JP2002054828A - Air conditioning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve humidifying capacity without increasing the size of a device, in an air conditioning device having a humidifying function. SOLUTION: The air conditioning device is a device to control supply air to a desired temperature and comprises a body 1; a fan 2; a heat exchanger 3; a humidifier 4; and a return route 20. The body 1 has an air inlet 10 and an air outlet 11. The fan 2 sucks air through the air inlet 10 and the air outlet 11. The heat exchanger 3 has a heating function and effects heat exchange with air fed by the fan 2 and the humidifier 4 humidifies air heated by the heat exchanger 3. A part of heated air is returned through the return route 20 to the suction side of the heat exchanger 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner having a humidifying function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an example of an air conditioner, an outside air processing air conditioner has been conventionally provided. This outside air processing air conditioner has an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, and the indoor unit is provided with a fan, a heat exchanger, and a humidifier. Here, by rotating the fan, outside air is introduced into the inside of the body from the suction port of the body, heat is exchanged between the outside air and the refrigerant in the heat exchanger, and the heat-exchanged outside air is sent into the room. .

[0003] During the heating operation of such an outside air processing air conditioner, humidification processing is performed to prevent drying of the air blown into the room. Humidification is performed by a humidifier.

[0004]

When a heating operation is performed in the above-described outside air processing air conditioner, the dry air outside in the winter is sucked and heated in the winter, and is sent into the room. It will be more dry.

Therefore, in this type of apparatus, not only humidification treatment is essential, but also high humidification ability is required. However, since the space of the humidifier greatly affects the casing size of the entire device, if the humidifier is increased in size to increase the humidification capacity, the entire device will be increased in size. Therefore, the maximum value of the humidifying capacity is necessarily determined by the casing size of the entire apparatus, and eventually the size of the humidifier.

In order to increase the amount of humidification, the temperature of the blown air may be increased. However, in a normal air conditioner, control is performed so that the blown air has a desired temperature. It is not possible to increase the humidification amount ignoring the blowing temperature of the humidifier.

An object of the present invention is to improve the humidifying capacity of an air conditioner having a humidifying function without increasing the size of the device.

[0008]

An air conditioner according to a first aspect of the present invention is an air conditioner for controlling blown air to a desired temperature, comprising a main body, a fan, a heat exchanger, a humidifier, And a return path. The main body has an air inlet and an air outlet. The fan draws air from the suction port and blows air from the outlet. The heat exchanger has at least a heating function and exchanges heat with air sent by a fan. The humidifier humidifies the air heated by the heat exchanger. The return path returns a portion of the humidified air to the suction side of the heat exchanger.

In this apparatus, air is introduced into the main body by rotating a fan, and the introduced air is heat-exchanged by a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger has a heating function, so the air is heated by the heat exchanger,
Dry compared to the state before heat exchange. Therefore, the heat-exchanged air is humidified by a humidifier, and the humidified air is blown out from a blowing port. At this time, a part of the humidified air is returned to the suction side of the heat exchanger via the return path. The returned air has higher temperature and humidity than the air sucked from the suction port. Therefore, the humidifying ability can be improved by mixing such air with the air sucked from the suction port and performing heat exchange and humidification processing.

Here, by returning a part of the humidified air to the suction side of the heat exchanger, the humidifying capacity can be improved without particularly increasing the size of the humidifier. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an opening / closing member provided on the return path for opening and closing the return path.

Here, when it is not necessary to improve the humidifying ability of the humidifier, the return path is blocked by the opening / closing member. Thereby, when it is not necessary to improve the humidification capacity, unnecessary burdens on the fan and the compressor of the outdoor unit are reduced.

[0012] The air conditioner according to claim 3 is claim 2.
In the above device, the heat exchanger further has a cooling function, and the opening / closing member opens the return path during the heating / humidifying operation, and shuts off the return path during the cooling operation.

In the case of having a cooling / heating function, humidification is not generally required during cooling operation. Therefore, a part of the humidified air is returned only during the heating / humidifying operation, and the humidified air is not returned during other operations. In this case, too, unnecessary load on the fan, the compressor, and the like is reduced as described above.

An air conditioner according to a fourth aspect is the first aspect.
In any one of the above-described devices, the return path is provided on one side of the heat exchanger inside the main body. In this case, the return path is provided on the side of the heat exchanger,
The size of the device in the height direction is reduced, and the installation becomes easy.

[0015] The air conditioner according to claim 5 is claim 1.
In any of the devices from 1 to 4, the fan is located on the suction side of the heat exchanger. In this case, the space for returning the humidified air is smaller than when the fan is arranged on the blowout side of the humidifier, and it is possible to avoid an increase in the size of the device.

The air conditioner according to claim 6 is claim 1.
In any one of the above-described devices, the fan may have a rotation axis arranged along a direction intersecting an air flow path connecting the suction port and the discharge port of the main body, and may supply air along the rotation axis. This is a centrifugal fan that sucks and blows air in a direction that intersects with the rotation axis. And the return path is
The centrifugal fan is provided so as to return a part of the humidified air to the suction portion.

Here, the fan is a centrifugal fan. Generally, a centrifugal fan is disposed in a direction in which a rotation axis intersects an air flow path. That is, the air suction port of the fan is located on the side of the main body. Therefore, in the device according to the sixth aspect, the return path is arranged so that a part of the humidified air is returned to the suction port of the fan located on the side of the main body. Therefore, a part of the humidified air can be efficiently returned to the suction side.

[0018]

1 and 2 show an indoor unit of an outside air processing air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a partial sectional front view, and FIG. 2 is a partial sectional plan view. It is. The outside air processing air conditioner of the present embodiment has a cooling and heating function.

The indoor unit of the outside air processing air conditioner has a box-shaped main body 1. Further, inside the main body 1, a pair of fans 2, a heat exchanger 3, and a humidifier 4 are provided.
The main body 1 has a suction port 10 for sucking outside air on one side.
A blowout port 11 for blowing out heat-exchanged air is provided on a side surface opposite to the side surface on which the suction port 10 is provided. These inlets 10
The outlet 11 is provided over substantially the entire side surface.

Each of the pair of fans 2 is a multi-blade centrifugal fan, and is arranged in parallel with the heat exchanger 3, the suction port 10, and the air outlet 11. Each fan 2
Are connected to and driven by the motor 12, respectively,
This is provided for introducing outside air into the main body 1 through the suction port 10 and blowing out the heat-exchanged air from the blowing port 11. More specifically, each fan 2 sucks the outside air into the inside of the fan 2 along the rotation axis, and blows out the sucked outside air to the outer circumference, that is, the direction orthogonal to the rotation axis, via the outer wing portion. The blown outside air is supplied to a guide casing 2 provided on the outer peripheral side of the fan 2.
a guides to the heat exchanger 3 side. Each drive motor 12 is supported on the bottom of the main body 1 by a support base 12a. Although a pair of the fan 2 and the motor 12 are provided for convenience of capacity, only one set may be provided in some cases.

The heat exchanger 3 has a structure in which the refrigerant circulates inside, and is arranged so that the upper part is inclined toward the outlet 11. In this way, by arranging the heat exchanger 3 at an angle, a large heat exchange area can be secured,
The size in the vertical (vertical) direction can be suppressed. A refrigerant pipe 13 is connected to one side of the heat exchanger 3. The refrigerant pipe 13 is connected to an outdoor unit (not shown) via a gas pipe connection port 14 and a liquid pipe connection port 15. An expansion valve and the like are provided in the middle of the refrigerant pipe 13 provided in the indoor unit.

A humidifier 4 is provided on the blowing side of the heat exchanger 3, that is, on the downstream side of the air flow path. The humidifier 4 is for evaporating water for humidification and humidifying the outside air heated by the heat exchanger 3.

Further, an inlet 21 of the return path 20 is provided on the outlet side of the humidifier 4. The return path 20 is provided inside the main body 1 on the side of the heat exchanger 3 where the piping is not provided. The outlet 22 of the return path 20 is arranged near the suction port of one of the pair of fans 2. By such a return path 20, a part of the humidified air can be returned to the outside air suction side of the heat exchanger 3. A damper 23 as an opening / closing member is provided at the outlet 22 of the return path 20 so as to be openable and closable. By opening and closing the damper 23, the return path 20 can be shut off and opened. By arranging the return path 20 on the side of the heat exchanger 3, it is possible to prevent the dimension in the vertical direction from increasing as compared with the conventional apparatus.

Next, the operation will be described. First, as a premise, in this air conditioner,
Control is performed so that the blowing temperature is constant.

During the cooling operation, the heat exchanger 3 functions as an evaporator. Therefore, the outside air introduced from the inlet 10 by the fan 2 is cooled by the heat exchanger 3, blown out from the outlet 11 and sent into the room.

It is to be noted that humidification is not required during the cooling operation. Therefore, the humidifier 4 does not operate, and the damper 23 of the return path 20 is closed. Therefore,
Part of the heat exchanged air does not return to the suction side, and the fan 2 and the outdoor unit (compressor) during the cooling operation
There is no additional burden.

On the other hand, during the heating operation, the heat exchanger 3 functions as a condenser. Therefore, the outside air introduced from the inlet 10 by the fan 2 is heated by the heat exchanger 3, humidified by the humidifier 4, and sent into the room from the outlet 11.

During the heating operation, the outside air is heated and dried. However, in the winter season in which the heating operation is performed, the outside air itself is generally dry, and when the outside air is further heated, the outside air becomes too dry, so that the conventional humidifier 4 alone cannot maintain appropriate humidity. There are cases.

Therefore, during the heating operation, the heated air is humidified by the humidifier 4 and the damper 23 of the return path 20 is opened to open the return path 20 so that the blow-off side (downstream side) of the humidifier 4 is connected to the outside air. Communicate with the suction side.
In such a state, since the suction side has a negative pressure, a part of the humidified air downstream of the humidifier 4 is sucked into the fan 2 again through the return path 20. And
The heated and humidified air and the outside air are mixed and sent to the heat exchanger 3.

In this case, the state of air at each position is
This will be described in detail with reference to the psychrometric chart of FIG. First, ignoring the air returned by the return path 20, when the outside air is in the state A, the outside air is heated by the heat exchanger 3 to be in the state B. Then, the heated air passes through the humidifier 4, thereby lowering the temperature and being humidified to be in the state C.

In the present embodiment, a part of the air in the state C once passed through the humidifier 4 is returned to the fan 2 through the return path 20, so that the outside air on the suction side of the heat exchanger 3 (mixed with the returned air) State) is shifted from state A to state A ′. When the air in the state A ′ is heated by the heat exchanger 3 in the same manner as described above, the state becomes the state B ′, and further the state passes through the humidifier 4 to the state C ′.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the return path 2
By returning a part of the air humidified by 0 to the suction side, the blown air has changed from the state C to the state C ′. That is, the humidification amount is (state C′−
This means that the amount of the humidifier 4 has increased by the amount of the state C), which means that the performance of the humidifier 4 has apparently improved.

In an environment where it is not necessary to improve the humidification capacity during the heating operation, the damper 23 is closed. Thereby, similarly to the above, the load on the fan 2 and the compressor can be reduced.

In such an embodiment, the humidifying capacity can be improved without changing the size of the humidifier 4 by returning a part of the humidified air to the suction side of the heat exchanger 3.

[Other Embodiments] (a) In the above embodiment, the damper 23 is configured to be able to take only two states of “open” or “closed”, but the opening degree of the damper 23 is arbitrarily controlled. As a result, the humidification capacity may be adjusted appropriately.

(B) In the above embodiment, an example is shown in which the fan is disposed on the suction side of the heat exchanger. However, the fan may be disposed on the outlet side of the heat exchanger and the humidifier. (C) In the embodiment, the return path is arranged on the side of the heat exchanger. However, the arrangement of the return path is not limited to the embodiment.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, a part of the humidified air is returned to the suction side of the heat exchanger, so that the humidifying capacity can be improved without increasing the size of the humidifier. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional front view of an outside air processing air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional plan view of the outside air processing air conditioner.

FIG. 3 is a psychrometric chart for explaining the operation and effect of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body 2 Fan 3 Heat exchanger 4 Humidifier 10 Suction port 11 Outlet 20 Return path 23 Damper (opening / closing member)

Claims (6)

[Claims] An air conditioner for controlling blown air to a desired temperature, comprising: a main body having an air suction port and a blowout port; and a body for sucking air from the suction port and blowing air from the blowout port. A fan, a heat exchanger having at least a heating function, and performing heat exchange with air sent by the fan; a humidifier for humidifying the air heated by the heat exchanger; A return path for returning part of the air that has flowed back to the suction side of the heat exchanger. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, further comprising an opening / closing member provided in the return path, for opening and closing the return path. 3. The heat exchanger further includes a cooling function, and the opening / closing member opens the return path during a heating / humidifying operation, and shuts off the return path during a cooling operation.
An air conditioner according to item 1. 4. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the return path is provided on one side of the heat exchanger inside the main body. 5. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the fan is arranged on a suction side of the heat exchanger. 6. The fan has a rotating shaft arranged along a direction intersecting an air flow path connecting an intake port and an outlet of the main body, and sucks air along the rotating axis. And a centrifugal fan that blows air in a direction intersecting with the rotation axis, wherein the return path is provided to return a part of the humidified air to a suction part of the centrifugal fan. 6. The air conditioner according to any one of items 1 to 5.