JPH0493545A - Control device of drain pump in air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To extend the life of a drain pump by inputting temperature and humidity data into a microcomputer during a cooling operation to select operation modes of the drain pump based on each date. CONSTITUTION:Data of temperatures and relative humidities are inputted into a microcomputer 10 from a temperature sensor 7 and a humitity sensor 8. Based on said data, a switching relay 15 of power source of a drain pump 5 is turned OFF/OFF. When a cooling operation starts, room temperatures (t) and relative humidities (r) are read in, so that operation regions of the pump 5 stored in the microcomputer 10 are selected. When the operation mode of the pump 5 is determined corresponding to the operation region, a control signal is outputted from an output unit 13 to the relay 15 to operate the pump 5 in a predetermined mode. When room temperatures and humidities are high, e.g. in the summer, and hence quantity of drain is large, operation rate of the pump 5 is set on a higher level and when room temperatures fall down or room temperatures and humidities are low, e.g. in the other season, operation rates are lowered to extend the life of the pump 5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for a drain pump in an air conditioner.

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, an indoor heat exchanger of an air conditioner is provided with a drain pump that discharges drain water generated by condensation from a water tray.

Conventionally, this drain pump control device (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6
3-204056), as shown in FIG. 7, during cooling operation and during compressor operation (thermostat is on), the drain pump is operated periodically (T1:
on, T2: off), and when the compressor is stopped (thermostat is off), the operation (T3) is performed only once.

Problems that the invention aims to solve Recently, air conditioning has become necessary throughout the year in party halls, wedding halls, training rooms where many people gather, as well as offices where office automation has progressed and computers and other heat-generating devices have increased. There is.

For this reason, the drain pump that discharges drain water generated during cooling operation also needs to be operated throughout the year, and therefore there is a demand for a longer lifespan of the drain pump.

However, in the conventional drain pump operation control described above,
Since the operating cycle (on/off time) is constant, it is necessary to determine the operating cycle so that the drain water does not overflow from the water tray under the conditions where the most amount of drain water is generated.
Therefore, the operating time of the drain pump per unit time (
(operation rate) has become extremely long, and the lifespan of the drain pump is too short for cooling operation throughout the year (the lifespan of the drain pump will be exceeded after approximately one year of cooling operation). It was difficult.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a drain pump control device that can extend the life of the drain pump by selecting the operation mode of the drain pump depending on the amount of drain water generated. .

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the first means of the present invention is to collect drain water generated in an indoor heat exchanger in an air conditioner controlled by a microcomputer from a water tray. This is a control device for a drain pump that discharges water, and is provided with a temperature detection means for detecting indoor temperature and a humidity detection means for detecting the humidity of indoor air, and the temperature data and humidity data from each of the above detection means are collected during cooling operation. This is a control device for a drain pump in an air conditioner, which inputs data into the microcomputer and selects an operation mode of the drain pump based on these data.

Moreover, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the second means of the present invention is such that, in the first means, the drain pump is continuously operated for a predetermined period of time from the start of the cooling operation by a timer means in the microcomputer.

This is a control device for a drain pump in an air conditioner.

Effect: According to the configuration of the first means, during cooling operation,
Since the operating mode of the drain pump is selected and controlled according to the indoor temperature and humidity, the life of the drain pump is significantly extended.

Further, according to the configuration of the second means of the present invention, in the configuration of the first means, the drain pump is forcibly operated continuously for a predetermined period of time from the start of the cooling operation, so that the blower fan is stopped. Overflow of drain water caused by incorrect detection of temperature and humidity can be prevented.

EXAMPLE A first example of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 shows a sectional view of an indoor heat exchanger in an air conditioner, and FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a drain pump control system.

In Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an indoor unit main body, inside which there is a blower fan 2, a heat exchanger 3, a water tray for storing drain water generated by condensation in the heat exchanger 3, and a tray 4 and this water tray. A drain pump 5 is disposed to discharge drain water from the dish 4, and a temperature sensor (temperature detection means) 7 and a humidity sensor (humidity detection means) are installed in the air intake port θ at the bottom of the indoor unit main body 1. 8 is provided.

Furthermore, an electronic control device 9 for controlling the air conditioner is attached to the side of the indoor unit main body 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, this electronic control device 9 has a built-in microcomputer 10 having a storage section 11, a part of a timer (timekeeping means) 12, an output section 13, and a comparison section 14. Although the computer 10 controls the entire air conditioner including the control of the drain pump 5, in this embodiment, only the control of the drain pump 5 will be explained.

That is, the temperature and relative humidity data from the temperature sensor 7 and humidity sensor 8 are input to the microcomputer 10, and based on these data, the open/close relay 15 of the power supply circuit of the drain pump 5 is turned on and off. I'm trying to make it happen.

To explain in detail, the indoor temperature detected by the temperature sensor 7 (hereinafter referred to as room temperature) and the set temperature set by the user are compared in the comparison section 14, and the on/off control of the compressor (not shown) is performed. At the same time, a signal from the humidity sensor 8 is input, and an appropriate operating mode (on/off time ) is selected, and a control signal is output from the output section 13 to the opening/closing relay 15 to control the drain pump 5.

Note that FIG. 3 shows a map of the operating range of the drain pump 5 stored in the microcomputer 10, in which the horizontal axis represents room temperature (t) and the vertical axis represents relative humidity (r). room temperature(
1) and relative humidity (r) are both high, the amount of drain water is large, and the drain pump 5 is operated in 100% mode as shown in FIG. Further, in region C where the room temperature (1) is normal and the relative humidity (r) is relatively low, the device is operated in a mode in which the on time is 40 seconds and the off time is 80 seconds (operating rate 33%).

Here, the operating operation in the above embodiment will be explained based on the flowchart of FIG. 5.

That is, when the cooling operation is started, the room temperature (1) and relative humidity (r) are read and the microcomputer 1
The operating range of the drain pump 5 stored in 0 is selected. Note that the above-mentioned room temperature (1) and relative humidity (r) are read at regular intervals. When the operating mode of the drain pump 5 is determined according to the operating range, a control signal corresponding to the operating mode is output from the output section 13 to the opening/closing relay 15, and the drain pump 5 is operated in a predetermined mode. be done.

Therefore, when the room temperature and humidity are high and the amount of drain water is high, such as in the summer, the operation rate of the drain pump 5 is set to a large value. When the drain pump 5 is low, by setting the operating rate low, the life of the drain pump 5 can be significantly extended, making it possible to sufficiently support cooling operation throughout the year.

Next, a second embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 6.

The second embodiment uses the timer part 12 of the microcomputer 10 in the first embodiment to operate the drain pump 5 continuously for a predetermined period of time from the start of cooling operation. This is what I did.

That is, as shown in the flowchart of FIG.
After that, the room i1M(t) and relative humidity (r) are read, and the drain pump 5 is operated according to the operation mode selected based on these data.

This is done in consideration of the fact that the blower fan 3 is stopped at the start of the cooling operation, making it difficult to accurately detect room temperature and humidity.

For example, if each sensor detects low temperature and low humidity even though the temperature is high and humidity is high, the operating rate of the drain pump 5 is set to a low value, so drain water will overflow from the water tray 4. Become.

Therefore, according to this configuration, after the cooling operation starts, the drain pump 5 is forcibly operated for a predetermined period of time, and then the room temperature is
Since the control is performed according to the operation mode according to the humidity, in addition to extending the life of the drain pump as explained in the first embodiment, it also reduces the room temperature and humidity that occur when the blower fan is stopped at the start of operation. Overflow of drain water due to false detection can be avoided.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the configuration of the first means of the present invention, the operation mode of the drain pump is selected and controlled according to the indoor temperature and humidity during cooling operation, so that the drain pump is controlled according to the indoor temperature and humidity. The life of the pump can be significantly extended.

Further, according to the configuration of the second means of the present invention, in the configuration of the first means, the drain pump is forcibly operated continuously for a predetermined period of time from the start of the cooling operation, so that the problem occurs when the blower fan is stopped. Overflow of drain water caused by incorrect detection of temperature and humidity can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 5 show a first embodiment of the present invention,
Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of an indoor heat exchanger in an air conditioner.
Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the control system of the drain pump, Fig. 3 is a map of the operating range of the drain pump, Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the operating modes of the drain pump, and Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the operating operation of the drain pump. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the drain pump in the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a time chart of the drain pump control device in the conventional example. 1...Indoor unit main body, 3...Heat exchanger, 4
...Water tray is a dish, 5...Drain pump, 6...
-Air intake port, 7...Temperature sensor 8...Temperature sensor 9...Electronic control unit, 10...Microcomputer, 11...Storage unit, 12...
・Timer part, 13...Output section, 14...Comparison section, 15...Opening/closing relay

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A control device for a drain pump that discharges drain water generated in an indoor heat exchanger in an air conditioner controlled by a microcomputer from a water tray, which detects the indoor temperature. A detection means and a humidity detection means for detecting the humidity of the indoor air are provided, and during cooling operation, temperature data and humidity data from each of the detection means are input to the microcomputer, and the operation mode of the drain pump is determined based on these data. A control device for the drain pump in an air conditioner that allows you to select 2. The control device for a drain pump in an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the drain pump is continuously operated for a predetermined period of time from the start of cooling operation by a timer in the microcomputer.