JP2870877B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an air conditioner having a comfortable indoor environment.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for controlling an air conditioner that controls the amount of air blown into a room, lowers the amount of air blown out, and adds control of 1 / f fluctuation to the blowout of the low amount of air to make the room more comfortable. .

[Conventional Example] Conventionally, this type of air conditioner has, for example, an indoor temperature sensor or a heat exchanger temperature sensor using a thermistor or the like, and according to a difference between a set value by a remote controller or the like and a detection value by the sensor. While driving the compressor, drive the blower,
The room is set close to the set value to maintain a comfortable environment.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 8, a blower control unit (for example, CPU) 2 and a blower drive circuit 3 are provided inside the air conditioner main body to drive the blower 1. Strong wind volume, medium wind volume,
When “weak air volume” and “automatic air volume” are set (manually set), the air blowing control unit 2 gives a constant phase change at regular time intervals according to the setting, and also adjusts the rotation speed of the blower 1. The rotation speed is detected and brought close to the value corresponding to the above setting, and the amount of blown air is kept at the set value. In other words, when "strong wind volume" is set,
The rotation speed of the blower 1 is maximized, the air volume blown into the room is maximized, and when the “medium air volume” is set, the blown air volume is made smaller than when the “strong air volume” is set. Further, when the “low airflow” is set, the blowout airflow is made smaller than the case of the “medium airflow”, and is used, for example, when the resident sleeps. Furthermore, when "automatic air flow" is set, the blown air flow is changed, for example, according to a comparison between the indoor temperature and the set temperature, and the indoor environment is maintained.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-described air conditioner, as shown by a solid line in FIG. As a result, the wind with a uniform flow velocity hits, and as time elapses, not only the freshness is lost but also the wind becomes heavy and unpleasant. Further, even when the “automatic air volume” is set, the blow air volume can only be changed to a constant value until the set temperature is reached, and when the set temperature is reached, the blow air volume becomes constant as described above. Is done.

Therefore, as shown by the broken line in FIG. 9, there has been proposed a method of periodically changing the amount of the blown air. However, since the change of the amount of blown air is a simple repetition, a short time is sufficient. At the time, it gives the same discomfort due to the feeling of stagnation as described above, and the blowing noise due to the repetitive fluctuation becomes harsh, and also presents an auditory discomfort, especially when you want to rest quietly and sleep well And it could hinder sleep.

The present invention focuses on the fact that natural phenomena, such as comfortable natural winds, are explained by the "1 / f fluctuation" theory.
Especially when the amount of air blown out is small, the amount of air blown out and the blowing sound (the sound of blades cutting air) based on the "1 / f fluctuation" theory
It is an object of the present invention to provide a control method of an air conditioner that not only reduces the discomfort caused by the air conditioner but also makes the wind and the sound more pleasant and makes the indoor environment more comfortable.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a "strong wind volume",
In an air conditioner that controls the number of rotations of a blower according to air volume settings such as “medium air volume”, “weak air volume”, and “automatic air volume” and changes the air volume blown into a room, the air flow volume at the air volume setting is set to the “low air volume”. Low air volume blowing function to further lower than the case of `` air volume '', fluctuation signal generating means for generating a signal whose power spectrum is inversely proportional to frequency, and 1 / f spectrum of the blowing air volume based on a signal from the fluctuation signal generating means And a fluctuation function that fluctuates with time so as to have, when the low air volume blowing function is selected, only when the air volume setting is the `` automatic air volume '', the fluctuation air volume is used to reduce the blowing air volume. It is varied with time so as to have a 1 / f spectrum, and when the air volume setting is other than the “automatic air volume”, only the low air volume blowing function is operated. It is.

[Operation] With the above configuration, when setting the low air volume, the air volume is set to be lower than in the case of the “weak air volume” of the normal setting of the air volume (the silent function is activated), that is, the low air volume is blown out.
The low airflow is temporally varied so that the power spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency (the fluctuation function is activated). That is, at the same time as the operation of the silent function, the fluctuation function is operated, so that the operation sound of the blower is reduced, the blowing sound is reduced, and the amount of blown air hits the indoor person with a comfortable rhythm according to the fluctuation function, The indoor environment is made more comfortable.

In addition, when the silent button is operated, that is, when the silent function is operated, if the normal “strong air volume”, “medium air volume” or “weak air volume” is set, only the silent function is activated as usual. That is, the amount of the blown air is made smaller than that in the case of the "weak air amount". That is, since only the silent function is operated, the operating sound of the blower is reduced, and the blowing noise is reduced. However, when the “automatic air volume” is set when the silent button is operated, the silent function and the fluctuation function are combined. That is, in the same manner as described above, the blown air volume is made lower than in the case of the normal “weak air volume”, and the power spectrum is temporally changed so as to be inversely proportional to the frequency.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, the same parts as those in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

In FIG. 1 and FIG.
Is provided with a heat exchanger 5 and a blower 1, and indoor air is sucked in from a suction port 6 of the main body 4.
Is cooled to a predetermined temperature or warmed by the air blower 1
At the outlet 7. At this time, the blower 1 inside the main body 4 is controlled by the blower controller, and the blowout amount is determined by this control. Therefore, the blower controller 8 outputs a signal for controlling the rotation speed of the blower 1 to the blower controller 8 according to the setting of “strong airflow”, “medium airflow”, “weak airflow”, “automatic airflow”, etc. An air volume setting circuit 9, a 1 / f fluctuation signal generating circuit 10 for generating a signal whose power spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency, an air volume lower than that of the case of "weak air volume" (low air volume blowing function; silent function), and Based on the signal from the 1 / f fluctuation signal generation circuit 10,
to fluctuate over time to have a / f spectrum,
A low air volume setting circuit 11 that outputs a signal for controlling the rotation speed of the blower 1, and a blower driving circuit 3 that switches between the signal from the normal air volume setting circuit 9 and the signal from the low air volume setting circuit 11.
And a low air volume setting button (silent button or the like) 13 for instructing the switching.

As shown in FIG. 3, the 1 / f fluctuation signal generating circuit 10 includes an oscillator 14 for oscillating a clock signal of a predetermined frequency, a binary counter 15 for counting the clock signal, and a power spectrum. A read-only storage unit 16 that stores data inversely proportional to the frequency and outputs the data using the count value of the binary counter 15 as an address, and an amplification unit 17 that amplifies the read data “0” and “1” signals. And are provided. As shown in FIG. 4, the read-only storage unit 16 stores data having a 1 / f spectrum, that is, the amount of blown air, so that the power spectrum is temporally changed so that the power spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency. In addition, data of a signal for controlling the rotation of the blower 1 is stored.

Next, the operation of the air flow controller of the air conditioner having the above configuration will be described with reference to the time chart of FIG.

First, if any of “strong air volume”, “medium air volume”, “weak air volume” or “auto air volume” is set by manual setting, the air volume of the outlet 7 is set from the normal air volume setting circuit 9. A signal for setting the value, that is, a signal for setting the rotation speed of the blower 1 to a value corresponding to the setting is output. At this time, if the low air volume setting button 13 is not pressed, the switch of the switching circuit 12 is switched to the terminal 12a, and the signal from the normal air volume setting circuit 9 is transmitted through the switching circuit 12 to the blower driving circuit 3. Is output to Thus, the air volume at the outlet 7 is controlled to a value according to the manual setting (shown by a straight line in the figure).

Here, at the time point A in FIG.
Is pressed (when the operation instruction of the low air volume blowing function is issued), the switch of the switching circuit 12 is switched to the terminal 12b, so that the signal from the low air volume setting circuit 11 is transmitted to the blower driving circuit 3 via the switching circuit 12. Is output to As a result, the amount of the blown air is reduced (shown by a broken line in the figure), that is, the rotation speed of the blower 1 is reduced, and the low flow of the blown air is reduced to 1 / f.
It is fluctuated over time by the fluctuation control (shown by the curve in the figure). That is, in the low air volume setting circuit 11, a signal whose power spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency is added to the signal indicated by the broken line in FIG.
This is because the 1 / f fluctuation function is activated.

As the data to be stored in the read-only storage unit 16, a plurality of “1 / f spectra” such as natural wind and music may be prepared according to the purpose.

As described above, by operating the low air volume button 13, the blow air volume is made lower than in the case of “weak air volume” and is controlled according to the 1 / f fluctuation, so that the rotation speed of the blower 1 is further reduced. It can suppress unpleasant driving noise, and the low air volume blown out in the room will fluctuate 1 / f, giving indoors a fresh and refreshing wind even after a long time. In particular, those who want to take a quiet rest or want to sleep peacefully do not feel uncomfortable, and rather can enjoy a comfortable rest and a good night's sleep.

As described above, the 1 / f fluctuation is added at the time of the silent operation, but in the present invention, the silent operation is performed only when the silent operation is selected in a state where the air volume setting is set to “automatic air volume”. The operation is provided with 1 / f fluctuation, which will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 6, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

In this figure, a blower controller 8 has a normal setting circuit 18 for giving instructions of normal airflow settings (“strong airflow”, “medium airflow”, “weak airflow” and “automatic airflow”), and rotation of the blower 1. A set airflow signal generation circuit 19 for generating a signal for controlling the number to a value corresponding to the normal setting, and a 1 / f fluctuation signal generation circuit 10
A first switching circuit 20 for turning on / off a signal from the controller, a silent button 21 for issuing an operation instruction of a silent function, and a signal from a set airflow signal generating circuit 19 and a low airflow setting circuit 11 Switching circuit 12 for switching between signals from
And are provided. When the “strong air volume”, “medium air volume” or “weak air volume” is set, the switch of the first switching circuit 20 is turned off from the set air volume signal generation circuit 19.
When F is set and “automatic air volume” is set, a signal for controlling the switch to be ON is output.

Next, the operation of the air flow controller of the air conditioner having the above configuration will be described with reference to the time chart of FIG.

First, it is assumed that normal setting, for example, "medium air volume" is set by the normal setting circuit 18, and the air volume blown out from the outlet 7 is set to a value corresponding to the "medium air volume". At this time, if the silent button 21 is not pressed, the switch of the second switching circuit 12 has been switched to the terminal 12a.
As in the previous embodiment, the blowing air volume is set to the "medium air volume" (shown by a straight line in the figure).

Here, assuming that the silent button 21 has been pressed at the time point B in FIG.
Switch to 12b. Then, a signal from the low air volume setting circuit 11 is output to the air blow driving circuit 3 via the second switching circuit 12, and at this time, the switch of the first switching circuit 20 is turned off.
Since it is set to F, a signal obtained only by the low air volume setting circuit 11, that is, a signal for controlling the blown air volume to a lower value than in the case of the manual setting “weak air volume” is output. Therefore,
The number of revolutions of the blower 1 is made smaller than in the case of the “weak air volume” setting, and the air volume blown into the room is set to the lowest value (silent function).

Subsequently, at the time point B in the figure, when the "automatic air volume" is set by the normal setting circuit 18, the set air volume signal generation circuit
From 19, a signal for controlling the amount of blown air to be automatically varied is output, and a signal for controlling the switch of the first switching circuit 20 to be ON is output. At this time, if the silent button 21 is not pressed, the switch of the second switching circuit 12 is still switched to the terminal 12a, so that the signal from the set airflow signal generation circuit 19 is output to the blower driving circuit 3. . For this purpose, the amount of air blown from the outlet 7 is changed, for example, according to a comparison between the room temperature and the set temperature (shown by a broken line in the figure).

In this “automatic air volume” setting state, when the silent button 21 is pressed (at a point C in the figure), the switch of the second switching circuit 12 is switched to the terminal 12b.
The signal from 1 is output to the blower driving circuit 3. At this time, since the switch of the first switching circuit 20 is controlled to be ON, the signal from the low air volume setting circuit 11 is inversely proportional to the frequency to the signal for controlling the blowing air volume to be lower than in the case of “weak air volume”. Signal is taken into account. Therefore, as shown by the curve in the figure, the air volume at the outlet 7 is the lowest, and the low air volume blowout is obtained by adding a control in which the power spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency. Not only is it reduced (not only the silent function), but also a fresh and cool wind hits the indoors.

As described above, when the silent button 21 is operated while the normal “strong air volume”, “medium air volume”, or “weak air volume” is set, only the silent noise function is activated. Further, when the silent button 21 is operated while “automatic air volume” is set, the silent function and the 1 / f fluctuation function are activated.

In the above embodiment, “strong air volume” is manually set,
The case of “medium air volume”, “weak air volume”, and “automatic air volume” has been described, but an air conditioner that performs more detailed and coarser air volume settings may be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the air conditioner of the present invention, a low air volume blowing function (silent function) for obtaining a lower air volume than in the case of "weak air volume" manually set, and the power of the With a fluctuation function that fluctuates with time so that the spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency, and when `` automatic blowing '' is set, only when the operation instruction of the silent function is issued,
While reducing the above-mentioned air volume, this low air volume
f Controlled by fluctuations, it suppresses the unsightly sound of the blower operation, reduces the blowing noise, and always gives fresh air and freshness to indoors. It does not cause discomfort even after a long time, especially when taking a quiet rest, taking a good night's sleep, it can comfortably take a rest and a good night's sleep, and can improve indoor comfort . In addition, only when `` automatic ventilation '' is set, the 1 / f fluctuation can be obtained, so that the user can select between simple silent operation and silent operation with 1 / f fluctuation. It becomes possible, and the function selection range of the air conditioner is expanded accordingly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a blower controller of an air conditioner showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic side sectional view of the air conditioner body, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic partial block diagram, FIG. 4 is a spectrum graph for explaining the control of the blown air volume by the blower controller, FIG. 5 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the blower controller, and FIG. Is a schematic block diagram of a blower controller of an air conditioner showing another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 7 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the blower controller shown in FIG. 6,
FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional air flow controller of the air conditioner, and FIG. 9 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the conventional air flow controller. In the figure, 1 is a blower, 3 is a blower drive circuit, 4 is an air conditioner main body, 5 is a heat exchanger, 6 is an inlet, 7 is an outlet, 8 is a blower controller, 9 is a normal air volume setting circuit, 10 Is a 1 / f fluctuation signal generation circuit, 11 is a low air volume setting circuit, and 12 is a switching circuit (second
Switching circuit), 13 is a low air volume setting button, 18 is a normal setting circuit, 19 is a set air volume signal generation circuit, 20 is a first switching circuit,
21 is a silent button.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An air conditioner that controls the number of rotations of a blower according to air volume settings such as “strong air volume”, “medium air volume”, “weak air volume”, and “automatic air volume” to change the air volume blown into a room. A low air volume blowing function to further lower the air volume in the air volume setting than in the case of the "weak air volume", a fluctuation signal generating means for generating a signal whose power spectrum is inversely proportional to the frequency, and a signal from the fluctuation signal generating means. A fluctuation function that temporally fluctuates the blown air volume based on the 1 / f spectrum based on the air volume setting, and only when the air volume setting is the `` automatic air volume '' when the low air volume blowing function is selected. In the fluctuation function, the blowing air volume is temporally varied so as to have a 1 / f spectrum, and when the air volume setting is other than the “automatic air volume”, only the low air volume blowing function is activated. An air conditioner characterized by being made to make it.