JPH0223918A - Air towel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To discharge hot air at a almost constant temperature independently of an intake air temperature by a method wherein either the air volume of a fan or the heating capacity of a heater, or both of them are varied according to a temperature detected by a sensor for room temperature. CONSTITUTION:When the wet hands of a person are located at an exhaust port for hot air 9, a motor 6 and a PTC heater 4 are connected with an electric source after a switch 10a is turned on by a sensor for detecting the person. When an air flow passing through the PTC heater 4 increases, a heating capacity of the heater increases since a device for the heater is cooled and an electric current to the heater increases. On the other hand, when the air flow decreases, the heating capacity decreases. After room temperature is detected by a thermistor 8, the air flow of a fan 3 is varied since a revolving speed of a motor 6 is varied by a switching circuit 17, and then the heating capacity of the PTC heater 4 is varied according to variations of the air flow of the fan 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an air towel installed in a toilet or the like to dry wet hands.

(Prior art) Air towels installed in toilets, etc. have a configuration in which a heater is installed on the discharge side of a blower fan, and indoor air sucked in by the blower fan is turned into hot air by the heater and then discharged. I try to dry it by running my hands over it.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the above configuration, although the air volume of the blower fan and the amount of heat generated by the heater are constant, the temperature of the indoor air taken in is high in summer and low in winter. It gets lower. Therefore, in the summer when the indoor air temperature is high, the temperature of the discharged hot air also becomes high, and there is a problem that the hands that are blown by this hot air feel hot. On the other hand, in winter when the indoor air temperature is low, the temperature of the hot air discharged is also low, causing problems such as not only making the hands feel cold but also requiring a lot of time to dry the hands.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its object is to provide an air towel capable of discharging hot air at a substantially constant temperature regardless of the temperature of the air being sucked in.

[Structure of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) The air towel of the present invention is provided with a main body having a blower fan and a heater for generating heat and climate, and detects the room temperature; The present invention is characterized by the provision of a control means for changing one or both of the air volume of the blower fan and the amount of heat generated by the heater in accordance with the temperature detected by the detection unit.

(Function) The air towel of the present invention changes one or both of the air volume of the blower fan and the amount of heat generated by the heater by the control means according to the temperature detected by the temperature detection section, that is, the room temperature.
The temperature of the hot air discharged becomes approximately constant.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, in FIG. 1, 1 is the main body of the air towel, which includes a blower fan 3 and a heater such as P
It is composed of a TC heater 4.

The blower fan 3 is configured by disposing a fan 7 driven by a motor 6 in a casing 5, and the PTC heater 4 is attached to a discharge port 5a of the casing 5.

Incidentally, a suction port (not shown) is formed in the side surface of the casing 5. Reference numeral 8 denotes a temperature detection unit disposed inside the casing 5, such as a thermistor, which detects the temperature of the air inside the casing 5, that is, the room temperature. 9 is PTC heater 4
A human sensor unit 10 (see Fig. 2) that detects the user's hand near this hot air outlet and turns on the detection switch 10a (see Fig. 2).
is installed.

In FIG. 2, the motor 6 is constructed by connecting a series circuit of an auxiliary coil 12 and a capacitor 13 in parallel to a main coil 11, and a lead wire 14 from a common connection point between the auxiliary coil 12 and the main coil 11. is being drawn out. The auxiliary coil 12 is provided with a tap at a portion that divides it into coils 12a, 12b, and 12c, and 1 output wires 15 and 16 are connected to each of these taps.17 is a switching device as a control means. The lead wires 14, 15, and 16 are connected to this switching circuit 17.18 is a 7-heat source, one bus 18a of which connects the main coil 11 of the motor 6 and the capacitor via the detection switch 10a. 13 and the other bus bar 18
b is connected to the switching circuit 17. The switching circuit 17 is connected to the thermistor 8, and the switching circuit 17 selects the lead wire 14, 15 or 16 depending on the temperature detected by the thermistor 8. The PTC heater 4 described above is connected between bus bars 18a and 18b via a detection switch 10a.

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned (14) structure will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

First, a case where the indoor temperature is 20° C. will be explained.

When a user places a wet hand over the hot air outlet 9 of the main body 1, the human sensor section 10 detects this and activates the detection switch 10a.
will turn on. As a result, motor 6 and P
The TC heater 4 is connected to a power source 15, and indoor air is supplied to the casing 5 from an intake port (not shown) by the blowing action of the blower fan 3 caused by the rotation of the motor 6 as described later.
While passing through the PTC heater 4, it is hot-aired and blown out from the hot-air outlet 9. In this case, the thermistor 8 controls the temperature of the air inside the casing 5 (room temperature) by 20°C.
The switching circuit 17 selects the lead line 15 and connects it to the bus line 18b of the power source 18. As a result, the motor 6 rotates at a medium speed, and the air volume of the blower fan 3 is medium, for example, 1 m.
3/min.

By the way, the amount of heat generated by the PTC heater 4 changes depending on its heat dissipation. That is, when the amount of air passing through the PTC heater 4 increases, the element is cooled, so a large amount of current flows, resulting in a large amount of heat generation.When the amount of air passing through the PTC heater 4 becomes small, the amount of heat generated decreases because the element is cooled less. Become.

This also applies when the temperature of the air passing through changes. When the temperature of the air passing through the PTC heater 4 is low, the element is cooled, so the amount of heat generated increases, and when the temperature of the air is high, The amount of heat generated is small. Figure 3 shows this relationship.
The amount of heat generated by the PTC heater 4 in this case is point A1 when the indoor temperature is 20°C, and A1 when the indoor temperature is 30°C.
The point A2 is smaller than the point A2, and the point A3 is larger than the point A1 when the room temperature is 5°C. Furthermore, at each indoor temperature, as the amount of air passing through the PTC heater 4 increases, the amount of heat generated increases, and as the amount of air passing through the PTC heater 4 decreases, the amount of heat generated decreases. Thus, the temperature of the hot air blown out from the hot air outlet 9 is the room temperature plus the temperature rise. Therefore, when considering the temperature increase Δt of indoor air due to the PTC heater 4, it becomes Δt − (Pxo, 8B)/(7XQX60XC).

Here, P is the calorific value γ of the PTC heater 4, the specific gravity of the air Q, and the air volume C of the blower fan 3 is the specific heat. Therefore, the temperature rise Δt increases or decreases in proportion to the heat generation ff1P of the PTC heater 4, and increases or decreases in inverse proportion to the wind mQ of the blower fan 3. FIGS. 4 and 5 show the relationship between the air RQ of the blower fan 3, the hot air discharge temperature, and the evaporation rate ratio when drying wet hands when these correlations are combined.

That is, if the air volume is constant, for example, 1 m3/min, the indoor temperature is 20
℃, the hot air discharge temperature is at point B1, and the evaporation rate ratio is at point Ct. Similarly, if the indoor temperature is 30℃, hot air is discharged? The FiA degree is 82 points, the evaporation rate ratio is 02 points, and when the indoor humidity is 5° C., the hot air discharge temperature is 83 points, and the evaporation rate ratio is C3 points.

Incidentally, the evaporation rate ratio is set so that the C1 point becomes the standard 1.

Next, a case where the indoor temperature rises to 30°C will be explained.

When the detection switch 10a of the human sensor unit 10 is turned on, the motor 6 and PTC heater 4 are connected to the power supply 15 in the same way as described above, but in this case, the thermistor 8 sets the temperature of the air (room temperature) to 30°C. Since the detected signal is input to the switching circuit 17, the switching circuit 17 selects the lead wire 14 and connects it to the bus bar 18b of the power source 18. As a result, the motor 6 rotates at high speed, and the air flow rate of the blower fan 3 increases from 1 m3/min when the indoor temperature is 20°C to, for example, about 1.25 m3/min.
The amount of heat generated by the TC heater 4 is calculated from point A2 to A2- shown in Fig. 3.
increase to a point. In addition, due to the increase in the amount of air blown by the ventilation fan 3 and the increase in the amount of heat generated by the PTC heater 4, the discharge temperature of the hot air decreases from point B2 shown in FIG. The temperature between point B1 and the road becomes -, and the evaporation rate ratio when drying wet hands as shown in Figure 5 decreases from point 02 to point C2, and the indoor temperature becomes 20.
In the case of 'C, the ratio between the C1 point and the road distance is 1.

Also, a case where the indoor temperature drops to 5° C. will be explained.

When the detection switch 10a of the human sensor unit 10 is turned on, the motor 6 and the PTC heater 4 are connected to the electric current lf, 15. In this case, the thermistor 8 detects the air temperature as 5°C and switches the signal. - Since it is input to the soching circuit 17, the switch soching circuit 17 selects the lead wire 16 and connects it to the bus bar 18b of the power supply 18. As a result, motor 6
rotates at a low speed, and the air volume of the fan 3 is set when the indoor temperature is 2.
For example, from 1 m3/min at 0°C to 0. 7 m3
As a result, the amount of heat generated by the PTC heater 4 decreases from point A3 to point A3 as shown in FIG.

Therefore, the discharge temperature of the hot air shown in FIG. 4 increases from 83 points to 83 - points due to the large effect of reducing the amount of air blown by the blower fan 3 despite the decrease in the amount of heat generated by the PTC heater 4. When the indoor temperature is 20°C, the temperature between point B1 and the road is the same as the temperature between point B1 and the road. Also, the evaporation rate ratio when drying wet hands shown in Fig. 5 increases from point C3 to point C3''. When the indoor temperature is 20° C., the ratio between point C1 and the road distance is 1.

According to the above embodiment, the following effects are achieved. That is, the thermistor 8 detects the indoor temperature and adjusts the air volume and P of the blower fan 3.
Since both the calorific value of the TC heater 4 is changed, both in the summer when the indoor temperature is high and in the winter when the indoor temperature is low.
The hot air that is exhaled can be kept at an appropriate temperature, so the hands that are blown with the hot air do not feel hot or cold, and it does not take a long time to dry the hands, which can be inhaled. The temperature of the hot air discharged from the hot air outlet 9 can be kept substantially constant regardless of the temperature of the air.

In the above embodiment, the thermistor 8 detects the room temperature and the switching circuit 17 changes the number of revolutions of the motor 6 to change the amount of air blown by the blower fan 3, and further changes the amount of air blown by the blower fan 3 according to the change. However, instead of changing the amount of heat generated by the PTC heater 4,
A nichrome wire heater or a sheathed wire heater may be used instead of the heater 4, and when the thermistor 8 detects the room temperature, the rotation speed of the motor 6 is changed by the switching circuit 17, and only the amount of air blown by the blower fan 3 is changed. well,
Alternatively, the amount of air blown by the blower fan 3 may be kept constant, and the amount of heat generated by the nichrome wire heater or the sheathed wire heater may be changed by the switching circuit 17.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, the present invention includes a main body having a blower fan and a heater for generating heat and climate, a temperature detection section for detecting the room temperature, and a detection temperature of the temperature detection section. Since a control means is provided for changing one or both of the air volume of the blower fan and the heat generation amount of the heater in accordance with the
It is possible to discharge hot air at a substantially constant temperature regardless of the temperature of the air being taken in, so your hands will not feel hot or cold due to changes in room temperature, and your drying time will not increase. There is no effect on Qin.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a vertical side view, FIG. 2 is an electrical wiring diagram, and FIGS. 3 to 5 show the amount of heat generated by the heater, the temperature of hot air, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the evaporation rate ratio and the amount of air blown by a blowing fan. In the figure, 1 is the main unit, 3 is the blower fan, and 4 is the PTC heater (
8 is a thermistor (temperature detection section), and 17 is a switching circuit (control means). Figure 1 Air volume (m'/m1n) Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A main body having a blower fan and a heater for generating hot air, a temperature detection part for detecting room temperature, and one or both of the air volume of the blower fan and the heat generation amount of the heater according to the detected temperature of the temperature detection part. An air towel comprising a control means for changing the air towel.