JP4753563B2 - Outdoor unit - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an outdoor unit of an air conditioner.

Conventionally, in an outdoor unit equipped with an outdoor heat exchanger such as an air conditioner, it is partitioned vertically by a drain pan, a heat exchange chamber equipped with a heat exchanger, a blower, etc. in the upper stage, and a compressor, electrical parts, etc. in the lower stage An arrangement in which a machine room covered with an exterior panel is arranged is known.
In such an outdoor unit, the drain water collected in the drain pan was drained from the outside of the outdoor unit, and thus the aesthetic appearance was impaired. Therefore, in recent years, in order to improve the appearance of the appearance, there has been proposed one in which a duct having a rectangular cross section is passed through a lower machine chamber and drained by passing drain water therethrough (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-201108 A

  However, foreign matter such as dust contained in the drain water may be clogged in the drain pan, the duct, or the duct outlet of the outdoor unit, thereby obstructing the flow of the drain water. In the conventional outdoor unit, in order to identify the clogged position and remove the causative foreign material, the exterior panel of the machine room must be removed and the duct located in the machine room must be removed. It was.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an outdoor unit that can solve the problems of the conventional techniques described above and can easily identify the position and remove the foreign matter when the foreign matter is clogged in the drainage duct.

In the present invention, a heat exchange chamber provided with a heat exchanger is arranged in the upper stage, a machine room equipped with a compressor and electric parts is arranged in the lower stage, and the machine room and the heat exchange chamber are partitioned through a drain pan. In the outdoor unit, a duct for circulating water from the drain hole of the drain pan extends from the drain pan toward the bottom plate of the machine room, a part of the outer periphery of the duct is opened, and an exterior panel covering the machine room is formed by the duct. By closing the opened portion, the outer periphery of the duct is closed, the lower end of the duct opens to the lower part of the machine room, and the bottom plate of the machine room opens near the opening. A drain hole is provided , and the duct exposes the inside of the duct by removing the exterior panel .

In this case, before Symbol duct, by removing the outer panel, it may be exposed drainage holes in the drain pan. The upper end of the duct may communicate with the drain hole through a ridge. The duct may be removable. The duct may support the drain pan. The duct may support the exterior panel.

  In the present invention, even if the drainage duct is passed through the machine room, if the exterior panel is removed, a part of the duct is opened, so that the inside of the drainage line can be easily confirmed.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an air conditioner. The air conditioner 1 includes a plurality (two) of outdoor units 2A and 2B and a plurality (two) of indoor units 3A and 3B. In the air conditioner 1, the refrigerant pipe 5 that connects the outdoor units 2A, 2B and the indoor units 3A, 3B includes a low-pressure gas pipe 6, a high-pressure gas pipe 7, and a liquid pipe 8, and the indoor unit 3A 3B can be simultaneously operated for cooling or heating, or the cooling operation (including dry operation) and the heating operation can be mixed.

The indoor unit 3 </ b> A includes an indoor heat exchanger (use side heat exchanger) 10 and an expansion valve (decompression device) 11, and one end of the indoor heat exchanger 10 is connected to the liquid pipe via the expansion valve 11. 8 is connected to the pipe. A branch pipe 12 is connected to the other end of the indoor heat exchanger 10, and this branch pipe 12 branches into a high-pressure gas branch pipe 12A and a low-pressure gas branch pipe 12B. The first open / close valve (for example, electromagnetic valve) 13 is connected to the high pressure gas pipe 7, and the other low pressure gas branch pipe 12 </ b> B is connected to the low pressure gas pipe 6 via the second open / close valve (for example, electromagnetic valve) 14. Has been. The indoor unit 3A is provided with a temperature sensor or the like for detecting the inlet / outlet temperature or room temperature of the outdoor heat exchanger 21, and an indoor controller for controlling the indoor unit 3A by inputting the detection results of these sensors. (Not shown).
Since the indoor unit 3B has substantially the same configuration as the indoor unit 3A, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged circuit diagram showing the configuration of the outdoor unit 2A. The outdoor unit 2B has substantially the same configuration, and a description thereof is omitted.
The outdoor unit 2A includes a variable capacity compressor (DC inverter compressor) 20A, constant capacity compressors (AC compressors) 20B1 and 20B2, an oil separator 25, and an outdoor heat exchanger (heat source side heat exchange). Device) 21, an expansion valve 26, a receiver tank 23, and the like. Hereinafter, the compressors 20 </ b> A, 20 </ b> B <b> 1, 20 </ b> B <b> 2 are referred to as the compressors 20 when it is not necessary to distinguish them.

  Each of the compressors 20A, 20B1, and 20B2 is a high-pressure vessel compressor that has a high pressure inside during a compression operation. The high-pressure portion (inside the high-pressure vessel) of one compressor 20 and the low-pressure portion (suction) of another compressor 20 The oil pipe 61 is connected with an oil pipe 61, and the oil pipe 61 is provided with a capillary tube (throttle) 62.

  The compressors 20A, 20B1, and 20B2 are connected in parallel, and the suction pipe 30 that is commonly connected to the suction ports of the compressors 20A, 20B1, and 20B2 is connected to the low-pressure gas pipe 6 via the accumulator 24. The discharge pipe 31 connected to the discharge port of each compressor 20A, 20B1, 20B2 extends through the oil separator 25 and branches into two, and one refrigerant discharge branch pipe 31A is connected to the high-pressure gas pipe 7. The other refrigerant discharge branch pipe 31B is connected to the outdoor heat exchanger 21.

Here, the refrigerant discharge branch pipe 31B is provided with a switching valve 40. When the switching valve 40 is opened, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 20 is supplied to the outdoor heat exchanger 21.
Between the switching valve 40 and the outdoor heat exchanger 21, there is provided a four-way valve 41 in which one port A is blocked. The four-way valve 41 includes one end of the outdoor heat exchanger 21 and the switching valve 40. Or a pipe 32 connected to one end of the outdoor heat exchanger 21 and a suction pipe 30 of the compressor 20.

  The other end of the outdoor heat exchanger 21 is connected to the liquid pipe 8 via an expansion valve 26 for adjusting the flow rate of refrigerant supplied to the outdoor heat exchanger 21, a receiver tank 23, and an auxiliary cooling circuit 28. . The auxiliary cooling circuit 28 auxiliary cools the liquid refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant pipe 33 that connects the receiver tank 23 and the liquid pipe 8, and more specifically, the liquid between the receiver tank 23 and the liquid pipe 8. This is a double-pipe heat exchanger in which a part of the pipe 33 through which the refrigerant passes and a part of the branch pipe 34 through which the refrigerant branches from the pipe 33 and passes through the expansion valve 29 are constituted by double pipes. . The branch pipe 34 through which the refrigerant that has passed through the expansion valve 29 passes is connected to the suction pipe 30 of the compressor 20 via the refrigerant pipe 35 connected to the auxiliary cooling circuit 28, and the refrigerant that has passed through the branch pipes 34 and 35 is compressed. It is returned to the suction port of the machine 20.

  The oil separator 25 includes a refrigerant return pipe 45 that returns excess oil (lubricating oil) to the suction pipe 30 of the compressor 20 when the amount of oil stored in the oil separator 25 is greater than or equal to a predetermined amount, and the oil An oil balance pipe 46 for connecting the separator 25 and the oil separator 25 of the other outdoor unit 2B is connected. The oil balance pipe 46 includes an on-off valve 46A, and is connected to the oil separator 25 of another outdoor unit 2B via an oil pipe 47 and branched from the oil balance pipe 46 as shown in FIG. The refrigerant return pipe 45 is connected via the pipe 45A. The branch pipe 45A is provided with an on-off valve 45B. Therefore, when the on-off valve 46A is opened and the on-off valve 45B is closed, the oil stored in the oil separator 25 is supplied to the other outdoor unit 2B, and when the on-off valve 46A is closed and the on-off valve 45B is opened, The oil supplied from the unit 2B is supplied to the refrigerant return pipe 45 via the branch pipe 45A, so that the oil can travel between the outdoor units 2A and 2B.

Reference numeral 100 denotes an outdoor control device.
The air conditioner 1 includes a remote controller (not shown), and the outdoor control device 100 of any of the outdoor units 2A and 2B receives another outdoor control device according to a user instruction or the like input via the remote controller. It communicates with 100 and an indoor control apparatus, and performs operation control of this air conditioning apparatus 1 whole.

When all the indoor units 3A and 3B are cooled at the same time, in each of the outdoor units 2A and 2B, the switching valve 40 is opened and the four-way valve 41 is switched, and in each of the indoor units 3A and 3B, the first on-off valve 13 Is closed and the second on-off valve 14 is opened. In this case, as indicated by solid line arrows in FIG. 1, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 20 is supplied to the outdoor heat exchanger 21 via the oil separator 25, where heat is dissipated and condensed to form liquid refrigerant, and the receiver tank 23. And it is supplied to the liquid pipe 8 through the auxiliary cooling circuit 28.
In the indoor units 3A and 3B, the liquid refrigerant is supplied to the indoor heat exchanger 10 via the liquid pipe 8 via the expansion valve 11, where it absorbs and evaporates to become a low-temperature and low-pressure gas refrigerant. The gas is supplied to the low-pressure gas pipe 6 through the on-off valve 14.
The gas refrigerant supplied to the low-pressure gas pipe 6 is compressed again by the compressor 20 through the suction pipes 30 of the outdoor units 2A and 2B. As a result, all the indoor units 3A and 3B can simultaneously perform the cooling operation.

  On the other hand, when all the indoor units 3A and 3B are simultaneously operated for heating, the switching valve 40 is closed and the four-way valve 41 is switched in each of the outdoor units 2A and 2B, and the first on-off valve 13 is controlled in each of the indoor units 3A and 3B. Opens and the second on-off valve 14 closes. In this case, the high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor 20 is supplied to the high-pressure gas pipe 7 via the oil separator 25 as indicated by broken line arrows in FIG. In the indoor units 3A and 3B, the gas refrigerant is supplied to the indoor heat exchanger 10 via the high-pressure gas pipe 7, where after the heat is radiated and condensed to become a liquid refrigerant, the refrigerant is supplied via the expansion valve 11. It is supplied to the liquid pipe 8. The liquid refrigerant supplied to the liquid pipe 8 is supplied to the outdoor heat exchanger 21 through the refrigerant pipes 33 and the receiver tank 23 of the outdoor units 2A and 2B, where it absorbs heat and evaporates, where It becomes a gas refrigerant and is compressed again by the compressor 20 through the suction pipe 30. Thereby, the heating operation can be simultaneously performed in all the indoor units 3A and 3B.

  Further, when performing a mixed operation of heating operation and cooling operation, for example, when the indoor unit 3A is operated for heating and the indoor unit 3B is operated for cooling, the outdoor units 2A and 2B are controlled in the same manner as in the above-mentioned simultaneous heating operation. On the other hand, in the indoor unit 3A, the first on-off valve 13 is closed and the second on-off valve 14 is opened, and in the indoor unit 3B, the first on-off valve 13 is opened and the second on-off valve 15 is closed. In this case, high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant is supplied from the outdoor units 2A and 2B to the high-pressure gas pipe 7, and in the indoor unit 3A, gas refrigerant is supplied to the indoor heat exchanger 10 via the high-pressure gas pipe 7. After being radiated / condensed to form a liquid refrigerant, it is supplied to the liquid pipe 8 via the expansion valve 11. A part of the liquid refrigerant supplied to the liquid pipe 8 returns to the outdoor units 2A and 2B, absorbs heat and evaporates in the outdoor heat exchanger 21, and becomes a low-temperature and low-pressure gas refrigerant.

On the other hand, the remainder of the liquid refrigerant supplied to the liquid pipe 8 is supplied to the indoor heat exchanger 10 of the indoor unit 3B, where it absorbs heat and evaporates to become a low-temperature and low-pressure gas refrigerant, and then the second on-off valve 14. Is supplied to the low-pressure gas pipe 6.
The refrigerant supplied to the low-pressure gas pipe 6 is compressed again by the compressor 20 through the suction pipe 30 together with the gas refrigerant passed through the outdoor heat exchanger 21. Thereby, heating operation and cooling operation can be performed for each of the indoor units 3A and 3B.

  The outdoor unit 2 is shown in FIG. The rectangular outdoor unit 2 is partitioned into an upper heat exchange chamber 200 and a lower machine chamber 300 by a drain pan 60.

  The outer periphery of the upper heat exchange chamber 200 forms an intake port 81 so that the outdoor heat exchanger 21 closes the opening of the outer periphery. The outdoor heat exchanger 21 disposed in the heat exchange chamber 200 is bent so as to be L-shaped when viewed from above, and the two L-shaped outdoor heat exchangers 21 form a set, and each heat exchange chamber The four intake ports 81 of 200 are covered two by two.

The upper part of the heat exchange chamber 200 is constituted by a top plate 63 having an exhaust port 82 formed in the center, and the lower part of the heat exchange chamber 200 is constituted by the drain pan 60 described above.
The exhaust port 82 is provided with a blower 64, and the outside air sucked from the intake port 81 by the blower 64 exchanges heat with the refrigerant flowing in the outdoor heat exchanger 21 through the outdoor heat exchanger 21. The outside air after heat exchange is released to the atmosphere by a blower 64 provided at the top. Further, the exhaust port 82 is covered with a fan guard 64A.

  In the lower machine room 300, the above-described compressor 20, accumulator 24, electrical components, four-way valve 41, and the like are arranged. As shown in FIG. 4, the drain pan 60 in the upper part of the machine room 300 is supported by a plurality of square pillars 65 (only one is shown) formed by sheet metal, and these are considered in consideration of maintainability of the machine room 300. The bottom plate 66 is irregularly arranged. Further, the bottom plate 66 is supported by L-shaped installation legs 67 provided on a pair of opposite sides on the back side of the bottom plate 66. Further, the outer periphery of the machine room 300 is formed by an exterior panel 68 that protects the machine room 300 from rain or the like.

  By the way, rainwater may enter from the air inlet 81 and the air outlet 82 of the heat exchange chamber 200. Further, drain water may be dripped from the outdoor heat exchanger 21 during the slow frost operation of the outdoor unit 2 during the heating operation. These are collected by the drain pan 60. The drain pan 60 has a drain pan drain hole 60B. The drain pan 60A is deeply formed from the center of the drain pan 60 to the drain pan drain hole 60B so that the drain pan drain hole 60B is efficiently drained. In particular, the drain pan drain hole 60B is shaped to be the deepest part. As shown in FIG. 6, the drain pan drain hole 60 </ b> B is shaped so that the edge 60 </ b> C protrudes toward the machine room 300.

  A drainage duct 4 according to this embodiment is shown in FIG. The drainage duct 4 is constituted by a drainage duct constituting portion 70 having a U-shaped cross section and a part 68 </ b> A of the exterior panel 68. In other words, the open side surface of the drainage duct component 70 is closed by a part 68A of the exterior panel, whereby the drainage duct 4 has a rectangular cross section. At this time, the surface contact portion 70B provided in the drainage duct component 70 makes surface contact between the drainage duct component 70 and the part 68A of the exterior panel. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the exterior panel 68 is bolted (not shown) to the upper frame portion 69, the lower frame portion 66 </ b> A and the drainage duct constituting portion 70 of the machine room 300.

  The drain pan side surface portion 60 </ b> D and the exterior panel 68 are located on the side surface of the outdoor unit 2. The drain pan drain hole 60B is positioned away from the drain pan side surface portion 60D, and the drain duct component 70 is positioned so as to contact the exterior panel 68. That is, the drain pan drain hole 60B and the drain duct inlet 4A are separated from each other. In order to allow the drain water flowing out from the drain pan drain hole 60 </ b> B to communicate with the drain duct 4, a gutter 71 is disposed.

  The upper end of the drainage duct component 70 is bolted (not shown) to the lower part of the flange 71, and the lower end of the drainage duct component 70 is fixed to the fixing plate 72 (FIG. 7) on the bottom plate 66 of the machine room 300. A bolt (not shown) is fastened through. Here, as shown in FIG. 5, the lower end of the drainage duct component 70 is an opening that is large enough for drain water to flow to the lower end of the surface of the drainage duct component 70 that faces the exterior panel 68. 70A is provided, and the opening 70A communicates with the upper surface of the bottom plate 66. When maintenance is performed on the center of the machine room 300, the exterior panel 68 and the drainage duct component 70 can be removed as shown in FIG. be able to.

  The route of the drainage line will be described with reference to FIG. The drain water collected by the drain pan 60 flows into the drain duct 4 from the drain pan drain hole 60 </ b> B through the gutter 71 located at the upper part of the machine room 300. The drain water that has flowed into the drainage duct 4 flows out from the opening 70 </ b> A on the side surface of the lower end of the drainage duct 4 to the bottom plate 66 of the machine room 300. Next, the drain water that has flowed to the bottom plate 66 is guided to a bottom plate drain hole 73 (FIG. 7) provided in the bottom plate 66 by a drainage channel provided on the bottom plate 66, and from the bottom plate drain hole 73 to the outside. Drained into the water.

  In the present embodiment, by providing the drainage duct 4 having the above-described configuration, the worker simply removes the exterior panel 68 as shown in FIG. 4, and the drain pan drainage hole 60 </ b> B and the drainage duct component 70 are exposed there. . That is, according to the present embodiment, the drain pan drain hole 60B, the inside of the drain duct 4, and the outlet of the drain duct 4 are exposed by simply removing the exterior panel 68, so that the clogged position of dust etc. in the drain line becomes obvious at a glance. The removal operation can be easily performed.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on one Embodiment, this invention is not limited to this. In the present embodiment, the opening 70 </ b> A is provided at the lower end of the drainage duct 4, and the drain water outflow portion is provided inside the machine room 300. For this reason, the blower 64 provided in the heat exchange chamber 200 mixes the outside air flowing into the machine room 300 from the bottom plate drain hole 73 with the air in the machine room, and then flows from the lower end to the upper end of the drain duct 4 to exchange heat. Inhaled into chamber 200. Thus, since the opening 70A at the lower end of the drainage duct 4 is provided inside the machine room 300, it not only ventilates the hot air inside the machine room 300 but also has an effect of preventing freezing of drain water in winter.

  However, in the case where ventilation or prevention of freezing inside the machine room 300 is not necessary, the opening 70A at the lower end of the drainage duct 4 may be directly communicated with the outside of the machine room 300.

  Moreover, the cross section of the drainage duct component 70 may not be a U-shape as long as it has a shape that exposes the interior of the drainage duct 4 by removing the exterior panel 68 such as an arc shape or a triangle.

It is a circuit diagram showing one embodiment of an air harmony device. It is a circuit diagram which shows the structure of an outdoor unit. It is a perspective view of an outdoor unit. It is a perspective view of the outdoor unit which removed the heat exchange chamber and the exterior panel. It is a perspective view of a drainage duct. It is VI-VI sectional drawing at the time of the exterior panel mounting | wearing of FIG. It is a perspective view of the outdoor unit which removed the exterior panel and the duct structure part.

Explanation of symbols

2 Outdoor unit 4 Duct 20 Compressor 21 Heat exchanger 60 Drain pan 60B Drain pan drain hole 66 Bottom plate 68 Exterior panel 71 ２００ 200 Heat exchange chamber 300 Machine room

Claims (6)

The heat exchange chamber with the heat exchanger is on the top,
Machine rooms equipped with compressors and electrical parts are respectively arranged in the lower stage,
In the outdoor unit in which the machine room and the heat exchange chamber are partitioned through a drain pan,
A duct that circulates water from the drain hole of the drain pan extends from the drain pan toward the bottom plate of the machine room, a part of the outer periphery of the duct is opened, and an exterior panel that covers the machine room is opened in the duct. By closing the part, the outer periphery of the duct is closed,
The lower end of the duct opens to the lower part of the machine room, and a bottom plate drain hole that opens the bottom plate of the machine room is provided near the opening ,
The said duct exposes the inside of the said duct by removing the said exterior panel, The outdoor unit characterized by the above-mentioned . The outdoor unit according to claim 1, wherein the duct exposes a drain hole of the drain pan by removing the exterior panel. The outdoor unit according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein an upper end of the duct communicates with a drain hole through a gutter. It said duct has an outdoor unit according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that detachable. It said duct has an outdoor unit according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that to support the drain pan. It said duct has an outdoor unit according to any of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that for supporting the outer panel.

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