start time of the automatic cleaning operation is entered from the information terminal connected to the communication network 190 or the remote control Re.

Next, the processing executed by the main microcomputer 130 will be described as an example.

Figure 7 is a flow chart showing the processing of the main microcomputer 130 at the start of the cleaning process.

In step S101, the main microcomputer 130 determines whether the starting condition for the cleaning process is met. As described above, the "start condition for the cleaning process" is, for example, the condition that the total value of the hours of use of air conditioning since the end of the previous cleaning process has reached the determined value If the starting condition for the cleaning process is fulfilled in step S101 (S101: Yes), the main microcomputer 130 advances to step S102. Moreover, if the starting condition for the cleaning process is not met. (S101: No), the main microcomputer 130 completes a series of processing steps (END).

In step S102, the main microcomputer 130 generates a certain alarm sound thanks to the alarm sound generator (not shown) and turns on the display lamp (not shown). That is, before starting the cleaning process such as freezing the internal heat exchanger 102, the main microcomputer 130 alerts that the cleaning process will be executed by the alarm sound generator and the display lamp. This alerts the user in advance that the cleaning process will be initiated.

Then, in step S103, the main microcomputer 130 establishes the first delay time until the cleaning process of the indoor heat exchanger 102 begins. The first delay time (for example, three minutes) is a time since the User is alerted that the cleaning process begins in step S102 until the cleaning operation actually begins, and is established in advance.

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In step S104, the main microcomputer 130 determines whether the first determined delay time has elapsed since the user has been alerted in advance to start the cleaning process (S102). If the first determined delay time has elapsed (S104: Yes), the main microcomputer 130 advances to step S105. The display lamp can remain on (S102) until the first delay time elapses.

In step S105, the main microcomputer 130 performs the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger 102.

On the other hand, in step S104, if the first determined delay time has not elapsed (S104: No), the main microcomputer 130 advances to step S106.

In step S106, the main microcomputer 130 determines whether a cancellation instruction is entered for the cleaning process using the Re remote control or the information terminal (not shown). If no cancellation instruction is detected for the cleaning process (S106: No), the main microcomputer 130 returns to step S104. On the other hand, if the cancellation instruction for the cleaning process is detected (S104: Yes), the main microcomputer 130 advances to step S107.

In step S107, the main microcomputer 130 causes the alarm sound generator to generate a certain alarm sound and causes the display lamp to turn on. This allows the user to be alerted that the cleaning operation is actually canceled according to the operation using the R remote control or something similar.

Note that the alarm or similar sound (S107) is conveniently a different type from the alarm or similar sound (S102) to alert the cleaning process in advance. Consequently, the user is easily alerted that the cleaning process is actually canceled.

Then, in step S108, the main microcomputer 130 cancels the cleaning process of the internal heat exchanger 102. That is, the main microcomputer 130 cancels the cleaning process that includes freezing the heat exchanger.

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interior heat 102 based on the signal from the Re remote control or the information terminal. More specifically, if the specific cancellation instruction is received from the Re remote control or the information terminal (S104: No, S106: Yes) from the start of the alarm (S102) before the cleaning process until the first determined delay time, the main microcomputer 130 does not perform the cleaning process that includes freezing the internal heat exchanger 102 (S108). This allows the main microcomputer 130 to cancel cleaning of the internal heat exchanger 102 correctly in accordance with the intention of the user. After processing in step S108, the main microcomputer 130 terminates the series of processing stages (FIN).

The embodiment has been described in detail to describe the present invention so that it is easily understood, and the present invention is not necessarily limited to the embodiment having all the configurations described above. In addition, a part of the configuration of the embodiment can be added, deleted or replaced with other configurations.

Moreover, the mechanisms and configurations described above show those considered necessary for the description, and are not necessarily in a real product.

NUMERICAL REFERENCE

S: air conditioning 100: indoor unit 101: housing base 102:

indoor heat exchanger 103: blower fan 104: horizontal air baffle 105: vertical air baffle 106: front panel 107: air inlet 108: filter 109a: exhaust duct 109b: air outlet 110A, 110B: forming device 111A images: optical lens 112A: image sensor 113A: A / D converter 114A: digital signal processor 116: filter actuator 117A, 117B: visible light cut filter 120: camera microcomputer 121, 131: storage 122: image detector 122a: dust detector (dirt detector) 122b: human detector 130: main microcomputer (regulator) 132: arithmetic processor 133: drive regulator 134: time manager 135: operating information manager 150: load actuator 160: ambient detector 161: ambient temperature detector 162: illuminance detector 190: communication network 200: outdoor unit Q: transceiver (input interface) 301,

302: analysis line 401A: powder 401B: image waveform without a peak due to dust adhesion.

Claims (17)

5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 1. An air conditioner comprising: a cleaner that cleans an indoor heat exchanger; Y a regulator that controls the cleaner, where the regulator controls, in a case where the cleaner cleans the internal heat exchanger after a heating operation end, the cleaner to clean the internal heat exchanger after a certain delay time has elapsed since the end of the heating operation and controls the cleaner to clean the indoor heat exchanger after a second delay time elapses shorter than the first delay time, in a case where the cleaner cleans the indoor heat exchanger after an end of cooling operation, dehumidification operation or air blowing operation. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1 further comprising storage that stores an operating condition of the air conditioner, where the regulator controls the cleaner to clean the indoor heat exchanger when a total of hours of use since a previous cleaning stored in storage, the number of uses since the previous cleaning stored in storage or a time elapsed since an air installation conditioning stored in storage reaches a certain threshold value. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 1 further comprising: a blower fan that is mounted in an indoor unit and expels air to the indoor heat exchanger; Y a vertical air deflector that controls the direction of the wind ejected from the indoor unit, where the regulator controls to operate the blower fan or to open the vertical air deflector after the heating operation stops until the first delay time elapses. 4. An air conditioner comprising: 5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 a cleaner that cleans an indoor heat exchanger; a regulator that controls the cleaner, and a cleaning filter that cleans a filter disposed on one side of the indoor heat exchanger, where air is received, where the regulator controls the cleaner to clean the interior heat exchanger after a certain delay time has elapsed since the end of the heating operation, in a case where the cleaner cleans the internal heat exchanger after an end of heating operation and controls the filter cleaner to clean the filter after the heating operation stops until the first delay time elapses. 5. The air conditioner according to claim 1, where the regulator sets an evaporation temperature of a refrigerant when the cleaner cleans the indoor heat exchanger below an evaporation temperature of the refrigerant in the dehumidification operation. 6. The air conditioner according to claim 1, where the regulator sets an evaporation temperature of a coolant when the cleaner cleans the indoor heat exchanger at a temperature below a freezing point. 7. The air conditioner according to claim 1 further comprising an alarm device that alerts that the cleaner cleans the indoor heat exchanger after the heating operation stops until the first delay time elapses or after that the cooling operation, dehumidification operation or air blow operation be stopped until the second delay time elapses. 8. The air conditioner according to claim 1 further comprising an input interface through which an execution instruction is introduced to clean the indoor heat exchanger by measuring the cleaner from an information terminal connected to a communication network or a remote control, where the cleaner cleans the indoor heat exchanger immediately after the cleaning instruction of the indoor heat exchanger by means of the cleaner is introduced through the input interface. 5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 9. An air conditioner comprising: a cleaner that cleans an indoor heat exchanger; a regulator that controls the cleaner; a storage that stores an operating condition of an air conditioner; Y a volume detector that detects a volume or space in a room to be conditioned, where the regulator determines a threshold value of a total of hours of use since a previous cleaning by means of the cleaner to clean the internal heat exchanger or a threshold value of the number of uses since the previous cleaning, based on the volume or space of the room detected by the volume detector, Y where the regulator controls, after an end of heating operation, the cleaner to clean the internal heat exchanger after a first delay time elapsed since the end of the heating operation, in a case where the total of hours of use since the previous cleaning stored in the storage or the number of uses since the previous cleaning saved in the storage reaches the threshold value or in a case where an elapsed time stored in the storage since the air conditioning has been installed reaches a certain threshold value. 10. The air conditioner according to claim 9, where the volume detector detects the volume or space of the room based on a time from when a measurement of an ambient temperature begins until a change in the ambient temperature reaches a reference temperature. 11. The air conditioner according to claim 9, where the volume detector detects the volume or space of the room based on image information entered from an imaging device that generates the image of the room. 12. An air conditioner comprising: a cleaner that cleans an indoor heat exchanger; 5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 a regulator that controls the cleaner; a storage that stores an operating condition of an air conditioner; Y an input interface through which a volume or a space of a room to be conditioned from an information terminal connected to a communication network or a remote control is introduced, where the regulator determines a threshold value of a total of hours of use since a previous cleaning by means of the cleaner to clean the internal heat exchanger or a threshold value of the number of uses since the previous cleaning, based on the volume or space of the room that is entered through the input interface, and where, after an end of heating operation, the regulator controls the cleaner to clean the internal heat exchanger after a first delay time elapses since the end of the heating operation, in a case where the total of hours of use since the previous cleaning stored in the storage or the number of uses since the previous cleaning saved in the storage reaches the threshold value or in a case where an elapsed time stored in the storage since the air has been installed conditioning reaches a certain threshold value. 13. The air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2 further comprising a dirt detector that detects dirt in the indoor heat exchanger, where the regulator controls, in a case where the dirt detector detects dirt greater than a certain amount, the cleaner to clean the indoor heat exchanger. 14. The air conditioner according to claim 13, where the dirt detector has an imaging device that uses visible light or near infrared light as a light source; and an optical filter that cuts or attenuates light with a specific wavelength and detects dirt in the indoor heat exchanger based on image information entered from the imaging device. 15. The air conditioner according to claim 2, 5 10 fifteen twenty 25 where the threshold value of the total hours of use since the previous cleaning, the number of uses since the previous cleaning or the time elapsed since the installation of the air conditioner is set for each mode such as the heating operation, the cooling operation and the dehumidification operation. 16. The air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2 further comprising an input interface through which a start time is introduced to clean the indoor heat exchanger from an information terminal connected to a communication network or A remote control 17. An air conditioner comprising: a cleaner that cleans an indoor heat exchanger; a regulator that controls the cleaner; a blower fan that is mounted in an indoor unit and expels air to the indoor heat exchanger; Y an air deflector that controls the direction of the wind ejected from the indoor unit, where the regulator controls, in a case where the cleaner cleans the internal heat exchanger after a cooling end operation, a dehumidification operation or an air blow operation, the cleaner to clean the interior heat exchanger afterwards that a second delay time elapses from the end of the cooling operation, dehumidification operation or the air blowing operation, and where the regulator controls the blower fan to drive or to open the air baffle within the second delay time.