JP2002221331A - Bathroom heating dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a bathroom heating drier capable of using a heating system or a drying system properly according to application. SOLUTION: The bathroom heating drier 1 is provided at its internal part with a heat exchanger 12 to heat air through circulation of hot water; and a supply fan 10 to discharge air, heated by the heat exchanger 12, through a hot air outlet 21. Further, an electric heater 19, such as a far infrared radiation heater, is exposed to the under surface of the bathroom heating drier 1. For example, during preheating before bathing, by operating the supply fan 10, hot air heated by the heat exchanger 12 is supplied (an electric heater 19 is turned off) and temperature in the bathroom is increased. During bathing, a supply amount of hot air is reduced and temperature in the bath room is kept at a constant value, and by turning ON the electric heater 19, a person taking bath is irradiated with its radiation heat.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a bathroom heating / drying machine, and more particularly to a bathroom heating / drying machine for heating a bathroom and drying laundry and the like suspended in the bathroom.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a bathroom heater / dryer is installed on a ceiling portion or a wall surface of a bathroom to heat the bathroom by blowing out hot air and to dry laundry suspended in the bathroom. It is used.

[0003] The heating system used in such a bathroom heater / dryer includes a hot water circulation system and an electric heater system. The former circulates warm water in the heat exchanger,
The air is heated by a heat exchanger and hot air is blown into the bathroom by a blower fan. In the latter case, the bathroom is heated by the heat of the electric heater.

A hot-water circulation type bathroom heater / dryer blows out hot air from a hot air outlet to dry a bathroom, clothes, and the like by convection, so that the hot air can quickly spread to every corner of the bathroom and the like. Can be However, when heating is performed during bathing, the bather's skin is wet, so there is a problem that the bather feels cold when hot air is blown out.

[0005] For this reason, conventionally, during preheating before bathing, the direction of the wind direction plate provided at the hot air outlet is turned downward, and the amount of hot air blown out is increased to heat the bathroom. When taking a bath, the remote control is operated to direct the wind direction board upward so that the wind does not directly hit the bather, and the blowing amount is also reduced. Therefore, the heating capacity during bathing is limited, and sufficient heating may not be performed.

[0006] Further, in the electric heater type bathroom heating / dryer, since the heating is performed by radiant heat, a bather in front of the electric heater can be directly and quickly heated. However, the electric heater can heat only the front, and it takes time to heat the entire bathroom and the running cost is high. Furthermore, when drying clothes etc., there was a problem that clothes behind other clothes could not be dried.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a bathroom heater / dryer which can use an appropriate heating method or drying method according to the application. Is to do.

[0008]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION A bathroom heater / dryer according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a heat radiation heater for heating a bathroom by radiant heat, and a heat exchanger for circulating hot water to heat air by heat exchange with hot water. And, a blower fan for blowing air heated by the heat exchanger to a bathroom, an operation designation unit that designates an operation mode, and at least the heat radiation heater based on a signal from the operation designation unit, and And a control unit for controlling the blower fan. Here, as the heat radiation type heater, an electric heater is desirable, and a far infrared heater that radiates far infrared rays is particularly desirable. In addition, a remote controller is usually used as the operation specifying unit.

This bathroom heater / dryer is provided with a heat radiation type heater for heating with radiant heat and a convection type hot air heater comprising a heat exchanger and a blower fan. Accordingly, two types of heating (drying) means can be selectively used or used together, so that comfortable and efficient heating and drying can be performed. In addition, energy can be saved and running costs can be reduced as compared with the case where only the electric heater is used.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the bathroom heating / drying apparatus, when the operation specifying unit instructs the drying operation in the bathroom heating / drying apparatus according to the first aspect, at least the heat exchanger is provided. And the blowing fan are operated to perform a drying operation.

In this embodiment, the bathroom, clothes, and the like are dried by the hot air blown out by the heat exchanger and the blower fan during the drying operation, so that the drying can be efficiently performed by blowing the hot air. it can. In particular, when drying clothes or the like, since the warm air flows around the shaded portions, uneven drying is unlikely to occur as in the case of only the heat radiation type heater. Note that the heat radiation type heater may be turned on or off, but in any case, the running cost can be reduced as compared with the case where only the heat radiation type heater is used.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bathroom heating / drying machine according to the first or second aspect, further comprising a human body detection sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a human body in the bathroom. When the unit specifies the heating operation of the bathroom, when the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person in the bathroom and in the case where the presence of a person is not detected, the operation mode is different. is there.

For example, when the human body detection sensor does not detect the presence of a person in the bathroom, warm air is blown out by the heat exchanger and the blower fan (the heat radiation type heater is off) to preheat the bathroom. In addition, if the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person, reduce the air volume so that warm air does not directly hit the bather and turn on the heat radiation type heater, so that efficient heating can be achieved. Can be performed.

In this embodiment, since the presence or absence of a person in the bathroom is detected by the human body detection sensor and the operation mode of the heating operation is automatically switched based on the detection, the bather operates the operation designation unit to change the operation mode. The trouble of switching is unnecessary.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the bathroom heater / dryer, the human body detection sensor in the bathroom heater / dryer detects a position of a person in the bathroom. The operation state differs between the case where the presence of a person is detected on the side and the case where the presence of a person is detected on the bathtub side.

According to this embodiment, for example, when the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person on the bathtub side, hot air is blown out by the heat exchanger and the blower fan. Off) The bathroom is preheated, and if the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person on the washing side, reduce the air flow so that hot air does not hit the bather directly, and install a heat radiation heater. It can be turned on for comfortable heating.

[0017]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a bathroom heating / drying machine 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the bathroom heating / drying machine 1. The bathroom heating / drying machine 1 is mainly composed of a bathroom heating / drying machine main body 2 and a front cover 3. In the bathroom heating / drying machine main body 2, a fan housing part 5 is integrated into a casing 4 opened on the lower surface. And a flange 6 is provided around the outer periphery of the lower end of the casing 4. An air passage main body 8 is attached to a lower portion of the fan housing section 5, and an air passage sliding section 9 is slidably connected to an outer periphery of the air passage main body 8 so as to be slidable with the fixed air passage main body 8. Ventilation path sliding part 9
Thus, a stretchable air passage 7 is formed.

A blower fan 10 such as a cross flow fan is mounted in the fan housing 5, and a wind direction plate 11 for controlling a blowing direction of warm air is rotatable below the blower passage 7. Attached to. The wind direction plate 11 can be adjusted to an arbitrary angle by a pulse step motor (not shown).

One bent heat exchanger 12 is provided on the suction side of the fan housing 5. In this heat exchanger 12, hot water supplied from a gas water heater is circulated through a hot water circulation pipe 13, and heat is exchanged between the hot water and air sucked from the bathroom to heat the air.

The bathroom heater / dryer 1 is required to be considerably compact because it is installed on the ceiling of the bathroom. However, even if the bathroom heater / dryer 1 is compact, a predetermined hot air generating capacity is required. Therefore, one heat exchanger 12 is disposed so as to be bent, and the heat exchange area is increased while the heat exchanger 12 is made compact, so that the heat exchange efficiency of the heat exchanger 12 is increased.

A ventilation device housing 14 is provided in the casing 4, and a ventilation device 15 including a sirocco fan 16 and a motor 17 is housed in the ventilation device housing 14. An exhaust duct 18 is connected to the side surface of the ventilator housing 14 for discharging the air in the bathroom containing moisture to the outside.

Further, by displacing the position with the ventilation device 15,
An electric heater 19 for heat radiation such as a halogen lamp, a quartz tube heater, and a far-infrared heater is provided at a lower portion in the casing 4. The electric heater 19 is connected to the electric cord 2
Power is supplied from a home commercial power supply through the switch 0, and heat is generated when the switch is turned on.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, the front cover 3 is provided with a hot air outlet 21 so as to face the lower end opening of the air passage 7 of the bathroom heating / drying body 2. The wind direction plate 11 can be seen from the wind outlet 21.
The hot air outlet 21 is formed so as to substantially coincide with the lower surface opening of the air passage 7. In addition, hot air outlet 2
An air inlet 22 for sucking air is provided on one side adjacent to the air inlet 1, and a ventilation inlet 23 and a heater exposure port 24 are provided on the other side. Air inlet 22
Is formed in a grill shape on the side corresponding to the heat exchanger 12, and a filter 25 is detachably mounted on the upper surface thereof. The ventilation inlet 23 is
The heater opening 24 is opened just below the ventilation device 15 in the bathroom heating / drying body 2, and the heater exposure port 24 is opened corresponding to the position of the electric heater 19 so as to expose the electric heater 19.

A controller 27 is housed in the bathroom heater / dryer main body 2, and the blower fan 10, the wind direction plate 11, the ventilator 15, the electric heater 19 and the like are controlled by the controller 27 as shown in FIG. It has become.
A remote control receiver 26 provided in the bathroom heating / drying machine main body 2 is exposed from the front cover 3, and when a signal (infrared ray) transmitted from the remote controller 28 is received by the remote control receiver 26, the remote control receiver 26 26 sends a control signal to the controller 27, and the bathroom heating / drying machine 1
On, off, the operation mode, the blowing temperature, the blowing direction (angle of the wind direction plate), and the like are remotely controlled by the remote controller 28.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a remote controller 28 attached to the bathroom heating / drying machine 1. The remote controller 28 includes an operation switch 30 and a stop switch 31 for turning on and off the bathroom heating / drying machine 1, a heating switch 32 for performing a bathroom heating operation, and a ventilation device 15 to operate the ventilation in the bathroom. A ventilation switch 33 for performing, a bathroom drying switch 34 for drying the bathroom after bathing, a clothing drying switch 35 for drying the clothing suspended in the bathroom while using the bathroom as a drying room, and setting a temperature of hot air. A temperature setting switch 36 for adjusting the angle of the wind direction plate 11, a time setting switch 38 for setting a timer time. Above that, set temperature, operation mode,
Liquid crystal display unit 29 for displaying timer setting time and the like
Is provided.

When the heating operation of the bathroom is performed by pressing the heating switch 32 of the remote controller 28, the circulation of the hot water in the heat exchanger 12 is stopped, and only the electric heater 19 is turned on while the blower fan 10 is stopped. Heater 19
The bathroom is heated by the radiant heat of the bathroom. If the bathroom is heated by the electric heater 19, even if there is a bather, the wind does not hit the bather, so that even if the skin is wet, the bather does not feel cold and can bathe comfortably.

When the bathroom drying switch 34 or the clothes drying switch 35 is pressed to perform the bathroom drying operation or the clothes drying operation, the electric heater 19 is kept off.
Hot water is circulated through the heat exchanger 12, hot air is blown out from the hot air outlet 21 by the blower fan 10, and the bathroom or the clothes suspended from the bathroom are dried while operating the ventilation device 15. The operation time differs between the bathroom drying operation and the clothes drying operation. As described above, since the electric heater 19 is turned off during the bathroom drying operation or the clothes drying operation, energy can be saved. In addition, since the bathroom and clothes are dried by blowing out warm air, it can be quickly dried by blowing warm air and the shaded portions (for example, shaded by other clothes) Clothing, etc.) can also be dried efficiently.

When the ventilation switch 33 is pressed to perform the ventilation operation, only the ventilator 15 is operated to discharge the humid air in the bathroom to the outside.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 5 is a front view of a remote controller 28 used for a bathroom heater / dryer according to another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the operation for heating the bathroom is divided into a bathroom heating operation before bathing and a bathroom heating operation during bathing, and the remote controller 28 is provided with a preliminary heating switch 39 and an in-bathroom heating switch 40 correspondingly.

When the pre-bath heating operation is performed in advance by turning on the pre-heating switch 39 of the remote controller 28 before attempting to take a bath, the hot water is supplied to the heat exchanger 12 while the electric heater 19 is kept off. And the blower fan 10 is rotated to blow warm air from the warm air outlet 21 to increase the indoor temperature of the bathroom. As described above, energy saving can be achieved by turning off the electric heater 19 at the time of preliminary heating when no person is in the bathroom.

Next, when the user turns on the bath heating switch 40 of the remote controller 28 to perform the bathroom heating operation during bathing, the capacity of the heat exchanger 12 is reduced to keep the temperature of the bathroom constant. Also, the air volume of the blower fan 10 is reduced. At the same time, the electric heater 19 is turned on. Therefore, it is difficult for the bather to feel a cool wind feeling when the wind blown from the warm air outlet 21 hits the bather.
Bathers are warmed by radiant heat such as far infrared rays of 9,
You can bathe comfortably. Further, since the capacity of the heat exchanger 12 can be reduced, the gas consumption of the gas water heater for supplying hot water to the heat exchanger 12 can also be reduced.

When the bathroom drying switch 34 or the clothes drying switch 35 is turned on to perform the bathroom drying operation or the clothes drying operation, the capacity of the heat exchanger 12 is increased and the air volume of the blower fan 10 is increased. Then, hot air with a high temperature is strongly blown out. In addition, to increase the drying capacity,
The electric heater 19 is also turned on. By performing the drying operation in this manner, the bathroom wall surface temperature and the clothing surface temperature can be increased, so that the drying can be performed in a shorter time than when the drying is performed only by the heat of the heat exchanger 12.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 6 is a bottom view of a bathroom heater / dryer 1 according to still another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a human body for detecting the presence of a person in the bathroom is shown. A detection sensor 41 is provided. As the human body detection sensor 41, an infrared sensor, an artificial retina, a low-resolution CCD sensor, or the like can be used.

Also in this embodiment, the operation for heating the bathroom is divided into the operation for heating the bathroom before bathing and the operation for heating the bathroom during bathing.
2, only the bathroom heating operation before bathing and the bathroom heating operation during bathing are automatically switched as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

In this embodiment, since the human body detection sensor 41 is provided on the lower surface of the bathroom heater / dryer 1, it is possible to determine whether or not there is a bather in the bathroom.
Then, the heating switch 32 of the remote controller 28
Is turned on to start the bathroom heating operation (step S1 in FIG. 7), the human body detection sensor 41 determines whether or not a person is present in the bathroom (step S2). If it is determined that no person is present in the bathroom, the bathroom heating / drying machine 1 automatically switches to the bathroom heating operation before bathing and performs preliminary heating (step S3), and keeps the electric heater 19 off. While keeping the hot water flowing through the heat exchanger 12, the blower fan 10 is rotated to blow warm air from the warm air outlet 21 to increase the indoor temperature of the bathroom. Thereby, at the time of preliminary heating before bathing, the electric heater 19 can be turned off to save energy.

When it is detected that a person has entered the bathroom, the bathroom heating / drying machine 1 automatically switches to the bathroom heating operation while taking a bath (step S4). So that the air volume of the blower fan 10 is reduced. At the same time, the electric heater 19 is turned on. Therefore, comfortable heating can be performed by irradiating the radiant heat of the electric heater 19 to the bather without giving the bather a feeling of cool air.

The bathroom heater / dryer 1 includes a human body detection sensor 41.
While the person is detecting the person, the heating operation is continued during the bathing. However, when the person is no longer detected in the bathroom (step S5), it is determined that the person has left the bathroom and the heating operation is automatically stopped (step S5). Step S6). Therefore, forgetting to turn off the operation switch can be prevented, and unnecessary energy consumption can be suppressed.

If the human body detecting sensor 41 can determine whether the place where the person is present is on the side of the washing room or on the side of the bathtub, if the driving operation is different depending on the position of the person. You may let it. For example, when a person is on the washing room side, the electric heater 19 is turned on 19 and the amount of hot air blown by the blower fan 10 is reduced. 1
The amount of hot air blown by 0 may be increased. In addition, as such a human body detection sensor 41, an artificial retina, a low-resolution CCD sensor, a plurality of infrared sensors, or the like can be used.

[0039]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a convection type heater including a heat radiation type heater for heating with radiant heat, a heat exchanger and a blower fan in accordance with the state of the heating operation or the drying operation. A hot air heater can be selectively used or used together, and comfortable and efficient heating and drying can be performed. In addition, energy can be saved and running costs can be reduced as compared with the case where only the electric heater is used.

According to the bathroom heater / dryer of the second aspect, drying can be efficiently performed by blowing hot air. In particular, when drying clothes or the like, since the warm air flows around the shaded portions, uneven drying is unlikely to occur as in the case of only the heat radiation type heater. Further, the running cost can be reduced as compared with the case where the drying operation is performed only by the heat radiation type heater.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the presence or absence of a person in the bathroom is detected by the human body detection sensor.
As a result, the operation mode of the heating operation can be automatically switched, so that there is no need for the bather to operate the operation designation unit to switch the operation mode.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, for example, when the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person on the bathtub side, hot air is blown out by the heat exchanger and the blower fan. (The heat radiation type heater is off.) If the bathroom is preheated and the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person on the washing side, the temperature of the hot air is reduced and the air volume of the hot air is reduced. The radiant heater can be turned on, and comfortable heating can be performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a bathroom heater / dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the above bathroom heating / drying machine.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a remote controller attached to the bathroom heating / drying machine.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between a controller and other components in the bathroom heating / drying machine.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a remote controller attached to a bathroom heater / dryer according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of a bathroom heater / dryer according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a control flow chart at the time of bathroom heating / drying in the above bathroom heating / drying machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Bathroom heating dryer 2 Bathroom heating dryer main body 3 Front cover 7 Ventilation path 10 Ventilation fan 11 Ventilation plate 12 Heat exchanger 15 Ventilation device 19 Electric heater 21 Hot air outlet 22 Air inlet 23 Ventilation inlet 24 Heater dew Exit 26 Remote control receiver 28 Remote controller 41 Human body detection sensor

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) F26B 25/00 F26B 25/00 A F term (Reference) 3L071 AA02 AA04 AB05 AC02 AC05 AF05 AG01 3L072 AA08 AB06 AC02 AC05 AE03 AE05 AF00 AF11 AG03 AG05 3L113 AA01 AB02 AC01 AC67 BA14 CA20 CB01 CB24 DA09 4L019 BA03

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A heat radiation type heater for heating a bathroom by radiant heat, a heat exchanger for circulating hot water to heat air by heat exchange with hot water, and an air heated by the heat exchanger to the bathroom. A bathroom heating / drying apparatus comprising: a blower fan for blowing air; an operation designation unit for designating an operation mode; and a control unit for controlling at least the heat radiation heater and the blower fan based on a signal from the operation designation unit. Machine. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the operation designating section instructs a drying operation, at least the heat exchanger and the blower fan are operated to perform the drying operation. 2. The bathroom heater / dryer according to 1. 3. A human body detection sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a human body in a bathroom, wherein the operation specifying unit specifies a heating operation of the bathroom.
The bathroom heating according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the operation mode is different between a case where the human body detection sensor detects the presence of a person in the bathroom and a case where the presence of the person is not detected. Dryer. 4. The human body detection sensor detects the position of a person in a bathroom, and the sensor detects the presence of a person on the washing room side and the case of detecting the presence of a person on the bathtub side. 4. The bathroom heating / drying device according to claim 3, wherein the operation mode is different between and.