JP2007085676A - Storage type hot water supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a storage type hot water supply device accurately converting the remaining amount of hot water in a tank into time and displaying it, regardless of the use states of respective users or installed conditions. <P>SOLUTION: The storage type hot water supply device has a hot water storage tank storing hot water, and a heating part boiling the hot water in the hot water storage tank, and it supplies hot water of a preset temperature to a hot water tap. It is provided with a remaining heating value detecting means for detecting a remaining heating value in the hot water storage tank, a hot water supply flow rate detecting means for detecting a flow rate of the hot water supplied from the hot water storage tank to the hot water tap, a remaining hot water amount calculating means for converting the remaining heating value detected by the remaining heating value detecting means into a remaining hot water amount at the hot water supply preset temperature, a hot water supply remaining time calculating means for converting the remaining hot water amount converted by the remaining hot water amount calculating means into the hot water supply remaining time at the flow rate detected by the hot water supply flow rate detecting means, and a display means for displaying the hot water supply remaining time converted by the hot water supply remaining time calculating means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus that stores hot water for hot water supply in a hot water storage tank, and more particularly to a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus having a function of displaying a remaining hot water amount in a hot water storage tank.

  Conventionally, a hot water storage tank that stores high-temperature hot water and a heating device such as an electric heater or heat pump that heats the water in the hot water storage tank into high-temperature hot water to reduce running costs Hot water storage hot water supply that operates a heating device during a long midnight time, heats the hot water in the hot water storage tank to have the amount of hot water required for hot water supply for one day, and supplies hot water to the currant or bathtub as needed The device is widely adopted.

  In this hot water storage type hot water supply device, the amount of hot water that can be used is determined by the capacity of the hot water storage tank, so a large amount of hot water is used due to, for example, an unexpected visitor's bathing, etc. If used, it may cause hot water shortage in some cases. And since a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus usually takes a long time until it boils again, and hot water becomes unusable during that time, it is necessary to always use hot water while paying attention to the amount of remaining hot water.

  In order to solve this problem, in a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus comprising a hot water storage tank for storing hot water and a heating section for boiling the hot water in the hot water storage tank, a residual heat amount detecting means for detecting the residual heat amount in the hot water storage tank A remaining hot water amount calculating means for converting this remaining heat amount into a remaining hot water amount at a predetermined converted temperature, a remaining hot water supply time calculating means for converting this remaining hot water amount into a remaining hot water time at a predetermined converted flow rate, and this remaining hot water time There has been proposed a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus including a display unit for displaying (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  According to this configuration, the amount of remaining heat remaining in the hot water storage tank is detected, the amount of remaining heat is converted as the amount of remaining hot water at a predetermined conversion temperature, and the amount of remaining hot water is displayed as the remaining hot water supply time at a predetermined converted flow rate. This makes it possible to display the remaining hot water amount as the usable time in an easily understandable manner.

However, in this hot water storage type hot water supply device, the time is converted using a predetermined conversion flow rate, that is, a predetermined value, as the hot water flow rate necessary for calculating the remaining hot water supply time. The actual hot water flow rate may be different from the predetermined converted flow rate. Further, if the user uses hot water more than a predetermined flow rate value, an unexpected result that the hot water runs out before the displayed time may occur. On the other hand, for users who use less than the predetermined flow rate value, it will be displayed less than the actual amount of remaining hot water, which may cause additional useless boiling even though there is still enough remaining hot water. There is.
JP 2004-144327 A

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and provides a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus that accurately displays the amount of remaining hot water in a tank in terms of time without being affected by the use state and installation conditions of each user. It is for the purpose.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus according to the present invention has a hot water storage tank for storing hot water and a heating unit for boiling the hot water in the hot water storage tank, as described in claim 1. In a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus for supplying hot water of a set temperature to a hot water tap, a residual heat amount detecting means for detecting a residual heat amount in the hot water storage tank and a flow rate of hot water supplied from the hot water storage tank to the hot water tap are detected. Hot water flow rate detecting means, remaining heat amount calculating means for converting the remaining heat amount detected by the remaining heat amount detecting means to a remaining hot water amount at a hot water supply set temperature, and the remaining hot water amount converted by the remaining hot water amount calculating means There is provided hot water remaining time calculating means for converting the remaining hot water time at the flow rate detected by the detecting means, and display means for displaying the remaining hot water time converted by the remaining hot water time calculating means.

  Preferably, the display means, as described in claim 2, is configured to start displaying the remaining hot water time substantially simultaneously with the start of the supply of hot water from the hot water storage tank to the hot water tap. More preferably, as described in claim 3, the remaining hot water supply time may be displayed in a graphic form corresponding to the type of hot water tap used.

  According to the hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to accurately display the amount of hot water in the tank in terms of time without being influenced by the use state and installation conditions of each user.

  Hereinafter, a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a hot water storage tank unit, 2 is a heating unit comprising a heat pump unit, 3 is a hot water tap, 4 is a remote controller, 5 is a bathtub, and 6 is a power source. Here, the hot-water tap 3 is a generic name for a curan provided in the kitchen, a shower head in the bathroom, and the like, and the remote controller 4 includes those installed in the kitchen and those installed around the bathroom.

  The hot water storage tank unit 1 is branched from a hot water storage tank 7 for storing hot water, a hot water pipe 8 connected to the upper part of the hot water storage tank 7, a water supply pipe 9 connected to the lower part of the hot water storage tank 7, and the water supply pipe 9. The hot water discharge pipe 8 and the bypass pipe 10 are each divided into two branches and then connected to each other to form a hot water supply pipe 12 having the hot water tap 3 as a terminal, and the other is a bathtub. 5 is connected as a hot water filled pipe 16 connected to 5.

  The hot water supply pipe 12 includes a mixing valve 11 that mixes high temperature water from the hot water discharge pipe 8 and low temperature water from the bypass pipe 10, a hot water supply temperature sensor 13 provided downstream of the mixing valve 11, and hot water flowing through the hot water supply pipe 12. A hot water supply flow rate sensor 14 for integrating the flow rate of

  On the other hand, the hot water filling pipe 16 includes a mixing valve 50 that mixes high temperature water from the hot water discharge pipe 8 and low temperature water from the bypass pipe 10, a hot water supply temperature sensor 51 provided downstream of the mixing valve 50, and the hot water filling pipe. A hot water filling valve 17 for opening and closing 16 and a hot water flow rate sensor 18 for integrating the flow rate of hot water flowing through the hot water filling pipe 16 are provided.

  Further, the hot water pipe 8 is provided with an overpressure relief valve 19 for releasing the overpressure of the hot water storage tank 7 branched from the hot water pipe 8, and the water supply pipe 8 has a pressure reducing valve 20 for reducing the water pressure. A water supply temperature sensor 15 is provided, and a plurality of hot water storage temperature sensors 21 are provided in the vertical direction of the side surface of the hot water storage tank 7.

  The hot water storage tank unit 1 further includes a hot water supply control unit 22 mainly composed of a microcomputer for controlling the hot water storage tank unit 1 and a heating circulation circuit 23 for connecting the hot water storage tank 7 and the heating unit 2 to circulate hot water. And.

  The heating unit 2 includes a compressor 24 that compresses carbon dioxide refrigerant, a refrigerant / water heat exchanger 25 as a condenser, a decompressor 26, a heat pump circuit 28 that includes an air heat exchanger 27 as an evaporator, A blower 29 for blowing air to the heat exchanger 27, a capacity variable circulation pump 30 provided in the middle of the heating circulation circuit 23, and a refrigerant / water heat exchanger 25 inlet side of the heating circulation circuit 23. A heat exchange inlet temperature sensor 31 for detecting the temperature of hot water flowing into the exchanger 25 and a hot water flowing out of the refrigerant / water heat exchanger 25 are provided on the refrigerant / water heat exchanger 25 outlet side of the heating circuit 23. A heat exchange outlet temperature sensor 32 that detects the temperature and a heating control unit 33 that mainly includes a microcomputer that controls the heating unit 2 are configured.

  The power supply 6 is power for each time zone, and it is a cheap electricity rate setting at night (from 23:00 to 7:00 here), and it is necessary for one day at night using this cheap night electricity. The hot water storage is heated and used, and this hourly power is also supplied during the daytime (from 7:00 to 23:00). When the amount of hot water decreases, additional boiling is performed. It is what is said. The power source 6 is connected to the hot water supply control unit 22, and a communication signal is superimposed on the remote controller 4 and the heating control unit 33 (including power necessary for the heat pump circuit 27) from the hot water supply control unit 22 to supply power. Is done.

  When the night time zone is reached, the hot water supply control unit 22 calculates the amount of hot water storage required for the next day, and instructs the heating control unit 33 to boil up the target hot water storage amount by the end of the night time zone. To start driving the circulation pump 30 of the heating circulation circuit 23. Then, the hot water taken out from the lower part of the hot water storage tank 7 by driving the circulation pump 30 flows into the refrigerant / water heat exchanger 25 of the heating unit 2 and is heated and returned to the upper part of the hot water storage tank 7 through the heating circuit 23. As a result, hot water is stored.

  When the hot water storage temperature sensor 21 provided on the side surface of the hot water storage tank 7 detects that a predetermined amount of hot water has been stored, or when the heat exchange inlet temperature sensor 31 detects a predetermined temperature or higher, the hot water supply control is performed. The unit 22 commands the heating control unit 33 to stop the heating operation, the operations of the heat pump circuit 28 and the circulation pump 30 are stopped, and the hot water storage operation is completed by the end of the night time zone.

  The amount of heat stored in the hot water storage tank 7 is calculated by the hot water supply control unit 22 as the target amount of stored hot water based on the amount of heat stored in the hot water supply for the past several days. Alternatively, the temperature varies within the range of 60 ° C. to 90 ° C. depending on the magnitude of the target hot water storage heat amount).

  The remote controller 4 includes at least a temperature setting switch 34 for setting a hot water supply set temperature for the hot water tap 3, a hot water switch 35 for instructing hot water filling to the bathtub 5, and a display unit 39 including a dot matrix type fluorescent display tube; And a remote control control unit (not shown) mainly configured with a microcomputer that communicates with the hot water supply control unit 22 and controls the temperature setting switch on the display unit 39 during normal operation. The hot water supply set temperature and time information set at 34 are displayed. The display unit 39 may be a dot matrix type liquid crystal display unit.

  In the hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus configured as described above, when the hot water tap 3 is opened, the hot water in the upper part of the hot water storage tank 7 is pushed out to the hot water discharge pipe 8 by the supply water pressure from the water supply pipe 9 and is controlled by the hot water supply control unit 22. The mixing valve 11 is mixed so that the temperature detected by the low temperature water in the bypass pipe 10 and the hot water supply temperature sensor 13 becomes the hot water supply set temperature set by the temperature setting switch 34 of the remote controller 4, and is mixed via the hot water supply pipe 12. Hot water is supplied.

  If the amount of hot water supply becomes larger than usual, the hot water supply control unit 22 detects that the remaining hot water storage amount detected by the hot water storage temperature sensor 21 has decreased during the daytime power hours, and the hot water is stored in the hot water storage tank 7. If the hot water is expected to run out, the necessary amount of heat is increased using the daytime power at that time.

  On the other hand, when filling the bathtub 5, when the filling switch 35 of the remote controller 4 is operated, the hot water supply control unit 22 opens the filling valve 17 to start filling, and starts filling. When it is detected that the accumulated flow from the hot water filling amount has been reached, the hot water filling valve 17 is closed to complete the hot water filling.

  The hot water storage temperature sensor 21 in the present embodiment constitutes a residual heat amount detection means according to the present invention, and the hot water supply flow rate sensor 14 in the present embodiment constitutes a hot water supply flow rate detection means according to the present invention.

  Next, the structure for calculating the remaining hot water supply time according to the present invention will be described based on the block diagram shown in FIG. 41 is a remaining heat amount calculating means for calculating the remaining heat amount Q in the hot water storage tank 7, 42 is a remaining hot water amount calculating means for converting the remaining heat amount into a remaining hot water amount q at a predetermined conversion temperature Tc, and 43 is a remaining hot water amount q. 14 is a hot water supply remaining time calculating means for converting into the remaining hot water supply time t using the flow rate fc detected by 14, and these are stored by the program as one function of the hot water supply control unit 22. Here, the predetermined conversion temperature Tc is, for example, a hot water supply set temperature set by the temperature setting switch 34 of the remote controller 4.

The remaining heat amount calculation means 41 is input with temperatures T1 to T5 detected by the plurality of hot water storage temperature sensors 21 and the feed water temperature Tw detected by the feed water temperature sensor 15, and the remaining heat amount calculation means 41 uses these values. The residual heat quantity Q remaining in the hot water storage tank 7 is calculated. The remaining heat quantity Q is calculated by dividing the capacity of the hot water storage tank 7 into the same number of regions A1 to A5 as the plurality of hot water storage temperature sensors 21, and the temperatures T1 to T5 detected by the hot water storage temperature sensors 21 provided in each region. The amount of remaining heat Q remaining in the hot water storage tank 7 is calculated by integrating the capacity A1 to A5 corresponding to the value obtained by subtracting the feed water temperature from the sum, and adding these. This can be expressed as an expression:
[Equation 1]
Q = A1 * (T1-Tw) + A2 * (T2-Tw) + A3 * (T3-Tw) + A4 * (T4-Tw) + A5 * (T5-Tw)
It becomes.

The remaining hot water amount calculating means 42 receives the remaining heat amount Q calculated by the remaining heat amount calculating means 41, the feed water temperature Tw from the feed water temperature sensor 15, and a predetermined conversion temperature Tc (for example, 43 ° C.) stored in advance. The remaining heat quantity Q is calculated by dividing the remaining heat quantity Q by a value obtained by subtracting the feed water temperature Tw from a predetermined conversion temperature Tc. This can be expressed as an expression:
[Equation 2]
q = Q / (Tc−Tw)
It becomes.

The remaining hot water supply time calculating means 43 calculates the remaining hot water remaining time t by dividing the remaining hot water amount q calculated by the remaining hot water amount calculating means 42 by the flow rate fc detected by the hot water supply flow rate sensor 14, and data of the remaining hot water supply time t. And the data of the remaining hot water quantity q and the data indicating whether or not the hot water filling operation has been performed are output to the display unit 39. This can be expressed as an expression:
[Equation 3]
t = q / fc
It becomes.

  The remaining hot water supply time t thus calculated is displayed on the display unit 39 of the remote controller 4. FIG. 3A shows a display example on the remote controller in the bathroom, and FIG. 3B shows a display example on the remote controller in the kitchen.

  For example, when a shower is used in a bathroom, the remaining hot water supply time t described above is calculated, and as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the shower 39 displays the bathtub temperature, the hot water supply temperature, the bathtub water level, etc. A display such as “50 minutes remaining” appears along with the graphic.

  When hot water is used in the kitchen, as shown in FIG. 3B, a display such as “50 minutes remaining” appears along with the graphic of the curan on the display unit 39 displaying the hot water supply temperature and the like. These remaining hot water supply time displays may be displayed in addition to the display when the hot water storage type hot water supply device is not used, or may be displayed in place of the time information display when not used.

  In this way, the remaining hot water amount q in the hot water storage tank 7 is displayed as the remaining hot water available time t at the flow rate fc detected by the hot water supply flow rate sensor 14, so it is considered in comparison with the hot water usage time scheduled by the user. Therefore, it is easy to determine whether or not a sufficient amount of hot water remains, and a display form of a practical remaining hot water amount q suitable for actual use is provided, thereby improving usability.

  Further, the flow rate fc used when calculating the remaining hot water supply time t is the flow rate detected by the hot water supply flow rate sensor 14, that is, the flow rate actually used at present, so the hot water runs out earlier than the displayed time. There will be no unexpected result, and there will be no unnecessary additional boiling even though there is still enough remaining hot water.

  The embodiments described above are for illustrative purposes and do not limit the scope of the invention. Accordingly, those skilled in the art can employ embodiments in which each or all of these elements are replaced by equivalents thereof, and these embodiments are also included in the scope of the present invention.

The figure which shows the whole hot water storage type hot-water supply apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of hot water supply remaining time calculation of this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the hot water supply remaining time of this embodiment, (a) is a figure which shows the example of a display in the remote controller of a bathroom, (b), respectively.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hot water storage tank unit 2 Heating part 3 Hot water tap 4 Remote controller 5 Bathtub 6 Power supply 7 Hot water storage tank 8 Hot water supply pipe 9 Water supply pipe 10 Bypass pipe 11, 50 Mixing valve 12 Hot water supply pipe 13, 51 Hot water supply temperature sensor 14 Hot water supply flow rate sensor 15 Water supply temperature Sensor 16 Hot water filling pipe 17 Hot water filling valve 18 Hot water filling flow rate sensor 19 Overpressure relief valve 20 Pressure reducing valve 21 Hot water storage temperature sensor 22 Hot water supply control unit 23 Heating circulation circuit 24 Compressor 25 Refrigerant / water heat exchanger 26 Pressure reducing device 27 Air heat exchange Unit 28 Heat pump circuit 29 Blower 30 Heating control unit 31 Heat exchange inlet temperature sensor 32 Heat exchange outlet temperature sensor 33 Heating control unit 34 Temperature setting switch 35 Hot water filling switch 39 Display unit 41 Remaining hot water amount calculating means 42 Remaining hot water amount calculating means 43 Hot water remaining Time calculation means Q Remaining heat amount Tc Equivalent temperature q Remaining hot water amount fc Flow rate t Supply Remaining time

Claims (3)

In a hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus having a hot water storage tank for storing hot water and a heating section for boiling the hot water in the hot water storage tank and supplying hot water of a preset temperature to the hot water tap,
A residual heat amount detecting means for detecting the residual heat amount in the hot water storage tank;
Hot water flow rate detection means for detecting the flow rate of hot water supplied from the hot water storage tank to the hot water tap;
A remaining hot water amount calculating means for converting the remaining heat amount detected by the remaining heat amount detecting means into a remaining hot water amount at a hot water supply set temperature;
A remaining hot water time calculating means for converting the remaining hot water amount converted by the remaining hot water amount calculating means into a remaining hot water time at a flow rate detected by the hot water supply flow rate detecting means;
Display means for displaying the remaining hot water time converted by the remaining hot water time calculating means;
A hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus comprising: 2. The hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display means starts displaying the remaining hot water supply time substantially simultaneously with the supply of hot water from the hot water storage tank to the hot water tap. The hot water storage type hot water supply apparatus according to any one of claims 1 and 2, wherein the display means graphically displays the remaining hot water supply time in accordance with the type of hot water tap used.

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