JP3276918B2 - 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 compact indoor unit and capable of performing a dehumidifying operation efficiently while suppressing a decrease in heating efficiency.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a dehumidifying operation (hereinafter referred to as a dry operation) performed to reduce indoor humidity is mainly performed by a weak cooling operation. In the dehumidification by the weak cooling operation, the saturated steam of the air is reduced by cooling the indoor air.

Therefore, if the dehumidified air is directly blown into the room, there is a problem that the room temperature is lowered. Further, when the room temperature approaches the set temperature or when the set temperature is high, the compressor enters an intermittent operation state, so that there is a problem that the dehumidifying efficiency is reduced.

[0004] From this point of view, two indoor units
A full-scale reheating system has been proposed in which two heat exchangers are arranged side by side with one on the leeward side and the other on the leeward side, and provided with a pressure reducing device.

[0005] In the full-scale reheating method, the refrigerant from the heat exchanger disposed on the lee side during the dry operation is depressurized by the decompression device and supplied to the heat exchanger disposed on the leeward side. The upper heat exchanger acts as an evaporator to cool and dehumidify the air, and the leeward heat exchanger acts as a reheater to warm the air dehumidified by the evaporator and send it indoors. .

Although the reheater operates on the same principle as the condenser, in the present specification, a heat exchanger that performs such an operation for the purpose of heating air for purposes other than heating is described as a reheater.

Further, two heat exchangers are provided in the indoor unit so as to be adjacent to each other so that one of the heat exchangers is not leeward, and a decompression device is provided to mix air passing through each heat exchanger. An air mix system that blows air into a room has been proposed.

In the air mix method, during the dry operation, the refrigerant supplied from one heat exchanger is depressurized by a decompression device and supplied to the other heat exchanger, so that the heat exchanger on the downstream side of the refrigerant is cooled. It works as an evaporator to obtain cool and dehumidified cool air, and the upstream heat exchanger works as a reheater to obtain warm air, mix them and send them to the room.

[0009]

However, since a plurality of heat exchangers arranged in the indoor unit are usually of the same length, it is difficult to secure a place for installing the pressure reducing device. For this reason, it has been difficult to sufficiently achieve a compact indoor unit that has been particularly strongly demanded in recent years.

In a full-scale reheating system in which two heat exchangers are arranged in parallel, the refrigerant is first supplied from the heat exchanger on the windward side during the heating operation, so that the air heated by the heat exchanger on the windward side is used. When passing through the heat exchanger on the leeward side, there is a problem that heat is deprived by the heat exchanger on the leeward side and the heating efficiency is reduced.

On the other hand, in the air mixing system, the air taken into the indoor unit does not pass through the heat exchanger twice as in the case of the full-scale reheating system. However, since the air is blown into the room after mixing the cool air and the warm air, when the mixing is not performed sufficiently, a temperature distribution is generated in the blown air, and the air becomes cold in some places. There was a risk of getting humid elsewhere.

Therefore, the present invention achieves a compact indoor unit, suppresses an increase in flow path resistance and a decrease in heating efficiency as in a full-scale reheat system, and reduces the amount of cool air and warm air as in an air mix system. It is an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioner capable of performing high-efficiency and comfortable air conditioning by reducing the discharge of insufficient air.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To solve the above problems, the present invention provides an indoor heat exchanger for exchanging heat between refrigerant and indoor air, and an air intake system for sucking air from the room and passing the air through the indoor heat exchanger. An air conditioner having an indoor unit having a fan that blows out indoors after the indoor unit is provided with an air intake port for sucking indoor air on the front and upper surfaces of the indoor unit,
An indoor heat exchanger is disposed opposite to an intake port provided on the front side, and a first heat exchanger that functions as an evaporator during a dehumidifying operation, and is disposed downstream of the first heat exchanger. A second heat exchanger that acts as a reheater during the dehumidifying operation, and is disposed adjacent to the first heat exchanger and along a suction port provided on the upper surface, and acts as a reheater during the dehumidifying operation. At the same time, a third heat exchanger having a smaller width than the first and second heat exchangers, and a third heat exchanger having the first and second widths.
During the dehumidifying operation, the first heat exchanger acts as an evaporator and the second and third heat exchangers act as reheaters, which are arranged in a space formed by setting the width to be shorter than the heat exchanger. And a decompression device for dehumidification to be operated.

[0014]

[0015]

[0016]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to an embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a view showing a part of a transverse sectional view. FIG. 3 is a refrigerant circuit diagram of the air conditioner. The air conditioner mainly has an outdoor unit disposed outdoors and an indoor unit disposed indoors.

The outdoor unit includes a compressor 11 for compressing the refrigerant, an outdoor heat exchanger 12 for exchanging heat between the refrigerant and the outside air,
It has a main pressure reducing device 13 capable of adjusting the flow rate for reducing or reducing the refrigerant, a bypass valve 15 for controlling whether or not the refrigerant flows into the main pressure reducing device 13, and the like.

A front suction port 31 is provided on the front panel of the indoor unit, an upper suction port 32 is provided on the upper panel, and a discharge port 34 is provided on the lower panel. Inside the room, heat is exchanged between the room air and the refrigerant. The heat exchangers 21 to 24, the dehumidifying decompression device 25 for decompressing or reducing the refrigerant during the dry operation, and the fan 33 for sucking indoor air through the indoor heat exchangers 21 to 24 and discharging the air-conditioned air into the room. Is provided.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the indoor heat exchangers 21 to 24 are heat exchangers 22 and 2 which are first heat exchangers.
3, a heat exchanger 24 as a second heat exchanger and a heat exchanger 21 as a third heat exchanger.

The first heat exchanger is divided into heat exchangers 22 and 23 in order to make the indoor unit compact. The heat exchanger 23 is on the front suction port 31 side, and the heat exchanger 22 is on the front suction port 22 and 23. It is arranged so as to surround the fan 33 over the upper surface suction port 32, and functions as an evaporator during the cooling operation and the dry operation and as a condenser during the heating operation.

Further, the heat exchanger 24 as the second heat exchanger
Is provided at the portion where the heat exchanger 23 and the fan 33 are closest to each other, that is, where the amount of air passing through the heat exchanger 23 is the largest. During operation, it acts as a reheater.

Further, a heat exchanger 21 as a third heat exchanger
Is provided on the upper surface suction port 32 side, and functions as an evaporator during a cooling operation, as a condenser during a heating operation, and as a reheater during a dry operation.

At this time, the heat exchangers 22 to 24 are formed to have the same width, but the width of the heat exchanger 21 is made shorter than these, and a dehumidifying decompression device 25 is provided in a space formed at that time. ing. This promotes a compact indoor unit.

If this space can be sufficiently secured, the main pressure reducing device 13 and the bypass valve 15 may be provided in the space.

Next, a detailed configuration will be described while explaining the operation. During the cooling operation, the bypass valve 15 is closed, the main pressure reducing device 13 is opened by a predetermined amount, the dehumidifying pressure reducing device 25 is fully opened, and the refrigerant is circulated by the four-way valve 16 in the direction indicated by the solid line arrow.

Further, more indoor air is sucked into the indoor unit from the front suction port 31 than from the top suction port 32. Therefore, the amount of room air passing through the third heat exchanger 21 is smaller than the amount of room air passing through the first heat exchangers 22 and 23. Therefore, shortening the third heat exchanger 21 greatly enhances the air conditioning performance. The indoor unit can be made compact without lowering.

The refrigerant that has been compressed by the compressor 11 to become a hot gas is supplied to the outdoor heat exchanger 12, where the refrigerant exchanges heat with outside air and condenses. At this time, since the bypass valve 15 is closed, the condensed refrigerant is decompressed or throttled by the main decompression device 13 to be supplied to the indoor unit as low-temperature gas.

The refrigerant supplied to the indoor unit flows through the heat exchangers 21, 24, 23 and 22 sequentially. At this time, since the dehumidifying decompression device 25 is fully opened, the refrigerant that has passed through the heat exchanger 24 is directly supplied to the heat exchangers 22 and 23, returns to the compressor 11, and one cycle ends.

Therefore, all of the heat exchangers 21 to 24 function as evaporators, and can efficiently cool the sucked air.

During the heating operation, the bypass valve 15 is closed, the main pressure reducing device 13 is opened by a predetermined amount, the dehumidifying pressure reducing device 25 is fully opened, and the refrigerant is circulated by the four-way valve 16 in the direction indicated by the dotted arrow. I do.

The hot gas from the compressor 11 is
The heat is sequentially supplied to the heat exchangers 22 and 23 of the indoor unit and sequentially circulates through the heat exchangers 24 and 21 via the dehumidifying decompression device 25.

Since the depressurizing device 25 for dehumidification is fully opened, all the heat exchangers 21 to 24 function as condensers.

In this case, the refrigerant is supplied to the heat exchangers 22, 23,
Since the heat exchangers 24 and 21 are sequentially circulated, the heat exchangers 22 and 23 are warmer than the heat exchangers 21 and 24.

Therefore, the air heated through the heat exchanger 23 is deprived of heat by the heat exchanger 24.
Since the air heated through the heat exchanger 22 is not deprived of heat in this way, it is possible to improve the heating efficiency as compared with the full-scale reheating system.

Further, since the air passing through the heat exchanger 22 is discharged into the room via the fan 33 immediately after the passage, the flow path resistance can be reduced by that much as compared with the full-scale reheating system. .

At the time of the dry operation, the bypass valve 15 is fully opened, the main pressure reducing device 13 is fully closed, the dehumidifying pressure reducing device 25 is opened by a predetermined amount, and the refrigerant is supplied by the four-way valve 16 by a dashed line arrow. Circulates in the direction indicated by.

The refrigerant that has become hot gas from the compressor 11 exchanges heat with the outside air in the outdoor heat exchanger 12 to be condensed, and is sequentially supplied to the heat exchangers 21 and 24 via the bypass valve 15.

The refrigerant from the heat exchanger 24 is substantially adiabatically expanded in the dehumidifying decompression device 25, becomes a refrigerant in a mixed state of a low-temperature liquid and a gas, and is sequentially supplied to the heat exchangers 23 and 24.

Thus, the cold air that has passed through the heat exchanger 23 and has been cooled and dehumidified is warmed by passing through the heat exchanger 24. On the other hand, the air that has passed through the heat exchanger 22 is cooled and dehumidified to become cool air, and the air that has passed through the heat exchanger 21 is warmed and becomes warm air.

Therefore, the warm air from the heat exchanger 21 having a high temperature, the cool air from the heat exchanger 22 having a low temperature, and the air from the heat exchanger 24 having a temperature substantially at room temperature form a layer in the fan 33. So that mixing can be performed efficiently.

In particular, the fan 33 is connected to each heat exchanger 21.
Since the cross flow fan extends in the longitudinal direction of the layer, the three types of air forming a layer are mixed in the layer in the vertical direction, so that the mixing effect can be enhanced.

Therefore, it becomes possible to blow air having a uniform temperature into the room as compared with the case of the air-mix system, and a comfortable dry operation becomes possible.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An inlet port for sucking indoor air is provided on the front and upper surfaces of the indoor unit, and an indoor heat exchanger is disposed opposite to the inlet port provided on the front surface, and a first heat source acting as an evaporator during a dehumidifying operation. And a second heat exchanger disposed downstream of the first heat exchanger and acting as a reheater during the dehumidifying operation.
The heat exchanger is disposed adjacent to the first heat exchanger and along a suction port provided on the upper surface, and functions as a reheater during the dehumidifying operation, and is provided by the first and second heat exchangers. A third heat exchanger having a shorter width, and a dehumidifier disposed in a space formed by setting the width of the third heat exchanger to be shorter than the first and second heat exchangers. Since the decompression device for dehumidifying the first heat exchanger to function as an evaporator and the second and third heat exchangers to function as a reheater during operation is provided, the indoor unit can be made compact. At the same time, the dehumidifying operation can be performed efficiently without lowering the heating efficiency and the like.

[0044]

[0045]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an indoor unit applied to a description of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the indoor unit.

FIG. 3 is a refrigerant circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Compressor 12 Outdoor heat exchanger 13 Main decompression device 15 Bypass valve 21 Heat exchanger (3rd heat exchanger) 22, 23 Heat exchanger (1st heat exchanger) 24 Heat exchanger (2nd heat exchanger) 25 Dehumidifying decompression device 31 Front intake port 32 Top intake port 33 Fan 34 Discharge port

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yugo Tomami 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-10-205877 (JP, A JP-A-8-135994 (JP, A) JP-A-8-327080 (JP, A) JP-A-7-27360 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F24F 1/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An indoor unit including an indoor heat exchanger for exchanging heat between a refrigerant and indoor air, and a fan that draws air from the room, passes the indoor heat exchanger, and then blows the air into the room. An air conditioner having an air inlet for sucking indoor air at a front surface and an upper surface of the indoor unit, and an indoor heat exchanger disposed opposite to the air inlet provided at a front surface of the indoor unit for dehumidification. A first heat exchanger acting as an evaporator during operation; a second heat exchanger disposed downstream of the first heat exchanger and acting as a reheater during dehumidifying operation; The heat exchanger is disposed adjacent to the heat exchanger and along the suction port provided on the upper surface, and acts as a reheater during the dehumidifying operation, and has a width smaller than that of the first and second heat exchangers. 3 heat exchangers and the width of the third heat exchanger During the dehumidifying operation, the first heat exchanger acts as an evaporator disposed in a space formed by setting the width to be shorter than the first and second heat exchangers, and the second and third heat exchangers are used. An air conditioner comprising: a dehumidifying decompression device that causes a heat exchanger to function as a reheater.