JP2018132210A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten drying time of clothes in a clothes drying mode.SOLUTION: An air conditioner includes: an outdoor unit 18 including a compressor 19, an outdoor heat exchanger 20, an outdoor blower fan 23 and an expansion valve 22; an indoor unit 1 including an indoor heat exchanger 7, an indoor blower fan 8 and a horizontal louver 11 for making a wind direction variable in a vertical direction; an indoor heat exchange sensor 14 for detecting a temperature of the indoor heat exchanger; control means 16 for controlling the outdoor unit and the indoor unit; and an operation part 29 for performing a driving operation. The control means starts the compressor at heating operation start time, and also starts detection of the indoor heat exchange sensor, and after the start of the compressor, when a detection value of the indoor heat exchange sensor has reached a predetermined temperature or higher, starts rotation of the indoor blower fan. The air conditioner includes a clothes drying mode which selects a drying operation of laundry by the operation part, and in the case where the clothes drying mode is selected, the control means starts the compressor at heating operation start time, and also starts up the indoor blower fan forcibly at predetermined rotational frequency. Thus, drying time of clothes is shortened.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner having a laundry drying function.

  The refrigerant circuit of the air conditioner includes an indoor heat exchanger provided in the indoor unit, a compressor provided in the outdoor unit, an outdoor heat exchanger, a four-way valve that switches a refrigerant flow path, and an expansion valve that decompresses the refrigerant. Have. Further, an indoor fan and an outdoor fan are provided near the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger, respectively, for promoting heat exchange between the air and the refrigerant flowing in the heat exchanger. The compressor, the four-way valve, the expansion valve, the indoor blower fan, and the outdoor blower fan are controlled by the control unit according to various operating conditions.

  The compressor is activated in response to an operation command from the indoor unit from the stopped state, and the refrigerant discharged from the compressor passes through the four-way valve, condenses in the indoor heat exchanger during heating, and passes through the expansion valve. The pressure is reduced and evaporated in the outdoor heat exchanger and returned to the compressor. During cooling, the four-way valve is switched so that the direction of refrigerant flow is reversed from that during heating, so the refrigerant discharged from the compressor passes through the four-way valve, condenses in the outdoor heat exchanger, is decompressed by the expansion valve, and exchanges heat in the room. It evaporates with a vessel and returns to the compressor.

  When starting the heating operation from the stopped state of the air conditioner, it is desirable to operate the compressor, the indoor fan, and the outdoor fan to quickly raise the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger. However, if the indoor air blower fan is operated in a state where the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger is low, cold air that is not warmed from the indoor unit is blown into the room, so that the user feels chilly and the comfort is impaired.

  Therefore, the conventional air conditioner is provided with an indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger, and when starting the compressor at the time of restarting after the heating operation starts or after the defrosting operation ends. In some cases, after the detected value of the indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor becomes equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the rotational speed of the indoor fan is increased from extremely low to low. As a result, it is possible to prevent the blowing of cold air generated by the operation of the indoor fan before the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger sufficiently rises, and to improve the comfort at the start of the heating operation of the air conditioner. . Such control is called cold air prevention control. (For example, see Patent Document 1)

  It is also known that drying time is shortened when wind is applied to wet clothing. This is thought to be because high-humidity air around clothing is blown away by blowing air. From the viewpoint of using the air conditioner as a dryer, there is an air conditioner equipped with a clothes drying mode for drying laundry and the like.

  Specifically, an air conditioner having an indoor fan and a compressor has different wind direction and swing control depending on the mode such as clothes drying mode, cooling operation mode, air blowing operation mode, and heating operation mode based on a command from the operation unit. The drying operation method of the air conditioner to be used is described. With this configuration, the laundry is efficiently dried. (For example, see Patent Document 2)

JP 2002-174450 A JP 2004-279027 A

  In these conventional air conditioners, since the drying operation takes into account both indoor comfort and drying of clothes, it takes a considerable time for the laundry to dry even when operated in the clothes drying mode. It was necessary to further shorten the drying time.

  In order to solve the above problems, in particular, the configuration includes a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor blower fan, an outdoor unit equipped with an expansion valve, an indoor heat exchanger, an indoor blower fan, and a vertical air direction. An indoor unit provided with a horizontal louver that can vary, an indoor heat exchange sensor that detects the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger, a control unit that controls the outdoor unit and the indoor unit, and an operation unit that performs the operation operation The control means starts the compressor at the start of heating operation, starts detection of the indoor heat exchange sensor, and after starting the compressor, the detected value of the indoor heat exchange sensor has a predetermined temperature. If it becomes above, in the air conditioner which starts rotation of the indoor blower fan, the operation unit has a clothing drying mode for selecting a laundry drying operation, and the clothing drying mode is selected. At the start of heating operation With starting the compressor, it forcibly the indoor blower fan as it has a control means for starting at a predetermined rotational speed.

According to the present invention, when the clothes drying mode is selected, the compressor is started at the start of heating operation, and the indoor fan is forcibly started at a predetermined rotation speed, thereby drying the laundry. Drying time can be shortened with time reduction as the top priority.
In addition, when the clothes drying mode is selected, the drying time can be further shortened by setting the movable range of the horizontal louver to be larger than the movable range during normal heating operation.
In addition, it has a swing mode that swings the horizontal louver, and when the swing mode is selected and the clothes drying mode is selected, the swing range of the horizontal louver is more than the swing range during normal heating operation. In addition, the drying time can be further shortened by setting a large value downward.
In the normal heating operation, the swing mode is such that the horizontal louver swings at a fixed period after being stopped for a predetermined time at the lowermost end position, and when operating in the clothes drying mode, the swing mode is the downward direction of the horizontal louver. Drying time can be further shortened by swinging at a constant cycle without stopping at the extreme end position.

The perspective view of the indoor unit of one Example of this invention. Schematic which shows the structure of the whole. The flowchart figure at the time of the heating operation start. The graph which shows the compressor rotation speed at the time of the normal heating operation start, indoor heat exchanger temperature, and indoor ventilation fan rotation speed. The graph which shows the compressor rotation speed at the time of the heating operation start at the same clothing drying mode, indoor heat exchanger temperature, and indoor ventilation fan rotation speed. Explanatory drawing which shows the rotation position of the horizontal louver.

Next, an embodiment of an air conditioner of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.
Reference numeral 1 denotes an indoor unit of a separate type air conditioner, and a housing is formed by a back plate 2 and a front cover 3 in front, and a suction port 4 having a horizontally long slit shape is provided at the center of the top surface of the front cover 3. An open panel 5 is provided at the center of the front surface of the front cover 3, and is attached to the front cover 3 so as to be openable and closable with shafts (not shown) provided on the left and right of the open panel 5 as fulcrums. A horizontally long air outlet 6 is provided on the bottom surface of the front cover 3, and the indoor air sucked from the air inlet 4 is adjusted in temperature inside the indoor unit 1 and blown out from the air outlet 6.

  A fin tube type indoor heat exchanger 7 that is horizontally long and bent in multiple stages is provided between the inlet 4 and the outlet 6, and a crossflow type indoor fan 8 is provided downstream of the indoor heat exchanger 7. Is arranged. The blower fan 8 rotates at a speed of about 600 to 1,400 rpm during normal operation, and sucks room air from the suction port 4 and blows out heat-exchanged air from the blower port 6. A drain tray (not shown) integrally formed of a resin foam material is provided below the indoor heat exchanger 8 and functions as an air guide that receives condensed water and guides the air from the indoor fan 8 to the outlet 6. Doubles as Further, an indoor air passage 9 is formed between the suction port 4 and the air outlet 6, and an air filter (not shown) for removing dust mixed in the suction air inside the air inlet 4 of the air passage 9. Have

  Reference numeral 10 denotes an indoor air blower motor that drives the indoor air blower fan 8 and is constituted by a DC motor or the like that can arbitrarily vary the number of revolutions according to a command from the indoor control unit 10. In this embodiment, 600 rpm (B1), 800 rpm (B2), 1,000 rpm (B2), 1,200 rpm (B4), and 1,400 rpm (B5) are set in five stages.

  The air outlet 6 is provided with a horizontal louver 11 that adjusts the direction of the air blow in the vertical direction during operation and automatically closes the air outlet 6 when stopped, and has a drive shaft 12 at both ends of the horizontal louver 11. The horizontal louver 11 is rotated by a louver motor 13 connected to the drive shaft 12. The louver motor 13 is composed of a step motor, and as shown in FIG. 6, the horizontal louver 11 opens from the operation stop position C0 (position where the air outlet 6 is closed by the horizontal louver 11) to a predetermined angle between C1 and C6. Rotate step by step in the direction.

  Reference numeral 14 denotes an indoor heat exchange sensor that detects the temperature of the refrigerant pipe 15 connected to the surface of the indoor heat exchanger 7 and the vicinity of the inlet and outlet of the indoor heat exchanger 7 and blows out the outlet when starting normal heating operation. In order to prevent the user from feeling cold and uncomfortable when a cold wind blows from 6, the indoor controller 16 sets the start timing and the rotational speed of the blower fan 8 according to the temperature rise of the indoor heat exchange sensor 14. Adjust the control. Reference numeral 17 denotes a room temperature sensor which is attached to the indoor ventilation path 9 in the vicinity of the suction port 4 and is sucked from the suction port 4 to detect the temperature of the room air.

  An outdoor unit 18 includes a compressor 19, an outdoor heat exchanger 20, a four-way valve 21 for switching the refrigerant flow path, and an expansion valve 22 for depressurizing the refrigerant. The compressor 19, the four-way valve 21, and the indoor heat The refrigeration circuit 23 is formed by sequentially connecting the exchanger 7, the expansion valve 22, the outdoor heat exchanger 20, and the four-way valve 21 through the refrigerant pipe 15.

  The compressor 19 is a variable capacity compressor that can be driven by a motor (not shown) whose rotational speed is controlled by an inverter so that the operation capacity can be varied between 20 rps and 100 rps. The outdoor heat exchanger 20 is a fin-tube heat exchanger that performs heat exchange by blowing outside air with an outdoor fan 23 disposed on the leeward side. The outdoor fan 23 is a propeller fan, and is driven to rotate by an outdoor fan motor 24. The four-way valve 21 switches between the heating operation and the cooling operation by switching the direction of the refrigerant flowing in the refrigeration circuit 15. Switch the direction of refrigerant flow. The expansion valve 22 is an electronic expansion valve, and freely adjusts the opening according to an opening command from the outdoor control unit 25. Reference numeral 26 denotes an outdoor air temperature sensor that detects the outdoor temperature and periodically notifies the outdoor control unit 25 of the detected temperature. Reference numeral 27 denotes an outdoor heat exchange sensor, which detects the temperature of the surface of the outdoor heat exchanger 20 and the refrigerant pipe 15 connected to the vicinity of the inlet and outlet of the outdoor heat exchanger 20 to thereby form frost during heating operation. The outdoor control unit 25 grasps the state and performs the defrosting operation.

  Reference numeral 28 denotes a remote controller that issues an operation signal to the indoor control unit 16 of the indoor unit 1. The display unit 29 displays various operation conditions and timer times on the liquid crystal screen, and an operation for performing the operation operation. Part 30. The operation unit 30 includes an operation switch 31 for performing operation / stop, an operation mode switch 32 for setting an operation mode such as heating operation / cooling operation / dry operation, a room temperature setting switch 33 for setting a room temperature, and a timer operation setting. There are a number of button switches such as a timer switch 34 for performing, a clothing drying switch 35 for selecting a clothing drying mode, and a louver switch 36 for changing the blowing direction of the horizontal louver 11 and selecting a swing mode.

  Next, the operation at the start of the heating operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6. In S1, the operation switch 31 of the remote controller 28 is pressed to start the operation of the air conditioner. The heating operation is started on the assumption that the previous operation was the heating operation. Next, it progresses to S2 and it is determined whether clothing drying mode is ON. The clothes drying mode is selected by the clothes drying switch 35 of the remote controller 28. In the clothes drying mode, laundry drying has the highest priority, and since it is assumed that the room is unattended during the clothes drying mode, the comfort in the room is not considered.

  If “No” in S2, the process proceeds to S3 to perform a normal heating operation, and if “Yes” in S2, the process proceeds to S16 to start the clothes drying operation in the heating operation. First, from the normal heating operation, the compressor 19 is started in S3. The rotation speed of the compressor 19 is the set value of the room temperature set by the room temperature setting switch 32 and the room temperature detected by the room temperature sensor 17. Although it is determined by the temperature difference, since the temperature difference is large at the start of the heating operation, the temperature gradually increases toward the maximum rotation speed of 100 rps. It takes about 2 minutes to reach the maximum speed. This is because the rotational speed of the compressor 19 is restricted in the speed of fluctuation of the rotational speed in order that the refrigerant mixed with the refrigeration oil in the refrigeration cycle follows the rotational speed.

  Next, it progresses to S4 and the reading of the indoor heat exchanger sensor 14 is started. Since the compressor 19 is rotating, the indoor heat exchange sensor 14 is also gradually raised. Then, in S5, it is determined whether the temperature (A) of the indoor heat exchange sensor 14 exceeds 28 ° C. (A1). If it exceeds, the indoor fan 8 is started at 600 rpm (B1), and the horizontal louver 11 is turned on last time. The air outlet 6 is opened by rotating to the angle during operation. As a result, it is possible to prevent the cool air from being blown out by the operation of the indoor blower fan 8 before the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger 7 is sufficiently increased, thereby improving the comfort at the start of the heating operation. When the previous operation is a swing operation, the horizontal louver 11 swings between the angles C1 and C5, but at the position C5, the horizontal louver 11 pauses for about 6 seconds and repeats swinging. Thereby, the warm air to be blown out is focused relatively downward, whereby the warm air is efficiently circulated in the room to improve comfort.

  Next, in S7, it is determined whether the temperature (A) of the indoor heat exchange sensor 14 further increases and exceeds 29.5 ° C. (A2). When it exceeds, the indoor fan 8 is raised to 800 rpm (B2). (S8) Thereby, the rotational speed of the indoor air blowing fan 8 can be gradually increased without giving a cold air feeling to the user in the room.

  Next, in S9, it is determined whether the temperature (A) of the indoor heat exchange sensor 14 further increases and exceeds 31.5 ° C. (A3). When it exceeds, indoor fan 8 is raised to 1,000 rpm (B3). (S10)

  Next, in S11, it is determined whether the temperature (A) of the indoor heat exchange sensor 14 further increases and exceeds 34 ° C. (A4). When it exceeds, the indoor fan 8 is raised to 1,200 rpm (B4). (S12)

  Next, in S13, it is determined whether the temperature (A) of the indoor heat exchange sensor 14 further increases and exceeds 40 ° C. (A5). When it exceeds, indoor fan 8 is raised to 1,400 rpm (B4). (S12) In this manner, in S9 to S14, the air conditioner exhibits the maximum output when the indoor fan 8 reaches the maximum rotation speed of 1,400 rpm (B5) by repeating the same operations as in S7 and S8. . As a result, the rotational speed of the indoor fan 8 can be gradually increased to reach the maximum rotational speed without giving a cold air feeling to the indoor user.

  Next, it takes 10 minutes from the start of heating operation (S1) until reaching the maximum output (S14). If the maximum output is continued and the room temperature rises to the set room temperature in S15, the current room temperature is reached. Accordingly, the compressor 19 and the indoor fan 8 are operated at an appropriate heating output with the rotation speed decreased.

  If “Yes” in S2, the process proceeds to S16 to start the clothes drying operation in the heating operation. In the clothes drying operation of S16, regardless of the indoor heat exchange temperature A, both the compressor 19 and the indoor blower fan 8 are started aiming at a predetermined rotational speed near the maximum rotational speed. The horizontal louver 11 is rotated to a position C6 below C5 which is a lower limit position of the horizontal louver 11 in the normal heating operation, assuming that the laundry is arranged downward. Accordingly, the laundry can be dried more quickly by actively blowing air to the laundry and lowering the humidity around the laundry. Further, when the previous operation is a swing operation, the horizontal louver 11 swings between the angles C1 to C6, but repeats swinging without temporarily stopping at the position C5. Thereby, drying of a laundry can be further accelerated | stimulated by stirring indoor air more efficiently.

  Next, in S15, when the maximum output is continued and the room temperature rises to the set room temperature, the compressor 19 and the indoor fan 8 are operated at an appropriate heating output according to the current room temperature, but the horizontal louver 11 is operated. The angle C6 and the rocking range (C1 to C6) continue regardless. Thereby, drying of a laundry can be further accelerated | stimulated by stirring indoor air more efficiently.

  As described above, when the clothes drying mode for drying the laundry is selected, the compressor 19 is started at the start of the heating operation, and the indoor blower fan 8 is forcibly started at a predetermined rotation speed near the maximum rotation speed. By doing so, the drying time can be shortened with the highest priority given to shortening the drying time of the laundry. In addition, when the clothes drying mode is selected, the drying time can be further shortened by setting the movable range of the horizontal louver 11 to be larger than the movable range during normal heating operation. Further, when the swing mode for swinging the horizontal louver 11 is selected and the clothing drying mode is selected, the swing range of the horizontal louver 11 is set to be lower than the swing range during normal heating operation. By setting it large, the drying time can be further shortened. The swing mode during normal heating operation is such that the horizontal louver 11 swings at a fixed period after stopping for a predetermined time at the lowermost end position, and when operating in the clothes drying mode, the swing mode is the downward direction of the horizontal louver 11. The drying time can be further shortened by swinging at a constant cycle without stopping at the extreme end position.

  Although embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

  For example, although the position of the horizontal louver 11 in S16 is C6, it may be the angle of the horizontal louver 11 during the previous operation instead of C6.

  Further, a maximum time or a set time may be provided in the clothes drying mode, and after the time has expired, a normal heating operation may be automatically performed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Indoor unit 2 Front cover 6 Air outlet 7 Indoor heat exchanger 8 Indoor fan 10 Indoor fan motor 11 Horizontal louver 13 Louver motor 14 Indoor heat exchange sensor 16 Indoor control part 19 Compressor 27 Remote control 31 Operation mode switch 34 Clothing drying switch 35 louver switch

Claims (4)

An outdoor unit equipped with a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor fan, and an expansion valve;
An indoor unit including an indoor heat exchanger, an indoor air blower fan, and a horizontal louver that varies the wind direction in the vertical direction;
An indoor heat exchange sensor for detecting the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger;
Control means for controlling the outdoor unit and the indoor unit;
An operation unit for performing the driving operation,
The control means starts the compressor at the start of heating operation and starts detection of the indoor heat exchange sensor,
After starting the compressor, when the detected value of the indoor heat exchange sensor is equal to or higher than a predetermined temperature, in the air conditioner that starts the rotation of the indoor fan,
A clothing drying mode for selecting a laundry drying operation in the operation unit;
When the clothes drying mode is selected, the air conditioner is characterized by comprising control means for starting the compressor at the start of heating operation and forcibly starting the indoor blower fan at a predetermined rotation. The horizontal louver includes a wind direction changing means for changing a rotation angle within a predetermined movable range,
The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein when the clothes drying mode is selected, the movable range is set to be larger in the downward direction than the movable range during normal heating operation. Having a swing mode for swinging the horizontal louver;
When the swing mode is selected and the clothes drying mode is selected, the swing range of the horizontal louver is set larger than the swing range during normal heating operation. The air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2. In the swing mode during normal heating operation, the horizontal louver swings at a constant cycle after stopping for a predetermined time at the lowermost end position in the downward direction,
The air conditioner according to claim 3, wherein the swing mode swings at a constant period without stopping at the lowermost end position of the horizontal louver during operation in the clothes drying mode.

Images