JPH03213951A - Bath system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent an idling operation of a pump from being carried out by a method wherein the pump is forcedly stopped when an amount of pressure variation before or after starting operation of the pump is less than a reference amount of variation in response to a sensing signal for a sensor for a water level for use in sensing the water level within a bath tub with a pressure. CONSTITUTION:A pressure sensor 14 (a water level sensor) for sensing a pressure of hot water is connected to a suction side of a pump 16 in a hot water circulating pipe system 17 connected to a bath tub 10 and having a hot water circulating pump 16. As the pump 16 is operated, a pressure at the suction side in the piping system 17 is reduced. However, under a state in which a water level in the bath tub 10 is low and hot water is not filled in the piping system 17 and the pump 16 is operated under no load, an amount of reduction DELTAP of pressure to be detected by the pressure sensor 14 is lower than that of the normal operation. Due to this fact, when the amount of variation DELTAP of pressure is less than the reference variation amount DELTAP2, the pump 16 is judged as one performing the idling operation and the pump 16 is forcedly stopped by the stopping means 42. Accordingly, the idling operation for a long period of time of the pump 6 can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a bath system having a pump for circulating hot water.

(Prior art) As a conventional example of this type of bath system, there is
No. 189737 can be mentioned. This conventional example will be explained with reference to FIG. 2, which is an embodiment drawing of the present invention.
A hot water circulation piping system 17 having a bath heat exchanger 13 and a pump 16 is connected to the bathtub 10, and dry heating is detected by detecting temperature changes in the bath heat exchanger 13, thereby preventing dry heating. It is made to be. Further, the pump 16 is stopped based on the above-mentioned dry firing detection, thereby preventing the pump 16 from running dry.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, when a hot water filling unit 30 for supplying hot water 20 to the hot water circulation piping system 17 is attached to the above conventional example, for example, when the bath heat exchanger 13 is used during hot water filling, The following problem occurs when the pump 16 is operated without heating. That is, in the above operating state, since the bath heat exchanger 13 does not operate,
If the water level in the bathtub (10) is low and the hot water circulation piping system 17 is not filled with hot water 20, the pump 16 cannot be controlled to prevent the pump 16 from idling due to the dry heating detection.
This results in the problem that the engine runs idly, and thus the conventional example has a problem in that applicable systems are limited.

Furthermore, the dry heating detection method based on the temperature change of the bath heat exchanger 13 has the problem that the temperature change occurs slowly, making it impossible to respond quickly.

This invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its purpose is to quickly and reliably prevent the dry running of hot water circulation pumps, and also to be able to use more types of systems than before. The objective is to provide a bath system that can be applied to

(Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, the bath system of the present invention includes a bathtub 10, a hot water circulation piping system 17 connected to the bathtub 10 and having a pump 16 for hot water circulation in the middle, and a hot water circulation piping system. This bath system has a pressure sensor 14 connected to the suction side portion of the pump 16 in system (7) and detects the pressure of hot water, and further includes a pressure sensor 14 that detects the pressure of hot water before and after the start of operation of the pump 16 based on the detection signal 40 of the water level sensor 14. When the pressure change amount ΔP is less than the reference change amount ΔPS, the pump 16
The pump is equipped with a pump stop means 42 for forcibly stopping the pump.

(Function) In the above configuration, when the pump 16 is operated, the pressure on the suction side of the hot water circulation piping system 17 decreases due to its suction force. In a state where the hot water 20 is not filled in the pump 17 and the pump 16 is running idly, the pressure drop amount ΔP detected by the pressure sensor 14 is smaller than when the pump 16 is operating normally.

Therefore, when the pressure change amount ΔP is less than the reference change amount 623, it is assumed that the pump 16 is running idly, and the pump stop means 42 forcibly stops the pump 16.

(Embodiment) Next, a specific embodiment of the bath system of the present invention in which the heat source is constituted by a heat pump will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the piping system of the bath system will be explained with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, (10 is a bathtub. Hot water 20 is stored in this bathtub 10, and one end of a suction pipe 11 is connected to the lower side wall of the bathtub IO. , a hot water filling unit 30, a water level sensor 14 (pressure sensor), and a pump 16 are interposed, and the other end of the suction pipe 11 is connected to a bath heat exchanger 13.

One end of a return pipe 12 is connected to the vicinity of the connection of the suction pipe 11 to the bathtub 10, and the other end of the return pipe 12 is connected to the bath heat exchanger 13. A circulating route from these suction pipes 11 to return pipes 12 constitutes a hot water circulation piping system 17 . An outdoor unit 18 having a built-in compressor and the like is connected to the bath heat exchanger 13 through a refrigerant pipe 15, and a heat pump serves as a heat source for circulating refrigerant from the outdoor unit 18 to the bath heat exchanger 13. is configured. Note that instead of this heat pump, gas or the like can also be used as a heat source.

The hot water filling unit 30 has a function of supplying hot water (hot water or water, hereinafter the same) 20 to the suction pipe 11, and the hot water 20 supplied from the hot water filling unit 30 is supplied to the pump 16, Return piping 12 via heat exchanger 13
and flows into the bathtub (10).

A three-way valve 31 is interposed between the water level sensor 14 of the suction pipe 11 and the pump 16, and the lower end of the connecting pipe 32 is connected to the three-way valve 31. This three-way valve 31 is
When supplying hot water, the three-way valve 3 of the suction pipe 11 draws the hot water 20
1 to the part on the side opposite to the bathtub, and close the part of the suction pipe 11 on the side of the bathtub 10 from the three-way valve 31, and when the force field water supply is stopped, the supply of hot water to the suction pipe 11 is stopped, and the suction pipe 11 is configured to be switchable so as to communicate with each other.

The water level sensor 14 has a function of detecting the pressure inside the suction pipe ll and outputting a detection signal 40. A hopper 33 is connected to the upper end of the connecting pipe 32, and hot water 20 is supplied to the hopper 33 from a pipe 34. A hot water supply valve 35 is interposed in the middle of this pipe 34, and the other end of the pipe 34 is connected to a mixing valve 3.
Connected to 6. A pipe 37.3 is connected to this mixing valve 36, and one pipe 37 is supplied with hot water heated using the bath heat exchanger 13 or another heat exchanger. , the other pipe 38 is supplied with tap water from a water pipe.

Next, the operation control system will be explained with reference to FIG.

In the figure, 19 indicates a circulation piping system control means for controlling the hot water circulation piping system 17, 21 an outdoor control means for controlling the outdoor unit 18, and 23 a hot water filling control means. A command signal from a hot water filling remote controller 24 and a detection signal 40 from the water level sensor 14 are input to the hot water filling control means 23 for controlling the water level of the bathtub 10. The hot water level control means 23 is provided with a water level control means 49 for controlling the water level of the bathtub 10. The hot water filling remote control 24 also includes a hot water filling switch 26 for filling the bathtub IO with hot water, an automatic hot water filling switch 27 for adding hot water when the water level in the bathtub 10 drops, and a hot water filling switch 27 for adjusting the set water level. Water level setting buttons 28 and 28 are provided, respectively.

The three-way valve 31 and the hot water supply valve 35 are controlled to open and close by a control signal 50 output from the water level control means 49 in response to a command signal from the hot water remote controller 24,
The operation and stopping of the pump 16 is controlled.

Further, the water filling control means 23 includes a pressure change detection means 4.
1 and pump stop means 42 are provided. This pressure change detection means 41 detects a change in pressure after the start of operation of the pump 16 based on a detection signal 40 inputted from the water level sensor 14.
Amount of pressure change Δ in the suction pipe 11 after 0 seconds have elapsed
It is designed to detect P. The pressure change detection means 41 outputs a pressure change amount signal 43 to the pump stop means 42 in accordance with the detected pressure change amount ΔP. This pump stop means 42 has a function of outputting a stop signal 44 to the pump 16 to forcibly stop the pump 16 when the pressure change cover ΔP is less than the reference change amount ΔP8. As shown in FIG. 6, the reference amount of change ΔP1 is set to a value obtained by adding α to the amount of change in suction pressure ΔP0 that occurs on the suction side of the pump 16 when the pump 16 is running idly.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, when the pressure change amount ΔP is greater than the reference change amount ΔPS, the pump 16 is operating in a normal state where hot water 20 is present.

Next, the operating state of the above-described one embodiment of the apparatus will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, when 30 seconds have elapsed after the water level control means 49 starts operating the pump 16, in step S1, the pressure change detection means 4
1 detects the pressure change amount ΔP based on the detection signal 40 of the water level sensor 14.

Then, in the next step S2, the pump stop means 42 determines whether the pressure change amount ΔP based on the input pressure change amount signal 43 is less than the above ΔPS, and if the pressure change amount ΔP is greater than or equal to ΔPS (NO). In this case, the pump 16 continues to operate as it is, assuming that the pump 16 is not running idly.

On the other hand, when the pressure change amount P is less than 626 (YES), it is assumed that the pump 16 is running dry, and the next step S
3 outputs a stop signal 44 to the water level control means 49,
The pump 16 is stopped by the control signal 50 of the water level control means 49 to prevent it from running idle for a long time.

In this manner, in the device of the above embodiment, the idling of the pump 16 can be suppressed for a short period of time, thereby preventing a decrease in life caused by high-speed idling.

Although specific embodiments of the bath system of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be implemented with various modifications within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the pressure change amount ΔP is detected by the independent pressure change detection means 41, but the function of detecting the pressure change amount ΔP can also be performed by the pump stop means 42.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the bath system of the present invention, when the amount of pressure change detected by the pressure sensor is less than the reference amount of change, the pump is forcibly stopped as the pump is running dry. However, since this forced stop operation is performed by detecting pressure changes with a pressure sensor, it is possible to prevent the pump from running idle for a long time, which would shorten the life of the pump due to high speed rotation. can be prevented. Furthermore, since the detection configuration is based on the operating state of the pump, it can be applied to a wider variety of systems than before.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of this invention, Fig. 2 is a piping system diagram of an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 3 is a block diagram also showing the control system, and Fig. 4 is signal processing of the control system. Flowcharts showing the process, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are graphs showing changes in the detected value of the water level sensor with respect to time. 10... Bathtub, 14... Water level sensor (pressure sensor)
, 16...Pump, 20...Hot water, 42...Pump stop means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A bathtub (10), a hot water circulation piping system (17) connected to the bathtub (10) and having a pump (16) for hot water circulation in the middle thereof, and a pump ( A pressure sensor (14) connected to the suction side portion of the water level sensor (16) to detect the pressure of hot water, the bath system further comprising a detection signal (40) of the water level sensor (14).
) is provided with a pump stop means (42) for forcibly stopping the pump (16) when the amount of pressure change (ΔP) before and after the start of operation of the pump (16) is less than the reference amount of change (ΔP_S). A unique bath system.