JP2001033074A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the operability of forced cooling operation by operating normal operation button of an air conditioner, e.g. start and stop buttons, in a different mode and starting forced cooling operation thereby decreasing the number of parts of the air conditioner. SOLUTION: An air outlet 5 is made at a lower part of an indoor heat exchanger and provided with a horizontal flap 6 for controlling the air flow vertically. A body operation switch 2 for starting/stopping operation of an air conditioner is provided on the side of the air outlet 5. Forced cooling operation is started by pushing the body operation switch 2 provided on the surface of an indoor unit continuously for a predetermined time, e.g. 10-12 sec, under a state where the air conditioner is stopped. More specifically, forced cooling operation is started only when the body operation switch 2 is released after it is pushed for a predetermined time longer than the time of normal operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner having an improved forced cooling operation start function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An air conditioner includes a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, a decompression mechanism, and an indoor heat exchanger in a refrigerant circuit, and circulates the refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit by driving the compressor. Have been. Then, the outdoor heat exchanger functions as a condenser and the indoor heat exchanger functions as an evaporator, whereby the cooling operation can be performed.

In order to transfer or remove the air conditioner, the air conditioner is forced to perform a cooling operation in order to recover the refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit to the outdoor heat exchanger (pump down). A forced cooling operation function is provided. As a conventional method for starting such a forced cooling operation, a forced cooling operation is started by turning on an indoor unit cooling test operation switch and a forced cooling operation switch.
A method of starting the forced cooling operation by the N operation is exemplified. Hereinafter, a specific operation method will be described.

FIG. 3A is a partially enlarged perspective view of an indoor unit of an air conditioner having the above-mentioned forced cooling operation switch. As shown in the figure, a suction port 33 is formed on the front side of the front panel 32, and an air outlet 34 is provided below the suction port 33.
Is provided. A forced cooling operation switch 31 is provided at a lower portion beside the suction port 33 inside the front panel 32 opened. Further, since the forced cooling operation switch 31 is provided in a small hole, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), a tapered object such as a match stick is inserted into the hole to insert the forced cooling operation switch therein. By pressing the button 31, the forced cooling operation can be started.

FIG. 3B is a partially enlarged perspective view showing a part of a printed circuit board built in the outdoor unit of the air conditioner. On the printed circuit board 36 provided in the main body of the outdoor unit 35, forced cooling operation switches SW1 and SW2 for starting the forced cooling operation are provided. Then, in this case, as shown in FIG.
After the W2 is set to the forced cooling side, the forced cooling operation can be started by pressing the switch SW1.

[0006]

As described above, as described above,
If an attempt is made to start the forced cooling operation in order to recover the refrigerant or the like, it is necessary to provide a dedicated switch only for that purpose, so that the number of parts increases and the cost of parts increases. In addition, since the forced cooling operation switch is generally provided inside a product that is inconspicuous to the user, there are problems such as poor operability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to start forced cooling operation by using an existing operation button, thereby reducing the number of parts. It is an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioner capable of reducing the power consumption and improving the operability of a forced cooling operation.

[0008]

The air conditioner according to the present invention has an operation button for normally operating the air conditioner, such as starting or stopping an air-conditioning operation. It is characterized in that the forced cooling operation is started by operating the button in a mode different from the normal operation.

In the air conditioner of the first aspect of the present invention, since the forced cooling operation start function is provided to the operation button having a specific function, it is not necessary to provide a special component for starting the forced cooling operation. Can be avoided. In addition, since the operation button is usually provided at a position where it can be easily operated, operability as a forced cooling operation switch can be improved.

[0010] The air conditioner according to claim 2 is characterized in that the forced cooling operation is started by continuously pressing the operation button for a predetermined time or more. An air conditioner according to a third aspect is characterized in that the forced cooling operation is started by continuously pressing the operation button for a predetermined time or more and for a predetermined time or less.

In the air conditioner according to the second aspect, the forced cooling operation can be performed by continuously pressing an operation button having a specific function for a predetermined time. In this way, by using an operation method different from the operation that is normally performed, the forced cooling operation is prevented from being performed by an erroneous operation. Further, at this time, by defining the time period during which the operation button is pressed as a range, the forced cooling operation is erroneously performed when the button is kept pressed due to a product structural failure. Can be prevented.

Further, the air conditioner according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the forced cooling operation is automatically stopped when a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of the forced cooling operation.

In the air conditioner according to the fourth aspect, the forced cooling operation is automatically stopped when a predetermined time, for example, a predetermined time required for refrigerant recovery, elapses after the forced cooling operation is started. I have. Thereby, even if the forced cooling operation is performed by mistake, the operation is automatically stopped, so that the forced cooling operation time due to the erroneous operation can be minimized.

Further, in the air conditioner of the present invention, the operation button having the forced cooling operation function is a main body operation switch 2 for operating and stopping the air conditioner.

In the air conditioner according to the fifth aspect, an increase in the number of parts of the product is avoided by adding a forced cooling operation start function to a main body operation switch for operating or stopping the air conditioner. Can be. Further, since the main body operation switch is provided on the surface of a product that is easy to operate, the operability as a forced cooling operation switch can be improved.

[0016]

Next, an embodiment of the air conditioner of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged perspective view of the indoor unit of the air conditioner. This shows a state in which the front panel 3 of the indoor unit 1 is opened, and a filter 4 is provided on the front side thereof.
However, an indoor heat exchanger (not shown) is provided on the back side. The outlet 5 is located below the indoor heat exchanger.
The outlet 5 is provided with a horizontal flap 6 for controlling the angle of the blown air up and down. A main body operation switch 2 for operating / stopping the air conditioner is provided on a side of the outlet 5 so that a user can operate the switch from the outside. In this embodiment, the main body operation switch 2 is provided with a forced cooling operation start function. The specific function will be described later. Further, the air conditioner is provided with a remote controller (not shown) so that various operations such as operation / stop operation or setting of temperature and air volume can be performed using the remote controller.

Next, an operation control method of the forced cooling operation of the air conditioner will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step S1, the timer t1 provided for measuring the time during which the main body operation switch 2 is pressed while the air conditioner is stopped is reset. Next, in step S2, it is determined whether or not the main body operation switch 2 has been pressed. If the main body operation switch 2 is not pressed, the process returns to step S1 again, and if it is pressed, the process proceeds to step S3.
The time from when the switch 2 is pressed is counted by the timer t1. Then, in the next step S4, it is determined whether or not the main body operation switch 2 has been released, and if it has not been released, the process returns to step S3 again to continue counting by the timer t1. This is repeated until the main body operation switch 2 is released, and if released, the process proceeds to step S5.

In step S5, the time counted by the timer t1 is within a predetermined range, for example, 10 seconds ≦
It is determined whether or not t1 ≦ 12 seconds. Timer t1
If the count time is outside the above range, the process moves to step S6 and normal operation is started. On the other hand, timer t
If the count time at 1 is within the above range, step S
7, the forced cooling operation is started, and the counting of time from the start of the operation is started by the timer t2. Then, in the next step S8, it is determined whether or not the main body operation switch 2 has been pressed. If the switch has been pressed, the process proceeds to step S9. This time, it is determined whether or not the main body operation switch 2 has been released.
Then, the process proceeds to step S11 to terminate the forced cooling operation. On the other hand, if the main body operation switch 2 has not been pressed in step S8, the process proceeds to step S10, and it is determined whether or not the count time by the timer t2 has exceeded, for example, 5 minutes. If the count time by the timer t2 is within 5 minutes, the flow returns to step S8. If the count time by the timer t2 is 5 minutes or more, the flow shifts to step S11 to end the forced cooling operation. When the forced cooling operation is completed, the process returns to step S1 to stop the air conditioner, and at the same time, the timer t1 is reset.

Next, a forced cooling operation method for actually recovering the refrigerant in accordance with the above control procedure will be described. First, in a state in which the air conditioner is stopped, the forced cooling operation is started by holding down the main body operation switch 2 provided on the surface of the indoor unit for a certain period of time, that is, 10 to 12 seconds in this embodiment. As a result, the compressor is driven, and the refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit can be collected in the outdoor heat exchanger that is a condenser. After the refrigerant is collected, the forced cooling operation is terminated by pressing the main body operation switch 2.

According to the above method, after the main body operation switch 2 has been pressed for a certain period of time, that is, longer than during normal operation, the forced cooling operation is started only when the switch is released. . That is, since the main body operation switch 2 is originally provided for the user to perform the operation / stop operation of the air conditioner, this prevents the user from erroneously entering the forced cooling operation by the user's operation. At this time, the reason why the time during which the main body operation switch 2 is pressed is defined in a certain range is to prevent the forced cooling operation from being mistakenly started when the main body operation switch 2 is kept pressed due to a failure or the like. That's why.

Further, even if the forced cooling operation is erroneously started despite the above safety measures, the forced cooling operation can be immediately terminated by pressing the main body operation switch 2 again. Further, even if the main body operation switch 2 is not pressed to end the operation, the timer t2 elapses a predetermined time after the forced cooling operation is started, and the operation is automatically shifted to the forced cooling operation end operation. At this time, the approximate time required for refrigerant recovery is set as the fixed time, and in this embodiment, the forced cooling operation is automatically terminated after 5 minutes. Thus, it is possible to minimize the occurrence of the forced cooling operation due to an erroneous operation.

Although the specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. . That is, in the above embodiment, the forced cooling operation start function is provided in the main body operation switch 2. However, the forced cooling operation start function may be provided to another operation button provided in the air conditioner, or the remote control device main body may be provided. A forced cooling operation start function is provided for the operation button provided in
The forced cooling operation may be started by a remote control operation. In the above embodiment, the main body operation switch 2
, The forced cooling operation is started only when the switch is released, but the forced cooling operation is started after the switch is repeatedly turned ON / OFF several times. For example, the forced cooling operation can be started by performing an operation different from the normal operation, such as performing the operation. The specified range of the time of the timers t1 and t2 can be set arbitrarily.

[0024]

According to the air conditioner of the first aspect of the present invention, since the operation button having a specific function is provided with the forced cooling operation start function, it is not necessary to provide a special component for starting the forced cooling operation. Thus, an increase in the number of parts of the product can be avoided. In addition, since the operation button is usually provided at a position where it can be easily operated, operability as a forced cooling operation switch can be improved.

In the air conditioner according to the second aspect, the forced cooling operation can be performed by holding down an operation switch having another function for a predetermined time. In this way, by using an operation method different from the operation that is normally performed, the forced cooling operation is prevented from being performed by an erroneous operation. Further, at this time, by specifying the time during which the operation button is pressed as a range, the forced cooling operation is erroneously performed when the button is kept pressed due to a product structural failure. Can be prevented. Thereby, the reliability of the start of the forced cooling operation can be improved.

Further, in the air conditioner of the fourth aspect, the forced cooling operation is automatically stopped when a predetermined time, for example, a predetermined time required for refrigerant recovery, elapses after the forced cooling operation is started. I have. Thereby, the forced cooling operation time due to an erroneous operation can be minimized.

In the air conditioner according to the fourth aspect, since the main body operation switch for operating or stopping the air conditioner has the forced cooling operation function, it is possible to avoid an increase in the number of parts of the product. . Further, since the main body operation switch is provided on the surface of a product that is easy to operate, the operability as a forced cooling operation switch can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation control method for forced cooling of an air conditioner according to this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged perspective view of an indoor unit of the air conditioner.

3A and 3B are schematic views for explaining a conventional example, in which FIG. 3A is a partially enlarged perspective view of an indoor unit, and FIG. 3B is a part of a printed circuit board inside the outdoor unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 indoor unit 2 main unit operation switch 3 front panel 4 filter 5 air outlet 6 horizontal flap t1 timer t2 timer

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tadashi Sakaguchi 1000-Oya, Okamotocho, Kusatsu-shi, Shiga 2 Daikin Industries, Ltd. Shiga Works F-term (reference) 3L060 AA01 AA08 CC08 DD01 EE01

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An operation button for normal operation of an air conditioner such as start and stop of an air-conditioning operation,
An air conditioner characterized in that a forced cooling operation is started by operating the operation button in a mode different from a normal operation. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the forced cooling operation is started by continuously pressing the operation button for a predetermined time or more. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the forced cooling operation is started by continuously pressing the operation button for a predetermined time or more and for a predetermined time or less. 4. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the forced cooling operation is automatically stopped when a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of the forced cooling operation. 5. The operation button having the forced cooling operation function is a main body operation switch (2) for operating and stopping the air conditioner.
The air conditioner according to claim 4.