JPH05296533A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To protect an over-loading of a compressor or realize saving of electricity by a method wherein occurrence of noise is prevented when a high and low pressure balance in a freezing cycle is released, in the case that hot air is blown with preheating as a heating operation is started. CONSTITUTION:When a heating operation is stopped, a preheating button 4 is operated, resulting in that when a room temperature is low, a fan is operated to cause a temperature of an indoor heat exchanger to become a predetermined temperature, a compressor 9s is turned ON for a predetermined time and then the operation becomes a preheating mode. Upon receiving a heating operation instruction, an indoor fan motor 15 is operated, a temperature of the indoor heat exchanger is decreased to a predetermined temperature, a four-way valve 11 is turned ON and a high and low balance of a freezing cycle is released. Thereafter, the four-way valve 11 is turned OFF, a freezing cycle is changed to a heating state, the indoor fan motor 15 and an outdoor fan motor 10 are operated and the compressor 9 is operated to start the heating operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner including at least a compressor, an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, a pressure reducer, an indoor fan, an outdoor fan and a four-way valve for switching a refrigerant, and more particularly, a heating device. The present invention relates to control for shortening the time until hot air is blown out during operation, and overload protection control during the control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-28651, the temperature inside the unit in which the indoor heat exchanger is stored, the temperature and pressure of the refrigerant on the high pressure side of the refrigeration cycle, even when the heating operation is stopped. An air conditioner has been proposed in which the operation control of the compressor is performed in accordance with the above, and the high-temperature air is blown out from the discharge port immediately after the heating operation is started.

In order to realize such operation control of the compressor, an opening / closing valve is provided in the defrosting pipe, and when the operation of the compressor is restarted within a predetermined time after the compressor is stopped, this opening / closing valve is set to a predetermined value. It is opened for a certain period of time, and the refrigerant in the high pressure side pipeline on the indoor heat exchanger side is flowed into the low pressure side pipeline on the outdoor heat exchanger side via this on-off valve to maintain the high-low pressure balance of the refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle. In addition, a motor-operated valve is used as a pressure reducer, and while the compressor is stopped, this solenoid valve is closed to keep the refrigerant in the indoor heat exchanger at high temperature and high pressure, and the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger drops. I try to prevent it. When the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger decreases, the operation of the compressor is restarted, and thus the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger is kept high even when the heating operation is stopped.

The opening degree of the electrically operated valve is adjusted according to the temperature of the discharged refrigerant during operation of the compressor.

Thus, in such an air conditioner, the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger can be kept high even when the heating is stopped, and the temperature of the air blown from the discharge port at the start of the heating operation can be raised.

[0006]

However, in such a conventional air conditioner, as described above, the refrigeration cycle is used in order to restart the operation of the compressor within a predetermined time while the compressor is stopped. It is necessary to provide an on-off valve for maintaining the high-low pressure balance of the refrigerant, which is expensive, and when opening the on-off valve, the high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle is opened, which causes an undesired sound. There was also a problem.

Further, as described above, in order to protect the compressor from overload, it is necessary to provide an electrically operated valve whose valve opening can be adjusted according to the temperature of the discharged refrigerant during operation of the compressor. Moreover, at this time, the compressor was in operation, and no consideration was given to power consumption due to the operation.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate such a problem, to configure a minimum number of parts, and by preheating operation with low power consumption, it is possible to blow out a high temperature air from the discharge port with the start of heating operation. It is to provide the air conditioner.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided with means for controlling a compressor, an outdoor fan, a four-way valve, etc. according to the temperature of each part while the heating operation is stopped.

[0010]

Since the compressor is controlled in accordance with the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger while the heating operation is stopped, the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger can be maintained at a predetermined temperature or higher. Since the outdoor fan is controlled by the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger during operation of the compressor, protection of the compressor and the like during overload can be realized while suppressing power consumption.

Further, when the operation start command is received while the compressor is stopped, the four-way valve is switched to open the balance of the refrigeration cycle, so that the warm air can be started early. Since the switching of the four-way valve is performed according to the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger, it is possible to prevent the noise generated when the high-low balance of the refrigeration cycle is opened, and
Since the switching of the four-way valve is performed according to the stop time of the compressor, wasteful switching can be suppressed.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an air conditioner according to the present invention, in which 1 is an indoor unit, 2 is a control unit, and 3 is
Is a run / stop button, 4 is a preheat button, 5 is a room temperature detector, 6 is an indoor heat exchanger temperature detector, 7 is an outdoor unit,
Reference numeral 8 is an outdoor heat exchanger temperature detection unit, 9 is a compressor, 10 is an outdoor fan motor, and 11 is a four-way valve.

FIG. 2 is a refrigeration cycle system diagram of this embodiment, in which 12 is an indoor heat exchanger, 13 is an outdoor heat exchanger, 14 is a decompressor, and 15 is an indoor fan motor. Corresponding parts are designated by the same reference numerals.

In FIG. 2, a four-way valve 11 with the compressor 9 as an axis is used.
Are connected, and subsequently, the outdoor heat exchanger 13, the pressure reducer 14, the indoor heat exchanger 12, the four-way valve 11, and the compressor 9 make one round to form a refrigeration cycle. As a blower, an outdoor fan
There are a motor 10 and an indoor fan motor 15. A room temperature detector 5, an indoor heat exchanger temperature detector 6, and an outdoor heat exchanger temperature detector 7 are provided to detect the temperature of each part.

The four-way valve 11 connects the refrigerant discharge port of the compressor 9 to the indoor heat exchanger 12 and the refrigerant suction port of the compressor 9 to the outdoor heat exchanger 13 during heating, and the compressor 9 during cooling. The refrigerant inlet and the refrigerant outlet are connected in the reverse order of the above. As a result, when the compressor 9 operates, the flow of the refrigerant during heating is indicated by the dashed arrow, and the flow of the refrigerant during cooling is indicated by the solid arrow.

Further, in FIG. 1, a control unit 2 for performing overall control includes information by operating the start / stop button 3 and the preheat button 4 in the indoor unit 1, the room temperature Tid detected by the room temperature detection unit 5 and the room temperature Tid. The temperature of the indoor heat exchanger 12 (indoor heat exchanger temperature) Tih detected by the heat exchanger temperature detector 6 and the temperature of the outdoor heat exchanger 13 detected by the outdoor heat exchanger temperature detector 8 of the outdoor unit 7 ( The indoor fan motor 15 in the indoor unit 1, the compressor 9, the outdoor fan motor 10, the four-way valve 11 and the like in the outdoor unit 7 are controlled based on the outdoor heat exchanger temperature Toh. Here, the operation / stop button 3 is operated, and the operation and stop are alternately switched.
As the preheat button 4 is operated, the preheat mode is switched on and off alternately.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, the control unit 2 in FIG.
The control operation of will be described. The control unit 2 has a start / stop button 3
And the preheat button 4, the room temperature detector 5, and the indoor heat exchanger temperature detector 6 are constantly monitored (step S1). If there is no input from any of the run / stop button 3 and the preheat button 4, the preheat If it is not in preheat mode, steps S1 and S2 are repeated to wait for input from the run / stop button 3 and preheat button 4. If it is in the preheat mode, the process proceeds to step S18 described later.

When the operation / stop button 3 is operated and there is an input from now (step S1), it is judged whether or not the operation is stopped (step S3). When the operation is not stopped, that is, when the compressor is operating, the compressor is stopped. 9, indoor fan motor 15,
The control target parts such as the outdoor fan motor 10 are turned off to bring the operation into a stopped state (step S4).

When the operation is stopped, the preheating operation is being performed (step S5), the compressor 9 is off (step S6), and the stop period of the compressor 9 (hereinafter referred to as OF
If tc.off (referred to as period F) does not exceed the predetermined period t ₁ (step S7), the indoor fan motor 15 is instructed to rotate with a slight wind (S in the fan step), and hot air is immediately blown out. At the same time, the opening of the high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle is promoted (step S8). Here, this predetermined period t ₁ is, for example, a period (for example, about 3
Minutes).

The rotation of the indoor fan motor 15 causes the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih to drop, but this is monitored by the detection of the indoor heat exchanger temperature detection unit 6, and the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih is maintained at the predetermined temperature T. _After waiting until the temperature falls below ₁ (step S9), the four-way valve 11 is turned on to open the high / low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle (step S10). By doing so, it is possible to prevent the sound generated when the high / low pressure balance is opened.

When the ON period tv.on of the four-way valve 11 exceeds the predetermined period t ₂ (step S11), the four-way valve 1
1 is turned off to form a refrigeration cycle in the direction of the broken line arrow shown in FIG.
2) The outdoor fan motor 10, the compressor 9, and the indoor fan motor 15 are turned on to start the heating operation (step S).
13-S15).

Even when the operation is stopped (step S
3), not in the preheating operation (step S5), and the compressor 9 is in the ON state (step S6), and the compressor 9 is the OFF period tc.off be in OFF state after the lapse of a predetermined time period t ₁ If any of the above (step S7) is true, the operations of the above steps S8 to S12 are not performed,
Immediately, the process proceeds to step S13, and the normal heating operation start operation is performed.

In the above control operation, the OFF period tc.off of the compressor 9 starts only after the predetermined period t ₁ has passed (step S7), and the high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle is opened by switching the four-way valve 11. Since it is determined (steps S8 to S12), unnecessary switching of the four-way valve 11 can be prevented, and, as described above, switching of the four-way valve 11 according to the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih. (Steps S9 and S10), no undesired sound is generated when the high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle is opened.

Next, the control operation when the preheat button 4 is operated or when it is determined in step S2 that the preheat mode is set will be described. When there is an input from the preheat button 4 (step S1), it is first determined whether or not the preheat mode is currently set (step S16), and when preheating is in progress, the preheat mode is turned off (step S17). When it is not in the preheating mode, or when it is determined in step S2 that the preheating mode is set, the detection result of the room temperature detection unit 5 is fetched, and when it is found that the room temperature Tid is equal to or higher than the predetermined temperature T ₂ (step S18), Step S29
Go to and set the preheat mode to ON.

According to this control operation, when the preheat button 4 is operated and the room temperature Tid is equal to or higher than the predetermined temperature T ₂ , the room is sufficiently warmed, so only the preheat mode is set to ON, and In the preheating mode, when the room temperature Tid is equal to or higher than the predetermined temperature T ₂ , the preheating mode O
N setting continues.

When the room temperature Tid does not reach the predetermined temperature T ₂ (step S18), the detection result of the outdoor heat exchanger temperature detection unit 8 is fetched and the outdoor heat exchanger temperature Toh is set to the predetermined temperature T.
Whether or not it is ₃ or less (step S19), when the outdoor heat exchanger temperature Toh is less than or equal to a predetermined temperature T ₃ and when the OFF period tc.off of the compressor 9 is greater than or equal to a predetermined period t ₁ , indoor heat exchange The following control operation is performed so that the chamber temperature Tih becomes equal to or higher than the target predetermined temperature T ₄ .

That is, first, the indoor heat exchanger temperature detector 6 detects the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih and determines whether or not the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih is equal to or lower than a predetermined temperature T ₄ (step S21). Then, when the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih is the predetermined temperature T ₄ less outdoor Fanmo - ON the motor 10 (step S22), and the outdoor Fanmo when the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih exceeds a predetermined temperature T ₄ - the motor 10 The compressor 9 is turned off (step S23), and the compressor 9 is turned on (step S24). Such steps S21, S22 or S2
3. The series of operations in S24 continues until the ON period tc.on of the compressor 9 becomes equal to or longer than the predetermined period t ₃ of the compressor operation required for protection of the compressor 9 (step S25). When the ON period tc.on becomes the predetermined period t ₃ or more, then the above steps S21, S22 or S23, S24, S
The indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih is the predetermined temperature T in the series of 25 operations.
Continue until ₄ or more. And the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih
When the temperature exceeds a predetermined temperature T ₄ , the compressor 9 and the outdoor fan motor 10 are turned off to interrupt the preheating (step S2).
7, S28) and then the preheating mode is turned on to end a series of preheating operations (step S29).

According to this operation, the indoor heat exchanger temperature T
Since the outdoor fan motor 10 is controlled according to ih,
Even when the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih reaches the predetermined temperature T ₄ which is the target temperature while the ON period tc.on of the compressor 9 does not reach the predetermined period t ₃ for protecting the compressor 9, the outdoor The fan motor 10 is turned off to protect the compressor 9 from overload and further reduce the power consumption.

By providing the outdoor fan motor 10 with a speed higher than the second speed, when the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih takes too long to reach the predetermined temperature T ₄ , the outdoor fan motor 10 is operated. It can also be rotated at high speed.

The operation of this embodiment by the above control operation will be described with reference to FIG. A range 1 in FIG. 4 shows a state in which the steps S20 to S26 in FIG. 3 are controlled by the operation of the preheat button 4 to perform the preheat operation, but the indoor heat exchanger is operated by the operation of the compressor 9. it can be seen that the temperature Tih is maintained at a predetermined temperature T ₄ or more of the above.

The range 2 shows a case where the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih reaches the predetermined temperature T ₄ relatively quickly due to the operation of the compressor 9, but the outdoor fan motor 10 is turned off.
It can be seen that the indoor heat exchanger temperature Tih is prevented from rising as indicated by the dotted line, and overload protection of the compressor 9 and power saving are realized.

A range 3 shows a state in which the heating operation command is received by operating the operation / stop button 3 when the compressor 9 is stopped during the preheating operation, but the four-way valve is operated after the indoor fan motor 15 is rotated. 11 is switched to open the high / low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle, so that the compressor 9 can be smoothly started without waiting until the high / low pressure balance of the conventional refrigeration cycle is opened (operation as indicated by the dotted line). Therefore, it can be seen that the rising temperature of the blown hot air can be raised quickly (in the past, the rise of the temperature of the discharge air is shown by the dotted line).

The range 4 shows the preheating operation when the outdoor heat exchanger temperature Toh or the room temperature Tid is high. At this time, it is understood that the compressor 9 is not operated to save power. ..

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The following effects can be obtained.

(1) The maximum ON period of the compressor required for protection of the compressor is set, and the preheating operation is performed so that the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger is maintained at a predetermined temperature T ₄ or higher. However, when the predetermined temperature T ₄ is reached before the maximum ON period elapses, the outdoor fan motor is turned off, so that overload protection of the compressor and power saving in preheating operation can be achieved. it can.

(2) The indoor heat exchanger temperature can be maintained at a predetermined temperature or higher by the preheating operation, and when the heating operation command is received during the preheating operation and the compressor is stopped, After rotating the fan motor, the four-way valve is switched to open the high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle, so the compressor can be started up smoothly, and the time from the heating operation command to the hot air blowing is greatly increased. Can be shortened to

(3) By rotating the indoor fan motor, the four-way valve is switched after the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger falls below the predetermined temperature T ₁ to open the high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle. It is possible to prevent generation of undesired sound when releasing the low voltage balance.

(4) Since the four-way valve is not switched when the predetermined time t ₁ required for high-low pressure balance of the refrigeration cycle elapses after the compressor stop period, the four-way valve switching operation and the wasteful four-way valve switching operation are not performed. It is possible to prevent unnecessary waiting time and realize power saving and comfort.

(5) In the preheating operation, the compressor is not operated when the room temperature is high or the temperature of the outdoor heat exchanger is high, so that power saving can be achieved. in this case,
Although it is necessary to detect the outdoor air temperature, this can be realized with the minimum detection unit, such as by using the outdoor heat exchanger temperature detection unit.

(6) Similarly, the refrigeration cycle can be constituted by a minimum number of cycle parts such as a compressor, an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, a pressure reducer, a four-way valve, etc. It is not necessary to use different parts.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an air conditioner according to the present invention.

2 is a refrigeration cycle system diagram in the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control operation of a control unit in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Indoor Unit 2 Control Section 3 Run / Stop Button 4 Preheat Button 5 Room Temperature Detection Section 6 Indoor Heat Exchanger Temperature Detection Section 7 Outdoor Unit 8 Outdoor Heat Exchanger Temperature Detection Section 9 Compressor 10 Outdoor Fan Motor 11 Four-way Valve 12 Indoor Heat exchanger 13 Outdoor heat exchanger 14 Pressure reducer 15 Indoor fan motor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioner comprising at least a compressor, an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, a pressure reducer, an indoor fan, an outdoor fan, and a four-way valve for switching a refrigerant, wherein the compressor of the compressor is operated while heating operation is stopped. An air conditioner comprising: a first control unit that performs operation control; and a second control unit that controls an outdoor fan according to the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the first control unit performs control for switching a four-way valve when an operation start command is received while the compressor is stopped. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the control for switching the four-way valve is performed according to the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger. 4. The air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the control for switching the four-way valve is performed according to the stop time of the compressor. 5. The compressor according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein the first controller controls the operation of the compressor according to the temperature of the outdoor heat exchanger and the temperature of the room. Air conditioner to do.