JP2010230274A - Drying heater for bathroom and method of controlling drying heater for bathroom - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drying heater for a bathroom capable of elongating a service life of a power relay and suppressing cost by preventing unevenness in the number of times of operations of the specific power relay. <P>SOLUTION: The drying heater for the bathroom including a circulation air distributing means for circulating air in the bathroom, a ventilation air distributing means for discharging the air in the bathroom to the outside, a plurality of heaters H1-H3 for heating the air circulated by the circulation air distributing means, and plurality of the power relays S1-S3 connected to the heaters further includes a storing section for storing a plurality of heater drive patterns different in the order of operating the power relays, and a control section 2 for successively driving the plurality of heaters by successively operating the power relays on the basis of one of the heater drive patterns, and the control section switches the heater drive pattern on the basis of a prescribed condition. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a bathroom drying heater, and more particularly to a bathroom drying heater that controls a bathroom temperature using a heater.

  A bathroom dryer / heater may be used to dry or heat the bathroom. The bathroom dryer / heater includes a circulation fan for circulating the air in the bathroom, a ventilation fan for exhausting the bathroom air to the outside air, and a plurality of heaters for heating the air circulated by the circulation fan. Composed.

  In the heater control in the conventional bathroom dryer / heater, in order to prevent an excessive current from flowing when the heater is driven, a control for sequentially driving a plurality of heaters is performed. A power relay is connected to each heater. A power relay may reach the end of its service life due to the welding of contacts due to repeated operation. Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for reducing the bias in the number of operations of the power relay and preventing a specific power relay from reaching the end of its life early.

JP-A-8-257297

  However, according to the above-described conventional technique, the power relay that is initially operated when the heater is driven is the same, so the number of operations tends to be biased to the power relay that is initially operated, and the power relay reaches the end of its life early. There was a problem that. Therefore, measures such as using a power relay with a long electrical life are taken, and there is a problem that the cost increases.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and obtains a bathroom dryer / heater that can prevent the number of operations from being biased toward a specific power relay and can extend the life of the power relay and reduce costs. For the purpose.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides a circulation blower that circulates the air in the bathroom, a ventilation blower that discharges the bathroom air to the outside, and a circulation that is circulated by the circulation blower. A bathroom dryer / heater having a plurality of heaters for heating wind and a plurality of power relays connected to each of the heaters, and storing a plurality of heater driving patterns in which the order of operating the power relays is different. A storage unit; and a control unit that sequentially drives the plurality of heaters by sequentially operating the power relay based on any one of the heater drive patterns, and the control unit satisfies a predetermined condition. Based on this, the heater driving pattern is switched.

  According to the present invention, by switching the heater driving pattern, it is possible to prevent a bias in the number of operation times of a specific power relay, and it is possible to extend the life of the power relay and reduce costs.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a bathroom dryer / heater according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control circuit configuration of the heater unit. FIG. 3 is a time chart showing a heater driving pattern of the heater. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of temperature control using the bathroom temperature detected by the thermistor 14. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing temperature control performed in combination with heater drive control. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a control for shutting off the power supplied to the heater unit when the power relay is welded.

  Embodiments of a bathroom dryer / heater according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a bathroom dryer / heater according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The bathroom dryer 10 is installed on the ceiling of the bathroom. The bathroom heater / dryer 10 includes a circulation fan (circulation fan) 11, a ventilation fan (ventilation fan) 12, and a heater unit H. The circulation fan 11 circulates the air in the bathroom via the circulation air passage 15. The ventilation fan 12 exhausts the air in the bathroom to the outside through the ventilation air passage 16 to ventilate the bathroom. The heater unit H heats the air passing through the duct connected to the circulation blower 11 and warms the inside of the bathroom. A thermistor 14 for detecting the temperature in the bathroom is installed at the inlet of the circulating air circulated through the circulation fan 11.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control circuit configuration of the heater unit H. As shown in FIG. The heater unit H includes a plurality of heaters. In the present embodiment, the heater unit H includes three heaters H1 to H3. The number of heaters included in the heater unit H is not limited to this.

  As shown in FIG. 2, in order to control the driving of the heaters H <b> 1 to H <b> 3, power relays S <b> 1 to S <b> 3 are connected in series to the respective heaters H <b> 1 to H <b> 3 to configure the heater driving circuit 1. The control unit 2 controls ON / OFF (operation) of the power relays S1 to S3. When the power relays S1 to S3 are turned on by the control unit 2, current is supplied from the AC power source 3 to the heaters H1 to H3, and the heaters H1 to H3 are driven.

  The heater power cutoff relay 4 is installed between the heater drive circuit 1 and the AC power source 3. The power supply to the heater unit H can be cut off by turning off the heater power cut-off relay 4. Furthermore, a heater current detector 5 for detecting whether or not a current is flowing through the heater unit H is installed. The heater current detection unit 5 transmits information for heater current detection to the control unit 2.

  FIG. 3 is a time chart showing heater driving patterns of the heaters H1 to H3. As shown in FIG. 3, the bathroom dryer / heater 10 is provided with three patterns of driving order of the heaters H <b> 1 to H <b> 3. In order to prevent an excessive current from flowing when the heaters H1 to H3 are driven, the heaters H1 to H3 are sequentially driven at regular intervals. In pattern 1, the heater H1 is first driven, and then the heaters H2 and H3 are driven in this order. In the pattern 2, the heater H2 is driven first, and then the heater H3 and the heater H1 are driven in this order. In pattern 3, first, the heater H3 is driven, and then the heaters H1 and H2 are driven in this order. In addition, when stopping the heating to a circulating wind, heater H1-H3 is stopped simultaneously. Thus, the heater drive control during the heating / drying operation is performed. These three types of heater driving patterns are stored in the control unit 2. That is, the control unit 2 also functions as a storage unit that stores the heater drive pattern. Of course, the storage unit may be provided separately from the control unit 2.

  FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of temperature control using the bathroom temperature detected by the thermistor 14. The numbers shown in FIG. 4 indicate the number of heaters that are energized. The temperature Tb can be arbitrarily set. The value of this temperature Tb becomes the set temperature in the bathroom at the time of heating / drying operation, and the control unit 2 controls the heater unit H and the like so that the bathroom temperature becomes the temperature Tb. The bathroom temperature is detected by the thermistor 14 installed at the inlet of the circulating air. When the bath temperature becomes Tb + 2, the number of heater energization is reduced by one. Thereafter, when the bathroom temperature reaches Tb-2, the heater energization number is returned to the number before reduction. Further, when the bathroom temperature reaches Tb + 4, the power supply to all the heaters is cut off. When the bathroom temperature reaches Tb-4, all heaters are energized. In addition, after the number of heaters decreases, the temperature may once fall and then rise again (for example, a thick solid line in the section f), but this is an influence of the circulation air volume control by the circulation fan 11. In the circulating air flow control, there are weak operation and strong operation, and during startup, the strong air operation is always performed for a certain period of time to prevent the air blowing means from operating, and then it operates with the specified air flow. It can happen. Thus, the temperature control for setting the interior of the bathroom to an arbitrary temperature Tb is performed. Since all the heaters are turned off when Tb + 4 as described above, it is possible to prevent the bathroom temperature from rising excessively.

  By the way, in the temperature control shown in FIG. 4, when the driving order of the heaters H <b> 1 to H <b> 3 is fixed, the number of operations of the power relay connected to the heater to be driven first is higher than that of other power relays. Therefore, only the power relay will have a short life. In the present embodiment, temperature control is performed in combination with the heater drive control shown in FIG. 3 in order to prevent only a specific power relay from reaching an early life.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing temperature control performed in combination with heater drive control. FIG. 5 shows a control flow when the number of heater drive patterns is assumed to be n. In the bathroom heater / dryer 10 according to the present embodiment, there are three control patterns to be used. However, if the control described in FIG. 5 is used, any number of heater drive patterns can be applied.

  First, the heater driving pattern k = x is set. x is the number of heater driving patterns stored in the control unit 2, and the range of the values is 1 ≦ x ≦ n, which is an integer.

  Temperature control is started by a control command from the control unit 2. First, when the heater energization number (drive number) changes from 1 to 0 (step S1), if the heater drive pattern at that time is k <n (step S2), the heater drive pattern k is changed to k + 1 (step S2). Step S3). In step S2, if the heater driving pattern is not k <n (step S2), that is, if k = n, the heater driving pattern is changed to k = 1 (step S4).

  After that, for example, when the temperature control is finished as in the case where the main power of the bathroom dryer / heater is turned off (step S5), the heater drive pattern x at that time is stored in the control unit 2. (Step S6), the process is ended. When continuing temperature control (step S5), it returns to S1 and temperature control is continued.

  As described above, control combining the heater drive control and the temperature control is performed by a command from the control unit 2. In this embodiment, the case where the heater energization number is changed from 1 to 0 is adopted as the predetermined condition for switching the heater driving pattern, but is not limited thereto. For example, the heater drive pattern may be switched when the number of energized heaters is not limited to 1 → 0 but is changed from a plurality of heaters to 0. In the bathroom dryer / heater 10, the heater driving pattern may be switched when the operation mode is changed. Thus, it is also possible to set a predetermined condition for switching the heater driving pattern in accordance with the required specifications.

  Thus, by switching the heater drive pattern, it is possible to prevent the number of operations from being biased only to a specific power relay, and to level the life of the plurality of power relays H1 to H3. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, since the heater is selectively driven based on the bathroom temperature, it is possible to reduce the energization to the heater which is not necessary, thereby saving power and extending the life of the heater itself. In addition, by selectively driving the heater, unnecessary heater driving can be reduced, and accurate bathroom temperature control can be realized.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing control for shutting off the power supplied to the heater unit H when the power relays H1 to H3 are welded.

  First, the control unit 2 confirms whether or not the heaters H1 to H3 are being driven. If the heaters H1 to H3 are being driven (step S11), the process returns to the start. If the heaters H1 to H3 are not being driven (step S11), the current detected by the heater current detector 5 is referred to. When the detected current is larger than the power relay welding determination threshold current X (step S12), it is determined that at least one of the power relays S1 to S3 is welded, and the heater power cut-off relay Is turned off to stop energization of the heater unit H (step S13). When the detected current is smaller than the power relay welding determination threshold current X (step S12), the process returns to the start.

  As described above, when the life of the power relays S1 to S3 is exhausted, the power supply to the heater unit H is cut off, so that excessive heating of the heaters H1 to H3 is prevented to ensure safety. be able to.

  As described above, the bathroom dryer / heater according to the present invention is useful for drying / heating a bathroom with a heater, and is particularly suitable for extending the life of a power relay connected to the heater. Yes.

H Heater unit H1 to H3 Heater S1 to S3 Power relay 1 Heater drive circuit 2 Control unit 3 AC power supply 4 Heater power cut-off relay 5 Heater current detection unit 10 Bathroom dryer / heater 11 Circulating fan (circulating fan)
12 Ventilation fan (ventilation fan)
14 Thermistor 15 Circulating air passage 16 Ventilation air passage

Claims (5)

Circulating air blowing means for circulating the air in the bathroom, ventilation air blowing means for discharging the air in the bathroom to the outside, a plurality of heaters for heating the circulating air circulated by the circulating air blowing means, and each heater connected A bathroom dryer / heater having a plurality of power relays,
A storage unit for storing a plurality of heater drive patterns in which the order of operating the power relays is different;
A controller that sequentially drives the plurality of heaters by sequentially operating the power relay based on any one of the plurality of heater driving patterns;
The said control part switches the said heater drive pattern based on predetermined conditions, The drying heater for bathrooms characterized by the above-mentioned.   The bathroom drying heater according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined condition is a case where the number of driving heaters becomes zero. It further has a thermistor that detects the bathroom temperature,
The bathroom dryer / heater according to claim 1, wherein the controller determines the number of heaters to be driven among the plurality of heaters based on the bathroom temperature. A heater current detector for detecting energization of the heater;
A heater power cutoff relay that collectively shuts off power supply to the plurality of heaters,
4. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein, when energization of the heater is detected while the heater is not being driven, the control unit causes the heater power cutoff relay to cut off power supply to the heater. 5. The bathroom drying heater according to any one of the above. Circulating air blowing means for circulating the air in the bathroom;
Ventilation ventilation means for discharging the air in the bathroom to the outside;
A plurality of heaters for heating the circulating air circulated by the circulating air blowing means;
A plurality of power relays connected to each of the heaters, and a control method for a bathroom dryer / heater having:
A step of sequentially driving the plurality of heaters by sequentially operating the power relay based on one of the heater driving patterns among a plurality of heater driving patterns in which the order of operating the power relays is different; and
And switching to another heater drive pattern from among the plurality of heater drive patterns based on a predetermined condition, and sequentially operating the power relay.

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