JP5327618B2 - Hot water unit for solar system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention has a configuration in which a hot water unit as a component of a solar system for generating hot water using solar heat, more specifically, an expansion tank is provided in a circulation path of a heat medium heated in a solar collector. The present invention relates to a hot water unit for a solar system.

  In a solar system in which a heat medium such as antifreeze is heated by a solar collector, a heat exchanger is provided in the heat medium circulation path, and hot water is heated using this heat exchanger. It is comprised so that it may be stored by the tank. As the heat exchanger, for example, a coil type provided in a hot water tank is often used. In the solar system of the type described above, an expansion tank is provided in the heat medium circulation path, and when the heat medium thermally expands in the heat medium circulation path, a part of the heat medium is absorbed by the expansion tank. Generally, the pressure of the heat medium in the heat medium circulation path is prevented from rising abnormally (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

  However, in the prior art, as described below, there are still points to be improved when designing and manufacturing an expansion tank.

  That is, the expansion tank is usually made of a synthetic resin for reasons such as simplifying the manufacturing process (see, for example, Patent Document 3). On the other hand, solar collectors are often installed in a relatively large area on the roof of a general house or in other locations, and the overall length of the heat medium circulation path is considerably long correspondingly. There are many. In such a case, the expansion tank must be formed in a large size so that the expansion tank has a capacity of, for example, about 10 L or more. If the expansion tank is made of a synthetic resin, it is easily damaged by an impact or other external force. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the strength in order to cope with this. Further, when the expansion tank size is increased, if the strength thereof is low, the side wall portion of the expansion tank is likely to be deformed to expand outward due to the internal pressure (pressure of the heat medium in the expansion tank). Therefore, in the past, it was necessary to secure the strength of the expansion tank made of synthetic resin in a large size, so that the thickness of each part of the expansion tank was increased, or reinforcing ribs were installed at multiple locations. Therefore, it was difficult to design and produce it. Therefore, it is desirable to improve such points.

JP 2004-44952 A JP 2002-195663 A Special table 2009-505035

  The present invention has been conceived under the circumstances as described above, and even when the expansion tank is formed in a large size, its strength is increased by simple and rational means. It is an object of the present invention to provide a solar system hot water unit that can suitably suppress the problem of deformation due to its internal pressure.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention takes the following technical means.

  A hot water unit for a solar system provided by the present invention is provided in a heat medium circulation path for circulating a heat medium heated in a solar collector through a certain path, and expansion for absorbing expansion of the heat medium. A heat exchanger that is provided in the tank and the heat medium circulation path and that can exchange heat between the heat medium and the hot water so as to heat the hot water to be heated using the heat medium. The expansion tank has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape in which a plurality of side walls standing in the vertical direction are configured using a metal plate, and the expansion tank The heat exchanger is fixedly attached to an outer surface portion of at least one of the plurality of side wall portions so as to prevent the side wall portion from being bent outward by an internal pressure of the expansion tank. It is characterized by It is.

According to such a configuration, the following effects can be obtained.
First, since the plurality of side walls of the expansion tank are made of a metal plate, the side walls can be prevented from being easily damaged due to an impact or other external load. In the present invention, compared to the prior art in which the plurality of side walls are made of synthetic resin, even when the expansion tank is formed in a large size, a relatively thin metal plate is used to provide sufficient durability. Can be secured. Since it is not necessary to provide reinforcing ribs on the plurality of side walls, the problem of difficulty in designing and manufacturing the same can be improved.
Secondly, when the side wall portion of the expansion tank is formed of a thin metal plate, the plurality of side wall portions are likely to bend outwardly due to the internal pressure of the expansion tank. At least one bending deformation of the side wall portion is suitably suppressed by effectively using a heat exchanger that should originally be provided in the hot water unit for solar system. Therefore, the configuration is reasonable, and it is possible to suppress an increase in the number of parts such as reinforcing members and a complicated structure, and to appropriately avoid an increase in manufacturing cost.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the expansion tank is formed in a flat shape, and the plurality of side wall portions include a pair of side wall portions, and a width and area larger than those of the pair of side wall portions. There are a side wall part and a rear side wall part, and the heat exchanger is fixedly attached to at least one outer surface part of the front side wall part and the rear side wall part.

  According to such a configuration, since the expansion tank is formed in a flat shape, and the width and area of the pair of side wall portions of the expansion tank are small, these portions can be expanded without any particular reinforcement. Due to the internal pressure of the tank, it is possible not to bend greatly outward, and the structure for preventing the bending can be further simplified by that amount. On the other hand, the front and rear side walls of the expansion tank have a large width and area, so that they inherently tend to bend due to the internal pressure of the expansion tank, but at least one of them is The heat exchanger is preferably used.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heat exchanger is fixedly attached to the outer surface portion of the front side wall portion, and the outer surface portion of the rear side wall portion is heated by the heat exchanger. A hot water storage tank for storing hot water, and at least one of a fixing member or a device separate from the hot water storage tank are in direct or indirect contact with each other, and the rear side wall portion is also prevented from bending outward. Has been.

  According to such a configuration, it is appropriately realized by a simple configuration that the front side wall portion and the rear side wall portion having a large width and area among the plurality of side wall portions of the expansion tank are hardly bent.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heat exchanger is attached so as to reinforce a portion of the side wall portion of the expansion tank that is lower than a normal liquid level of the heat medium in the expansion tank. ing.

  According to such a configuration, the portion of the side wall portion of the expansion tank that is directly subjected to the pressure of the heat medium and is likely to bend and deform is efficiently reinforced by the heat exchanger, and the bending deformation is more appropriately performed. Can be suppressed.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heat exchanger is a double pipe heat exchanger having an inner pipe and an outer pipe, and the outer pipe of the double pipe heat exchanger is the expansion tank. At least one straight tube portion extending in the surface direction of the outer surface portion while being in contact with the outer surface portion of the side wall portion, and the side wall portion is reinforced by the straight tube portion.

  According to such a configuration, the straight tubular body portion of the outer tube of the double-tube heat exchanger exhibits a function as a reinforcing rib that reinforces the side wall portion of the expansion tank. The rigidity of the part provided in contact with the body part is increased. Therefore, it is more preferable for suppressing deformation of the side wall portion of the expansion tank.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heat exchanger is a stacked heat exchanger, and the stacked heat exchanger has a total weight or a pipe member connected to the stacked heat exchanger. A part is received and is held by a bracket attached to the outer surface portion of the side wall portion or directly attached to the outer surface portion, thereby pressing the side wall portion from the outside. Yes.

  According to such a configuration, while avoiding that the weight of the stacked heat exchanger acts as a large load on the side wall portion of the expansion tank, the side wall portion is bent and deformed using the stacked heat exchanger. It can be suppressed appropriately.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(A) is a plane sectional view showing an example of the warm water unit for solar systems concerning the present invention, and (b) is the side sectional view. It is a schematic explanatory drawing which shows an example of the whole structure of the solar system comprised using the warm water unit for solar systems shown in FIG. It is a principal part perspective view of FIG. It is IV-IV sectional drawing of FIG. It is a disassembled perspective view of the part shown in FIG. It is a disassembled perspective view of the expansion tank used for the warm water unit for solar systems shown in FIG. It is side surface sectional drawing which shows the other example of the warm water unit for solar systems which concerns on this invention. It is a principal part perspective view of FIG. It is a disassembled perspective view of the part shown in FIG. It is principal part sectional drawing which shows the other example of this invention. It is a principal part schematic perspective view which shows the other example of this invention.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  FIGS. 1-6 has shown an example of the hot water unit for solar systems (henceforth abbreviated as "hot water unit") to which this invention was applied. As shown well in FIG. 2, the hot water unit U <b> 1 of the present embodiment is used by being connected to the solar collector 1 via the piping member 70, and includes a hot water tank 2, an expansion tank 3, A heat exchanger 4, an auxiliary heat source machine 5, and an outer case 6 for housing them are provided. In a state where the solar heat collector 1 and the hot water unit U1 are connected, the heat medium circulation path 7 for circulating the heat medium between the solar heat collector 1 and the hot water unit U1 is configured by driving the pump P1. The The heating medium circulation path 7 is provided with an expansion tank 3 and a heat exchanger 4. Note that FIG. 2 only schematically shows the configuration of the hot water unit U1, and the positional relationship of each component device in the figure does not accurately reflect the contents of the present invention.

  The expansion tank 3 serves to absorb the expansion of the heat medium and stabilize the pressure in the heat medium circulation path 7, but in the present embodiment, the expansion tank 3 is made of metal. . The details will be described later. The heat exchanger 4 is for heating the hot water by performing heat exchange between the heat medium and the hot water, but in the present embodiment, a double-pipe heat exchanger is used as the heat exchanger 4. Details of this point will be described later.

  The hot water tank 2 is for storing hot water heated using the heat exchanger 4, and the pump P2 is driven to send hot water in the hot water tank 2 from the lower pipe 20 to the heat exchanger 4. After the heating, the heated hot water can flow into the hot water storage tank 2 from the upper pipe 21 and be stored. The auxiliary heat source unit 5 is for heating hot water when the hot water temperature in the hot water tank 2 is less than the target hot water temperature, and has the same configuration as, for example, a general gas water heater. When the hot water temperature in the hot water storage tank 2 is equal to or higher than the target hot water supply temperature, it is not necessary to drive the auxiliary heat source unit 5. In this case, the valve V1 in FIG. Thus, hot water is circulated from the upper pipe 21 of the hot water tank 2 toward the hot water mixing valve V2 and the hot water outlet 91 using the incoming water pressure. On the other hand, when the hot water temperature in the hot water storage tank 2 is less than the target hot water supply temperature, the pump P2 is driven to supply hot water to the auxiliary heat source unit 5 with the valve V1 opened, and the The heated hot water is circulated toward the hot water mixing valve V2 and the hot water outlet 91.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the outer case 6 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, a plurality of columns 61 a to 61 c erected from the bottom plate portion 60, a plurality of panels 62 covering the periphery and the upper side of the hot water tank 2 and other components. And a front door 63 (the arrow Fr in FIG. 1 indicates the front of the hot water unit U1). In the hot water storage tank 2, substantially the entire outer surface portion is covered with the heat insulating material 22, and is disposed in the inner part of the outer case 6. The auxiliary heat source unit 5 is fixedly attached to one or a plurality of horizontal beams 50 provided between a pair of support columns 61 a near the front surface of the outer case 6. However, the auxiliary heat source unit 5 is located near the upper part in the outer case 6, and the heat exchanger 4 and other components (not shown) are arranged below the auxiliary heat source unit 5. Spatial space is provided.

  The expansion tank 3 is disposed between the auxiliary heat source device 5 and the hot water tank 2 and is attached to a horizontal beam 64 provided between the pair of support columns 61b (see also FIGS. 3 and 5). The expansion tank 3 is formed in a flat and substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and is made of metal formed using, for example, a thin stainless plate. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, the front side wall part 30a, the rear side wall part 30b, and the pair of lateral side wall parts 30c that constitute the body part 30 of the expansion tank 3 are, for example, a single stainless plate. It is formed by bending into a cylindrical shape and joining the end edges. The upper plate portion 31 and the bottom plate portion 32 of the expansion tank 3 are also formed by processing a stainless plate, and these are joined to the trunk portion 30 so as to close the upper opening portion and the lower opening portion of the trunk portion 30. The width and area of the pair of side wall portions 30c are determined so as not to be easily deformed due to the internal pressure of the expansion tank 3 without any particular reinforcement. Has been smaller than. The expansion tank 3 is provided with a pair of brackets 33 for attachment, and heat medium inflow / outflow members 34a and 34b for causing the expansion tank 3 to perform its original function, an overflow member 34c, and the like as appropriate. It is assembled.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the heat exchanger 4 is a double-pipe heat exchanger having an inner tube 40 and an outer tube 41. A heat medium flows through the inner tube 40, and hot water to be heated flows through the gap between the inner tube 40 and the outer tube 41. If a heating medium having a temperature higher than that of the hot water to be heated is circulated in the inner tube 40, wasteful heat radiation from the heat exchanger 4 is suppressed as compared with the case where the hot water on the low temperature side is circulated in the inner tube 40. be able to.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the heat exchanger 4 includes a plurality of heat exchangers 4 extending from one side edge or the vicinity thereof in the left-right width direction of the front side wall 30 a of the expansion tank 3 toward the other side edge or the vicinity thereof. And a serpentine portion Z having a U-shaped bent tube portion 43 that connects the ends of the plurality of straight tube portions 42. The serpentine portion Z Is fixedly attached to the front side wall 30 a of the expansion tank 3. This attachment is made such that the substantially full length region of the meandering portion Z is in contact with the outer surface portion of the front side wall portion 30a, and is performed, for example, via the welded portion W shown in FIG. 4 or by brazing. . In order to reinforce the front side wall part 30a, it is desirable to increase the number of joints between the front side wall part 30a and the outer tube 41 of the heat exchanger 4 as much as possible, or to make the joint dimension as long as possible. Preferably, the outer tube 41 of the heat exchanger 4 is bonded to at least both side edges in the left-right width direction or the vicinity thereof in the front side wall part 30a which is less likely to bend and deform, and the front side wall part 30a. Of these, it is also joined to the central portion in the left-right width direction where bending deformation is most likely to occur. Of course, it can also be set as the structure which aimed at those joining in the substantially full length area of the contact location of the outer surface part of the front side wall part 30a, and the meandering part Z. FIG.

  The meandering portion Z of the heat exchanger 4 is not provided over substantially the entire area of the front side wall portion 30a of the expansion tank 3, and focuses on a location lower than the normal liquid level of the heat medium in the expansion tank 3. It is provided to reinforce. Further, the heat exchanger 4 receives the weight of the meandering portion Z by another tube body 44 connected to the meandering portion Z, so that the whole or a part of the weight of the meandering portion Z is the front side wall portion. It is configured not to act on 30a.

  As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, the expansion tank 3 is attached so that the rear side wall 30 b abuts against the horizontal beam 64, and the rear side wall 30 b bends backward due to the presence of the horizontal beam 64. Can be suppressed. Further, as shown in FIG. 1A, the heat insulating material 22 of the hot water tank 2 is in contact with the rear side wall 30b of the expansion tank 3 in a compressed state, and this also causes the rear side wall 30b to bend. Is suppressed. On the other hand, a heat insulating material 52 is interposed between the upper region of the front side wall portion 30 a of the expansion tank 3 and the auxiliary heat source unit 5 to fill the gap. As a result, the effect of preventing deformation of the front side wall portion 30a is further enhanced, and the auxiliary heat source device 5, the expansion tank 3, and the hot water tank 2 are brought into series contact via the heat insulating materials 52 and 22. It is possible to prevent rattling easily during transportation or during an earthquake.

  Next, the operation of the hot water unit U1 will be described.

  First, since the expansion tank 3 is made of metal using a stainless plate or the like, even if the overall size of the expansion tank 3 is increased while reducing the thickness of each part. It becomes difficult to be easily damaged due to impact or other external loads. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide reinforcing ribs at a number of locations, and the structure of the expansion tank 3 can be simplified and the manufacture thereof can be made relatively easy.

  Next, if the trunk portion 30 of the expansion tank 3 is made of a thin metal, the expansion tank 3 is likely to be deformed due to the internal pressure of the expansion tank 3, but in the present embodiment, the following will be described. Moreover, such a thing is also suppressed appropriately. That is, the expansion tank 3 has a flat shape, and the width and area of the pair of side wall portions 30c are small. Therefore, the pair of side wall portions 30c need not be reinforced, and the expansion tank 3 is not particularly reinforced. It can be prevented from being greatly bent due to the internal pressure. On the other hand, the front side wall portion 30a of the expansion tank 3 is reinforced by the heat exchanger 4, and the bending deformation of this portion is also suppressed. More specifically, since the meandering portion Z of the heat exchanger 4 is integrally joined to the front side wall portion 30a by welding or brazing, the meandering portion Z plays a role similar to that of the reinforcing rib, As a result, the rigidity of the joint portion with the Z-shaped portion Z is increased, and the bending of the front side wall portion 30a is suppressed. Further, the meandering portion Z is not attached in a state of being hung from the front side wall portion 30a, and the meandering portion Z itself also plays a role of pressing the front side wall portion 30a from the front side. The effect which the bending of the front side wall part 30a is suppressed also by such is acquired. The meandering portion Z has a plurality of straight tubular body portions 42, and these straight tubular body portions 42 can all be brought into contact with the front side wall portion 30a over a long dimension region. In addition, a relatively wide area of the front side wall 30a can be efficiently reinforced. Furthermore, as described above, the effect of suppressing the deformation of the front side wall portion 30a is also obtained by the heat insulating material 52 interposed between the auxiliary heat source unit 5 and the expansion tank 3. With respect to the rear side wall 30b of the expansion tank 3, the horizontal beam 64 and the heat insulating material 22 of the hot water tank 2 are in contact with each other, so that it can be easily prevented from being deformed.

  Thus, in this embodiment, it is not necessary to provide the expansion tank 3 itself with means for preventing the expansion tank 3 from bending, and the structure of the expansion tank 3 can be simplified. As means for preventing the bending of the front side wall part 30a and the rear side wall part 30b, the heat exchanger 4 to be originally provided in the hot water unit U1, the horizontal beam 64 for mounting the expansion tank 3, the hot water tank 2, and the like are used. The configuration is reasonable. Therefore, an increase in manufacturing cost of the hot water unit U1 can be suppressed.

  7 to 11 show other embodiments of the present invention. In these drawings, the same or similar elements as those of the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals as those of the above embodiment.

  In the hot water unit U2 shown in FIG. 7, a laminated heat exchanger 4A is used instead of the double-pipe heat exchanger 4 of the above embodiment. This stacked heat exchanger 4A is provided with a plurality of heat transfer plates (not shown) stacked in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 46, for example, and is well illustrated in FIGS. As described above, the main tank 8A and the auxiliary bracket 8B are fixedly attached to the front side wall portion 30a of the expansion tank 3. More specifically, these two brackets 8A and 8B are both formed by pressing a stainless plate or the like, and the main bracket 8A is welded or brazed to the front side wall 30a of the expansion tank 3. ing. Notch recesses 80a and 80b are formed in the upper and lower portions of the main bracket 8A, and the heat exchanger 4A is fitted into the notch recesses 80a and 80b to be positioned in the left-right width direction. In contact with the main bracket 8A. The auxiliary bracket 8B is substantially U-shaped in plan view, and is screwed to the main bracket 8A so as to surround a part of the heat exchanger 4A so that the heat exchanger 4A does not fall off the main bracket 8A. .

  The heat exchanger 4A is in a state where all or a part of its weight is received by the piping member 47 connected to the heat exchanger 4A. In the case of the above-described double-tube heat exchanger 4 Similarly, the entire weight of the heat exchanger 4A is configured not to act on the front side wall portion 30a. Preferably, the weight of the heat exchanger 4A does not act on the front side wall portion 30a at all, but this point is the same as in the case of the double-tube heat exchanger 4 described above.

  Also in this embodiment, 4 A of heat exchangers play the role which presses the front side wall part 30a of the expansion tank 3 from the front side, and can suppress appropriately that the front side wall part 30a bends. In addition, since the main bracket 8A is integrally joined to the front side wall portion 30a by welding or brazing, this increases the rigidity of the front side wall portion 30a, and this also has the effect of suppressing bending. It is done. In the present embodiment, the heat exchanger 4 is mounted using the two brackets 8A and 8B, but instead, the heat exchanger 4A is brought into direct contact with the front side wall portion 30a. Means such as welding or brazing can also be employed. Even when such a means is employed, the heat exchanger 4A suppresses the bending of the front side wall 30a by preventing the weight of the heat exchanger 4A from acting on the front side wall 30a. be able to.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, as a means for fixing the double-pipe heat exchanger 4 to the front side wall portion 30 a of the expansion tank 3, a substantially U-shaped presser fitting 9 is used. In the present invention, it is also possible to employ such attachment means.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 11, a double-pipe heat exchanger 4 is wound around the expansion tank 3. According to such a configuration, not only the front side wall portion 30a of the expansion tank 3 but also the deflection of the rear side wall portion 30b and the side wall portion 30c other than that can be suppressed by the single heat exchanger 4.

  The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the hot water unit for solar system according to the present invention can be varied in design in various ways.

  For example, as a heat exchanger for exchanging heat between the heat medium and hot water to be heated, a heat exchanger other than a double tube type or a laminated type can be used. The expansion tank may not be entirely made of metal, and for example, the top and bottom of the expansion tank may be made of a material other than metal. In addition, the expansion tank is preferably formed in a flat, substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, but can also have a non-flat shape (a cubic shape or a shape close thereto).

Claims (6)

An expansion tank provided in the heat medium circulation path for circulating the heat medium heated in the solar collector, and for absorbing the expansion of the heat medium;
A heat exchanger provided in the heat medium circulation path and capable of exchanging heat between the heat medium and the hot water so as to heat hot water to be heated using the heat medium;
A hot water unit for a solar system comprising:
The expansion tank has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape in which a plurality of side walls standing in the vertical height direction are configured using a metal plate,
The heat exchanger is fixed to an outer surface portion of at least one side wall portion of the plurality of side walls of the expansion tank so as to prevent the side wall portion from being bent outward by an internal pressure of the expansion tank. A hot water unit for a solar system, characterized in that The expansion tank is formed in a flat shape, and as the plurality of side wall portions, there are a pair of side wall portions, and a front side wall portion and a rear side wall portion whose width and area are larger than the pair of side wall portions,
The hot water unit for a solar system according to claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger is fixedly attached to at least one outer surface portion of the front side wall portion and the rear side wall portion.   The heat exchanger is fixedly attached to the outer surface portion of the front side wall portion, and the hot water storage tank for storing hot water heated by the heat exchanger is provided on the outer surface portion of the rear side wall portion, and the hot water storage tank. 3. The structure according to claim 2, wherein at least one of a fixing member or a device separate from the abutting member directly or indirectly abuts and the rear side wall portion is also prevented from bending outward. Hot water unit for solar system.   4. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger is attached so as to reinforce a portion of the side wall portion of the expansion tank that is lower than a normal liquid level of the heat medium in the expansion tank. Hot water unit for solar system as described in Crab. The heat exchanger is a double pipe heat exchanger having an inner tube and an outer tube,
The outer tube of the double-pipe heat exchanger has at least one straight tube portion that extends in the surface direction of the outer surface portion while contacting the outer surface portion of the side wall portion of the expansion tank. The warm water unit for solar systems according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the side wall portion is reinforced by a tubular tube portion. The heat exchanger is a stacked heat exchanger,
The laminated heat exchanger is held by a bracket attached to the outer surface portion of the side wall portion, with all or part of the weight being received by a piping member connected to the laminated heat exchanger. The hot water unit for solar system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the side wall portion is pressed from the outside by being directly attached to the outer surface portion.

Images