JP2003079539A - Heated toilet seat device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To raise a temperature of a toilet seat to a predetermined temperature in a very short time after energization to a heater without using a capacitor. SOLUTION: The heated toilet seat device is composed of the stainless steel toilet seat 16 with the heater 30 added to a rear face, an opening and closing means 34 interposed between the heater 30 and a commercial power source 50, and a control means 40 of energizing the heater 30 from the commercial power source 50 by the opening and closing means 34 only when a user approaches the toilet seat 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heated toilet seat device, and more particularly to a structure for a heated toilet seat device that can raise the toilet seat to an optimum temperature immediately before a user sits on the toilet seat.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional heating toilet seat device of this type is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-244199. In other words, this technology stores a certain amount of electricity in a capacitor in advance, and when the user approaches the toilet bowl to which the toilet seat is attached, discharges the electricity of the capacitor and attaches it inside the toilet seat in a short time. The electric power is supplied to the existing heater so that the toilet seat is rapidly raised to a predetermined temperature. In the prior art, it is not necessary to constantly energize the heater provided inside the toilet seat, and wasteful power consumption can be avoided.

[0003]

However, since a capacitor for storing the amount of electricity required to rapidly raise the toilet seat to a predetermined temperature has a large capacity, it is costly to install such a capacitor in a narrow toilet space. It is practically impossible to eliminate this, and this technology cannot be put to practical use. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a heating toilet seat device that can rapidly raise the toilet seat to a predetermined temperature without using a condenser.

[0004]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The first means taken to solve the above-mentioned problems is as follows: "Between a metallic toilet seat having a heating means attached to the back surface thereof and the heating means and a commercial power source. A heating toilet seat device "comprising an opening / closing means interposed and a control means for causing the opening / closing means to energize the heating means from the commercial power source only when the user approaches the toilet seat. That is what I did.

The second means taken to solve the above-mentioned problem is the heating in the first means such that "the toilet seat is made of stainless steel and the plate thickness is 0.5 mm or less". That is, the toilet seat device is configured.

Further, a third means taken to solve the above-mentioned problem is that in the first means, "a separate heating means for constantly preheating the toilet seat is provided on the back surface of the toilet seat" to heat the toilet seat. That is, the device is configured.

In the present invention, the toilet seat is made of metal, but the metal, especially the stainless steel thin plate, has a smaller heat capacity and higher thermal conductivity than the resin which is the material of the conventional toilet seat, so that the commercial power source is used. It is possible to raise the temperature to a predetermined temperature in a short time after starting the energization of the heating means (for example, the heater). Further, by using a metal for the toilet seat, the same strength as the conventional one can be obtained. Furthermore, by preheating the toilet seat,
The toilet seat can be quickly raised to a predetermined temperature.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a heating toilet seat device according to the present invention will be specifically described below.

1 to 3, a case 12 for accommodating a main part (not shown) of the human body local cleaning apparatus is placed on the upper edge of the rear part of the toilet 10 installed in the toilet space. Here, the main part of the human body local area cleaning device refers to a part other than the nozzle (not shown), and has a controller, a hot water tank, and a mechanism part that drives the nozzle as main constituent elements.
A toilet lid 14 and a toilet seat 16 are pivotally supported on the case 12 by a common pin means (not shown) in a known manner.

The toilet seat 16 is formed of a 0.5 mm thick stainless steel thin plate. The inner edge and the outer edge of the back portion of the toilet seat 16 are fitted and fixed to the inner edge protrusion and the outer edge protrusion of the back plate 18 made of PP material, respectively. In addition, a bracket 20 provided at a substantially central portion of the back surface (back surface) of the toilet seat 16 extends from the back plate 18 to the back surface 2
Supported by 2. Thus, the toilet seat 16 having such a support structure can be seated by a user (not shown).
It retains robustness and is not deformed.

On the back surface of the toilet seat 16 made of a thin stainless plate,
A heater 30 is attached. Specifically, the heater 30
Is coated with an insulating material (not shown), and this insulating material is bonded to the back surface of the toilet seat 16. As is well known, the back surface of the toilet seat 16 is roughly O-shaped (or Δ-shaped), and the heater 30 extends and extends on the O-shaped (or Δ-shaped) plane while repeating meandering. Set up.

The heater 30 is connected to a commercial power source 50 via a triac 34, a power switch 36 and a fuse 38 so as to form a closed circuit. The power switch 36 is normally closed, but the triac 34
Is open, as will be described in more detail below, unless the user indicates that it is close to the toilet bowl 10. That is, the heater 30 is not energized at all times, but only when the user indicates that the toilet bowl 10 is approaching. This prevents wasteful power consumption caused by constant energization of the heater 30.

The triac 34 is connected to a triac drive circuit 48 under the control of the microcomputer 40,
The microcomputer 40 operates the triac drive circuit 48 to open / close or turn on / off the triac 34.

The microcomputer 40 includes a human body detection sensor 42,
The toilet seat temperature sensor 44 and the seating detection sensor 46 are connected. As shown in FIG. 1, the human body detection sensor 42 is exposed on the upper left side of the case 12 and is directed toward a door (not shown) located in front of the paper surface. When the user opens the door and steps into the toilet space, the human body detection sensor 42
To that effect (specifically, an ON signal) is sent to the microcomputer 40. The human body detection sensor 42 is a current collecting infrared sensor that does not generate an ON signal unless the object moves. Further, instead of the human body detection sensor 42, for example, a switch for turning on / off in conjunction with a door that controls the opening / closing space of the toilet space is used to detect the presence / absence of a user's stepping into the toilet space or approaching the toilet bowl 10. You may.

When the microcomputer 40 receives the ON signal from the human body detection sensor 42, the TRIAC drive circuit 48 is operated to close (ON) the TRIAC 34, and the heater 30 is
A voltage is applied (energized) from the commercial power source 50,
The toilet seat 16 is rapidly heated or heated. That is, the microcomputer 40 energizes the heater 30 in order to eliminate the difference between the set temperature (temperature setting in three stages of high, medium and low) and the current temperature of the toilet seat 16 indicated by the signal from the toilet seat temperature sensor 44. I have to. Specifically, according to the difference between the set temperature and the current temperature of the toilet seat 16 indicated by the signal from the toilet seat temperature sensor 44, the amount of electricity (electric power) to the heater 30.
Is done in response time in correlation with ambient temperature.
When the temperature of the toilet seat 16 reaches the set temperature, in order to maintain the set temperature, the microcomputer 40 causes the TRIAC drive circuit 48 to repeatedly open and close the TRIAC 34 at a predetermined cycle to control the energization of the heater 30 with a duty control. To do. Therefore, the user sits on the toilet seat 16 at or just before the temperature of the toilet seat 16 reaches the set temperature, so that the user can sit comfortably. Then, while sitting, the seating detection sensor 46 constantly outputs an ON signal. When the user leaves the toilet seat 16, this ON signal changes to an OFF signal. After the change of this signal, a predetermined time elapses, and then the microcomputer 40 causes the TRIAC drive circuit 4 to operate.
Then, the triac 34 is opened and power supply from the commercial power source 50 to the heater 30 is stopped.

FIGS. 4 to 7 show graphs of how long it takes to reach the set temperature from the start of energization for each environmental temperature. From this result, it is understood that the set temperature is reached in a short time in general.

In the above structure, the material of the toilet seat 16 heated or heated by the heater 30 is a stainless steel thin plate made of metal. The thin stainless plate has a small heat capacity and a high thermal conductivity. Therefore, when the heater 30 is energized, the temperature of the toilet seat 16 can be rapidly raised to a predetermined temperature in a short time. The proof will be described below using a comparative example. That is, FIG. 8 shows the results of measuring the temperature rising characteristics of the surface temperature of the toilet seat 16 formed of a stainless thin plate having a thickness of 0.5 millimeter. On the other hand, as a result of examination using finite element analysis, it was found that a toilet seat formed of a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 0.5 millimeters is mechanically equivalent to a toilet seat formed of an aluminum plate having a thickness of 1 mm. . Therefore, the characteristics of the surface temperature of the toilet seat formed of an aluminum plate having a thickness of 1 mm were measured and the graph shown in FIG. 9 was obtained. A comparison between the graph shown in FIG. 8 and the graph shown in FIG. 9 shows that the toilet seat formed of a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 0.5 millimeter has excellent temperature rising characteristics of the surface temperature. In other words, the surface temperature of the toilet seat made of a stainless steel sheet having a thickness of 0.5 millimeters is,
The surface temperature is much higher than the surface temperature of a toilet seat made of an aluminum plate having a thickness of 1 mm, and the superiority of forming a toilet seat with a thin stainless plate is recognized.

Instead of directly heating (transferring heat) the toilet seat 16 with the heater 30, a coil (not shown) is used.
May be induction heated. Further, the microcomputer 40 may also be used as a microcomputer used for controlling the human body local area cleaning device.

In the present embodiment, a stainless steel thin plate of 0.5 mm was used, but the plate thickness may be 0.5 mm or less as long as it has a strength that can be used as a toilet seat. When the plate thickness is 0.5 mm or less, the heat capacity becomes small, so that the temperature rising characteristics on the toilet seat surface can be improved.

Further, the stainless thin plate of the present embodiment (plate thickness 0.
5 mm), the plate thickness may be set to 0.5 mm or more in a range where the temperature rising characteristics can withstand actual use.

As shown in FIG. 10, a heater 32 as another heating means is attached to the back surface of the toilet seat 16 so as to be located inside the heater 30, and the commercial power supply 5 is attached to the heater 32.
The toilet seat 16 may always be heated to a predetermined temperature by always energizing from 0. By adopting this configuration, the control becomes simple. This point is laid down. As described above, when the temperature of the toilet seat 16 reaches the set temperature, the microcomputer 40 causes the triac drive circuit 48 to open and close the triac 34 at a predetermined cycle in order to maintain the set temperature. Is energized by duty control. This control is performed when the toilet seat 16 reaches a preset temperature and then the energization of the heater 30 is stopped for a predetermined time.
Paying attention to the fact that the temperature of 1 decreases by a constant value, this difference is compensated by the duty conduction to the heater 30.
However, the smaller the difference, the smaller the duty ratio is, and there is no need to elaborate the control. However, even if the temperature of the toilet seat 16 is lowered from the set temperature, the heater 32 keeps it warm. The temperature difference to be compensated is small and the control is simple.

[0022]

According to the present invention, since the toilet seat is made of a metal having a small heat capacity and a high thermal conductivity (a stainless steel thin plate is a preferred example), the toilet seat can be predetermined in a short time from the start of energizing the heating means. The temperature can be raised to the temperature of. Thus, the heating means can be heated from a commercial power source (that is, without storing electricity in a capacitor as in the conventional case), and a great effect is practically achieved.

Also, since the toilet seat is kept at a predetermined temperature by a heater different from the heating heater, the duty energization control to the heating heater for keeping the toilet seat at the set temperature can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a toilet bowl to which a heating toilet seat device according to the present invention is added.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a toilet seat

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of a heating toilet seat device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing toilet seat temperature rising characteristics when the environmental temperature is 5 degrees Celsius.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing toilet seat temperature rise characteristics when the environmental temperature is 10 degrees Celsius.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing toilet seat temperature rise characteristics when the environmental temperature is 15 degrees Celsius.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing toilet seat temperature rising characteristics when the environmental temperature is 20 degrees Celsius.

FIG. 8 is a graph showing temperature rising characteristics of a toilet seat made of a stainless thin plate.

FIG. 9 is a graph showing temperature rising characteristics of a toilet seat made of an aluminum plate.

FIG. 10 is a circuit diagram which is a modified example of the circuit diagram shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

16 toilet seat 30 heater (heating means) 32 heater (another heating means) 34 Triac (opening and closing means) 40 Microcomputer (control means) 42 Human body detection sensor 48 Triac drive circuit (control means)

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yasuko Kobayashi             Aichi, 2-chome, Asahi-cho, Kariya city, Aichi prefecture             Within Seiki Co., Ltd. F term (reference) 2D037 AA11 AA13 AD00 AD03

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A toilet seat made of metal having a heating means attached to the back surface thereof, an opening / closing means interposed between the heating means and a commercial power source, and the opening / closing operation only when a user approaches the toilet seat. A heating toilet seat device comprising: a control means for causing the commercial power source to energize the heating means. 2. The heating toilet seat device according to claim 1, wherein the toilet seat is made of stainless steel and has a plate thickness of 0.5 mm or less. 3. The heating toilet seat device according to claim 1, wherein another heating means for heat insulation is provided on the back surface of the toilet seat.