JPH0327829B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a method for controlling the direction of an air outlet grill of an air conditioner, and in particular, only when heating operation is started using an on-timer switch, the air outlet is turned on from the time of startup. The present invention relates to a direction control method for a blow-off grill, which positions the grill in a heating or air volume maximum position, or shortens the time the grill is in a starting position compared to when it is normally started.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] In a so-called wall-mounted air conditioner in which the indoor unit is attached to the upper side wall of the room,
When starting heating operation, the direction (angle) of the outlet grill is automatically controlled for a certain amount of time (about 10 minutes) from the time of startup to prevent people from feeling uncomfortable cold air. Some devices are known in which the direction of wind blowing can be changed.

This will be explained based on FIGS. 5 and 6.

Fig. 6 shows an indoor unit 2 attached to an indoor upper side wall 1, in which a heat exchanger 3, a blower 4, a drain tray 5, etc. are housed, and an air outlet 6 is formed in the lower part. A flat outlet grille 7 whose direction (angle) is adjustable is attached to the outlet 6. This angle control of the blow-off grille 6 is automatically performed by a command from a control section (not shown).

The blowout grille shown in FIG. 6a shows the set position of the grille when the heating song is activated, and is positioned substantially vertically downward, so that room air is blown out in that direction. The reason why air is blown vertically downward during heating operation is that immediately after startup, the indoor heat exchanger 3 is not sufficiently heated, so cold air comes out from the air outlet 6. This is to avoid direct contact with the human body and to prevent the feeling of cold air.

After a predetermined time (approximately 10 minutes) has elapsed to sufficiently heat the indoor heat exchanger 3, the outlet grille 7 is rotated by an appropriate angle as shown in FIG. 6b or 6c. is tilted downward toward the indoor side, and hot air is blown out at a downward tilt toward the indoor side.

Fig. 6b shows the case where the outlet grille is located in the heating position, Fig. 6c shows the case where the outlet grille is located in the maximum air volume position, and the inclination angle of the grille shown in Fig. 6c is as shown in Fig. 6b. It's just a little smaller than that. The heating position mentioned above is a position suitable for heating the entire room in a well-balanced manner, whereas the starting position is a position that mainly tries to warm the room without giving a feeling of cold air to the human body, and the room temperature distribution is poor and the average temperature is also lower than that in the heating position.

Incidentally, FIG. 6d shows the position of the outlet grille during cooling operation, including when cooling operation is started.

The method for controlling the angle of the outlet grille described above is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the operation is started, the distinction between cooling and heating is determined, and in the case of cooling operation, the outlet grille 7 is
It is located in the cold air position as shown in Figure d.

In the case of heating operation, the outlet grille 7 is operated as shown in Fig. 6a.
It is located in the heating start position as shown in .

In this state, when a predetermined time (approximately 10 minutes) has elapsed to sufficiently heat the indoor heat exchanger 3, the outlet grille 7 rotates and is placed in the heating position as shown in FIG. 6b. It turns out.

Incidentally, recently, air conditioners have been developed that employ a so-called turn-on timer switch that starts operation of the air conditioner after an arbitrarily selected predetermined period of time has elapsed.

This turn-on timer switch is used for the purpose of cooling or heating the indoor atmosphere before a person enters the room.

In an air conditioner that employs such an on-timer switch, even when the on-timer switch is used to start the heating operation, the outlet grille is closed for a predetermined period of time as shown in Figure 6a, as described above. Located in the starting position during heating, then Fig. 6b
It was operating as shown in the heating position.

However, when starting the heating operation using the on-timer switch, there are very few cases where there are people in the room at the time of starting.

Therefore, in this case, although there is little or no risk of causing a feeling of cold air to the human body, the indoor heating start-up characteristics are poor because the outlet grill is operated from the starting position as described above. There were disadvantages in that the room temperature did not rise in a short time and power consumption increased accordingly.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention focuses on the above-mentioned problems and has been devised to effectively solve the problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a method for controlling the direction of an air outlet grill of an air conditioner, which can improve the start-up characteristics of indoor heating when using an on-timer switch, and can reduce power consumption. be.

[Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention aims to reduce the time during which the air outlet grill is positioned in the starting position when starting heating operation than during normal starting, or to prevent the air outlet grill from being placed in the starting position from the time of starting. The main feature is that the heater is configured to be located at the heating or air volume maximum position to improve the heating start-up characteristics.

[Embodiment] A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining a first embodiment of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the entire control circuit of an air conditioner.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control circuit of the air conditioner is mainly composed of an indoor control section 8 and an outdoor control section 9 that exchanges signals with the indoor control section 8.

The indoor control section 8 receives signals from a temperature sensor 11 as well as input signals from an operation section 10 having various selection switches. The selection switches of the operation unit 10 include an operation switch 12 for starting and stopping operation, a heating/cooling changeover switch 13 for switching between air conditioning and heating, a timer switch 14 for selecting continuous operation, an on timer switch, or an off timer switch, and an on/off timer switch. A control selection switch 15 and the like are provided for selecting whether or not to perform the blow-off grill direction control according to the method of the present invention when using the timer switch.

From the indoor control unit 8, a blowout grill drive circuit 17 that controls the rotation of the grill motor 16 is provided.
and an indoor fan motor drive circuit 19 that controls the rotation of the fan motor 18. Further, the outdoor control unit 9 outputs a signal to an inverter circuit 21 that controls the rotation of the compressor motor 20.

A first embodiment of the method of the present invention carried out by the control circuit configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

Operation is started by turning on the operation switch 12 of the operation section 10, or after an arbitrarily selected predetermined period of time has elapsed if an on-timer switch is selectively used. At this time, if cooling is selected by the cooling/heating changeover switch 13, the outlet grille 7 is placed in the cooling position as shown in FIG. 6d, and blows out cold air in a horizontal direction.
Driving continues.

Even if heating is selected by the cooling/heating changeover switch 13, if the ON timer switch is not selected by the timer switch 14 (NO), in other words, continuous operation or OFF timer switch (operation is started after an arbitrarily selected fixed period of time has elapsed). If the control selection switch 15 is not turned on (NO) even if the on-timer switch is selected or used (YES), the outlet grille 7 will operate as shown in FIG. As shown in a, the air blower is positioned at the starting position and blows air downward in the vertical direction, so as not to give a feeling of cold air to the human body.

Then, when a predetermined time (usually about 10 minutes) sufficient for the indoor heat exchanger to heat up in this state has elapsed, the outlet grille 7 is automatically placed in the heating position shown in FIG. 6b, Warm air is blown out indoors in a downward direction.

Such a control method is similar to the conventional control method shown in the flowchart of FIG.

On the other hand, when the on-timer switch is selectively used and the control selection switch 15 that controls the angle of the outlet grille when the timer is on is turned on (YES), the outlet grille 7 is located at the starting position. As shown in FIG. 6b, the air conditioner is initially placed in the heating position, and air is blown out in a downward direction toward the room at the same time as it is started. That is, when the on-timer switch is selectively used, the outlet grille 7 is controlled to be in the heating position at the same time as the heating operation is started, and therefore, the indoor heating start-up characteristics are improved compared to the conventional method. It is possible to reduce power consumption. Note that when such driving is performed, there are few people present in the room at the time of startup.

This will be explained based on the graph shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between room temperature and time according to the conventional method and the method of the present invention, where the dotted line shows the characteristics of the conventional method and the solid line shows the characteristics of the method of the present invention. In the conventional method, the angle of the outlet grille is changed 10 minutes after startup.

As is clear from the graph, when using the method of the present invention, the time it takes for the room temperature to reach 25°C is about 10 minutes faster than with the conventional method, and the room heating start-up characteristics when using the on-timer switch can be improved. It turns out that

In the first embodiment, after starting the heating operation using the on-timer switch, the time during which the outlet grille is in the starting position is set to zero, and the outlet grille is placed in the heating position from the time of startup. However, this is not limited to this, and the time from the start position to the heating position is the same as the transition time (approximately
It may be shorter than 10 minutes). At this time, the method to shorten the transition time is not to use a time count, but to detect the outlet temperature using a temperature sensor that detects the temperature condition of the outlet air blown out from the indoor unit, such as the indoor heat exchanger or outlet temperature. However, the temperature for transitioning from the starting position to the heating position may be set lower than the normal value, and the transition may be made when the detected value exceeds this set value.

Next, a second embodiment of the method of the present invention will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

This second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment in terms of the control method except when the on-timer switch is selectively used and the control selection switch 15 is turned on, so a description thereof will be omitted.

The feature of this second embodiment is that when the on-timer switch is used (YES) and the control selection switch 15 is turned on (YES),
The outlet grille 7 is not in the heating position but in the maximum airflow position as shown in FIG. Ru. After a predetermined period of time (approximately 10 minutes) has elapsed while the grille 7 is in the maximum airflow position, the grille 7 rotates and is in the position shown in FIG. 6b.

Using the on-timer switch selection like this,
When performing heating operation (when no one is in the room at the time of normal startup), the time spent in the outlet grill startup position is shorter than the time required for normal heating startup, or the startup is initially set to the heating or maximum air flow position. As a result, the amount of air blown out at the beginning of startup increases, and the temperature of the entire room can be raised to a predetermined temperature in a short time.

Also, even if you use an on-timer switch,
If there is a person in the room when the heating operation is started, by setting the control selection switch 15 to NO, the device will start with the outlet grille in the starting position, giving a feeling of cold air to the human body. I won't give anything.

[Effects of the Invention] In summary, according to the method of the present invention, the following excellent effects can be exhibited.

(1) When starting heating operation using an on-timer switch, make the time from the start position to the heating position shorter than when starting normal heating operation, or close the outlet grill at the same time as starting the heating operation. Since the heating or air volume position is set to the maximum position, the heating start-up characteristics in the room can be improved, and the room temperature can be raised to a predetermined temperature in a shorter time than in the conventional method.

(2) Therefore, since the entire room can be heated in a well-balanced manner in a short time, power consumption can be suppressed as much as possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a flowchart for explaining the first embodiment of the method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the entire control circuit of an air conditioner, and Fig. 3 shows changes in room temperature after starting heating operation. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the second embodiment of the method of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a conventional method for controlling the direction of the outlet grille, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the direction of the outlet grille. FIG. In the figure, 1 is the indoor upper side wall, 2 is the indoor unit, and 6
is an air outlet, and 7 is an air outlet grill.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. The indoor unit has an on-timer switch that is attached to the upper side wall of the room and starts operation after an arbitrarily selected certain period of time has elapsed. An air conditioner outlet grill, which is positioned vertically downward in a starting position, and after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the outlet grille is tilted downward toward the indoor side, and is positioned in a heating or maximum air volume position. In the direction control method, when the heating operation is started with the input timer switch being selectively used, the outlet grille is positioned at the starting position for a time shorter than the predetermined time. How to control the direction of the air conditioner's outlet grill. 2. When controlling the direction of the blowout grill,
The air conditioner according to claim 1, characterized in that the time during which the outlet grille is located at the starting position is zero, and the outlet grille is positioned at the heating or maximum air volume position from the time of starting. How to control the direction of the air outlet grill.