JP2019174000A - Range hood system and method for setting price of uv lamp - Google Patents

Abstract

To optimize cost for a UV lamp.SOLUTION: A kitchen is provided with an exhaust duct 2 for discharging air in the kitchen to the outside of the kitchen. An opening part 3 on the kitchen side of the exhaust duct 2 is provided a range hood system 1 for efficiently collecting air in the kitchen. The range hood system 1 comprises a grease filter 30 that captures oil from air containing oil, a UV lamp 40 that is arranged on either or both of the upstream side and the downstream side of the grease filter 30 and irradiates the grease filter 30 with ultraviolet rays, and a counter 50 that measures an irradiation time of ultraviolet rays in the UV lamp 40.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a range hood system and a UV lamp charge setting method.

  The kitchen is provided with an exhaust duct that discharges the air in the kitchen to the outside of the kitchen. The opening on the kitchen side of the exhaust duct is provided, for example, above the gas range. The opening is provided with a range hood for efficiently collecting air in the kitchen. The range hood may be provided with a grease filter. The grease filter captures oil from the air containing oil in the kitchen, and passes the air from which oil has been removed.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a technique in which a UV hood (ultraviolet light source) that irradiates a grease filter with ultraviolet rays is provided in a range hood. In the technique of Patent Document 1, the oil attached to the grease filter is decomposed and removed by irradiating the grease filter with ultraviolet rays from a UV lamp.

JP-A-9-318120

  However, in Patent Document 1, a user who uses a small amount of UV lamp must bear the same cost as a user who uses a large amount of UV lamp. That is, in Patent Document 1, the cost setting of the UV lamp according to the usage amount of the UV lamp is not appropriate.

  The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a range hood system and a UV lamp charge setting method that can make the cost of the UV lamp appropriate.

  In order to solve the above problems, a range hood system according to the present invention includes a grease filter that captures oil from air containing oil, and is disposed on one or both of the upstream and downstream sides of the grease filter. A UV lamp that irradiates the filter with ultraviolet light; and a counter that measures the irradiation time of the ultraviolet light in the UV lamp.

  Moreover, you may provide the charge deriving part which derives the usage fee of a UV lamp based on the irradiation time of the ultraviolet ray measured by the counter.

  In addition, the counter measures the cumulative irradiation time obtained by accumulating the ultraviolet irradiation time in the charge derivation period, which is the period from which the usage charge is derived, and the charge deriving unit derives the usage charge from the accumulated irradiation time. Good.

  The fee deriving unit may derive a usage fee including a metered fee derived by multiplying the cumulative irradiation time by the unit price of the UV lamp.

  The fee deriving unit may perform a fee billing process for charging a usage fee.

  In addition, a sensor unit that detects the accumulation amount of the deposit containing oil in the grease filter, and a UV lamp control unit that starts irradiation of ultraviolet rays to the UV lamp when the accumulation amount detected by the sensor unit exceeds a predetermined threshold value And may be provided.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the UV lamp charge setting method according to the present invention obtains the irradiation time of the ultraviolet rays irradiated from the UV lamp that irradiates the grease filter that captures the oil components from the air containing the oil components. An acquisition step and a fee deriving step of deriving a usage fee of the UV lamp based on the acquired irradiation time of the ultraviolet rays.

  According to the present invention, the cost for the UV lamp can be made appropriate.

It is the schematic which shows the structure of the range hood system by this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of a charge derivation | leading-out part. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the range hood system by a 1st modification. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the range hood system by a 2nd modification.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The dimensions, materials, and other specific numerical values shown in the embodiments are merely examples for facilitating the understanding of the invention, and do not limit the present invention unless otherwise specified. In the present specification and drawings, elements having substantially the same function and configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted, and elements not directly related to the present invention are not illustrated. To do.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a range hood system 1 according to the present embodiment. The range hood system 1 is installed in a kitchen. The kitchen is provided with an exhaust duct 2 for discharging the air inside the kitchen to the outside of the kitchen. The opening 3 on the kitchen side of the exhaust duct 2 is provided, for example, above the gas range.

  The range hood system 1 includes a hood case 10, a fan 12, a grease filter 30, a UV lamp 40, a counter 50, and a control unit 60. In FIG. 1, the hood case 10, the fan 12, the grease filter 30, the UV lamp 40, and the exhaust duct 2 near the kitchen-side opening 3 are shown in cross section.

  The food case 10 is formed in a box shape. The hood case 10 is provided so as to cover the vicinity of the opening 3 on the kitchen side of the exhaust duct 2. The food case 10 is provided with an opening 14 that allows the space in the food case 10 to communicate with the space in the kitchen. For this reason, the space in the kitchen and the space in the exhaust duct 2 communicate with each other through the space in the hood case 10.

  A grease filter 30 is attached in the hood case 10. The grease filter 30 is made of, for example, metal and is formed in a mesh shape. The grease filter 30 captures oil from the air containing oil in the kitchen, and passes the air from which oil has been removed. Hereinafter, with respect to the grease filter 30, the kitchen side is referred to as the upstream side, and the exhaust duct 2 side is referred to as the downstream side.

  A fan 12 is provided on the downstream side of the grease filter 30. The fan 12 is driven by the motor 16 to suck the air in the kitchen into the hood case 10 and send it to the exhaust duct 2.

  Further, a UV lamp 40 and a reflection plate 42 are provided on the downstream side of the grease filter 30. For example, the UV lamp 40 is supported on the upper inner wall surface of the hood case 10. The UV lamp 40 irradiates the grease filter 30 with ultraviolet rays. The reflection plate 42 is disposed on the side opposite to the grease filter 30 when viewed from the UV lamp 40. The reflection plate 42 reflects the ultraviolet rays emitted from the UV lamp 40 and collects the ultraviolet rays on the grease filter 30.

  When ultraviolet rays are irradiated from the UV lamp 40, oxygen in the air is decomposed by the ultraviolet rays to generate ozone. Note that the UV lamp 40 emits ultraviolet rays having a wavelength at which ozone is easily generated. The generated ozone oxidizes and decomposes oil adhering to the grease filter 30.

  In addition, it is not restricted to the aspect which decomposes | disassembles the oil component of the grease filter 30 with ozone. For example, the oil content of the grease filter 30 may be decomposed by a photocatalytic reaction. In this embodiment, the grease filter 30 carries a photocatalyst such as titanium oxide. For example, the surface of the grease filter 30 is coated with a fluororesin mixed with titanium oxide. When the photocatalyst is irradiated with ultraviolet rays, electrons in the valence band of the photocatalyst are excited to the conduction band, and holes are generated in the valence band. In the photocatalytic reaction, the oil is oxidized and decomposed by these holes. In this case, the UV lamp 40 emits ultraviolet rays having a wavelength that facilitates the photocatalytic reaction.

  In addition, the range hood system 1 is provided with an input switch 44 that receives an input operation by a user. In the range hood system 1, when the input switch 44 is turned on, driving of the fan 12 is started and irradiation of ultraviolet rays by the UV lamp 40 is started. Further, in the range hood system 1, when the input switch 44 is turned off, the driving of the fan 12 is finished and the irradiation of ultraviolet rays by the UV lamp 40 is finished. In other words, the UV lamp 40 is controlled so as to start irradiating the ultraviolet rays when the fan 12 starts to be driven and to finish irradiating the ultraviolet rays when the fan 12 is stopped.

  The counter 50 measures the irradiation time of the ultraviolet rays in the UV lamp 40. For example, the counter 50 starts measuring the irradiation time when the input switch 44 is switched from OFF to ON. The counter 50 stops measuring the irradiation time when the input switch 44 is switched from on to off. The counter 50 accumulates the measurement value of the irradiation time until the measurement value of the irradiation time is reset. That is, the counter 50 measures the cumulative irradiation time obtained by accumulating the ultraviolet irradiation time in a predetermined period from the previous reset to the next reset.

  The control unit 60 is constituted by a semiconductor integrated circuit including a central processing unit, a ROM storing programs, a RAM as a work area, and the like. The control part 60 is provided in the remote server installed in the position away from the kitchen, for example. The control unit 60 communicates with the counter 50 via the communication network 52. The control unit 60 functions as a charge deriving unit 62 by executing a program.

  The fee deriving unit 62 derives a usage fee for the UV lamp 40 based on the irradiation time of the ultraviolet rays measured by the counter 50. The usage fee of the UV lamp 40 is a fee determined according to the usage amount of the UV lamp 40 (that is, the irradiation time of ultraviolet rays). In the range hood system 1 of the present embodiment, the user charges the fee for the UV lamp 40 as a pay-per-use system according to the usage amount of the UV lamp 40.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of the fee deriving unit 62. FIG. 2 shows a fee setting method for the UV lamp 40. The charge deriving unit 62 executes a series of processes shown in FIG. 2 at predetermined time intervals. The predetermined time interval can be arbitrarily set, for example, a daily interval, a week interval, a two week interval, a one month interval, a two month interval, or the like. Further, the predetermined time interval corresponds to a period for which the usage fee of the UV lamp 40 is derived (in other words, the usage fee is charged). Hereinafter, a period from which the usage fee for the UV lamp 40 is derived may be referred to as a fee derivation period.

  The charge deriving unit 62 first performs an irradiation time acquisition process for acquiring the irradiation time of ultraviolet rays (irradiation time acquisition step) (S100). For example, the fee deriving unit 62 transmits a transmission request for the current cumulative irradiation time to the counter 50 via the communication network 52. In response to receiving the transmission request, the counter 50 transmits the current cumulative irradiation time to the control unit 60 via the communication network 52. In this way, the charge deriving unit 62 acquires the current cumulative irradiation time from the counter 50.

  Next, the charge deriving unit 62 performs a charge deriving process for deriving the usage charge of the UV lamp 40 (charge deriving step) (S110). Specifically, first, the charge deriving unit 62 derives a metered charge by multiplying the cumulative irradiation time by the unit price of use of the UV lamp 40. The unit price of the UV lamp 40 is a charge per unit time, and can be arbitrarily set according to the type of the UV lamp 40, the rated output of the UV lamp 40, the number of the UV lamps 40, the life of the UV lamp 40, and the like. .

  Next, the fee deriving unit 62 derives a usage fee for the UV lamp 40 by adding the basic fee to the metered fee. The basic fee is a fixed fee, and is set in consideration of the maintenance cost of the range hood system 1 and the like. The fee deriving unit 62 may add the basic fee to the metered fee and use the metered fee as the usage fee for the UV lamp 40.

  Next, the charge deriving unit 62 performs a charge billing process for charging the derived user fee of the UV lamp 40 to the user of the range hood system 1 (S120). For example, the fee deriving unit 62 creates a bill that describes the derived usage fee of the UV lamp 40, and transmits the bill to the user via a communication network such as the Internet.

  Next, the charge deriving unit 62 performs a counter reset process for resetting the measurement value of the counter 50 (S130), and ends the series of processes. When the measurement value of the counter 50 is reset, the cumulative irradiation time becomes zero, and the next charge derivation target period is started.

  As described above, in the range hood system 1 of the present embodiment, the usage fee for the UV lamp 40 is derived based on the irradiation time of the ultraviolet rays of the UV lamp 40. In the range hood system 1 of the present embodiment, every time the usage fee for the UV lamp 40 is derived, the user is charged for the derived usage fee for the UV lamp 40. That is, the user of the range hood system 1 of the present embodiment bears a cost corresponding to the usage amount of the UV lamp 40.

  Therefore, according to the charge setting method of the range hood system 1 and the UV lamp 40 of the present embodiment, it is possible to make the cost for the UV lamp 40 appropriate. For example, when the usage amount of the UV lamp 40 is small, the user can use the range hood system 1 with a small cost burden.

  Moreover, in the range hood system 1 of this embodiment, the charge of the UV lamp 40 at the time of introduction can be divided and charged after the introduction of the range hood system 1, and the charge of the UV lamp 40 is charged at the time of introduction of the range hood system 1. It is possible to avoid billing all at once. For this reason, in the range hood system 1 of this embodiment, initial introduction cost can be reduced. As a result, in the range hood system 1 of this embodiment, it can reduce that introduction of the range hood system 1 is prevented.

  In the present embodiment, the UV lamp 40 is provided on the downstream side of the grease filter 30. However, when the oil component is decomposed by a photocatalytic reaction, the UV lamp 40 may be provided on the upstream side of the grease filter 30. Further, when the oil component is decomposed by the photocatalytic reaction, the UV lamps 40 may be provided on both the upstream side and the downstream side of the grease filter 30.

  In the present embodiment, the start and end of ultraviolet irradiation and the start and end of driving of the fan 12 are synchronized. However, the start and end of ultraviolet irradiation may be different from the start and end of driving of the fan 12. For example, when the input switch 44 is turned off, the drive of the fan 12 is stopped, while the irradiation of ultraviolet rays is continued. After a predetermined time has elapsed after the drive of the fan 12 is stopped, the irradiation of ultraviolet rays is automatically performed. May be terminated. In this aspect, since the irradiation time of ultraviolet rays becomes long, more oil can be decomposed in the grease filter, and oil can be efficiently captured.

  Further, the specific contents of the charge billing process are not limited to the above example. For example, the fee deriving unit 62 may perform preparation of an invoice, and the administrator of the range hood system 1 may transmit the invoice. The invoice may be uploaded so that the user can view or download it, or it may be mailed.

  Moreover, in this embodiment, although the measured value of the counter 50 was reset for every charge derivation object period, it is not restricted to this aspect. For example, the charge deriving unit 62 does not reset the measurement value of the counter 50, and the measurement value (cumulative irradiation time) of the counter 50 at the start of the charge derivation target period and the measurement of the counter 50 at the end of the charge derivation target period. A difference from the value (cumulative irradiation time) may be derived, and this difference may be used as a measurement value (cumulative irradiation time) of the counter 50 in the charge derivation target period.

  In the present embodiment, the charge deriving unit 62 acquires the ultraviolet irradiation time from the counter 50. However, the fee deriving unit 62 is not limited to the mode in which the ultraviolet irradiation time is acquired from the counter 50. For example, the meter reader may go to obtain the ultraviolet irradiation time measured by the counter 50. Further, for example, a meter reader or the like may calculate the usage fee of the UV lamp 40 based on the acquired irradiation time of ultraviolet rays. If at least the irradiation time of ultraviolet rays is measured by the counter 50, the usage fee of the UV lamp 40 can be calculated based on the measured time.

(First modification)
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the range hood system 100 according to the first modification. The range hood system 100 of the first modified example is different from the range hood system 1 of the above embodiment in that it further includes a sensor unit 70 and a notification unit 80.

  The sensor unit 70 detects the accumulation amount of the deposit containing oil in the grease filter 30. For example, the grease filter 30 includes a plurality of main body portions that are arranged to face each other so as to be parallel to each other. The sensor unit 70 derives capacitance between the plurality of main body units. In the sensor unit 70, a deposition amount table showing the relationship between the capacitance and the deposition amount is created and stored in advance by experiments or the like. The sensor unit 70 derives the deposition amount of the deposit deposited on the grease filter 30 based on the derived capacitance and the deposition amount table.

  The notification unit 80 notifies the accumulation amount detected by the sensor unit 70. The notification unit 80 is, for example, a speaker that notifies the accumulation amount by sound, an LED lamp that notifies the accumulation amount by light, or the like. For example, the notification unit 80 notifies the fact when the accumulation amount exceeds a predetermined accumulation amount.

  In the range hood system 100 according to the first modified example, the accumulation amount is notified, so that the user can recognize the accumulation amount. For this reason, in the range hood system 100 of the first modified example, the user can be made aware that the range hood system 100 is not contaminated as much as possible, and as a result, the irradiation time of the UV lamp 40 is reduced. Therefore, according to the range hood system 100 of the first modification, it is possible to reduce the usage fee of the UV lamp 40 while making the cost for the UV lamp 40 appropriate.

(Second modification)
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a range hood system 200 according to the second modification. The range hood system 200 of the second modified example is different from the range hood system 1 of the above embodiment in that it further includes a sensor unit 70 and a UV lamp control unit 90. The sensor unit 70 is the same as that of the first modification.

  In the range hood system 200 according to the second modified example, the UV lamp 40 does not irradiate the ultraviolet rays with the UV lamp 40 but based on the on / off state of the input switch 44. When the deposition amount detected by the sensor unit 70 exceeds a predetermined threshold, the UV lamp control unit 90 starts the UV lamp 40 to irradiate ultraviolet rays and starts the measurement of the counter 50. Further, the UV lamp control unit 90 ends the irradiation of the UV lamp 40 with the ultraviolet ray and interrupts the measurement of the counter 50 when a predetermined time has elapsed since the start of the irradiation with the ultraviolet ray.

  In the range hood system 200 according to the second modified example, it is possible to suppress the frequent irradiation of ultraviolet rays and efficiently perform the irradiation of ultraviolet rays as compared with the above-described embodiment. Therefore, according to the range hood system 200 of the second modified example, it is possible to capture oil efficiently while making the cost for the UV lamp 40 appropriate.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to this embodiment. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made within the scope of the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present invention. Understood.

  The present invention can be used for a range hood system and a UV lamp charge setting method.

1, 100, 200 Range hood system 30 Grease filter 40 UV lamp 50 Counter 60 Control unit 62 Charge deriving unit 70 Sensor unit 80 Notification unit 90 UV lamp control unit

Claims (7)

A grease filter that captures oil from air containing oil; and
A UV lamp that is disposed on either or both of the upstream side and the downstream side of the grease filter, and irradiates the grease filter with ultraviolet rays;
A counter for measuring the irradiation time of ultraviolet rays in the UV lamp;
Range hood system with   The range hood system according to claim 1, further comprising a fee deriving unit that derives a usage fee of the UV lamp based on an irradiation time of the ultraviolet rays measured by the counter. The counter measures the cumulative irradiation time obtained by accumulating the irradiation time of ultraviolet rays in the charge derivation target period, which is the period for which the usage charge is derived.
The range hood system according to claim 2, wherein the fee deriving unit derives the usage fee from the accumulated irradiation time.   The range hood system according to claim 3, wherein the charge deriving unit derives the use charge including a metered charge derived by multiplying the cumulative irradiation time by the unit price of the UV lamp.   The range hood system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the charge deriving unit performs a charge billing process for charging the usage charge. A sensor unit for detecting the amount of deposits containing oil in the grease filter;
A UV lamp control unit that starts irradiation of ultraviolet rays to the UV lamp when the amount of deposition detected by the sensor unit exceeds a predetermined threshold;
A range hood system according to any one of claims 1 to 5. An irradiation time acquisition step of acquiring an irradiation time of ultraviolet rays irradiated from a UV lamp that irradiates ultraviolet rays to a grease filter that captures oil components from air containing oil components;
A charge deriving step of deriving a use fee of the UV lamp based on the obtained irradiation time of the ultraviolet ray;
Setting method for UV lamp with

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