JP5162898B2 - Flow measurement device and gas supply system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention is applied to a gas meter for measuring a gas flow rate, installed at the entrance of a gas supply pipe in each home, and provides a new fee and service according to the usage of the gas appliance and other usage. Therefore, the present invention relates to a technique for discriminating and detecting a gas appliance in use.

  Conventionally, as an example of this type of flow rate measuring apparatus, there is a configuration as shown below (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  In general, a gas meter incorporating a gas flow rate measuring means is attached to each household at the entrance of the gas supply line.

  In a conventional gas meter, when a separate charge is applied, the integrated flow when using a plurality of integrating devices connected to the gas meter for a specific time or when a specific range of flow is used is used. That is, the flow rate for each time segment and the flow rate for each flow segment are determined, and the charge system is determined based on the integrated value. An example of the fee system will be described based on FIG. A predetermined discount flow rate category and a predetermined discount time zone are set in advance, and the gas rate of the flow rate corresponding to the discount flow rate category and the discount time zone is targeted for discount. That is, in FIG. 9, the part divided by the oblique lines is the target.

  However, with this method, the specific determination of the appliance is ambiguous, and it is difficult to make a convenient and easy-to-understand fee setting such as charging a fee for the specific appliance. Therefore, the following proposal has been made as a method for discriminating a specific instrument (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

The operation of the proposed example will be described. FIG. 10 shows a gas flow rate change pattern when a certain gas appliance is activated and reference values (pattern table) for performing pattern matching based on the pattern. For one gas appliance, this pattern table needs to be prepared for a series of gas flow rate change patterns generated along with the combustion control of the gas appliance, and it is also necessary for the total number of gas appliances used in each household. . A tool is identified by extracting what matches while constantly comparing the change in the flow rate measured by the flow meter of the gas meter with these pattern tables.
JP 2002-71421 A JP 2003-149027 A

  In the above-described configuration, when the device is unsuccessfully discriminated for some reason, or the portion is left unattended with an incorrect determination, the accuracy of the device determination is lowered, and the reliability of the device determination remains unclear. Have the problem of

  The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and even if there is a change in flow rate and the determination of the instrument for the flow rate is incorrect, error correction can be performed and the accuracy of the instrument determination is improved, and future instrument functions can be improved. An object is to provide a technique that enables easy maintenance.

In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the flow rate measuring device of the present invention includes a flow rate measuring unit that measures a flow rate at a constant time interval, a flow rate information storage unit that stores a flow rate value of the flow rate measuring unit, and an output from the flow rate measuring unit. Calculating means for obtaining a difference value of flow rate values, appliance registration means in which appliance judgment values are recorded, magnitudes of difference values calculated by the arithmetic means and appliance judgment values registered in the appliance registration means And an error correction unit that corrects the determination result and an appliance determination unit that determines a change in the usage state of the appliance connected to the downstream side of the flow rate measurement unit.

  The flow rate measuring device of the present invention can improve the accuracy of appliance discrimination by performing error correction when the appliance discriminating unit cannot discriminate the appliance. You can also use the new price menu prepared by the gas company. Furthermore, since the instrument discrimination function can be updated without changing the specifications of the gas meter, it is possible to easily perform maintenance of future instrument functions.

1st invention calculates | requires the difference value of the flow rate information which memorize | stores the flow rate value of the flow rate measurement means which measures a flow rate by a fixed time interval, the flow rate information storage means which memorize | stores the flow rate value of the said flow rate measurement means, and the said flow rate measurement means Calculation means, instrument registration means in which the difference value at the time of the appliance state change, flow rate change value at startup is recorded, the difference value calculated by the calculation means and the instrument registered in the instrument registration means An appliance discriminating means for comparing the magnitude of the difference value at the time of the state change and determining a change in the usage state of the appliance connected downstream of the flow rate measuring means, and a correcting means for correcting the discrimination result Yes, and the correcting means, when the appliance determination unit can not be state change determination of which instruments, by performing the determination of the instrument by using the flow rate change value at startup, the instrument can not be appliance identification is generated But lost due to error correction Determination can be re-using portions determine another estimate.

  In the second aspect of the invention, in particular, the use flow rate for each appliance can be obtained by the configuration in which the appliance discrimination means of the first invention calculates the flow rate for each appliance based on the result of the appliance discrimination means.

A third invention is, in particular, the correction means in the first invention, it is determined that if indeterminate the measurement value of the total and the flow rate measuring means of the calculated device-specific flow rate of the instrument-specific flow rate calculation means is not suitable configuration Therefore, it is not necessary to redo the correction even though there is no error in the determination.

  In the fourth aspect of the invention, in particular, the flow rate information storage means of any one of the first to third aspects of the invention is provided with information compression means for compressing and storing the flow rate information in the time axis direction, thereby making history data longer. Even if it is left, it is sufficient to leave only the part where the flow rate actually changed, so the capacity of the storage device can be greatly reduced.

  In the fifth aspect of the invention, in particular, the flow rate measuring means according to any one of the first to fourth aspects of the invention uses an ultrasonic flowmeter as the instantaneous flow rate measuring means, so that instantaneous measurement at a constant time can be easily performed. Can do.

  In particular, the sixth invention is a gas operator by constructing a gas supply system using a flow rate measuring device connected to a household gas supply pipe in the diversion measuring device of any one of the first to fifth inventions. Will be able to use the new price menu prepared by, and to expand sales of gas and gas appliances.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the present embodiment.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a flow rate measuring apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a flow rate measuring device, which is provided in the middle of a gas supply pipe, and one or more gas appliances installed in each customer's house are connected to the downstream pipe.

  Inside the flow rate measuring device, the gas shutoff valve 2, gas flow rate measuring means 3 and signals from the gas flow rate measuring means 3 provided in the gas flow path connected to the gas pipe are processed to display the used gas flow rate. The display unit 4, the seismic device 5 for detecting vibrations such as earthquakes, and the gas appliance discrimination according to the present invention, the calculation means 6, the appliance registration means 7, the flow rate information storage means 8 and the appliance discrimination means 9 are mistaken. The correction means 10 incorporates a control circuit 11 that performs overall control processing of these functions and the like, and a battery (not shown) as a power source thereof.

  The appliance registration means 7 includes an appliance determination value that is a criterion for determining whether or not a flow rate change has occurred, and a change point determination value at a series of combustion state change points (starting, controlling, stopping, etc.) of each gas appliance. Is recorded. The device registration means 7 for storing and holding recorded data uses a semiconductor memory in the present invention, but it can be a magnetic recording medium or the like as long as it can add and rewrite records.

  In addition, regarding the flow rate measuring means 3 of the present invention, an ultrasonic type measuring means is used, but as a measuring method, other flow rate measuring methods can be continuously measured in a constant cycle in a short time such as a full dick method. Can be used.

  The operation will be described below.

  First, ultrasonic flow velocity measurement will be described with reference to FIG. The measurement channel 12 has a rectangular cross section, and a pair of ultrasonic transmitters / receivers 13 and 14 are located upstream of the channel with the measurement channel 12 sandwiched between walls perpendicular to the gas flow direction of the measurement channel 12. The side and the downstream side are mounted to face each other at an angle φ. Ultrasonic waves are alternately transmitted and received between the ultrasonic transmitters / receivers 13 and 14, and the difference between the propagation times of the ultrasonic waves in the forward direction and the reverse direction with respect to the flow of the fluid is measured at regular intervals, and output as a propagation time difference signal. Have a job. In response to this propagation time difference signal, the calculation means (not shown) calculates the flow velocity and flow rate of the fluid to be measured. The calculation formula is shown below.

In FIG. 2, L is a measurement distance, where t ₁ is the transmission time from the upstream, t ₂ is the transmission time from the downstream, and C is the speed of sound, the flow velocity V is expressed by the equation (1) V = (L / 2 cos φ) · ((1 / t ₁ ) − (1 / t ₂ ))
Although the measurement time interval can be set in a range where ultrasonic waves can be transmitted and received, in the present invention, measurement is performed at intervals of 2 seconds. Furthermore, it is possible to reduce the time interval in terms of the measurement principle. Depending on the gas instrument, there are instruments that start up in less than 2 seconds, so reducing the measurement time interval is advantageous in terms of instantaneous instrument discrimination. However, if the measurement interval is shortened, there is a problem that the battery consumption increases, and the measurement interval equivalent to the membrane type used in the conventional gas meter is a second digit order interval. Therefore, it becomes difficult to make a judgment by looking at the difference in flow rate change of the algorithm of the present invention, and in the present invention, it is performed by measuring at intervals of 2 seconds as a well-balanced time from the viewpoint of cost and instrument discrimination performance.

  Next, a procedure for determining the operating state of the gas appliance will be described.

  As described above, the flow rate measuring device measures the gas flow rate every 2 seconds, sends the data to the calculation means, differentiates the flow rate value, and outputs it as differential data of the flow rate every 2 seconds.

  This difference data is sequentially sent to the appliance discriminating means 9 and compared with the change judgment value registered in the appliance registration means 7. When the difference value exceeds the comparison determination value, it is determined that the gas appliance has changed state. When a change is detected, in order to further determine which gas appliance is in what state, the appliance discriminating means 9 compares the change value according to the state of each gas appliance registered in the flow rate information storage means 8, and And the state of the appliance.

  FIG. 3 shows changes in the gas flow rate and changes in the difference value when an actual gas appliance is used.

  In the graph of FIG. 3, the solid line indicates the gas flow rate value measured by the flow rate measuring means 3 and the broken line indicates the differential value at that time, that is, the difference value every 2 seconds. The difference value is expressed with a peak on the plus side when the gas appliance is started, and is expressed with a peak on the minus side when the gas appliance is stopped.

  In the above embodiment, when the difference value is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (change determination value), it is assumed that there is a change as shown in FIG. However, in the case of the determination for the limited instrument registered in advance and the processing speed is high, the difference value data from the calculation means 6 is directly compared with the change point determination value data of all the gas instruments. If it is possible within 2 seconds, it is also possible to determine the changed gas appliance and state directly from the difference value.

  In addition, although the flow rate value and difference value when using three apparatuses (ABC) simultaneously in FIG. 4 are shown on a graph, it can confirm that the change at the time of starting of 3 apparatuses and a stop is read.

  In addition, if the device does not move as registered for some reason, the device may recognize the change state of the device but cannot perform subsequent processing, and may be determined to be an incorrect device. As shown in FIG. 5, when the appliance discrimination does not match, the error correction means 10 determines the portion where the appliance discrimination does not match based on the flow rate data record in the flow rate information storage means 8 as described above. A function that corrects even if the discrimination fails once by comparing the flow rate change at startup and the registered value, estimating and determining which device was the device, and confirming the startup device at that point By having it, the discrimination accuracy can be improved.

  In addition, as a method of discriminating an instrument in error correction, other methods can be used as long as discrimination and estimation can be performed based on flow rate information.

  The discriminated information is a means for confirming information from the flow rate information storage means 8 on the display unit via the control circuit 11 or data transfer to an external terminal (not shown). Any of them can be used.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, by having a flow rate integrating means 15 for each instrument in the flow rate measuring device, the change value of each gas amount can be integrated to obtain the change in gas used for each device / function. It is possible to calculate gas usage by function. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the flow rate for each appliance is obtained by appliance discrimination, and if the sum of the flow rates of each appliance and the value of the instantaneous measurement flow rate between them are substantially correct, it is judged that the discrimination is correct and there is a difference. For example, it is assumed that the determination is wrong and a trigger for correcting the error is made.

  Furthermore, by providing a charge calculation means for individual flow rates so that individual charges can be charged for the gas flow rates used for each device / function, an arbitrary charge for each appliance / function can be calculated according to the settings of the gas company. It is also possible.

  As an example of services that can be provided, it is conceivable to apply a discount system only to heating appliances as a new gas charge system. Use can lead to gas sales expansion of gas companies and further sales of equipment.

As described above, since the flow rate measuring device according to the present invention can improve the accuracy of appliance discrimination by performing error correction when the appliance discriminating unit cannot discriminate the appliance, the security using the appliance discrimination information can be improved. It can be used for functions and various fee services.

Configuration diagram of a flow rate measuring device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flow rate measurement unit configuration diagram in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Characteristics diagram of flow rate and calculation value in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Characteristics diagram of flow rate and calculation value in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flow chart of discrimination operation in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Configuration diagram of a flow rate measuring device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flow chart of discrimination operation in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Flow chart of discrimination operation in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Discrimination method conceptual diagram of conventional flow measurement devices Discrimination method data structure diagram of conventional flow measurement device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Flow measuring device 2 Gas shut-off valve 3 Flow measuring means 4 Display part 5 Seismic device 6 Calculation means 7 Instrument registration means 8 Flow information storage means 9 Instrument discrimination means 10 Error correction means 11 Control circuit 12 Measurement flow path 13, 14 Sonic wave transmitter / receiver 15

Claims (6)

A flow rate measuring means for measuring the flow rate at regular time intervals;
Flow rate information storage means for storing a flow rate value of the flow rate measuring means;
A calculation means for obtaining a difference value between the flow rate values output from the flow rate measurement means;
A device registration means in which a difference value at the time of the state change of the device and a flow rate change value at the time of activation are recorded,
The difference between the difference value calculated by the calculation means and the difference value when the state of the appliance registered in the appliance registration means is compared, and the usage state of the appliance connected downstream of the flow rate measurement means Instrument discriminating means for judging the change of
It possesses a correction means for performing correction of the determination result,
The flow rate measuring apparatus which performs discrimination | determination of an instrument using the flow volume change value at the time of the said start, when the said correction means cannot determine which instrument state change the said instrument discrimination means . Flow rate measuring apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an instrument-specific flow rate calculation means for calculating the flow rate for each appliance based on the result of said appliance determination unit. It said correction means, the flow rate measuring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein it is determined that if indeterminate the measurement value of the total and the flow rate measuring means of the calculated device-specific flow rate of the instrument-specific flow rate calculation means is not suitable. The flow rate measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the flow rate information storage unit includes an information compression unit that compresses and stores a flow rate value in a time axis direction. The flow rate measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the flow rate measuring unit uses an ultrasonic flowmeter as an instantaneous flow rate measuring unit. The gas supply system using the flow measuring device of any one of Claims 1-5 connected to the household gas supply pipe | tube.