JP3054526B2 - Futon dryer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a futon dryer provided with a hot water circuit and a refrigerant circuit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An air conditioner having a hot water circuit and a refrigerant circuit is accommodated in a top bag or the like, and an air outlet is also provided in the push-in box so that the air-conditioning apparatus can be used as a dryer for drying the futon in the push-in box. Things are known.

[0003] In this type of futon drying apparatus, after the futon is dried by heating with hot water, a blast operation is performed to cool the futon.

[0004] The time of air blowing for cooling is calculated at a predetermined rate from the total operation time including the drying time. In this case, there are two operation modes, a summer mode and a winter mode,
In summer, the cooling time is set longer in the summer mode than in the winter mode in response to the fact that the temperature is higher and the cooling efficiency is lower than in the winter. For example, in the winter mode, the cooling time is about 1/8 of the drying time, whereas in the summer mode, it is about 1/4.

[0005] In general, the selection of the summer mode and the winter mode is manually performed by a user using a cooling / heating mode selection switch of a remote controller.

[0006]

One problem of the above-mentioned conventional futon drying apparatus is that it is difficult to sufficiently cool the futon by cooling only at the time of high temperature, such as in summer, so that the futon is difficult to use during use. The point is that you may feel uncomfortable when you are warm. That is, as described above, the cooling time is set longer in the summer mode than in the winter mode. However, since the humidity is high in summer, if the air is blown for too long, the humidity of the futon rises, and the meaning of drying is lost. . For this reason, there is a limit to the air cooling time. Even if the humidity in the summer is low, it takes a very long time to sufficiently cool by air blowing because of the high room temperature, which is practically inconvenient. For this reason, the air blowing time in the summer mode is set to an appropriate time that has a certain cooling effect and does not increase the humidity of the futon, but in practice, this may not provide a sufficient cooling effect.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a futon drying apparatus provided with a hot water circuit and a cooling circuit, in which the futon dried by hot air can be cooled in a short time as in winter even in summer. The present invention is to make it possible to perform appropriate cooling and to automatically select a summer / winter mode according to a season.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a futon drying apparatus comprising: calendar means for generating calendar information such as a current date; and selection of the summer mode or the winter mode based on calendar information of the calendar means. Mode selecting means for performing, and when the summer mode is selected, cooling control means for cooling the futon in a dry operation by the hot water circuit and the refrigerant circuit and cooling the futon in a blowing operation when the winter mode is selected. And characterized in that:

[0009]

The summer mode and the winter mode are automatically selected based on the calendar information. For example, in the preferred embodiment, the summer mode is automatically selected from May 1 to October 30 unless the outside temperature is particularly low,
From the day to April 30, the winter mode is automatically selected. Therefore, appropriate mode selection according to the season is performed without bothering the user.

When the summer mode is selected, cooling of the futon is performed by a so-called dry operation, not by a conventional blowing operation. Therefore, the futon can be sufficiently cooled in a relatively short time, and even if the futon is cooled for a long time, the humidity of the futon does not increase. When the winter mode is selected, a cooling operation by blowing air is performed, which is economical.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an indoor unit of a futon drying apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a room to be conditioned,
Denotes a closet containing a futon, and 300 denotes a top bag on the closet 200. In the present embodiment, the indoor unit 1 is housed in a top bag 300, which is also used as an air conditioner for the conditioned room 100 and a drying device for the futon in the closet 200. The indoor unit 1 is connected to an outdoor unit 2 (see FIG. 2) described later via a hot water pipe, a refrigerant pipe, and electric wiring.

The air outlet 5 of the indoor unit 1 is connected through a connecting duct 6 to an outlet 9 to the conditioned room 100. A branch port 1 is provided on the peripheral wall of the connection duct 6.
0 is provided, and this branch port 10 is connected via a hose 11
It is connected to the outlet 12 to the closet 200. A damper 8 is provided in the main air passage 7 in the connecting duct 6, and the damper 8 selectively opens one of the main air passage 6 and the branch port 10, and sends the air to the harmonized chamber 100 or the push-in 200. Work to switch.

In the indoor unit 1, a blower 4 for producing wind and a heat exchanger 3 for cooling and heating the wind are provided. The heat exchanger 3 has a refrigerant heat exchanger 3a arranged on the leeward side and a hot water heat exchanger 3b arranged on the leeward side.
Consisting of A temperature sensor 30 is provided near the outlet 5 in order to measure the temperature of the wind whose temperature has been adjusted through the heat exchanger 3.

A guide hose 13 for guiding the wind to the futons 19, 20, 21 is provided at the outlet 12 to the closet 200.
14 and 15 are detachably attached. Each guide hose 1
Beak-shaped attachments 16, 17, and 18 having a large number of small holes on the peripheral wall are attached to the distal ends of 3, 14, and 15, and these beak-shaped attachments 16, 17, and 18 are folded futons 19, 20, and 20, respectively. Futon 1 inserted between 21
It works to supply wind uniformly to 9, 20, 21.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a hot water pipe, a refrigerant pipe system, and a control system of the futon drying apparatus.

In FIG. 2, the outdoor unit 2 includes a muffler 41 and an accumulator 4 as elements of a refrigerant piping system.
2, a compressor 43, an outdoor refrigerant heat exchanger 44, an electric expansion valve 45, and the like are provided. These are connected to the refrigerant pipe 31 of the indoor unit 1 via connecting pipes 61 and 62 in a ring shape, and a refrigerant circuit is provided. Is composed.

The outdoor unit 2 contains a heater (for example, a burner) 46, an outdoor hot water heat exchanger 47, a pump 48, a pressure tank 49, and the like as elements of a hot water piping system. Hot water pipe 3
2 is connected in a ring shape via connection pipes 63 and 64 to form a hot water circuit. Reference numeral 33 in the indoor unit 1 is a flow rate control valve for hot water. The outdoor unit 2 further includes a pressurized water injection valve 5 for injecting water into the hot water circuit.
1 and a pressurized water injection circuit 52, and a reserve tank 50 for storing surplus water in the hot water circuit.

Further, the indoor unit 1 is provided with a microcomputer 71 for controlling the indoor unit, and the outdoor unit 2 is provided with a microcomputer 73 for controlling the outdoor unit. 72 are communicably connected to each other. Further, the futon drying device is provided with a wired or wireless remote controller 70 for giving various operation commands and various information from the user to the device, and the command from the remote controller 70 is transmitted to the indoor unit side microcontroller. The information is received by the computer 71 and transmitted to the outdoor unit-side microcomputer 73.

There are various well-known functions performed by the remote controller 70 and the microcomputers 71 and 73. Among them, one function related to the present invention is a calendar function. This is because the remote controller 70 has a built-in calendar for a period in which the futon drying device is likely to be used, and when a current date and time at a certain point in time are set, the remote controller 70 automatically operates thereafter. Measure the current date and time, and at the start of the futon drying operation,
This is automatically converted to the indoor unit side microcomputer 7
1 is a function to transmit the data to

FIG. 3 shows an operation flow in which the microcomputer 73 on the outdoor unit side selects an operation mode of futon drying under the above configuration.

In FIG. 3, a remote controller 70
When a command to turn on the futon drying switch is received (step 300), the current calendar information (including at least the date and time) is automatically transmitted from the remote controller 70, and is received (step 30).
1).

Next, the date indicated by the calendar information is
During a predetermined summer period (for example, from May 1 to October 30)
Is determined (step 302).
As a result, outside the summer period (for example, from November 1 to April 40)
), The winter mode is selected and the dryer operation is started (step 303).

On the other hand, if it is during the summer period, the outside air temperature (for example, input to the microcomputer 73 from an outside air temperature sensor not shown) is checked (step 30).
4) If the temperature is less than 20 degrees Celsius, the winter mode is selected (step 303). If the temperature exceeds 20 degrees Celsius, the summer mode is selected and the dryer is started (step 305).

As described above, the summer / winter mode is automatically selected based on the automatically measured calendar information and the outside air temperature. Therefore, the user does not need to select a mode, and can always select an appropriate mode.

In the above-described processing, the winter mode is selected and the summer mode is not selected when the outside air temperature is not more than 20 degrees Celsius even during the summer period. This is because the refrigerant circuit operates at this time, and if the summer mode is selected when the outside air temperature is low, the refrigerant heat exchanger may freeze.

When the drying operation is started, the drying operation and the cooling operation are performed as follows.

(A) Drying operation In both the summer mode and the winter mode, during the set drying time,
Driving the hot water circuit to blow out hot air. At that time, the blowout temperature is detected, and this is set to a preset temperature (for example,
55 degrees Celsius in cotton duvet mode, 5 degrees Celsius in blanket mode
0 degree), the opening degree of the flow rate control valve 33 of the hot water is controlled.

At the start of the operation, the damper 8 (see FIG. 1) is moved after the start-up time (for example, three minutes) until the dry warm air is blown out without fail, from the start of the operation. The blowing destination is switched from the harmonized room 100 to the closet 200.

(B) Cooling operation The operation mode is changed between the summer mode and the winter mode as follows.

(A) Summer mode By a so-called dry operation in which both the refrigerant circuit and the hot water circuit are driven, low-temperature, low-humidity air is supplied to cool the futon. In this case, the futon is cooled while the blowing air is kept at, for example, a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 45%. For this purpose, the operating frequency of the compressor 43 and the opening of the hot water flow control valve 33 are adjusted. An example of the operation specifications is as follows.

Hot water temperature = 60 degrees Celsius Wind speed = strong Operation frequency of compressor 43 = fixed to 50% of rating Control of flow rate control valve 33 = Valve opening degree is controlled so that blow-off temperature becomes 25 degrees Celsius. However, the maximum step is 10
The step and the minimum step are defined as one step. Control follows the control of the dry zone.

If the temperature of the hot water heat exchanger is less than 50 degrees Celsius even after 5 minutes from the start of the cooling operation, the compressor 43 is stopped for protection.

(B) Winter mode Economical cooling operation by blowing air from the blower 4 is performed.

As described above, in the summer mode, the futon is cooled by the dry operation. Thus, the futon can be sufficiently cooled even in the hot and humid summer season, and the cooling can be completed in a short time equivalent to the winter season. FIG. 4 specifically shows the effect.

FIG. 4 shows the temperature and humidity of the futon when the futon is dried for 3 hours in the summer and then cooled by blowing air in the conventional manner, and when the futon is cooled by the dry operation according to the present embodiment. 3 shows the change over time.

As can be seen from FIG. 4, according to the present embodiment, the effect of lowering the temperature by about twice is obtained even with the same cooling time as compared with the conventional cooling by blowing air, for example, 30 minutes after drying for 3 hours. It can be seen that the futon can be cooled to a temperature equal to or lower than the body temperature by a cooling operation in a short time of a weak level. Moreover, even if the cooling is performed for a long time, the humidity of the futon hardly increases, and the drying effect can be maintained.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Cooling after futon drying is performed using low-temperature, low-humidity air generated by dry operation in summer mode, and economical air blowing operation is performed in winter mode. In addition, summer mode and winter mode are based on automatically measured calendar information. Since と is automatically selected, appropriate futon drying according to the season can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a simplified configuration of an indoor unit of a futon drying device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system explanatory diagram showing a hot water piping, a refrigerant piping system, and a control system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart showing the flow of mode selection processing performed by the outdoor unit-side microcomputer of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic explanatory diagram showing a cooling effect of the embodiment in comparison with a conventional device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 indoor unit 2 outdoor unit 3 indoor heat exchanger 3a refrigerant heat exchanger 3b hot water heat exchanger 70 remote controller 71 indoor microcomputer 73 outdoor microcomputer

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D06F 58/00 F26B 25/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A futon drying device comprising a hot water circuit and a refrigerant circuit, supplying hot air heated by the hot water circuit to the futon, and then cooling the futon by a method according to a selection between a summer mode and a winter mode. Calendar means for issuing calendar information such as the current date; mode selection means for selecting the summer mode or winter mode based on calendar information of the calendar means; and when the summer mode is selected, the hot water A futon drying device, comprising: a futon drying device that cools the futon by a dry operation using a circuit and the refrigerant circuit and cools the futon by a blow operation when the winter mode is selected.