JP3054279B2 - Hot water storage type electric water heater - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hot water storage type electric water heater capable of additional heating, and more particularly to a hot water storage type electric water heater capable of visually confirming whether or not additional heating is actually performed. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, hot water is heated using electric power in a specific time zone such as midnight power according to a preset operation mode, such as a hot water storage type electric water heater disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-143545. In addition, a hot water storage type electric water heater that performs additional heating according to an additional heating mode selected by a remote controller when hot water runs short has been developed. In this type of water heater, when additional heating cannot be performed due to the relationship with the electric power time zone, or when additional heating is unnecessary in view of the amount of hot water stored (remaining hot water temperature), a command for additional heating is given from the remote controller. Even if it does, it does not actually perform the additional heating. For example, when the additional heating mode in which the heater is energized only at a specific time zone power at a low price is employed, the additional heating is not performed even if it is set to perform the additional heating outside the specific time zone. Further, while the hot water in the entire hot water tank is being boiled with the electric power in the specific time zone, the additional heating is not necessary, and thus the additional heating is not performed in such a case.

[0003]

In the conventional water heater, when the additional heating is not performed, the indication or lamp of the additional heating on the remote controller is simply turned off. For this reason, there are often complaint inquiries at dealers and service stations that a failure has occurred because additional heating was not performed even though additional heating was set, or that no matter how much additional heating was set, it could not be set. There was a problem that a serviceman had to go to the site.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide an electric water heater in which the cause of no additional heating can be determined by looking at the display on the remote controller.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A hot water storage type electric water heater to be improved by the present invention comprises a lower heater disposed in a lower region of a hot water tank and an upper heater disposed in an upper region of the hot water tank. , A remote controller having a selection switch and a display device, a display device control means for controlling the driving of the display device, and a lower heater using specific time zone power such as midnight power in accordance with an operation mode selected by the remote controller. Water heater control means for operating and controlling an electric water heater to perform additional heating by an upper heater or a lower heater according to an additional heating mode selected by a remote controller. It is determined whether the additional heating mode selected by the remote controller is necessary and whether the additional heating mode can be executed. A hot water storage type electric water heater to perform heating.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, an image display device is used as a display device of the remote controller, and the display device control means displays the amount of remaining hot water on the image display device and displays images of heaters corresponding to the lower heater and the upper heater. Is displayed,
While power is supplied to each heater, an image indicating that power is being supplied is added to the image of each heater, or the image of each heater is displayed in a form that represents that power is being supplied. Again
According to the invention, the display device control unit is configured to display a character on the image display device when the water heater control unit determines not to perform the additional heating when the additional heating mode is selected by the remote controller. .

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the heater is not displayed. However, when the water heater control means determines that the additional heating mode is not to be executed when the additional heating mode is selected by the remote controller on the image display device, the image is displayed. The display device control means is configured to display the character on the device.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the amount of remaining hot water is displayed on the image display device, the images of the heaters corresponding to the lower heater and the upper heater are displayed, and while the power is supplied to each heater, the image of each heater is supplied. If an image indicating the inside is added or the image of each heater is displayed in a mode indicating that power is being supplied, the user can see the state of the image of the heater and the display of the remaining hot water amount, and the result and additional heating can be performed. Can be easily checked by telephone to determine whether or not additional heating is not performed due to a failure. Therefore, the burden on service personnel can be significantly reduced. For example, in the specific power time zone, even when the additional heating is set when the remaining hot water amount display indicates that the remaining hot water amount is low, both the upper and lower heater images are displayed as energized displays. If not, it is considered that some sort of failure has occurred. Also, when the display of the remaining hot water amount indicates that the remaining hot water amount is low, when additional heating by the upper heater is set,
If the image of the upper heater does not show that the power is on,
If the image of the lower heater indicates that power is being supplied, it is understood that the failure is not a failure.

Further, when the water heater control means determines that the additional heating is not to be executed when the additional heating mode is selected by the remote controller, the image display device is configured to display such a character on the image display device. It is possible to determine whether or not additional heating is not performed due to a failure only by confirming whether or not there is a character display to that effect. Especially
When the image display of the heater is used in combination as in the invention of claim 1 , even if the display content of the character display is the minimum content, it is possible to confirm whether or not there is a failure related to the additional heating, and that other failures can be confirmed. When this occurs, it is possible to obtain information for determining the cause of the failure, thereby reducing the burden on service personnel.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a remote controller mounted at a position distant from the main body of the electric water heater, and reference numeral 11 denotes an image display device used as a display device of the remote controller. The remote controller 1 includes an operation unit having a plurality of operation control switches for setting operation conditions and the like, and a display device for displaying an operation state. FIG. 2 shows an example of the operation unit of the remote controller 1 and the display unit of the display device. In FIG. 2, SW1 to SW3 are operation control switches used to set the time of the clock T, SW4 is an operation control switch for selecting an operation mode, and SW5 and SW6 are for temperature setting. Operation control switch,
SW7 is an operation control switch for reserving the number of days of operation stop, SW8 is an operation control switch for setting additional heating (in this embodiment, referred to as follow-up), and SW9 is for additional heating. An operation control switch for selecting a heater. These operation control switches are
It is a push switch. As the display device, an image display device including a liquid crystal display LCD is used. The inside of the rectangular frame indicated by the code LCD is entirely a liquid crystal display, and usually displays the characters and figures shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, a mark indicated by a black circle is a mark indicating a selected state, and one black circle mark is usually displayed for each setting item. H1 is the image of the lower heater, H2 is the image of the upper heater, and RS is the image of the contact of the changeover switch. FIG. 3 shows a state in which all display items displayed on the liquid crystal display LCD are displayed. Compared to Fig. 2, "Temperature sensor error", "Please wait until midnight power time for chasing",
Character indications of "full tank" and "notice of hot water" are additionally displayed. A convection display appears on the upper heater image and the lower heater image during energization. Further, the image of the changeover switch RS is displaced according to the energized state.

Here, "Temperature sensor abnormality" is a character display that is automatically displayed when an abnormality occurs in the temperature sensor, and "Please wait until midnight power time". (In this example, late-night power time) This is a character display that is displayed to indicate that the chasing operation is not to be performed. "Full tank" indicates that the remaining hot water is 150 liters or more, This is a character display that is displayed when the temperature is equal to or higher than the set temperature, and the “notice of hot water” is a character display that is displayed when the remaining hot water amount is less than 50 liters.

The display of the liquid crystal display LCD is controlled by the display control means 2 shown in FIG. 1. In this embodiment, the display control means 2 is arranged inside the remote controller 1. The command from the remote controller 1 is normally transmitted to the water heater control means 3. The water heater control unit 3 is switched based on a command from the control unit, a control unit mainly configured by a CPU of a microcomputer, a storage unit for storing an operation program executed by the control unit and a program for an additional heating mode. And a power supply control unit including a changeover switch for supplying power from a power supply to the upper heater 5 and the lower heater 4. The water heater control means 3 basically includes an operation mode in which the heating time, the boiling temperature, and the like are calculated to control the energization of the lower heater 4 within the specific power time zone, and the upper heater 5 or the lower heater The additional heating mode for controlling the additional heating using the heater 4 is executed, and information to be displayed on the image display device is supplied to the display device control means 2. Although not shown, detection data detected by a detector such as a temperature sensor is input to the water heater control unit 3.

As can be seen from the switches and indications of the remote controller shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, in this embodiment, the additional heating is referred to as "additional heating". It is possible to set the chasing, and it is also possible to select a heater for chasing. The switching of these settings is well-known and will not be described. As is well known, the remote controller 1
And a commercial power supply of 100 V
A power supply is used.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a flowchart of an algorithm of a main routine of control according to the present embodiment.
In this embodiment, purging is performed only during a time period during which the power of 200 V is supplied. When you start driving,
Whether “one day only” or “every day” using the upper heater 5 is set (steps ST1 and ST3), whether or not it is during the nighttime electric water heater time period (step ST5), It is determined whether or not “one day only” or “every day” chasing using the heater 4 is set (steps ST7 and ST9). ST2, ST4
ST6, ST8 or ST10 is executed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the algorithm of the routine of step ST2 in FIG. First, in this routine, it is determined in step ST21 whether or not the temperature condition of the flushing water is satisfied (whether or not the temperature of the remaining hot water is lower than a certain temperature). If NO, proceed to FIG. If YES, 200V in step ST22
It is determined whether or not the heater power is supplied. In this determination, a voltage detector detects whether or not the voltage of 2OOV is applied from the power supply. If YES, the relay of the upper heater is turned on in step ST23, and the character display of "Please wait until midnight power time" on the liquid crystal display LCD of the remote controller 1 shown in FIG. 3 is turned off. Next, the display of the changeover switch RS of the liquid crystal display LCD of the remote controller 1 is displaced to the image H2 side of the upper heater, and the fact that the upper heater is energized as shown in FIG.
An image in which water convection is added to the image 2 and displayed.
In addition, this convection image will draw attention of the viewer,
The even-numbered convection lines and the odd-numbered convection lines are displayed alternately. A flowchart of the algorithm of the routine of step ST25 is as shown in FIG. FIG. 6
The left / right switching flag in step ST252 is switched between a left instruction (0) and a right instruction (1) at regular intervals. For reference, a change in the display of the liquid crystal display LCD of the remote controller 1 is added to FIG.

Step 25 is repeated until it is determined in step ST26 that the hot water is boiling. When the hot water is detected, the relay of the upper heater is turned off (step ST28), and the liquid crystal display LCD of the remote controller 1 is turned off. The display of the changeover switch RS is returned to the center, and the convection image display indicating that the upper heater is being energized is stopped. The flowchart of the algorithm of the routine of step ST29 is as shown in FIG. For reference, FIG. 7 also shows changes in the display on the liquid crystal display LCD of the remote controller 1.

If the power of 200 V has not been supplied in step ST22, the operation proceeds to step ST27, where the liquid crystal display LCD of the remote controller 1
"Please wait until the late night power time".

Returning to FIG. 4, if step ST3 is set instead of step ST1, step ST3 is set.
4 is executed. The flowchart of the algorithm of the “daily” driving process using the upper heater is also described in FIG.
7 is the same as the flowchart of the algorithm of step ST2 described in FIG.

If the driving temperature condition is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step ST5. However, if it is the midnight water heating time zone obtained by calculation, the water heater is executed in step ST6.

Also, instead of the upper heater 5, the lower heater 4
When the purging is executed by using the step ST7,
FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of the algorithm of step ST8 of the “one-day only” overrun process when is selected. The differences from FIG. 5 are that the target of each step ST is not the upper heater but the lower heater, that the display of the relay (switch RS) is displaced to the lower heater side, If the condition (1) is not satisfied, the process ends. All other points are the same. The flow chart of the algorithm of the “daily” driving process using the lower heater is the same as the flow chart of the algorithm of FIG. 8 described above.

The display of the amount of remaining hot water during the execution of each of the above-mentioned processes changes in accordance with a change in the output of a temperature sensor installed at various points in the hot water tank. When the remaining hot water volume is less than 150 liters, the black circle mark below the character display disappears, and when the remaining hot water volume is less than 100 liters, the black circle mark below the character display disappears, and when the remaining hot water volume is less than 50 liters, the character The black circle below the display disappears. The display mode of these displays is arbitrary.

In the above-described embodiment, while the current is being supplied to each heater 4 or 5, a convection image is added to the image of the heater and displayed. ,
Instead of adding another image, the power-on state may be displayed by using a display mode such as blinking the heater image itself.

Also, in the above embodiment, when no overtaking is performed, there is only one type of character display, "Please wait until midnight power time." It is possible to display another character such as "It is boiling up."

In the above embodiment, a liquid crystal display is used as the image display device. However, it goes without saying that another image display device such as a CRT can be used.

[0025]

According to the present invention , the amount of remaining hot water is displayed on the image display device and the images of the heaters corresponding to the lower heater and the upper heater are displayed. To add an image indicating that power is being supplied or to display the image of each heater itself in a mode that indicates that power is being supplied,
Ask the user to see the state of the heater image and the remaining hot water display, and check the result and the settings for additional heating on the phone.
It can be determined whether additional heating is not performed due to a failure, and the burden on service personnel can be greatly reduced.
In particular, according to the present invention, when the additional heater mode is selected by the remote controller, when the water heater control unit determines that the additional heating is not to be performed, the image display device is configured to display the fact on the image display device. There is an advantage that it is possible to determine whether or not additional heating is not performed due to a failure simply by having the user confirm whether or not there is a character display to that effect. Further , when the image display of the heater is used in combination as in the first aspect of the present invention, even if the display content of the character display is minimized, it is possible to confirm whether or not there is a failure related to the additional heating, and to check other failures. In the case where the error occurs, it is possible to obtain information for judging the cause of the occurrence of the failure, and there is an advantage that the burden on the service person can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a front panel unit of a remote controller used in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a front panel of the remote controller in a state where all character displays are displayed.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a software algorithm used when the embodiment of FIG. 1 is implemented using a computer.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an algorithm of step ST2 in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an algorithm of step ST25 in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an algorithm of step ST29 in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an algorithm of step ST7 in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Remote controller 2 Display device control means 3 Water heater control means 4 Lower heater 5 Upper heater

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A remote controller having a lower heater disposed in a lower region of the hot water tank, an upper heater disposed in an upper region of the hot water tank, a selection switch and a display device, and driving the display device. Display device control means for controlling, the hot water is heated by the lower heater using specific time zone power such as midnight power according to the operation mode selected by the remote controller, and the additional heating mode selected by the remote controller Water heater control means for controlling the operation of an electric water heater so as to perform additional heating by the upper heater or the lower heater according to the above, wherein the water heater control means requires an additional heating mode selected by the remote controller. Storage type electric power for executing additional heating by determining whether or not the additional heating mode can be executed. A water heater, wherein the display device of the remote controller has an image display device, and the display device control means displays the amount of remaining hot water on the image display device and heaters corresponding to the lower heater and the upper heater. The image of the heater is added to the image of the heater while the power is being supplied to the heater, or the image of the heater is displayed in the form of the power being supplied to the image of the heater. When the additional heating mode is selected by the controller, when the water heater control means determines that the additional heating is not to be performed, a character is displayed on the image display device to indicate that. Hot water storage type electric water heater. 2. A heater disposed in a hot water tank, a remote controller having a selection switch and a display device, a display device control means for controlling driving of the display device, and an operation mode selected by the remote controller. A water heater that controls the operation of an electric water heater so that hot water is boiled by the heater using specific time zone power such as midnight power according to the above, and additional heating is performed by the heater according to an additional heating mode selected by the remote controller. Hot water storage device comprising: a hot water storage device comprising: a hot water storage device, wherein the hot water heater control device determines whether or not the additional heating mode selected by the remote controller is necessary and whether or not the additional heating mode can be executed. An electric water heater, wherein the display device of the remote controller has an image display device, When the additional heating mode is selected by the remote controller, the display device control means, when the water heater control means determines that the additional heating is not to be performed, displays a character on the image display device to that effect. A hot water storage type electric water heater characterized by being made.