JP3133006B2 - Hot water supply system failure diagnosis method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for diagnosing a failure in a hot water supply system having a heat source unit and a plurality of terminal devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among water heaters, a type that has a control unit for executing a combustion control program, generates hot water by operation control of the control unit, and supplies the hot water to a kitchen or a bathroom has become widespread. Such a water heater has a large number of actuators and sensors, and its combustion is controlled by a complicated control program. Therefore, when it fails, it takes a very long time to detect the failed part and the component.

[0003] In view of the above, a number of repair support devices have been proposed which support repair using a portable personal computer. This repair support device is communicably connected to the control unit of the water heater to drive an actuator for specifying a faulty component, or to issue a command from a simulated remote controller to the control unit from the repair support device. The state of the result is monitored using a sensor or a tester function.

[0004]

However, in the case of a hot water supply system that supplies hot water to a plurality of terminals using a water heater as a heat source device, such a repair support device is not used. In the case of a hot water supply system in which a plurality of terminal devices are connected to a heat source device by a hot water pipe, the heat source device itself can be repaired using the above-described repair support device, but a repair support device for the terminal device is still being developed. Not.

[0005] The terminal device includes, for example, a floor heating terminal for circulating hot water on the indoor floor, an air conditioner terminal for heating with hot water, and a bathtub drying terminal for drying a bathtub and the like. These terminal devices are provided with a remote control unit, and transmit and receive data to and from the control unit of the heat source unit via a communication line or a communication medium such as wireless.

[0006] When repairing a heat source unit used in such a hot water supply system using the above-described repair support device, the most common symptom of the problem is heating the room or bathtub even when the terminal device is in the operating state. In order to respond to the vague complaint that drying cannot be performed, it is first necessary to first detect whether the heat source device is faulty, or whether the terminal device, the hot water pipe connecting it, or the communication line is faulty.

However, the error code displayed on the heat source device or its remote controller can only obtain limited information such as malfunction of the actuator on the terminal device side or abnormal output of the sensor. And although such an abnormality is easy to detect, it is not a failure that rarely occurs. For malfunctions that occur more frequently, such as a malfunction of the circulation pump of the hot water pipe provided in the heat source unit, a blockage of the hot water pipe, and a failure of the hot water valve provided in the header portion of the heat source unit, the fault is removed. Error code detection is not possible because there is no sensor to detect.

Therefore, conventionally, in order to check whether a malfunction has occurred on the terminal side or a malfunction has occurred on the heat source device side, an operation command is issued from the control remote controller of each terminal device. To check if the operation is normal. However, in general, the terminal device is arranged at a position far away, and furthermore, the operation start time of the thermal valve or the like used as the above-mentioned hot water valve requires several minutes. The work requires many man-hours.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for diagnosing a hot water supply system which solves the above-mentioned conventional problems.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of diagnosing a hot water supply system which can easily determine whether a failure has occurred on a terminal device side or a heat source device side in a short time.

[0011]

As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a heat source device having a control unit for executing a combustion control program to generate hot water, and hot water supplied from the heat source device. In a hot water supply system having a plurality of terminal devices, a hot water pipe connected from the heat source device to each terminal device, and a communication medium connected to the control unit and each terminal device,
A step of transmitting a command signal from the control unit to bring all the terminal devices into an operation state to all the terminal devices, a step of checking the temperature of the hot water pipe to each terminal device connected to the heat source device, When it is detected that the temperature is low, a failure diagnosis of the heat source unit is performed. When it is detected that the temperature of some of the hot water pipes is low, a terminal device connected to the low-temperature hot water pipe. And performing a failure diagnosis.

As another method, at least a hot water valve provided in the hot water pipe is opened by the command signal.

As still another method, the method further comprises a step of requesting the control unit to transmit the command signal from a repair support device capable of communicating with the control unit.

[0014] In the method, further, in the step of performing a failure diagnosis of the terminal device, an operation command is individually transmitted from the repair support device to the target terminal device.

As described above, by operating all the terminal devices simultaneously from the repair support device connected to the heat source device, it is possible to quickly determine whether the cause of the failure is on the heat source device side or on the terminal device side. And can be detected efficiently. Also, this method can be realized by providing a button switch or the like capable of instructing simultaneous operation of all terminals to a control unit in the heat source device, not from the repair support device.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a hot water supply system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a control unit 15 for executing a control program to perform combustion control and a plurality of actuators 1 driven by the control unit are provided in a heat source unit 10 as a water heater.
6 and a plurality of sensors 1 for giving various measurement values to the control unit 15
8 are provided. Reference numeral 17 denotes a heat exchanger for transmitting the amount of heat input from the burner to water in the pipe.

The heat source unit 10 is connected to each of the terminal devices 1, 2, and 3 via a forward header 20 and a return header 22 by a hot water pipe. For the terminal device 1, the incoming hot water pipe 30
1. Connected by return hot water piping 321. Similarly, the hot water pipes 302 and 322 connect the terminal device 3 to the terminal device 3.
Are connected by hot water pipes 303 and 323. In the vicinity of the outgoing header 20, hot water valves 24, 26, and 28 made of a heat operated valve, an electric valve, and the like are inserted into the piping. Each of the terminal devices 1, 2, and 3 has a remote control 1 for controlling the operation of the terminal.
1, 12, 13 are provided, each of which has a bidirectional communication line 34.
1, 342, 344 and 34 are connected to the control unit 15 of the heat source device 10.

In the hot water supply system configured as described above, for example, the terminal device 1 is a heater, the terminal device 2 is a bath tub dryer, and the terminal device 3 is a floor heater or the like. The control unit 15 is generally configured by a plurality of microcomputers. In that case, one microcomputer has a dedicated communication function. Whether the control unit 15 is configured by one microcomputer or two microcomputers,
Communication is performed for the time zones assigned to the remote controllers of the plurality of terminal devices, and operation requests from the remote controllers are monitored.

When an operation command is issued from the remote controller 11,
When the control unit 15 in the heat source unit recognizes the operation command by the above communication, the pump P is driven and the hot water valve 24 of the going header 20 is opened. Then, the hot water is circulated through the outgoing pipe 301 and the return pipe 321. The operation of the terminal devices 2 and 3 is similarly controlled. When all the terminal devices are not operating, all the hot water valves 24, 2
6, 28 are closed and the pump P is stopped.

The control unit 15 comprising one or a plurality of microcomputers further manages error codes. When the heat source device 10 stops due to a failure or the like, the error codes are recorded in a memory. Then, the error code is displayed on a display unit in the heat source device 10 or a remote controller (not shown) of the heat source device 10.

This error code is given not only to a fault in the heat source device 10 but also to a fault in an actuator or a sensor in the terminal device. This is because the failure can be detected relatively easily and the control unit 15 of the heat source device 10 can know the failure via the communication line. However, such failures of the sensors and actuators in the terminal device rarely occur, and the more frequently occurring blockage in the hot water pipe, the idling of the circulation pump P, or the failure of the hot water valve is detected by the sensor. Cannot be detected effectively by the above-described method using the error code by the microcomputer.

The repair support device 40 is connected to the microcomputer 15 via a communication line 42 and connected to a specific operation command, as described in Japanese Patent Application No. 8-1899000 previously proposed by the present invention. Microcomputer 1, execution of individual actuator drive, reading of sensor output, etc.
Request 5 Further, the repair support device 40 is provided with a power measurement terminal 44, a gas pressure measurement tube 46, a tester terminal 48 that can measure a voltage, a current, a resistance, and the like, so that a physical quantity other than a detection value from a sensor via an internal memory can be used. So that it can be detected. Therefore, this repair support device 4
By using 0, the heat source unit is operated in accordance with the repair sequence, and by monitoring the sensor output, power, gas pressure, current, voltage, and resistance at that time, it is possible to easily specify the internal faulty component. .

In the embodiment of the present invention, the repair support device is used to simultaneously write an operation flag into a control signal area from the remote controllers 11, 12, and 13 of the memory (RAM) of the heat source device 10, and the like. By doing so, the control unit 15 issues an operation command to all the terminal devices 1, 2, and 3. As a result, if no abnormality is found in the heat source device 10 and all terminal devices, all the hot water valves 24, 26, 28
Is opened, the circulation pump P is driven, and high-temperature hot water circulates in each of the outgoing hot water pipes 301, 302 and 303 beyond the outgoing header 20. However, if there is an abnormality in the heat source device 10 itself, hot water will not circulate in all outgoing hot water pipes. Further, when there is an abnormality on the terminal device side or when the inside of the hot water pipe to the terminal device is blocked, hot water does not circulate in the hot water pipe going to the failed terminal device.

Therefore, the diagnostic method of the present invention utilizes the above points to quickly determine whether a failure has occurred on the terminal device side or on the heat source device side from the headers 20 and 22. Detect efficiently.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a diagnosis method according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the flowchart of this diagnosis, the diagnosis is performed by connecting the repair support device 40 to the heat source device which is the combustion device shown in FIG. 1 (step 50). And
The repair support device 40 issues an all terminal device operation command to the control unit 15 of the heat source device 10 (step 51). Specifically, since the operation command signal from the normal remote controllers 11, 12, and 13 is written in the RAM area of the control unit 15 in the form of an operation flag or the like, the control unit 15 issues the operation command. Here, for example, by writing an operation flag from the repair support device 40 to the RAM area of the control unit 15,
Thereafter, the controller 15 can issue an operation command signal (step 52).

In response to an operation command from the control unit 15, for example, the circulating pump P is driven, and all the hot water valves 24, 26, 2
8 is opened to start the operation of each terminal device. Therefore, if there is no failure in each terminal device side, there is no failure in the hot water valve, and if the hot water pipe to each terminal device is not blocked,
Each outgoing hot water pipe 30 branched from the outgoing header 20
Hot water circulates at 1,302,303. Therefore, a command to check whether or not the temperature of the pipe at the header 20 has risen is displayed on the monitor screen of the repair support device 40, and the repair worker checks (step 53).

If it is detected in step 54 that the pipes to all the terminals are all cold, the repair worker determines that the heat source device 10 has a cause of failure (step 55).
The failure diagnosis of the heat source device 10 is performed by the repair support device 40 (step 56). If it is detected that only some of the pipes do not rise in temperature, there is no failure in the heat source unit or the pump P, etc.
It is determined that there is a cause of failure in the hot water valve (step 57), and failure diagnosis of the terminal device, the piping, and the hot water valve is performed (step 58). Further, when it is detected that the temperatures of all the pipes have risen, it is determined that at least the heat source device 10 and the pipes have no failure (step 59).

Further, the repair support apparatus 40 can request the control unit 15 to individually operate and stop the terminal devices. The command signals for individually operating / stopping the terminal device are similarly provided via the communication line 42. By utilizing this function of the repair support device 40, in the above step 58, the terminal for failure diagnosis can be driven from the repair support device to perform the fault diagnosis of the terminal device.

In the above embodiment, the repair support device 4
0 was connected to the control unit of the heat source unit, and a command signal for operating all terminals simultaneously was given. However, for example, all terminal devices may be operated by attaching a button switch for simultaneously commanding all terminals to a base on which the control unit 15 in the heat source device 10 is mounted. In such a case, the repair worker first turns on the button switch and checks the temperature of each hot water pipe.

Further, by providing a temperature thermistor at each point of the hot water valve of the header 22 or the like, it is also possible to automatically detect whether or not hot water is circulating without a repair worker touching the hot water pipe. it can.

[0032]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the failure diagnosis of the hot water supply system, the first determination whether the failure is on the side of the heat source device such as a water heater or the terminal device or its piping is made by the heat source. This can be performed by issuing a simultaneous operation command to all terminal devices using the repair support device connected to the machine, and can be performed efficiently in a short time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a hot water supply system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a diagnostic method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2, 3 terminal device 10 heat source device 15 control unit 40 repair support device

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A heat source device having a control unit for executing a combustion control program to generate hot water, a plurality of terminal devices supplied with hot water from the heat source device, and connected to each terminal device from the heat source device. In a hot water supply system having a hot water pipe, a communication medium connected to the control unit and each terminal device, a step of transmitting from the control unit a command signal for setting all terminal devices to an operation state to all terminal devices, the heat source Checking the temperature of the hot water pipes to each terminal device connected to the equipment, and when it is detected that the temperature of all the hot water pipes is low, the failure diagnosis of the heat source equipment is performed, and some of the hot water pipes are diagnosed. Performing a fault diagnosis of a terminal device connected to the hot water pipe having a low temperature when the temperature of the hot water is detected to be low. 2. The failure diagnosis method according to claim 1, wherein at least a hot water valve provided on the hot water pipe is opened by the command signal. 3. The failure diagnosis method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of requesting the control unit to transmit the command signal from a repair support device capable of communicating with the control unit. I do. 4. The failure diagnosis method according to claim 3, wherein in the step of performing the failure diagnosis of the terminal device, an operation command is individually transmitted from the repair support device to the target terminal device. I do.