JP5503127B2 - Gas appliance failure detection device, gas meter, and gas appliance defective ignition detection method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a gas appliance failure detection device, and more particularly to a gas appliance failure detection device that detects an ignition failure of a gas combustion appliance.

  The gas combustion appliance is provided with an ignition device, and when the user turns the operation knob, the gas begins to flow and sparks are generated to ignite the gas. However, when the ignition device deteriorates, it becomes difficult to generate a spark even if the operation knob is turned, and the operation knob is turned many times for ignition. When the time further passes and the deterioration progresses, it is finally impossible to automatically ignite. At this point, it is a normal usage pattern that the user determines that there is a failure and requests repair.

However, as described above, if the automatic ignition is difficult and the use is continued, it is likely to cause gas leakage, which is not preferable for safety. Accordingly, there has been an increasing demand for more quickly detecting deterioration and failure of the ignition device so that it can be dealt with accurately.
For this reason, for example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an ignition failure detection device that determines whether or not there is an ignition failure from a history of gas flow rate.

In the ignition failure detection device described in Patent Document 1, the gas flow rate Q measured at regular time intervals is obtained, the data is stored and accumulated in time series, and the detection history of the gas flow rate Q is as follows. The ignition failure is determined by comparing the histories of the gas flow patterns of the case where the ignition is normally performed and the case where the ignition is poor.
JP 2006-313036 A

In the case of the ignition failure detection device described in Patent Document 1, a gas flow pattern history is required for each gas flow pattern, the memory capacity for storing becomes excessive, and the gas flow pattern history increases as the gas flow pattern history increases. It takes a lot of time to search the pattern history.
In addition, the ignition failure detection device described in Patent Document 1 does not describe the ignition failure determination when the gas combustion appliance is used at the same time, and temporarily stores the history of the gas flow rate pattern when the gas combustion appliance is used simultaneously. In such a case, there are many (unlimited) combinations of simultaneous use of gas combustion appliances, and it is not realistic to store and manage the history in the memory.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of such a situation, and memorizes an ignition failure that occurs when an ignition device in a gas combustion appliance deteriorates, and stores a history of a gas flow rate pattern to determine the ignition failure. Gas appliances with improved safety that can be detected and dealt with promptly without accumulating or detecting them, and even if multiple gas combustion appliances are used simultaneously, it is possible to determine ignition failures. It is an object of the present invention to provide a failure detection device, a gas meter, and a gas appliance defective ignition detection method.

  The invention according to claim 1 is a gas flow rate measuring means for measuring a gas flow rate flowing through a gas flow path connected to a gas combustion instrument, a flow rate increase detecting means for detecting an increase in the gas flow rate, and a decrease in the gas flow rate. A flow rate decrease detecting means, a time measuring means for measuring an elapsed time from when the flow rate increase detecting means detects an increase in the gas flow rate until the flow rate decrease detecting means detects a decrease in the gas flow rate, And an ignition failure determining means for determining that the gas combustion appliance has an ignition failure when the elapsed time is within a predetermined time.

  The invention of claim 2 further comprises a reporting means for reporting to the outside in the invention of claim 1, and the reporting means when the ignition failure occurs repeatedly a predetermined number of times within a preset predetermined time. Is characterized by reporting to the outside.

  The invention of claim 3 is the invention of claim 1 or 2, further comprising warning display means for displaying a warning on the display unit, wherein the ignition failure is repeatedly generated a predetermined number of times within a preset predetermined time. The warning display means displays a warning on the display unit.

  The invention of claim 4 is a gas meter comprising the invention of any one of claims 1 to 3.

  The invention of claim 5 is a step of measuring a gas flow rate flowing through a gas flow path connected to a gas combustion appliance, a step of measuring an elapsed time from detecting an increase in the gas flow rate to detecting a decrease, the progress The method includes a step of determining that the gas combustion appliance is poorly ignited when the time is within a predetermined time.

  According to the present invention, the elapsed time from the gas flow rate increase detection to the gas flow rate decrease detection is measured, and when this elapsed time is within a predetermined time set in advance, it is determined that the ignition is defective. It is possible to quickly detect an ignition failure that occurs when the ignition device in the combustion appliance deteriorates, and safety can be improved. Further, it is possible to determine a gas ignition failure regardless of whether a plurality of gas combustion appliances are used at the same time or when they are used for the first time.

  In addition, a notification or warning is displayed when an ignition failure occurs repeatedly more than a predetermined number of times within a preset time, so that the response to the ignition failure can be handled by a remote person (center supervisor, etc.) Can be performed at an appropriate timing for the user (user, maintenance person, etc.), and safety can be sufficiently improved.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a gas appliance failure detection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The gas appliance failure detection device 10 is a device that detects an ignition failure of a gas combustion appliance. For example, the gas appliance failure detection device 10 is constructed in a gas meter 2 arranged in a gas pipe 5 between the LPG cylinder 1 and the gas combustion appliance 3 in the house 4. Is done.
Examples of the gas burning device 3 include a gas stove, an instantaneous gas water heater, and a gas water heater.

  The gas appliance failure detection device 10 includes a gas flow rate measurement unit 11 that detects a gas flow rate of the gas combustion appliance 3, a flow rate increase detection unit 12 that detects an increase in the gas flow rate detected by the gas flow rate detection unit 11, and a gas flow rate. The flow rate decrease detecting means 13 for detecting the flow rate decrease of the gas flow rate detected by the detecting means, and the flow rate increase detecting means 12 until the flow rate decrease detecting means 13 detects the decrease of the gas flow rate after detecting the increase of the gas flow rate. Time measurement means 14 for measuring the elapsed time, ignition failure determination means 15 for determining that the ignition is defective when the elapsed time measured by the time measurement means 14 is within a predetermined time, and ignition failure determination When the means 15 repeatedly determines the ignition failure more than a predetermined number of times within a predetermined time, the notification means 16 for notifying the outside via the communication section 17 and the display section 1 And includes a warning display means 18 for warning display to.

  When the user turns the operation knob of the gas combustion appliance 3 in the house 4, the LP gas supplied from the LPG cylinder flows out in the gas combustion appliance 3 according to the ignition operation, and the gas combustion appliance 3 A spark is generated by the ignition device provided in the, and the LP gas is ignited by the spark and combustion starts. The gas meter 2 detects the gas flow rate at that time.

  The gas meter 2 includes a microcomputer, a memory, and a timer (not shown), and the flow rate increase detection unit 12, the flow rate decrease detection unit 13, the time measurement unit 14, the ignition failure determination unit 15 and the like in the gas appliance failure detection device 10 are as follows. The microcomputer of the gas meter 2 is realized by executing a program corresponding to each means stored in the memory.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a change in gas flow rate when ignition of the gas combustion appliance is normally performed.
For example, in the case of a gas stove as the gas combustion appliance 3, the gas flow rate rises at the time of ignition as shown by a in FIG. 2, and the gas flow rate converges to a constant flow rate according to the opening of the operation knob and then stabilizes at b. . Also, when the flow rate is adjusted by the operation knob in the stable period, the flow rate fluctuates, for example, decreases as indicated by c, and again stabilizes at a constant flow rate as indicated by d.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a change in gas flow rate when the gas combustion appliance is not normally ignited, that is, when ignition is poor.
The gas flow rate rises at the time of ignition (FIG. 3e), but if the gas is not ignited, the user notices an ignition failure and closes the operation knob to lower the gas flow rate (FIG. 3f). . Therefore, the time from the rise of the gas flow rate to the fall of the gas flow rate is measured, and when this time is within a predetermined time, for example, 1 second, it is determined that the user has noticed an ignition failure and the operation knob has been closed. It can be determined that the gas combustion appliance 3 has an ignition failure.

  In order to use the gas combustion appliance 3, the user often performs an ignition operation several times. When the ignition device of the gas combustion appliance 3 is out of order, the flow rate change due to this ignition failure is shown in FIG. As shown by g, h, i, and j in FIG. 3, it occurs several times continuously in accordance with the user's ignition operation. Therefore, for example, when the gas flow rate change due to the ignition failure has occurred a predetermined number of times, for example, three times or more within a predetermined time, for example, within 5 seconds from the time of the first ignition, it can be determined that the gas combustion device 3 has failed.

FIG. 4 shows a case where a plurality of gas combustion appliances are used at the same time, and the gas appliance used first was normally ignited, but the gas combustion appliance used later was normally ignited. It is a figure which shows the change of the gas flow rate when not having existed. (The scale of time and flow rate is different from that of FIG. 3.)
For example, when a gas stove and a gas stove are used simultaneously as a plurality of gas combustion appliances 3, the gas stove is used first, and as shown by k in FIG. Thus, the gas flow rate converges to a constant flow rate and stabilizes according to the opening of the operation knob.

  In this state, if the user uses the gas stove and the ignition failure of the gas stove has occurred, the gas flow rate flowing to the gas stove at the time of gas stove ignition is added to the state where the flow rate is constant with respect to the gas stove (FIG. 4l), When the user notices a poor ignition and closes the operation knob, the gas flow rate immediately falls. When the user of the gas stove does not ignite even if the ignition operation is performed several times, for example, three times in order to use the gas stove, a change in the gas flow rate as shown by m in FIG. 4 is shown. Thereafter, the gas stove fails to ignite, that is, the gas stove is not used, and the gas flow rate flowing through the gas meter 2 is stabilized again at the gas flow rate flowing only through the gas stove.

  Since the gas flow rate pattern flowing through the gas meter 2 when the gas stove is poorly ignited is the same as that shown in FIG. 3, by monitoring the change in the gas flow rate, the gas stove and the gas stove are used simultaneously. In this case, it is possible to detect an ignition failure of a gas stove that is to be used later.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the gas appliance failure detection apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.
First, in step S1, the value n of the counter for counting the number of ignition failures is reset and n = 0. Next, the gas appliance failure detection device 10 monitors whether or not there is an increase in the gas flow rate measured by the gas flow rate measurement means 11 with the flow rate increase detection means 12 in step S2, and if there is an increase, Move on to step S3. If there is no increase in step S2 (No), the monitoring state is continued.

In step S3, it is determined whether or not the counter value n is 0. If n = 0, the timers A and B are reset in step S4, and the process proceeds to step S6. If n = 0 is not satisfied in step S3, only timer A is reset in step S5, and the process proceeds to step S6.
Here, the timer A is for measuring the time from when the increase in gas flow rate is detected until when the decrease is detected. If this time is within a predetermined time, it is determined that the ignition is defective. ing. The timer B measures the time since the first ignition failure has occurred. As will be described later, when there are ignition failures more than a predetermined number of times, it is determined whether or not they are within a predetermined time. It is used for.

Next, in step S6, it is determined whether or not the time T _{A of the} timer A is within the predetermined time T _A0 and the flow rate decrease detecting means 13 has detected a decrease in gas flow rate. Here, the predetermined time T _A0 is set to 1 second, for example. If there is a decrease in the gas flow rate within the predetermined time T _A0 , it means that the decrease in the gas flow rate is detected within 1 second after the increase in the gas flow rate is detected in step S2. It is determined that the ignition failure of the combustion appliance 3 has occurred, and the process proceeds to step S7. In step S7, a counter value n for counting the number of ignition failures is incremented by one.

Then, the process proceeds to step S8, the value n of the counter to determine if is greater than n _0, if the value n of the counter is n ₀ or less, the process returns to step S2, if more there is an increase in gas flow rate To monitor. In this case, when an increase in the gas flow rate is detected again, n = 1, so that the process proceeds from step S3 to step S6 through step S5.

Further, in step S6, the time T _A of the timer A is in the predetermined time T _A0, (in the case of No) if the flow rate reduction detector 13 does not detect a reduction in gas flow rate, increasing the gas flow rate in step S2 However, since the decrease in the gas flow rate was not detected within the predetermined time T _A0 , it can be determined that the ignition was normally performed when the gas flow rate was increased. Therefore, in the case of No in step S6, the process returns to step S1, resets the counter that counts the number of ignition failures, and continues to monitor the increase in gas flow rate again.

In step S8, when the value n of the counter indicating the number of misfires is larger than the predetermined value n _0, for example, if you set the 2 as the predetermined value n ₀ when n is 3 or more, the process proceeds to step S9 in step S9, the time _{T B} of the timer B is to determine whether it is within the predetermined time _{T B0.} The value of the predetermined time _TB0 can be set to 5 seconds, for example. Here, when the value n of the counter is 3, the first ignition failure is detected through the route of step S3, step S4, step S6, and step S7 after first detecting the increase in gas flow rate in step S2. (In this case, n = 1), and further, a second ignition failure is detected through the route of step S8, step S2, step S3, step S5, step S6, and step S7 (in this case, n = 2) Further, this corresponds to the case where the third ignition failure is detected through the route of step S8, step S2, step S3, step S5, step S6, and step S7.

Then, the timer B is, since the measured time from when the first ignition increase in failure to become a gas flow rate in step S4, in step S9, the time T _B of the timer B is within the predetermined time T _B0 Corresponds to the case where the ignition failure occurs three times within _TB0 , and in this case (in the case of Yes), the gas appliance failure detection device 10 determines that the gas combustion appliance 3 has failed. As the value of _TB0 , for example, 5 seconds can be set as described above.

Next, the process proceeds to step S10, and when the setting is made to notify when the gas combustion appliance 3 fails, the reporting means 16 reports the failure of the gas combustion appliance to the outside via the communication unit 17 at step S11. .
Furthermore, the process proceeds to step S12, and when the warning display is set when the gas combustion appliance 3 fails, in step S13, the warning display means 18 displays a display indicating that the gas combustion appliance has failed. And inform the user.
Here, the order of steps S10 and 11 and steps S12 and 13 may be interchanged, or may be performed simultaneously.

In step S9, the time T _B of the timer B is greater than the predetermined time T _B0 (the case of No), in this embodiment, although the single ignition failure has occurred, it occurs continuously within a predetermined time T _B0 Therefore, without judging that the gas combustion appliance is out of order, the process returns to step S1, resets the counter for counting the number of ignition failures, and continues to monitor the increase in the gas flow rate again.

Further, immediately after the gas flow rate rises for ignition and the ignition is successful, for example, when the user decreases the gas flow rate within 1 second, the ignition failure determination means 15 determines that there is an ignition failure. Although will be, at the usage patterns of conventional gas burner, since no repeating increase and decrease of the gas flow rate within 5 seconds of T _B0, it is determined that the failure of the gas combustion appliances in the flowchart of FIG. 5 Absent.
Further, the predetermined value n _{0 of the} counter, the predetermined time T _A0 of the timer A, and the predetermined time T _B0 of the timer B are not limited to the above values, and can be arbitrarily set. What is necessary is just to set the value according to the generation | occurrence | production situation etc. of the failure of a combustion appliance.

It is a block diagram of the gas appliance failure detection device concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the change of the gas flow rate when ignition of a gas combustion instrument is performed normally. It is a figure which shows the change of the gas flow rate when ignition of a gas combustion instrument is not performed normally, ie, when ignition is poor. Gas flow when multiple gas combustion appliances are used at the same time and the first gas appliance is ignited normally, but the gas combustion appliance used later is not ignited normally It is a figure which shows the change of. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the gas appliance failure detection apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... LPG cylinder, 2 ... Gas meter, 3 ... Gas combustion appliance, 4 ... House, 5 ... Gas piping, 10 ... Gas appliance malfunction detection apparatus, 11 ... Gas flow measurement means, 12 ... Flow increase detection means, 13 ... Flow reduction Detection means, 14 ... time measurement means, 15 ... ignition failure determination means, 16 ... notification means, 17 ... communication section, 18 ... warning display means, 19 ... display section.

Claims (5)

A gas flow rate measuring means for measuring a gas flow rate flowing through a gas flow path connected to the gas combustion appliance;
A flow rate increase detecting means for detecting an increase in the gas flow rate;
A flow rate decrease detecting means for detecting a decrease in the gas flow rate;
Time measuring means for measuring an elapsed time from when the flow rate increase detecting means detects an increase in the gas flow rate until the flow rate decrease detecting means detects a decrease in the gas flow rate;
A gas appliance failure detection device comprising: an ignition failure determination means for determining that the gas combustion appliance has an ignition failure when the elapsed time is within a predetermined time.   2. The gas appliance failure detection device according to claim 1, further comprising a reporting means for reporting to the outside, wherein the reporting is performed when the ignition failure occurs repeatedly a predetermined number of times within a preset predetermined time. A gas appliance failure detection device, characterized in that the means makes a notification to the outside.   The gas appliance failure detection device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising warning display means for displaying a warning on a display unit, wherein the ignition failure occurs repeatedly a predetermined number of times within a predetermined time. Further, the gas appliance failure detection apparatus, wherein the warning display means displays a warning on the display unit.   A gas meter comprising the gas appliance failure detection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   A step of measuring a flow rate of gas flowing through a gas flow path connected to the gas combustion appliance, a step of measuring an elapsed time from detecting an increase in the gas flow rate to detecting a decrease, and the elapsed time being within a predetermined time A method for detecting defective ignition of a gas appliance, comprising the step of determining that the ignition of the gas combustion appliance is defective.

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