JP5520478B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an air conditioner having a power consumption detection function in an air conditioner separated into an indoor unit and an outdoor unit.

With the recent promotion of energy saving, it has been required to display the power consumption and electricity cost of the air conditioner. In such an air conditioner separated into an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, in order to calculate the power consumption, the power consumption of the compressor in the outdoor unit is detected, and the power consumption of the indoor fan motor and the outdoor fan motor is A method is known in which power consumption is estimated from the number of rotations of a motor and these are added together (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-41545 A

  However, in the case of estimating the power consumption from the rotational speed of the fan motor, there is a problem that it is difficult to appropriately estimate the rotational speed of the fan motor depending on the load such as air resistance.

  The present invention takes the above circumstances into consideration, and an object thereof is to provide an air conditioner capable of accurately detecting the power consumption of the entire air conditioner.

An air conditioner according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an indoor unit connected to an AC power source and an outdoor unit connected to the AC power source, and detects an electric current consumed by the indoor unit in the indoor unit. An outdoor current detecting means for detecting the consumption current of the outdoor unit in the outdoor unit, a rectifying circuit for rectifying the voltage of the AC power source in the outdoor unit, and a DC voltage output from the rectifying circuit for the outdoor unit DC voltage detecting means for detecting in the indoor unit, an indoor control unit provided in the indoor unit, and an outdoor control unit provided in the outdoor unit . The outdoor control unit includes means for transmitting, to the indoor control unit, current consumption of the outdoor unit detected by the outdoor current detection unit and DC voltage data detected by the DC voltage detection unit. The indoor control unit is configured to detect a voltage of the AC power source based on DC voltage data transmitted from the outdoor control unit, a detection voltage of the voltage detection unit, and a detection current of the indoor current detection unit. Indoor power detection means for detecting power consumption of the indoor unit, and outdoor power detection means for detecting power consumption of the outdoor unit from detection voltage of the voltage detection means and current consumption data transmitted from the outdoor control unit; includes a total power detecting means for calculating the sum of the detection result as the total power consumption of the air conditioner of the detection result and the outdoor power detecting means of the indoor power detection means.

  According to the air conditioner of the present invention, the power consumption of the entire air conditioner can be accurately detected.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In FIG. 2, 1 is an indoor unit, which has a movable panel 2 at a position corresponding to the suction port (behind the movable panel) of the front surface 1a, a suction port 3 on the upper surface, and a blower outlet 4 on the lower front. An indoor heat exchanger (not shown) and an indoor fan (not shown) are accommodated in the suction port of the front surface portion 1a and the ventilation path from the suction port 3 to the outlet 4. The blower outlet 4 is provided with a vertical louver 5a for adjusting the blown wind upward and downward, and a horizontal louver 5b for adjusting the blown wind in the horizontal direction.

  The movable panel 2 can be moved forward as shown in the figure, and the inner suction port is opened by the projecting movement, and the inner suction port is closed by returning to the state in contact with the front surface portion 1a. In addition, the movable panel 2 has a transmissive display portion 2a at a portion corresponding to the display unit 10 provided on the inner side. The transmissive display unit 2a constitutes display means together with the display unit 10, and is formed of a light transmitting member, and transmits the display of the display unit 10.

  The display unit 10 has 7-segment elements of light emitting diodes for several digits, and a decimal point [. , And display elements such as [k] and [W] used as units of electric power. For example, when the power consumption is less than 100 W, if it is 50 W, a two-digit number and [W] are displayed, such as “50 W”. When the power consumption is 100 W to less than 2 kW, the number of significant digits is set to the top two, such as “0.1 kW” if 100 W, “0.5 kW” if 500 W, and “1.8 kW” if 1800 W. A 2-digit number, a decimal point, and [k] [W] are displayed as digits. The number of significant digits may be the upper three digits, but in this case, it is necessary to enlarge the display unit or add a display element.

  An electric circuit of an air conditioner including the indoor unit 1 and the outdoor unit 40 is shown in FIG. Reference numeral 20 denotes a commercial AC power source. The indoor unit 1 is connected to the commercial AC power source 20 and an outdoor unit 40 is connected through a normally open contact (hereinafter referred to as a relay contact) 28a of a power relay 28 described later. That is, the AC power source is branched into the indoor unit side and the outdoor unit side in the indoor unit 1, and the outdoor unit 40 is connected to the AC power source via the power relay 28.

  The indoor unit 1 includes a rectifier circuit 21 that rectifies the voltage of the commercial AC power supply 20, a smoothing capacitor 22 that smoothes the output voltage of the rectifier circuit 21, and an AC having a predetermined frequency for driving the fan motor by switching the voltage of the smoothing capacitor 22. A switching circuit 23 that converts the voltage into a voltage; an indoor fan motor 24 that operates according to the output voltage of the switching circuit 23; a DC / DC converter 25 that converts the voltage of the smoothing capacitor 22 into a DC voltage of a predetermined level; and the DC / DC converter 25 The indoor control unit 30, the display unit 10, the drive unit 26, the two-way valve 27 driven by the drive unit 26, the louver motor 5M, the panel motor 2M, the power relay 28, and the like. As an indoor current detection means for detecting an input current Iin to 1, In example has a current transformer 31 provided on the AC power line immediately after the branch of the relay contacts 28a. The two-way valve 27 is for forming a dehumidification cycle, the louver motor 5M is for driving the vertical louver 5a and the horizontal louver 5b, and the panel motor 2M is for driving the movable panel 2. The relay contact 28a is turned on by the indoor control unit 30 when instructing a cooling / heating operation or the like that requires the operation of the outdoor unit 40 among various operation instructions of the user. As a result, the outdoor unit 40 is connected to the commercial power source, and the indoor air conditioning and air conditioning operation is performed.

  The current transformer 31 is provided in the power supply line downstream of the power relay 28 connected to the commercial AC power supply 20 and upstream of the rectifier circuit 21, and the power consumption of the indoor unit 1 from the magnetic field generated by the current flowing through the power supply line. For example, current detection is performed with a fine resolution of about 0.01 A, which is adapted to (a few W to about 70 W).

  On the other hand, the outdoor unit 40 rectifies the voltage of the commercial AC power supply 20 received when the relay contact 28a is on, the smoothing capacitor 42 that smoothes the output voltage of the rectifying circuit 41, and the voltage of the smoothing capacitor 42. A switching circuit 43 that converts the AC voltage of a predetermined frequency for driving the compressor motor by switching, a compressor motor 44 that operates by the output voltage of the switching circuit 43, and a predetermined voltage for driving the fan motor by switching the voltage of the smoothing capacitor 42 A switching circuit 45 that converts the frequency into an alternating voltage, an outdoor fan motor 46 that operates based on the output voltage of the switching circuit 45, an outdoor control unit 50 that operates based on the voltage of the smoothing capacitor 22, and the like. Outdoor power to detect input (consumption) current Iout For example, the current transformer 51 as a detecting means, and the output voltage of the rectifier circuit 41 has a voltage sensor 52 as a DC voltage detecting means for detecting a (direct current voltage) Vdc. The current transformer 51 is provided at a position where the current consumption of all the various electrical components in the outdoor unit 40 can be detected on the most entrance side of the AC power input of the outdoor unit 40. The compressor motor 44 drives a compressor housed in the outdoor unit 40, and the outdoor fan motor 46 drives an outdoor fan housed in the outdoor unit 40. In the indoor unit 1 and the outdoor unit 40, a compressor and an outdoor heat exchanger in the outdoor unit 40, a four-way valve and the indoor heat exchanger in the indoor unit 1 are connected by a refrigerant pipe, and a refrigeration cycle capable of cooling and heating is configured. ing.

  The current transformer 51 is provided in a power supply line between the relay contact 28a and the rectifier circuit 41, and adapts to the power consumption (about 20W to 3000W) of the outdoor unit 40 from the magnetic field of the power supply line, for example, in units of 10W to 15W. Perform resolution current detection. The voltage sensor 52 is connected to the output terminal of the rectifier circuit 41. In the case of an air conditioner having a cooling capacity of 2.8 kW, the power consumption of the outdoor unit is about 20 W to 1950 W, but the outdoor unit of an air conditioner of 4.2 kW or more is 20 W to 3000 W. The air conditioner of the present embodiment uses a three-phase DC brushless motor with high efficiency for each of the indoor fan motor 24, outdoor fan motor 46 and compressor motor 44. These motors are respectively switching circuits (inverter circuits). 23, 45, 43 to drive at a variable speed. The speeds of these motors are determined by the indoor controller 30 and the outdoor controller 50 according to the state of the air conditioning load, various protection / cooperative controls, and the like.

  And the indoor control part 30 of the indoor unit 1 and the outdoor control part 50 of the outdoor unit 40 are connected by the communication line.

  The outdoor control unit 50 controls the switching circuits 43 and 45 in accordance with a command from the indoor control unit 30, and also inputs data of the input current Iout detected by the current transformer 51 and the DC voltage Vdc detected by the voltage sensor 52. It transmits to the indoor control part 30. In general, when a DC motor for a compressor is driven by vector control, it is necessary to detect a DC voltage. Therefore, a DC voltage detection sensor for vector control can also be used as this voltage sensor 52. .

The indoor control unit 30 controls the switching circuit 23, the display unit 10, and the drive unit 26, and has the following means (1) to (5) as main functions.
(1) Voltage detection means for detecting the voltage Vac of the commercial AC power supply 20 by a predetermined calculation based on the data of the DC voltage Vdc transmitted from the outdoor control unit 50. This calculation corrects the change of the DC voltage Vdc depending on the operating condition of the compressor, for example, the load and the rotational speed of the compressor. That is, when the compressor load is heavy and the current consumption increases, a voltage drop occurs in the DC line and the DC voltage Vdc decreases. On the other hand, if the load on the compressor is light and the current consumption is small, the DC line approaches the no-load output voltage obtained by rectifying the AC power supply voltage, and the DC voltage Vdc is kept high. Thus, the direct current voltage fluctuates due to two factors: fluctuation of the voltage of the AC power supply and power consumption on the load side of the compressor, that is, fluctuation due to the input current Iout. Is canceled so that only voltage fluctuations of the AC power supply can be detected.

(2) Indoor power detection means for detecting the power consumption Pin (W) of the indoor unit 1 by the following equation based on the detection voltage Vac of the voltage detection means and the detection current Iin of the current transformer 31.
Pin = Vac × Iin
(3) Outdoor power detection means for detecting the power consumption Pout (W) of the outdoor unit 40 based on the following expression based on the detection voltage Vac of the voltage detection means and the data of the input current Iout transmitted from the outdoor control unit 50. .
Pout = Vac × Iout
(4) Total power detection means for detecting the sum of the detection result Pin (W) of the indoor power detection means and the detection result Pout (W) of the outdoor power detection means as the total power consumption P (W) of the air conditioner.
P = Pin + Pout = Vac × Iin + Vac × Iout = Vac × (Iin + Iout)
(5) Display control means for displaying the total power consumption P (W) detected by the total power detection means on the display unit 10.

The operation will be described.
When the commercial AC power supply 20 is turned on, the power supply voltage is supplied to the indoor unit 1, the relay contact 28 a is turned on by the control of the indoor unit 1 based on the operation instruction of the user, and the power supply voltage is also applied to the outdoor unit 40. Supplied.

  The power consumption of the indoor fan motor 24 in the indoor unit 1 is about 10 W to 50 W, and the power consumption of the two-way valve 27, the louver motor 5M, the panel motor 2M, etc. is about 0.1 W to 1W. The input current Iin accompanying the operation of the indoor unit 1 is detected by the current transformer 31 with a relatively fine resolution on the order of 1 W.

  The power consumption of the compressor motor 44 in the outdoor unit 40 is about 30 W to 1500 W, and the power consumption of the outdoor fan motor 46 is about 15 W to 80 W. The input current Iout accompanying the operation of the outdoor unit 40 is detected by the current transformer 51 with a resolution of the order of 10 W to 15 W. The detection data of the current transformer 51 is transmitted to the indoor control unit 30.

  In the outdoor unit 40, the DC voltage Vdc output from the rectifier circuit 41 is detected by the voltage sensor 52, and the detection data is transmitted to the indoor control unit 30.

The indoor control unit 30 detects the voltage Vac of the commercial AC power supply 20 by a predetermined calculation based on the DC voltage Vdc notified from the outdoor unit 40, and calculates (Pin) based on the detected voltage Vac and the detection current Iin of the current transformer 31. = Vac × Iin) The power consumption Pin (W) of the indoor unit 1 is obtained. In addition, the indoor control unit 30 obtains the power consumption Pout (W) of the outdoor unit 40 by a calculation (Pout = Vac × Iout) based on the detection voltage Vac and the input current Iout known from the outdoor unit 40.
And the indoor control part 30 calculates | requires the sum total of the calculated | required power consumption Pin (W) and power consumption Pout (W) as the total power consumption P (W) of the said air conditioner, and calculates the total power consumption P (W). Displayed on the display unit 10.

  The user in the room can accurately grasp the change in power consumption of the operating air conditioner in real time by looking at the display on the display unit 10.

  By the way, one current transformer is provided on the commercial AC power supply 20 side upstream from the power relay contact 28a, the input current to the indoor unit 1 and the outdoor unit 40 is comprehensively detected by the one current transformer, and the detected current It is technically possible to obtain the total power consumption P from the above. However, as shown in FIG. 3, the generally used current transformer is limited to a predetermined range in which the current value to be detected and the output voltage value of the transformer can maintain a linearity. As shown in the hatched area in the figure, the variation in output from element to element increases. For this reason, it is very difficult to accurately detect the power consumption Pin of the 1 W level indoor unit 1 and the power consumption Pout of the outdoor unit 40 of several tens of watts or more. It becomes very expensive. In the case of an air conditioner, in addition to a compressor with power consumption of several tens of watts or more and an air conditioning operation that operates all indoor and outdoor fans, an extremely low consumption of 10 W or less such as a fan operation and an air cleaning operation that operates only an indoor fan There are low power operations. For this reason, when the current input to the indoor unit 1 and the outdoor unit 40 is comprehensively detected by one current transformer and displayed in the upper 2 or 3 significant digits, the calculated total power consumption P is obtained. Contains a large error.

  On the other hand, in this embodiment, the input current Iin to the indoor unit 1 is detected by the current transformer 31 with a fine resolution of, for example, 1 W, which is suitable for the power consumption of the indoor unit 1, and one of the outdoor units 40 is detected. With respect to the input current Iout, the current transformer 51 detects the resolution in units of 10 W to 15 W, for example, which is adapted to the power consumption of the outdoor unit 40. Therefore, the power consumption Pin of the indoor unit 1 and the power consumption Pout of the outdoor unit 40 are detected. Can be accurately detected. As a result, the total power consumption P of the air conditioner for display can be accurately detected.

  In the present embodiment, the indoor control unit 30 performs a predetermined calculation based on the data of the DC voltage Vdc transmitted from the outdoor control unit 50 to detect the voltage Vac of the commercial AC power supply 20. The outdoor control unit 50 may perform the above arithmetic processing, and the outdoor control unit 50 may transmit the voltage Vac data of the commercial AC power supply 20 as the result data of the arithmetic processing to the indoor control unit 30. That is, in this case, the outdoor controller 50 transmits two data of the input current Iout detected by the current transformer 51 and the commercial power supply voltage Vac to the indoor control unit 30.

In the present embodiment, the voltage sensor 52 is connected to the output terminal of the rectifier circuit 41 in the outdoor unit 40, and the data of the detected voltage Vdc of the voltage sensor 52 is transferred from the outdoor control unit 50 of the outdoor unit 11 to the indoor unit 1. Although it was set as the structure which detects to the control part 30 and the voltage Vac of the commercial alternating current power supply 20 by the calculation of the indoor control part 30, for example, a DC voltage sensor is newly connected to the output terminal of the rectifier circuit 21 in the indoor unit 1. The detection voltage of the voltage sensor may be taken into the indoor control unit 30 to detect the voltage Vac of the commercial AC power supply 20. Furthermore, instead of detecting the DC voltage, the AC voltage itself of the commercial power supply may be detected in the outdoor unit or the indoor unit.
In addition, this invention is not limited to each said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation implementation is possible in the range which does not change a summary.

The block diagram which shows the electric circuit of one Embodiment of this invention. The perspective view which shows the external appearance of the indoor unit in one Embodiment. The graph which shows the outline | summary of the detection characteristic of a current transformer.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Indoor unit, 2 ... Movable panel, 3 ... Suction inlet, 4 ... Air outlet, 5a ... Up-down direction louver, 5b ... Left-right direction louver, 10 ... Display unit, 21 ... Rectifier circuit, 23 ... Switching circuit, 25 ... DC / DC converter, 26 ... drive unit, 28 ... power relay, 28a ... relay contact (normally open contact), 30 ... indoor control unit, 31 ... current transformer (indoor current detection means), 40 ... outdoor unit, 41 ... rectifier circuit , 43 ... switching circuit, 44 ... compressor motor, 45 ... switching circuit, 46 ... outdoor fan motor, 50 ... outdoor control unit, 51 ... current transformer (outdoor current detection means)

Claims (1)

In an air conditioner consisting of an indoor unit connected to an AC power source and an outdoor unit connected to the AC power source,
Indoor current detection means for detecting current consumption of the indoor unit in the indoor unit;
Outdoor current detection means for detecting current consumption of the outdoor unit in the outdoor unit;
A rectifier circuit for rectifying the voltage of the AC power supply in the outdoor unit;
DC voltage detection means for detecting the DC voltage output from the rectifier circuit in the outdoor unit;
An indoor control unit provided in the indoor unit;
An outdoor control unit provided in the outdoor unit;
With
The outdoor control unit is
Means for transmitting to the indoor control unit data on current consumption of the outdoor unit detected by the outdoor current detection means and DC voltage detected by the DC voltage detection means;
The indoor control unit
Voltage detection means for detecting the voltage of the AC power supply based on DC voltage data transmitted from the outdoor control unit;
Indoor power detection means for detecting power consumption of the indoor unit from the detection voltage of the voltage detection means and the detection current of the indoor current detection means;
Outdoor power detection means for detecting power consumption of the outdoor unit from detection voltage of the voltage detection means and data of current consumption transmitted from the outdoor control unit ;
Containing a total power detecting means for calculating the sum of the detection result as the total power consumption of the air conditioner of the detection result and the outdoor power detecting means of the indoor power detection means,
An air conditioner characterized by that .

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