JP2765355B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner having a function of automatically changing a blowing direction of blowing air into a room.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the number of persons in a room is detected by infrared rays radiated from the human body, and the target temperature is relaxed according to the increase or decrease of the number of persons, or the target temperature is returned to a set temperature, so that the person in the room can feel the physical sensation. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-147241 discloses that air conditioning is performed.

[0003]

However, when controlling an air conditioner based on the position of a person in a room,
When there is a considerable temperature difference between the plurality of persons and the temperature near the floor where each person is located, there is a problem that even if the temperature is comfortable for one person, the temperature is not comfortable for the other person.

That is, as shown in FIG. 19, when two people A and B are in a room and, for example, heating is performed,
A considerable temperature difference occurs in each person's living area due to solar radiation or the like. That is, the person A is hot or has a comfortable temperature due to the influence of the solar radiation, whereas the person B in the corner of the room feels cold due to the low floor temperature. .

In the control for detecting the temperature of each area in a room and blowing cold air toward a high-temperature area or blowing warm air toward a low-temperature area to make the indoor temperature uniform, There has been a problem that it takes time for the temperature in the vicinity of the residential area to reach a comfortable temperature, or that a draft is felt.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object of the present invention is to control the distribution of the capacity according to the load even when the temperature is uneven in the room and there are a plurality of persons. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner capable of improving comfort of air conditioning.

[0007]

Accordingly, an air conditioner according to the present invention has an infrared sensor 15 sensitive to infrared rays radiated from a room, and a temperature distribution of an infrared radiant such as a floor surface from an output from the infrared sensor 15. , A person detecting means 32 for detecting the position of a person in the room from the output of the infrared sensor 15, and an air conditioning capacity such as a wind direction, a flow rate, and a blowing temperature blown from the air conditioner main body 1. and a distribution control unit 33 for distributing in accordance with the detection result of the temperature detecting means 31 and the man-detecting unit 32, the distribution control means
33 are both left and right sides of the air conditioner body 1 blowing direction.
There is a person on each side, and the temperature difference between the left and right sides is large.
When the demand is high, distribute more air conditioning capacity to the side with insufficient air conditioning.
It is characterized in that that.

[0008]

In the air conditioner of the above construction, as shown in FIG. 1, the distribution control means 33 controls the air-conditioning capacity such as the direction, amount and temperature of the air blown from the air conditioner body 1, and the temperature detection means 31. And distribution according to the detection result of the human detection means 32 . That is, the left and right sides of the air conditioner body 1
And there is a large temperature difference between the left and right sides.
In other cases, distribute the air conditioning capacity to the side with insufficient air conditioning.
You. Therefore, a plurality of people are dispersed and
Even when there is uneven temperature in the room, more effective air conditioning can be performed, and the comfort of each person can be improved.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, a specific embodiment of the air conditioner of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, FIG.
1 shows a state in which an air conditioner main body 1 as a wall-mounted indoor unit of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention is mounted on one wall surface. The air conditioner body 1 has an inlet 2 formed on a front panel thereof, and an outlet 3 formed below the inlet 2. The outlet 3 is provided with a vertical flap 4 and a horizontal flap 5 which are formed by arranging a plurality of thin plate-shaped deflection plates in parallel.

Step motors (not shown) are connected to these flaps 4 and 5, respectively. By operating each of the step motors, the vertical flap 4 changes its deflection angle as shown in FIG. In a direction perpendicular to the air conditioner main body 1 (deflection angle 0 degree), for example, in a range of 40 degrees left and right, and the horizontal flap 5 is in a horizontal direction (deflection angle 0 degree) as shown in FIG. Thus, for example, they are formed so as to be variable in a range of a downward direction (deflection angle 90 degrees).

The vertical flap 4 is designed so that the whole quantity can be appropriately divided at an arbitrary position as described later, and the direction of the wind direction can be controlled by changing the deflection angle. The air blown from the outlet 3 is blown in a direction corresponding to the deflection angle position of each of the flaps 4 and 5.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the air conditioner main body 1 is provided with an infrared detector 10 at a side position of the suction port 2. FIG. 4 and FIG.
0 is shown. As shown in the figure, the substantially box-shaped casing 11 can be controlled to rotate in the horizontal and vertical directions by two step motors 12 and 13 for horizontal scanning and vertical scanning, respectively.

The front surface of the casing 11 has a wavelength of 9 μm.
A light collector 14 made of, for example, a Fresnel lens made of polyethylene, through which front and rear infrared rays are transmitted, is mounted. The infrared rays from the optical axis direction of the light collector 14 are focused on the light receiving surface of a thermoelectric infrared sensor 15 disposed in the casing 11 through the light collector 14. The infrared sensor 15 may be a thermoelectric sensor or a pyroelectric sensor with a chopper.

The light condensing area of the light condensing plate 14 is configured to have a sufficiently smaller area than the indoor floor, and therefore, the light is radiated from the indoor floor, wall, furniture, etc. according to the temperature. Of the infrared rays, only infrared rays from an infrared radiator located in a local area in the room within the focusing range, that is, a detection area, are focused on the light receiving surface of the infrared sensor 15.

The horizontal scanning step motor 12
, The detection area moves in the left-right direction substantially parallel to the installation wall surface of the air conditioner main body 1 in FIG. Also, a vertical scanning step motor 13
Is activated, the detection area becomes the air conditioner body 1
Move in the direction orthogonal to.

That is, as shown in the figure, the detection area having the horizontal direction detection angle φ and the vertical direction detection angle θ as coordinate values is removed by the operation of each of the step motors 12 and 13 except for the area immediately below the air conditioner body 1. It is possible to move, that is, scan, over almost the entire area of the indoor floor, and to output a voltage corresponding to the temperature of the infrared radiant located in each detection area from the infrared sensor 15 sequentially. It is configured.

FIG. 18 shows the vertical and horizontal flaps 4,5.
Is a control block diagram for controlling the wind direction of the air blown out from the outlet 3 by operating the air conditioner. In FIG. 1, the operation of each of step motors 12 and 13 for scanning the detection area over substantially the entire area of the indoor floor surface is controlled by a wind direction control device 20 provided in the air conditioner main body 1. The output voltage from the infrared sensor 15 at this time is sequentially input to the wind direction control device 20.

The air conditioner main body 1 is connected to a remote controller for operating operation having an operation switch 21 operated by a user and a desired room temperature setting switch 22, and the indoor air near the suction port 2. A room temperature detection sensor 23 for detecting the temperature as room temperature is provided.

When the operation switch 21 is turned on by a user, the operation switch 21 is installed in an outdoor unit (not shown) so that the room temperature detected by the room temperature detection sensor 23 approaches the room temperature set by the desired room temperature setting switch 22. When the compressor is started to operate, the refrigerant in the heat exchanger of the air conditioner main body 1 functions as an evaporator during cooling, and the indoor fan in the air conditioner main body 1 is operated to cool the heat exchanger. The operation of blowing cold air into the room through the vessel is performed by an operation control device (not shown).

However, the operation signal of the operation switch 21, the set room temperature Td by the desired room temperature setting switch 22 and the room temperature Ta detected by the room temperature detection sensor 23 are also inputted to the wind direction control device 20. Hereinafter, general control in the wind direction control device 20 based on these signals will be described with reference to a control flowchart of FIG. 11 taking a cooling operation as an example for convenience. The control of the ability distribution when there are a plurality of persons, which is the gist of the present invention, will be described after the general wind direction control.

When the operation switch 21 is turned on, the processing shown in FIG. 11 is started, and first, in step S1, time counting of a first timer tm1 is started. Next, in step S2, the detected room temperature Ta
Is compared with the reference temperature difference ΔΤα, and in step S3, it is determined whether or not the time t1 measured by the first timer tm1 has reached the first set time tα. The above temperature difference is the reference temperature difference ΔΤα
And the processing of steps S4 to S6 is repeated until the time tα elapses after the start of operation. That is, the human position detection work is performed in step S4, and this work is performed as follows.

First, as described above, each step motor 12,
13 is controlled to scan the detection area over substantially the entire area of the indoor floor, and to perform signal correction such as signal amplification and emissivity correction on the output voltage from the infrared sensor 15 during this time. The temperature signals are converted into temperature signals corresponding to the amounts of incident infrared rays from the detection areas, and these temperature signals are stored in the storage unit 24 in correspondence with the coordinate values of each detection area, that is, the horizontal direction detection angle φ and the vertical direction detection angle θ. Store sequentially.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a change in the output voltage from the infrared sensor 15 at this time corresponding to the floor in the room.
FIG. 13 shows a temperature change in a scanning region substantially parallel to the installation wall surface of the air conditioner main body 1 when the horizontal direction detection angle φ is sequentially changed when α is set.

As shown in the figure, when a local protruding point occurs in this temperature change, it is determined that a person is present in the detection area (θα, φα) corresponding to the protruding point, and the detection is performed. The coordinates (θα, φα) of the area are stored in the memory of the human position detection device in the storage unit 24.

That is, when a person exists in the detection area,
Since the surface temperature of the human body is higher than the ambient temperature, the incident intensity of infrared rays from the detection area, that is, the intensity including the radiated infrared rays from the human body surface, is higher than the incident intensity from the floor where no person is located. Therefore, by detecting a region where the detected temperature locally protrudes as described above, that region can be set as a human presence region.

By performing these operations over the entire floor, the position and number of people can be easily detected.

After performing the above-described human detection operation, then, in step S5 in FIG. 11, a vertical and horizontal direction for directing the blowing direction of the blowing air from the air conditioner main body 1 to the area where the person is detected. The deflection angles of the flaps 4 and 5 are calculated, and in step S6, the respective flaps 4 and 5 are actuated so as to have the deflection angles. Control, so-called wind direction control of spot blowing in the human direction.

Then, the process returns to step S2, and thereafter, the temperature difference obtained by subtracting the set room temperature Td from the detected room temperature Ti becomes smaller than the reference temperature difference ΔΤα, or the elapsed time after the start of operation is the first set time tα Until
The processing of steps S4 to S6 is repeated.

At the start of driving, spot blowing toward the human detection area is performed as described above, so that it is possible to quickly give the user a feeling of cool air without waiting for the room temperature to reach the set room temperature. Become. In addition, since the spot blowing is performed based on the result of the sequential detection operation of the position of the person, the movement automatically follows the movement of the person in the room, and thus does not restrict the movement of the person, thereby providing more comfort. The air-conditioning control at the time of startup that gives a sense of feeling is performed.

While the control of the spot blowing as described above is continued, it is determined in step S2 that the detected room temperature Tα decreases and approaches the set room temperature Td, and the temperature difference becomes smaller than the reference temperature difference ΔΤα. If it has been determined, or if it has been determined in step S3 that the duration of the spot blowing after the start of operation has reached the first set time tα, the flow proceeds to step S7 to measure the time by the second timer tm2. After the start, the measurement operation of the bed temperature distribution is performed in step S8.

In the measurement operation of the floor temperature distribution, the operation of each of the step motors 12 and 13 is controlled in the same manner as described above, and the detection area is scanned over almost the entire area of the indoor floor surface.
The temperature signal corresponding to the output voltage from the infrared sensor 15 during this time is stored in the storage unit 2 in association with the coordinate value of each detection area.
4 sequentially.

Next, in step S 9, an average temperature Tmean of the detected temperatures for each of the above detection areas is calculated. Then, in step S10, the average temperature Tmean is subtracted from the detected room temperature Ti (i = 1 to n: n is the number of detection areas) for each detection area, and the temperature difference ΔTi exceeds the reference temperature difference ΔTβ. It is determined whether or not there is something.

In this case, a region where the temperature is locally protruded due to the presence of a person is excluded from the calculation of the average temperature Tmean . Alternatively, the average temperature Tmean may be calculated by obtaining the floor temperature of the area where the person is present from the average temperature of the detected temperatures around the area.

If there is a detection area exceeding the above ΔΤβ, then, in step S11, the time t2 measured by the second timer tm2 is compared with the second reference time tβ, and until t2 reaches tβ, In step S12, the blowing direction of the blowing wind from the air conditioner main body 1 is set to the above Δ
Calculate the respective deflection angles of the vertical and horizontal flaps 4 and 5 for moving to the detection area exceeding Τβ.

In step S13, the flaps 4 and 5 are set so as to have these deflection angles, and the air blown out of the air conditioner main body 1 is directed to a high temperature region exceeding the above ΔΤβ. After the temperature is controlled to be equalized, the process returns to step S8.

When it is determined in step S11 that the second set time tβ has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S14, in which the temperature equalizing wind direction control is temporarily interrupted, and the air conditioner body 1 is stopped. Flaps 4 and 5 so that the blowing direction of the blowing air from
Is switched to the so-called wide-blow control in which the deflection angle is set.

In step S15, when the time t2 of the second timer tm2 reaches the third set time tγ, the process returns to step S7, and the second timer tm2 is reset to newly perform the time counting operation. Is resumed, and the processing from step S8 is repeated. Therefore, if the temperature unevenness cannot be eliminated even if the temperature uniformized wind direction control blowing toward the high temperature area is continued for tβ, the air in the entire room is once agitated by performing the wide blow wind direction control. Done.

In other words, when only the above-mentioned temperature uniforming wind direction control is continued forever, the room air in the area other than the blowing direction is left in a state close to the stagnation state, and the cooling feeling in this area is impaired. Therefore, the temperature distribution in the room is made uniform while eliminating the above-mentioned problems by appropriately performing wide blowing.

As described above, when the elapsed time after the start of operation has reached the set time tα (for example, 20 minutes), or before the detected room temperature Ta has almost reached the set room temperature Td, the spot blowing is started. By automatically switching from the wind direction control to the temperature uniformed wind direction control for equalizing the temperature distribution of the entire room, the user who has a reduced perceived temperature due to the above-described spot blowing can be informed of the case where the blown wind directly hits the human body. By keeping the room indoors at a substantially uniform temperature without discomfort due to flu, the air conditioner automatically switches to an air-conditioning state that can provide a comfortable cooling sensation at any place even when the user moves in the room. Change.

In step S10, the average temperature Tm is calculated from the detected temperature Ti (i = 1 to n) for each detection area.
If it is determined that all of the temperature differences Δ （i (i = 1 to n) obtained by subtracting ean are within the reference temperature difference ΔΤβ, the process shifts to step S16 to set the wide blowing.

Thereafter, the flow returns to step S7, and in this step, the second timer tm2 is reset once,
The time measurement by the second timer tm2 is restarted, and step S
8 and below are performed. Therefore, when the temperature distribution in the room is substantially uniform, steps S7 to S10 and step S16 are repeated, and while the second timer tm2 is reset in step S7, the wind direction control of wide blowing in step S16 is continued. The Rukoto.

If it is newly detected in step S10 that the temperature distribution has been substantially uniform from the above-described state where the room temperature distribution is substantially uniform, the second timer in step S7 immediately before the detection time point is used. The processing of steps S8 to S15 is performed based on the start time of the clocking operation of tm2.

FIGS. 14 to 17 are diagrams for explaining an example of the wind direction control. As shown in FIG. 14, for example, as shown in FIG.
A1 divided into three areas in the left and right direction
The case where A6 is set will be described as an example.

At the start of the cooling operation, first, the vertical flap 4 is controlled by the above-described spot wind direction control so that the blown wind is directed to a region where a person is detected, for example, A6 as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 15B, the horizontal flap 5 is set so that its deflection angle is about 40 degrees to 60 degrees, or controls to swing in this angle range.

The spot wind direction control is stopped, for example, for 20 minutes after the start of the operation, or when the temperature difference between the detected room temperature and the set room temperature reaches, for example, 2 ° C. or less. When the temperature distribution in the room at this time is substantially uniform as shown in FIG.
The deflection angle of the vertical flap 4 is set to 40 degrees left on the left and 45 degrees right on the right so that the horizontal blowing direction extends over a range of 40 degrees left and right of the air conditioner body 1 as shown in FIG. The wide blowing is performed. At this time, the horizontal flap 5 is made substantially horizontal (deflection angle 0 degrees) as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, FIG. 17 (a) shows an example in which there is temperature unevenness in the indoor temperature distribution. In this case, the calculated average temperature is 28 ° C. The two areas A1 and A4 are extracted as areas where the temperature difference between the area A and the reference temperature difference (for example, 4 ° C.) or more. As a result, as shown in FIGS.
1. A wind direction control is performed in which the deflection angles of the vertical flap 4 and the horizontal flap 5 are set such that the blown wind is directed to A4.

Next, a description will be given, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6, of the gist of the present invention, in which a plurality of persons are present in a room and the distribution control of the ability according to the load. The operation of detecting the position of the person and the floor temperature is the same as described above.

First, in step S1 of FIG. 6, the indoor floor temperature and the position of the person are detected in the same manner as described above.
It is determined whether or not the person detected in step 1 is on both the left and right sides of the air conditioner body (air conditioner) 1. If a plurality of persons are biased to one side, the same wind direction control as described above is performed, and the process returns to step S1.

If there are persons on both sides of the air conditioner body 1, the temperature difference between the left and right sides is detected in step S3. If the temperature difference is small, the above-described wind direction control is performed. In step S4, the wind direction is calculated,
The distribution ratio of the capacity of the air volume and the blowing temperature is calculated. Then, in step S5, the air direction, air volume and temperature are controlled according to the distribution ratio calculated in step S4.

[0050] For example, as shown in FIG. 7, during cooling, towards the part where there are human B than the portion of the person A is 3: 7 when the temperature is high at the rate of, the direction in which the human B 7, The number of the vertical flaps 4 is distributed at a ratio of 3 in the direction in which the person A is present, that is, at a ratio of 70:30 in percentage, and the capability of the wind direction, the air volume, and the blowing temperature is performed to improve the comfort of air conditioning.

Note that the gist of the present invention is performed when the position of a person is separated to the left and right of the air conditioner main body 1, and as shown in FIG. In this case, control equivalent to the above-described human position detection control is performed.

Next, the capacity distribution method will be described. First, when the human position is detected in both the left and right directions, the left half temperature and the right half temperature (floor temperature) of the air conditioner main body 1 are detected, and the respective average temperatures are compared.

For example, during cooling, the average temperature of the left half is 30.
Assuming that the average temperature of the right half is 25 ° C., the distribution ratio of the capacity is as follows: left = 30 / (30 + 25), right =
From 25 / (30 + 25), it is calculated as 55:45.
Therefore, as shown in FIG.
The control is performed so as to be 45.

Even when the vertical flap 4 moves only in the 50:50 structure, the capability is distributed over the total time by moving the vertical flap every certain time. That is, as shown in FIG. 9A, when the temperature of the portion where the person A is present is low, the deflection angle of the right vertical flap is set to 0 degree for the first t1 minute, and the right vertical flap 4 is changed for the next t2 minute. Performs control to turn to the direction of person B, and repeats this to distribute capabilities in the total time

[0055]

As described above, the air conditioner of the present invention has the following features.
An infrared sensor responsive to infrared radiation emitted from the room, temperature detection means for detecting a temperature distribution of an infrared radiant such as a floor from an output from the infrared sensor, and a position of a person in the room from an output of the infrared sensor. A person detecting means for detecting, and a distribution control means for distributing air-conditioning capacity such as a wind direction, an air volume, and a blowing temperature blown from the air conditioner main body in accordance with a detection result of the temperature detecting means and the human detecting means, its right and left sides of the air conditioner body by the distribution control means
If there is a person and the temperature difference between the left and right sides is large,
When the air conditioning capacity is distributed more to the side with insufficient air conditioning
Therefore, a plurality of people are dispersed and
Even when there is uneven temperature in the room, more effective air conditioning can be performed, and the effect of improving the comfort of each person can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a state where the air conditioner is mounted on a wall surface.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are explanatory diagrams of variable ranges of deflection angles of vertical and horizontal flaps of the air conditioner of the above.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the infrared detection device according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the infrared detection device of the above.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart in the case of distributing abilities when there are a plurality of persons in the same room.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of capacity distribution at the time of heating according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the above capacity distribution method.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of capacity distribution when the vertical flap moves at 50:50.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram when a plurality of persons are biased in the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing wind direction control by the same person detection.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an output voltage of the infrared sensor according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a temperature distribution on the floor surface by the infrared sensor according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of a detection distribution area according to the embodiment.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram at the time of spot blowing according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram of blowing control when the temperature distribution in the room is substantially uniform.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram of blowing control when there is uneven temperature in the room.

FIG. 18 is a control block diagram of the above.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example in which a plurality of people are present in a room.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Air conditioner main body 15 Infrared sensor 31 Temperature detection means 32 Person detection means 33 Distribution control means

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-62-128823 (JP, A) JP-A-60-245944 (JP, A) JP-A-60-211250 (JP, A) JP-A-2-70147 (JP) , A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F24F 11/02 102

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An infrared sensor (15) responsive to infrared radiation emitted from a room, and the infrared sensor (15)
Temperature detecting means (31) for detecting a temperature distribution of an infrared radiant such as a floor surface from an output from the apparatus; and an infrared sensor (15)
Detection means (3) for detecting the position of a person in the room from the output of
2) and the air- conditioning capacity such as the wind direction, air volume, and blow-off temperature blown out from the air conditioner body (1) are determined by the temperature detecting means (3).
1) and human a distribution control means for distributing in accordance with the detection result of the detecting means (32) (33), distribution control means (3
3) is the left side of the air conditioner body (1)
There is a person on each side of the right, and the temperature difference on both sides
When the air conditioning capacity is large, the air conditioning capacity is
An air conditioner characterized by being arranged.