JP2014009861A - Combustion apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a combustion apparatus enabling a user to appropriately detect that preheating of a carburetor is completed while preventing the user from feeling uncomfortable.SOLUTION: A combustion apparatus A includes: a carburetor 12 for vaporizing liquid fuel; a heater H for heating the carburetor 12; and control means 3, 40 that can control driving of the heater H and executes an informing operation for causing completion of preheating of the carburetor 12 by using the heater H to be informed of by using informing means 43. After the informing operation for causing the completion of the preheating of the carburetor 12 to be informed of has been executed, when a predetermined time has passed without starting a combustion operation of the liquid fuel, the control means 3, 40 repeatedly executes again the informing operation for causing the completion of the preheating of the carburetor to be informed of.

Description

  The present invention relates to a combustion apparatus of a type that vaporizes and burns liquid fuel such as kerosene.

  The present applicant has previously proposed the one described in Patent Document 1 as an example of the combustion apparatus. The combustion apparatus described in this document is configured to supply liquid fuel such as kerosene to a carburetor by a fuel pump, and to mix the fuel vaporized using the carburetor with combustion air for combustion. Has been. The carburetor is provided with a heater, and at the start of operation of the combustion apparatus, the carburetor is preheated using this heater, and the vaporization of the liquid fuel is promoted. When preheating of the vaporizer is completed, this is notified. According to such a configuration, the user can recognize that the combustion apparatus is ready to appropriately burn the liquid fuel by confirming the notification operation.

  However, in the prior art as described above, there is still room for improvement as described below.

That is, conventionally, the notification operation to the effect that the preheating of the vaporizer has been completed is to generate sound such as a voice message or a melody sound from the remote control, and to switch a predetermined display lamp of the remote control from the blinking state to the lighting state. Has been done. However, in reality, the above-described sound notification operation is performed only once when the preheating of the vaporizer is completed. For this reason, a case where the user does not notice the sound and cannot recognize that the preheating of the vaporizer has been completed easily occurs. A user who misses the sound must go to the place where the remote control is installed to check whether the display lamp is in a lit state, which is inconvenient. On the other hand, the vaporizer is usually heated and controlled by a heater even after preheating is completed. Therefore, although the preheating of the carburetor is completed, the state in which the carburetor is heated without being noticed is maintained for a relatively long time from the viewpoint of energy saving. Not very desirable.
As a measure for solving the above-mentioned problems, it is conceivable to continuously generate voice messages and the like repeatedly. However, when such a means is adopted, there is a high possibility that repeated voice messages and the like are disturbed by the user's ears and cause discomfort to the user.

JP 2002-310426 A

  The present invention has been conceived under the circumstances as described above, and when preheating of the vaporizer is completed, it is possible to appropriately detect that fact without causing discomfort to the user. The problem is to provide a possible combustion device.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

The combustion apparatus provided by the present invention includes a vaporizer for vaporizing liquid fuel, a heater for heating the vaporizer, a drive of the heater, and the vaporization using the heater. And a control means for performing a notification operation to that effect using the notification means when the preheating of the evaporator is completed, wherein the control means is configured to preheat the carburetor. When a predetermined time has passed without the liquid fuel combustion operation being started after the completion notification operation has been performed, the notification operation to the effect that the pre-heating of the vaporizer has been completed is repeatedly performed. It is configured as described above.

According to such a configuration, the following effects can be obtained.
First, even when a situation occurs in which the user does not notice the notification operation executed when the preheating of the carburetor is completed, the user repeats the notification operation that is repeated after a predetermined time has elapsed. An opportunity to accurately detect that the preheating of is completed. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately prevent a problem that the user is left without noticing that the preheating of the vaporizer has been completed.
Secondly, the notification operation described above is not executed continuously, and the second notification operation is executed when a predetermined time has elapsed since the first notification operation was executed. Therefore, unlike the case where the notification operation is continuously performed, for example, it is possible to prevent the notification sound from becoming annoying to the user and to prevent the user from feeling a great discomfort.

  In the present invention, preferably, the notification operation to the effect that the preheating of the vaporizer is completed is configured to be repeatedly executed at predetermined time intervals when the combustion operation of the liquid fuel is not started.

  According to such a configuration, it is more thorough that the user senses that the preheating of the vaporizer is completed.

  In the present invention, preferably, when the liquid fuel combustion operation is not started despite the number of repetitions of the notification operation reaching a predetermined number, the notification operation is stopped and the heater is driven. Is configured to be turned off.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to prevent the notification operation from being performed unnecessarily many times and to obtain an effect of reducing the power consumed by the heater.

  In this invention, Preferably, when the drive of the said heater is turned off, it is comprised so that that may be alert | reported using the said alerting | reporting means.

  According to such a configuration, when the drive of the heater is turned off, it is possible for the user to sense that fact, which is more preferable for the user to accurately grasp the actual state of the combustion device. It will be a thing.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It is a schematic sectional drawing which shows an example of the combustion apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the operation processing procedure by the control part of the combustion apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and the control part incorporated in the remote control. (A), (b) is a time chart which shows the example in the case of performing alerting | reporting operation | movement.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  The combustion apparatus A shown in FIG. 1 has the same basic hardware configuration as the combustion apparatus described in Patent Document 1. Specifically, the combustion apparatus A is configured to detect the temperature of the cup-shaped vaporizer 12, the heater H, the flame hole base 13, and the vaporizer 12 and the flame hole base 13 disposed in the casing 10. Temperature sensors Sa and Sb are provided. The combustion apparatus A also includes an ignition device 2, a fuel pump P, and a control unit 3 as devices or members other than those described above. A remote controller 4 is communicatively connected to the control unit 3.

  In the combustion apparatus A, liquid fuel such as kerosene can be supplied from the fuel pump P into the carburetor 12 via the fuel pipe 14. The vaporizer 12 can be preheated (preheated) to a predetermined temperature by an electrically driven heater H, and the liquid fuel is supplied to the vaporizer 12 that has been preheated, whereby the vaporization of the liquid fuel is promoted. A rotatable fuel diffusion member 19 is located in the carburetor 12, and the liquid fuel is diffused by the fuel diffusion member 19 to a wide area on the inner surface of the carburetor 12 before contacting the carburetor 12. Fuel vaporization has been further promoted. The vaporized fuel advances toward the upper side of the flame hole base 13 and is mixed with combustion air. This combustion air is obtained by the fan 11 driven by the motor M taking outside air into the casing 10 from the air supply port 10a. The gas mixture of vaporized fuel and combustion air described above is jetted downward from a plurality of flame holes (not shown) penetrating the flame hole base 13 and burned by being ignited by the ignition device 2. To do.

  Below the combustion device A, for example, a heat exchanger 5 through which hot water flows is provided, and a combination of the heat exchanger 5 and the combustion device A constitutes a hot water supply device B. Combustion gas generated in the combustion apparatus A acts on the heat exchanger 5 from above, and hot water flowing through the heat exchanger 5 is heated. The hot water heated in this way is supplied to a desired hot water supply destination.

  The control unit 3 is configured using, for example, a microcomputer (this also applies to the control unit 40 described later), and controls the operation of each unit of the combustion apparatus A according to a predetermined control program or a command from the remote controller 4. Do. The remote controller 4 is installed and used in a kitchen or a bathroom, for example, and includes a control unit 40, a display unit 41, an operation unit 42, and a sound generation unit 43 capable of data communication with the control unit 3. Have. The control units 3 and 40 execute data processing necessary for driving the combustion apparatus A, notification operation control described later, and the like in cooperation with each other, and correspond to an example of a control unit in the present invention. Under the control of the control units 3 and 40, the preheating operation of the vaporizer 12 and the notification operation after the completion of preheating are executed. Details thereof will be described later.

  The display unit 41 of the remote controller 4 includes a data display 41a configured using a liquid crystal display or the like, and a display lamp 41b configured using LEDs. The operation unit 42 has a plurality of operation switches. As one of the operation switches, an operation switch 42 a for switching on / off of the operation of the combustion apparatus A is also provided. The sound generation unit 43 can generate various sounds such as voice messages and melody sounds. The sound generation unit 43 and the display lamp 41b correspond to an example of the notification means referred to in the present invention.

  Next, the operation of the above-described combustion apparatus A will be described. In addition, an example of an operation processing procedure executed jointly by the control units 3 and 40 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 (in FIG. 2, control by the control units 3 and 40 is performed for convenience. Are listed without distinction).

First, when the operation switch 42a of the operation unit 42 is switched from OFF to ON, the control unit 3 turns on the heater H and starts preheating the vaporizer 12 (S1: YES, S2). By this preheating, the temperature of the vaporizer 12 rises to a predetermined temperature (for example, 210 to 250 ° C. or the like), and when the preheating is completed, the control unit 3 subsequently maintains a heater for maintaining the vaporizer 12 at a predetermined temperature or higher. Although the control is continued, data indicating that the preheating is completed is sent to the remote controller 4, and the first notification operation indicating that the preheating is completed is executed under the control of the control unit 40 (S3: YES, S4, S5). . This notification operation is performed, for example, by generating a voice message such as “Preheating has been completed. Hot water supply can be started” in the sound generation unit 43. Of course, the contents of the voice message are not limited to this. Further, an appropriate melody sound or the like may be generated instead of the voice message. This also applies to other notification operations described later. With the first notification operation described above, the display lamp 41b is switched from the blinking state to the lighting state. Instead of or in addition to such driving of the display lamp 41b, a switching display similar to the operation of the display lamp 41b may be performed on the display 41a.

  When the predetermined time (for example, 1 minute) elapses without the combustion drive of the combustion apparatus A being started after the first notification operation described above, the control unit 40 preheats the carburetor 12 at that time. A second notification operation to the effect of completion is executed (S6: NO, S10: YES, S11). The combustion driving of the combustion apparatus A is performed when a hot water tap (not shown) is opened and a water flow of a predetermined amount or more is generated in the heat exchanger 5 or when a bath hot water filling operation is performed on the remote controller 4. It is.

  The above-described second notification operation may generate the same voice message as the first notification operation, or may change the message content, or any of them. As an example of changing the message content, for example, it is conceivable to add the number of repetitions of the message or to add a sound for notifying the elapsed time from the completion of preheating of the vaporizer 12. The same applies to the third and subsequent notification operations executed thereafter. If the combustion operation of the combustion apparatus A is not started despite the second notification operation as described above, the notification operation to the effect that the preheating has been completed is performed each time a predetermined time elapses. This notification operation is repeated until the number of times reaches a predetermined number (S12: NO, S6: NO, S10, S11).

  As described above, if the notification operation to the effect that the preheating of the vaporizer 12 is completed is repeated each time a predetermined time elapses, the user can perform the notification operation unlike the case where the notification operation is performed only once. It becomes easy to notice and it can be appropriately sensed that the preheating of the vaporizer 12 is completed. In addition, since the notification operation is performed at an appropriate time interval, the user's annoyance is alleviated and the user is less likely to feel discomfort.

  When the above-described notification operation is repeatedly executed a plurality of times, for example, as shown in FIG. 3A, the notification operation interval can be executed in a state of being fixed at a predetermined time t1. Instead of this, for example, as shown in FIG. 5B, the notification operation interval is time t2 to t5 (t2 <t3 <t4 <t5, and in FIG. 2, 2 · t2 = t3, 2 (The relationship of t3 = t4, 2 · t4 = t5), and the notification operation may be executed at unequal intervals. Of course, contrary to the figure (b), you may make it the interval of alerting | reporting operation | movement become short as time passes since the time of the preheating completion of the vaporizer | carburetor 12. FIG. As can be understood from these embodiments, in the present invention, when the notification operation is repeatedly executed, the time interval may be either an equal interval or an unequal interval.

In the case where the combustion drive of the combustion apparatus A is not started despite the notification operation that the preheating of the carburetor 12 has been completed a predetermined number of times, the sound generator 43 ends the control of the heater H. Is notified by a voice message or the like (S12: YES, S13). Accordingly, the driving of the heater H is turned off, and the energization to the heater H is stopped (S14). According to such control, the combustion apparatus A is in spite of repeating the notification operation a predetermined number of times.
When is not driven, waste of repeating the notification operation after that can be saved. In addition, it is possible to prevent wasteful consumption of electric power by the heater H, and it is possible to cause the user to accurately detect that the driving of the heater H is turned off.

  Unlike the above, when the combustion apparatus A is driven before the number of executions of the notification operation reaches a predetermined number, the notification operation is not executed thereafter (S6: YES). Therefore, substantially unnecessary notification operation is not performed. When the driving of the combustion device A is stopped and the operation switch 42a is subsequently turned off, the control unit 3 turns off the driving of the heater H (S7: YES, S8: YES, S14). On the other hand, if the operation switch 42a is not turned off after the combustion apparatus A is stopped driving, the sound generation unit 43 is appropriately notified that the control of the heater H is still being executed. It is executed at the timing (S8: NO, S9). When such notification is given, the user can accurately grasp the actual state of the combustion apparatus A. For example, if the combustion apparatus A is not scheduled to be used for a while, the operation switch 42a is turned off. This promotes energy saving.

  Although omitted in the flowchart of FIG. 2, the repetition of the notification operation to the effect that the preheating of the vaporizer 12 has been completed is stopped when the operation switch 42 a is turned off. Further, when the remote control 4 is provided with a switch for stopping the notification operation, the switch is also stopped by this switch operation.

  The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the combustion apparatus according to the present invention can be modified in various ways within the intended scope of the present invention.

  In the present invention, the notification operation to the effect that the preheating of the vaporizer is completed is preferably performed using sound such as a voice message or a melody sound, but is not limited thereto. For example, a notification operation for displaying a predetermined message or the like using a display for data display can be applied. When a message indicating that preheating is complete is displayed on the display and notified, it is difficult to notice this notification operation only once, but the user is more likely to notice when it is repeatedly executed. Further, if a state where a large message is displayed on the display continuously for a long time may be annoying for the user, the notification operation can be intermittently executed by applying the present invention. In such a case, such a fear can be eliminated.

  The heater for heating the vaporizer may be either built in the vaporizer or externally attached. The vaporizer only needs to exhibit the function of promoting vaporization of the liquid fuel by heating with the heater, and the specific shape, size, material, etc. are not specified.

  The combustion apparatus according to the present invention can be used as a heat source such as an oil fan heater or a stove, for example, in addition to being used as a component of a hot water supply apparatus, and its specific application is not limited.

A Combustor H Heater 3 Control part (control means)
12 vaporizer 40 control part (control means)
42a Operation switch 43 Sound generator (notification means)

Claims (4)

A vaporizer for vaporizing liquid fuel;
A heater for heating the vaporizer;
Control means for controlling the driving of the heater, and when the preheating of the vaporizer using the heater is completed, a control means for executing a notification operation to that effect using a notification means,
A combustion device comprising:
The control means completes the preheating of the carburetor when a predetermined time elapses without starting the combustion operation of the liquid fuel after the notification operation to the effect that the preheating of the carburetor is completed is performed. The combustion apparatus is configured to repeatedly execute the notification operation to the effect that the operation has been performed. The combustion device according to claim 1,
A notifying operation to the effect that preheating of the carburetor has been completed is configured to be repeatedly executed at predetermined time intervals when the liquid fuel combustion operation is not started. A combustion apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
When the liquid fuel combustion operation is not started even though the number of repetitions of the notification operation has reached a predetermined number, the notification operation is stopped and the heater is turned off. Combustion device configured. The combustion apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
A combustion apparatus configured to be notified using the notification means when the heater is turned off.

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