JPH0615292U - heater - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To provide a heater that can increase the snow melting area without increasing the contracted electric energy, or a heater that has a smaller contracted electric energy in the same snow melting area. The heater has at least two heating circuits, and a controller that sequentially applies each of these heating circuits or a number of heating circuits smaller than the total number of heating circuits for a predetermined time.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to a split heater, and more particularly to a split heater for snow melting, and more particularly to a split heater for snow melting using a conductive polymer heater.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, various heaters have been used for the purpose of melting snow on roads, roofs and the like. For example, heaters such as heating wires that comply with Japanese Industrial Standards are used to prevent roads from freezing or to melt snow. In this heater, the heating circuit is divided into a priority circuit and a non-priority circuit, and a current is constantly supplied to the priority circuit to bring it into a heating state. The priority circuit is automatically controlled by the roadbed temperature sensor, snowfall sensor, moisture sensor, etc. to the temperature at which snow can be melted. Only when the priority circuit is de-energized by these sensors, the non-priority circuit is energized and heated instead of the priority circuit.

When a snow melting heater is used, a power contract dedicated to snow melting, which is different from a general electric power contract, is usually made, but when using a heater having a priority circuit and a non-priority circuit as described above, power consumption of the priority circuit It is necessary to determine the contract power based on Therefore, the smaller the power consumption of the priority circuit is, the less the contracted electric power amount is, and the lower the basic electric power charge is. However, if the power consumption of the priority circuit is reduced, the amount of heat generated will be reduced, and therefore the snow melting capacity will be reduced. In order to achieve the desired snow melting effect, it is generally necessary to reduce the power consumption of the priority circuit. Considered difficult.

[0004]

[Issues to be solved by the device]

 Therefore, it is desired to provide a heater that can increase a heating area for snow melting or the like without increasing the contracted electric energy, or a heater that has a smaller contracted electric energy in the same snow melting area.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The above-mentioned problem is solved by a heater characterized by comprising at least two heating circuits and a control device for sequentially applying each of these heating circuits or a number of heating circuits smaller than the total number of heating circuits for a predetermined time. It was found to be done.

The use of the heater of the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it is a heating use, but it is particularly preferable to use it for snow melting. Therefore, the case where the heater of the present invention is used for snow melting will be described below as an example.

In the snow melting heater of the present invention, only one or some (a smaller number than the total number of existing heating circuits) of the plurality of heating circuits are applied for a predetermined time, while other heating circuits are applied. Is not applied. After the elapse of a predetermined time, only another heating circuit or some other heating circuits are applied for a predetermined time, while other heating circuits are not applied. That is, the state where all the heating circuits of the plurality of heating circuits are applied does not occur, and at least one different circuit is sequentially applied in sequence. Of course, if the snowmelt is sufficient, it is possible that all heating circuits are not applied.

In the most preferred embodiment of the present invention, the snow melting heater of the present invention has at least two, preferably two or three heating circuits and a timer control device for sequentially applying each of these heating circuits at regular intervals. It will be done.

When the snow melting heater of the present invention is used, it is not necessary to make a power contract based on the total power consumption of a plurality of heating circuits, and a power contract is made based on the total power consumption of the heating circuits that can be applied simultaneously. Only virtually any heating circuit can be used. Therefore, in the above-described most preferable aspect of the present invention, the power contract may be made based on the heating circuit that consumes the most power.

In the snow melting heater of the present invention, the at least two heating circuits may be substantially equivalent to each other, or may not be substantially equivalent depending on the purpose of use such as the purpose of snow melting. For example, if the snowmelt heater spans the snowmelt part in the sunny part and the bad part in the sun, it is possible to increase the power consumption of the heating circuit for the part that melts the snow in the bad part.

The snow melting heater of the present invention has at least two heating circuits, and it is also possible to have more heating circuits depending on the purpose of snow melting. For example, in a region where the amount of snowfall is not so large, it is not necessary to increase the snow melting capacity so much (for example, 10) heating circuits are incorporated, and a small number (for example, 1 or 2) of the heating circuits are used for a short time. It suffices if they are applied simultaneously. Conversely, in areas with heavy snowfall, it may be preferable to increase the number of heating circuits (eg 5) and also the number of heating circuits applied simultaneously (eg 3 or 4), in which case The time when the heating circuit is not applied is reduced.

However, typically, the snow melting heater of the present invention has two heating circuits that are equivalent or different, and these heating circuits are selected at fixed time intervals (for example, 10 to 10) according to the purpose of use. 120 minutes, usually every 30 to 60 minutes). It is preferable to set the non-energization time within a range where the heat storage state of the roadbed or the like to be heated by the non-energization part can achieve the purpose of snow melting. The heating circuit used in the present invention is not particularly limited as long as it has a heat generating function. For example, a so-called MI cable or parallel type heater can be used as a heating circuit of the snow melting heater of the present invention. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention, a so-called self-regulating heater, in particular, a heater using a conductive polymer is used as a heating circuit.

This self-regulating heater is a heater having a parallel circuit structure using a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) conductive polymer, and for example, a heater described in JP-A-56-59493 is suitable. Can be used for For example, it is preferable to use commercially available from Raychem Co., Ltd. (trade name: Ice Stop). The output of this heater can be controlled according to the temperature around the heater. That is, when the temperature of the heated portion decreases, high output is shown, while when the temperature of the heated portion rises, the output decreases. Therefore, overheating is automatically prevented, which is particularly preferable.

FIG. 1 shows the heating value of a heater (PTC conductive polymer heater) having a PTC conductive polymer as a heating element and a heater (heating wire heater) using a conventional heating wire as a heating element under the same conditions. The time change is schematically shown. As is clear from FIG. 1, in the case of the conventional heating wire heater, a constant amount of heat is supplied regardless of time. On the other hand, in the case of the conductive polymer heater, the output of the heater is high at the initial stage after the start of energization when the temperature of the heated portion is low due to the output control function described above. As a result, a large amount of heat is supplied in the initial stage after the start of energization, and the temperature of the heated portion rises faster than the normal heating wire heater. Therefore, it is possible to more effectively heat the divided heating circuits alternately.

Further, the self-heating temperature of a normal heating wire is 15 ° C. or lower in terms of durability and safety of the heating wire. On the other hand, some PTC conductive polymer heaters have a much higher self-heating temperature. For example, Ice Stop, which is commercially available from Raychem Co., Ltd., has a temperature of up to about 50 ° C., which is also preferable in that a large amount of heat can be supplied to the heated portion.

The present invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 2 is a schematic system diagram of the snow melting heater of the present invention. The snow melting heater of the present invention has an A heating circuit 1 and a B heating circuit 2 as heating circuits in the illustrated embodiment. The heating circuits A and B are connected to the control device 4 via the pull box 3.

The control device 4 is provided with a timer control device so that the heating circuits A and B can be switched and applied at regular intervals while obtaining signal information from the snowfall sensor 5 and the ground temperature sensor 6 provided as necessary. Has become. The control device 4 is activated by the indoor switch 7 as a main switch, and a current flows from the power source 9 to the snow melting heater via the integrated watt hour meter 8.

FIG. 3 schematically shows an applied state of the snow melting heater of FIG. In FIG. 3, the vertical axis represents applied power (on the A side or B side), and the horizontal axis represents application time. As is clear from FIG. 3, only one of the heating circuits A and B is applied by the control device, and the other heating circuit is not applied during this period, and this state is maintained at regular intervals (for example, 45 minutes). It turns out that every time).

FIG. 4 is a simplified circuit diagram of the snow melting heater of FIG. The snow melting heater circuit of the present invention has a heating circuit A10 and a heating circuit B11 in the illustrated embodiment. The heating circuit A and the heating circuit B are connected to a control device including a timer 16 and relays 14 and 15 via breakers 12 and 13 which are safety devices. The timer 16 is designed so that the relays 14 and 15 alternate between ON and OFF at regular intervals. If necessary, the control device may be provided with a snowfall sensor 17 and a ground temperature sensor 18. An electric current is supplied from the power source 21 to the snow melting heater section through the integrating wattmeter 20. For the safety of the circuit, an earth leakage breaker 19 is provided between the timer 16 and the integrated wattmeter 20.

[0020]

[Effect of device]

 With the heater of the present invention, it is possible to reduce the contracted electric energy as compared with the conventional heater. Conversely, if the contracted electric energy is the same, the snow melting heater can be applied to a wider area. For example, when the heating circuit A having a power consumption of 2 kw and the heating circuit B having a power consumption of 1.5 kw are used, the power of 3.5 kw is the standard of the contract power in the conventional snow melting heater, but in the snow melting heater of the present invention, the contract power is The heating circuit A of 2 kW serves as a reference.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a graph schematically comparing changes in heat generation amount of a conductive polymer heater used in the heater of the present invention and a conventional heating wire heater with time.

FIG. 2 is a schematic system diagram of the snow melting heater of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an applied state of a heating circuit of the snow melting heater of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a simplified circuit diagram of the snow melting heater of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 ... Heating circuit, 3 ... Pull box, 4 ... Control device,
5 ... Snowfall sensor, 6 ... Ground temperature sensor, 7 ... Indoor switch, 8 ... Integrating power meter, 9 ... Power supply, 10, 11 ... Heating circuit, 12, 13 ... Breaker, 14, 15 ... Relay, 1
6 ... Timer, 17 ... Snowfall sensor, 18 ... Ground temperature sensor, 19 ... Leakage breaker, 20 ... Integrating power meter, 21 ...
Power supply.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Creator Hideyuki Kuribayashi 11-4-21 Odori Nishi, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido 52 Sankyo Building 401 No. 401 Rechem Sapporo Co., Ltd. Sales Office

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A heater comprising at least two heating circuits, and a controller for sequentially applying a heating circuit of a number smaller than the total number of the heating circuits or each of the heating circuits for a predetermined time. 2. The heater according to claim 1, wherein each heating circuit uses a conductive polymer as a heating element. 3. The heater according to claim 1, which is used for the purpose of snow melting.