JP2023009843A - snow melting device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a device capable of coping with problems that, in a conventional device in which a plurality of heating elements are connected in series as shown in Fig. 7, because the temperature of the surface layer B is low, the amount of snow melting water W generated becomes small and sucked up by the sedimentary layer C, and thus a space G to be a heat insulating layer is generated between a surface layer B and a deposited layer C, resulting in low snow melting efficiency.SOLUTION: By connecting each heating element in parallel and applying a large amount of electric current to a part of the heating element to raise the surface temperature of a surface layer B, even if a large amount of water W is generated and a part of the water W is sucked up to a deposition layer C, the water W does not remain in the surface layer B and the space described above is not created.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a snow melting device for melting snow accumulated in a parking lot or the like by embedding a heating element in the ground of the parking lot or the like.

In order to melt the snow that has accumulated on the ground surface, in addition to the method of blowing water onto the ground surface, a heating element such as an electric heater is buried in the ground and the heating element is energized. It is known to raise the temperature of the ground surface and melt the snow deposited on the ground surface.

In the case of embedding such a heating element, a plurality of long heating elements are embedded in parallel and connected in series so that each heating element generates heat evenly at the same time. A device that melts snow in a buried range is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2011-96430 A (paragraph [0040], FIG. 5)

When designing a snow-melting device, the snow-melting capacity of the range in which the heating elements are embedded is set in advance, and the amount of power supplied to each heating element is set so as to achieve the set heat generation amount. Therefore, the amount of heat generated by all the heating elements is dispersed in the area where the heating elements are embedded, so the temperature rise rate of the ground surface becomes slow especially at the start of energization.

Referring to FIG. 7, when the sheath tube type heating element H is buried in the soil A, when the internal heating wire H2 generates heat by energization, the thermal energy generated by the heat generation is transferred from the sheath tube H1 to the soil A. , and after conducting in the soil A, it is transmitted to the surface layer B made of concrete or asphalt. The thermal energy transmitted to the surface layer B is conducted through the surface layer B to raise the ground surface temperature of the surface layer B.

On the other hand, the deposited snow layer C does not have a uniform composition, and ice grains C1 such as snow are deposited in a porous manner. Therefore, a space exists around the ice grain C1. As described above, if the temperature rise rate of the ground surface of the surface layer B is slow, the amount of melting of the ice grains C1 in contact with the ground surface is small, and the water W generated by the melting is sucked up by the porous part of the sediment layer C. As a result, a space G is generated between the surface layer B and the deposited layer C, and heat transfer from the surface layer B to the deposited layer C is impeded. This causes a problem that the snow melting efficiency is lowered.

It is also conceivable to increase the amount of heat generated by the heating element H to increase the temperature rise rate of the ground surface of the surface layer B, thereby melting many ice grains C1 and preventing the space G from being generated. In this case, the amount of heat generated exceeds the initially set snow-melting capacity, and the snow-melting device becomes over-engineered, which is not preferable in terms of energy saving.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a snow melting apparatus capable of efficiently melting accumulated snow without increasing the amount of heat generated as a whole.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the snow melting device according to the present invention is a snow melting device for melting snow accumulated on the ground surface by energizing a plurality of heating elements buried in the ground to increase the temperature of the ground surface. A plurality of heating elements are arranged in parallel and embedded, some of the plurality of heating elements are energized, and the energized heating elements are sequentially switched.

Instead of generating heat from all heating elements at the same time, electric power is concentrated on some of the heating elements to raise the ground surface temperature above the energized heating elements to a higher temperature than before, thereby causing snow to fall from the ground surface. improve heat transfer efficiency to

In addition, by setting the amount of heat generated in a state in which electricity is supplied to some of the heat generating elements so as to be the same as the amount of heat generated when the plurality of heat generating elements are connected in series, does not increase the power consumption of the conventional one.

Specifically, the state in which a part of the heating elements are energized includes a state in which a state in which only one heating element is energized is repeated, and a state in which a state in which a plurality of heating elements are energized is alternately repeated. may be included.

As is clear from the above description, the present invention concentrates the calorific value in a part of the area in which the heating element is buried to increase the ground surface temperature in that part, thereby causing the snow to accumulate from the ground surface to accumulate. By increasing the amount of heat transfer, it is possible to increase the snow-melting efficiency particularly at the initial stage of energization.

A diagram showing an embodiment of an embedded state of a heating element according to the present invention. Diagram showing the wiring state of each heating element The figure which shows the 1st energization state to each heating element. The figure which shows the 2nd energization state to each heating element. The figure which shows the 3rd energization state to each heating element. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the state of snow melting near the ground surface by the snow melting device according to the present invention; Diagram showing the state of snow melting near the ground surface with a conventional snow melting device

Referring to FIG. 1, the snow melting device according to the present invention has a plurality of heating elements H embedded in soil A parallel to each other and at the same depth. In the present embodiment, 10 heat generating elements are provided as the heat generating elements H, but the number is not limited to this number. Each heating element H incorporates a heating wire that generates heat when energized. As shown in FIG. is controlled by the power supply unit PS. The power supply device PS is configured to receive power supply from an external power supply PW.

In the conventional apparatus, the ten heating elements H are connected in series, and the current flowing through each heating element H is the same, so the amount of heat generated by each heating element is the same. Here, for example, assuming that a current of 1 A flows through each heating element H in the conventional one, a current of 10 A can flow through only one heating element if the power consumption is the same. Then, the amount of heat generated per one tube becomes ten times that of the conventional one.

As shown in FIG. 3, after energizing only one heating element for a predetermined period of time, energization to that heating element is stopped and the same 10 A current is applied to other heating elements, for example, adjacent heating elements, for a predetermined period of time. I made it

The energization pattern is not limited to that shown in FIG. 3, and for example, as shown in FIG. may be sequentially switched for each heating element. In the pattern shown in FIG. 4, there is a period of time during which two heating elements are energized at the same time. During this period of energization, 5 A is supplied to each heating element and the total is controlled to 10 A.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5, a pattern of energizing two wires at a time may be repeated. In this energization pattern, 5 A was supplied to each heating element so that the total amount of energization did not exceed 10 A.

In any of the above energization patterns, the amount of heat generated by the heating wire H2 in each heating element H is increased as shown in FIG. 6, as compared with the conventional snow melting device. Then, the temperature of the sheath tube H1 of the heating element H becomes higher than that of the conventional one, the amount of heat transfer from the soil A to the surface layer B increases, and the ground surface temperature of the surface layer B becomes higher than that of the conventional one. Therefore, the amount of snow melted by the ice grains C1 of the sedimentary layer C increases, and a larger amount of water W is generated than when the conventional snow melting device is operated, and a part of the water W is sucked up into the gaps between the ice grains C1. However, water W remains on the ground surface of the surface layer B, and heat is transferred to the sediment layer C via the remaining water W. As described above, when one heating element H is energized, there will be a period in which the energization is stopped for a certain period of time. Since it is necessary, the ground surface of the surface layer B is heated again at the next energization timing before solidification.

Thus, with the snow melting device according to the present invention, since there is no space that serves as a heat insulating layer between the ground surface and the sedimentary layer C, the amount of heat generated by the heating element can be efficiently transferred to the sedimentary layer C. . Therefore, the snow melting efficiency can be improved more than the conventional snow melting storage.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, when the same amount of current is supplied to two heat generating elements at the same timing, the two heat generating elements are connected in series to form a pair. A pair of undulations may be connected in parallel to the power supply PS, or when a set of five heating elements are alternately arranged and the same current (2 A) is supplied at the same timing, The five heating elements may be connected in series, two sets of heating elements may be connected in parallel to the power supply device, and each set may be alternately energized.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

A Soil B Surface layer C Sedimentary layer C1 Ice grain G Space H Heating element H1 Sheath tube H2 Heating wire PS Power supply PW Power supply W Water

Claims (3)

A snow melting device for melting snow accumulated on the ground surface by energizing a plurality of heating elements buried in the ground to increase the temperature of the ground surface, wherein the plurality of heating elements are arranged in parallel and buried, and A snow melting device characterized by energizing some of a plurality of heating elements and sequentially switching the energized heating elements. 3. The heat generation amount set when the plurality of heat generation elements are connected in series is set to be the same as the heat generation amount set when the plurality of heat generation elements are connected in series. 1. Snow melting storage according to 1. The state of energizing some of the heating elements includes a state in which only one heating element is energized and a state in which a plurality of heating elements are alternately energized. The snow melting device according to claim 1 or claim 2.

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