JP2004150753A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect carbon dioxide content corresponding to a change in indoor oxygen content; to control an oxygen feeder according to the carbon dioxide content; and to maintain the indoor oxygen content constant with an air conditioner comprising the oxygen feeder. <P>SOLUTION: This air conditioner comprises a CO2 sensor 3 detecting carbon dioxide content in the air, an oxygen enriching membrane unit 11, a vacuum pump 13 and an oxygen feeding control means 2 and controls operation of the vacuum pump 13 according to the carbon dioxide content. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an air conditioner having an oxygen supply function.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, as an apparatus for controlling the oxygen concentration in a room, for example, there is an apparatus described in Patent Literature 1. FIG. 4 shows a conventional air conditioner described in the patent document. In FIG. 4, 121 is an indoor unit, 119 is an oxygen tank, 118 is an oxygen supply pipe, 108 is an on-off valve, 120 is an oxygen outlet, and 101 is an oxygen concentration detector. In this configuration, a signal proportional to the oxygen concentration is extracted by the oxygen concentration detector 101, and the on / off valve 108 is driven by the signal to control the amount of oxygen, thereby keeping the oxygen concentration in the room air constant.
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-7-4703 (Page 2, FIG. 4)
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above conventional configuration, the oxygen concentration in the room is detected by the oxygen concentration detector □□, but the oxygen concentration that changes when a person is present is at most about 3000 to 5000 ppm, It has been quite difficult to accurately detect such a change in an oxygen concentration of usually about 210,000 ppm.
[0005]
The present invention, in order to solve the above-described problems, uses a means for detecting carbon dioxide concentration, accurately detects carbon dioxide increasing opposite to oxygen consumed by human breathing, and measures indoor oxygen concentration. Estimate and control oxygen supply. As a result, it is possible to provide an indoor environment in which the oxygen concentration is constant irrespective of the occupancy load of the person.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, the control device of the air conditioner of the present invention is a carbon dioxide concentration detection unit that detects the concentration of carbon dioxide contained in indoor air, an oxygen supply unit that supplies oxygen to the room, An oxygen supply control means for controlling the supply of the oxygen supply means based on the detected carbon dioxide concentration is provided.
[0007]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, a case will be described in which a device for supplying oxygen is applied to a separation-type air conditioner used for air conditioning of a living space.For example, an air conditioner for a vehicle, an integrated air conditioner, Even when applied to a purifier or the like, the same effect can be obtained.
[0008]
(Embodiment 1)
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the configuration of the device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
[0009]
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an oxygen supply device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the air conditioner includes an indoor unit 1 and an outdoor unit 10, and is connected by a connection pipe (not shown) so that refrigerant gas circulates. The indoor unit 1 includes a fan 5, a CO2 sensor 3 for detecting the concentration of carbon dioxide in the room, an oxygen supply control unit 2 for controlling the supply of oxygen based on a detection signal from the CO2 sensor 3, and a supply of oxygen to the room. An oxygen outlet 4 is provided. On the other hand, the outdoor unit 10 is provided with a compressor 14, a heat exchanger 17, and a fan 16, and an oxygen-enriched membrane unit 11 is provided on the side of the ventilation circuit of a partition plate 15 constituting a part of the ventilation circuit. It is connected to a vacuum side port of a vacuum pump 13 via an oxygen connection pipe 12. An oxygen supply main pipe 6 for supplying oxygen to a room is connected to an atmospheric pressure side port of the vacuum pump 13, and is connected to an oxygen outlet 4 provided in the indoor unit 1. Further, a connection line 7 is electrically connected to the vacuum pump 13 so that the supply of oxygen from the oxygen supply control means 2 can be controlled.
[0010]
Here, since the configuration and operation of the refrigeration cycle of the air conditioner are not related to the present invention, a detailed description is omitted.
[0011]
Next, the operation according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 together with the operation of supplying oxygen using the oxygen supply device having the above-described configuration.
[0012]
In the above configuration, when the vacuum pump 13 is operated, the air that has passed through the oxygen-enriched membrane unit 11 passes through the vacuum-side oxygen connection pipe 12 and is sucked into the vacuum pump 13 as indicated by an arrow 20, thereby being enriched in oxygen. The discharged air is sent to the indoor unit 1 through the oxygen supply main pipe 6 and is blown out from the oxygen outlet 4 to be mixed with the mainstream air and supplied to the room.
[0013]
Here, the oxygen supply device in the present invention can supply oxygen to a room such as a PSA system using an adsorbent, a hollow fiber system, or an oxygen cylinder system in addition to the one using the oxygen-enriched membrane unit as described above. Any method can be used.
[0014]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of control specifications showing the first embodiment according to the present invention. FIG. 2 shows the change characteristics of the carbon dioxide concentration and the oxygen concentration when there are M persons in the room. Now, assuming that M people enter the room at time T0, the carbon dioxide concentration gradually increases due to carbon dioxide discharged by human respiration, and conversely, oxygen gradually decreases because it is consumed by respiration. At this time, since there is a certain relationship between the increase in carbon dioxide and the degree of decrease in oxygen, it is possible to estimate the concentration of oxygen by detecting the concentration of carbon dioxide. Although the carbon dioxide concentration detected by the CO2 sensor 3 at time T0 was CO2_0, it increased to CO2_1 at time T1, and in response to this, the oxygen concentration was estimated to decrease from O2_0 to O2_1. . Therefore, when the carbon dioxide concentration detected by the CO2 sensor 3 rises to a predetermined concentration, in this case, C02_1, an operation ON signal to the vacuum pump 13 is issued by the oxygen supply control means 2 and the vacuum pump 13 is started. . When the vacuum pump 13 is started, the oxygen-enriched air passes through the oxygen-enriched membrane unit 11 and is sent into the room through the oxygen supply main pipe 6, whereby the oxygen concentration in the room increases, and the oxygen concentration in the room is almost the same as the initial concentration. To recover. Here, the broken line indicates the characteristic of decreasing the oxygen concentration in the room when there is no oxygen supply device. As described above, the CO2 sensor 3 detects the concentration of carbon dioxide in the room, the oxygen supply control means 2 estimates the oxygen concentration based on the detection result, and ON / OFF controls the operation of the vacuum pump 13 to thereby control the oxygen concentration in the room. The density can be maintained at the same level as when no one is present, that is, at about the same level as in nature.
[0015]
(Embodiment 2)
Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the second embodiment, the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the control method of the vacuum pump 13 by the oxygen supply control means 2 is different. At time T0, N persons enter the room, and in response to this, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the room detected by the CO2 sensor 3 gradually increases from the initial CO2_0. At this time, the operation of the vacuum pump 13 is driven in the power save mode by the oxygen supply control means 2 because the carbon dioxide concentration is equal to or lower than the predetermined carbon dioxide concentration, that is, CO2_1 or less. The power save (PS) controls the flow rate or the oxygen concentration by controlling the number of revolutions of the pump motor or by turning the vacuum pump 13 on and off intermittently. However, anything may be used as long as it can control the flow rate and concentration. Thereafter, at time T1, when M people (M> N) are present in the room, the carbon dioxide concentration detected by the CO2 sensor 3 further increases. Then, at time T2, since the carbon dioxide concentration has become equal to or higher than the predetermined carbon dioxide concentration CO2_1, the oxygen supply control means 2 drives the vacuum pump 13 in the full power (FP) mode. As described above, the oxygen supply control means 2 estimates the oxygen concentration from the carbon dioxide concentration in the room detected by the CO2 sensor 3, and controls the operation of the vacuum pump 13 in the power save mode or the full power mode. Even if the number of rooms changes, almost the same oxygen concentration can be maintained.
[0016]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the control device for an air conditioner of the present invention, the indoor carbon dioxide concentration is detected with high accuracy, and the oxygen concentration in the room is accurately estimated to control the oxygen supply means. Therefore, the oxygen concentration can be maintained irrespective of the number of people, and a comfortable indoor environment can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration conceptual diagram of an air conditioner provided with an oxygen supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of control specifications in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of control specifications according to Embodiment 2. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of a configuration of an air conditioner provided with a conventional oxygen supply device.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Indoor unit 2 Oxygen supply control means 3 CO2 sensor 4 Oxygen outlet 6 Oxygen supply main pipe 10 Outdoor unit 11 Oxygen enrichment membrane unit 12 Vacuum side oxygen connection pipe 13 Vacuum pump

Claims (1)

Carbon dioxide concentration detecting means for detecting the concentration of carbon dioxide contained in the indoor air, oxygen supplying means for supplying oxygen to the room, and oxygen supply controlling means for controlling supply of the oxygen supplying means based on the detected carbon dioxide concentration An air conditioner comprising:

Images