JPH0712839Y2 - Hot water circulating bathtub device with water supply valve - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the device] [Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a hot water circulating bath device in which the hot water temperature and the hot water level of a bathtub are kept constant, and in particular, the hot water that keeps the hot water clear by allowing the bacteria to live in the granular porous stone contained in the filtration tank. The present invention relates to a circulating bath device.

2. Description of the Related Art A hot water circulation type bathtub device having a boiler for heating hot water with a burner for keeping the temperature of hot water constant has been put into practical use (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-266351). When the temperature of hot water drops below a set temperature, this hot water circulation bathtub device detects this with a temperature sensor and ignites the burner.The burner heats the hot water and the hot water is heated to a set temperature. When warmed, the burner combustion is stopped.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

In the hot water circulation bath device having this structure, the hot water can be maintained at a constant temperature by controlling the operation of the burner with a temperature sensor. However, the hot water circulation bathtub device of this structure is
It is not possible to have a device that can be operated continuously for 24 hours and take a bath whenever you want. This is because the warm water is heated to a temperature suitable for bacterial growth, so that the bacteria rapidly grow after a certain period of time. The present inventor has developed a device that keeps warm water clear by the action of bacteria. This device breeds bacteria on natural granular porous stones that are porous. Bacteria remove contaminants in the warm water and keep the warm water clear. It is important for this device to grow bacteria in an ideal environment. In order to propagate bacteria, granular porous stone which is a porous natural stone can be used. The granular porous stone is filled in a filtration tank and arranged in a circulation path of hot water. When a filtration tank containing granular porous stones is connected to the hot water passage and continuously operated for several days, aerobic bacteria naturally grow on the granular porous stones. Bacteria thrive on dirt and the like contained in warm water as food and decompose ammonia and proteins contained in the warm water to keep the warm water clear.
When bacteria are active, warm water is kept extremely clear, and bacteria such as Escherichia coli contained in the warm water are effectively removed. By the way, in a device that does not treat hot water with bacteria, if you bathe the night before and keep it at a constant temperature until the next morning, the number of E. coli will grow to an enormous number the next morning and the warm water will become cloudy. Unfortunately, the growth of E. coli increases at an accelerating rate. However, if a granular porous stone inhabiting bacteria was installed in the hot water passage and bathed at night and the hot water was circulated until the next morning, the number of E. coli was significantly reduced compared to immediately after bathing, and the hot water was extremely hot. It is kept clear. Since this device can be operated continuously and keeps the warm water clear, it has the feature that it can be operated continuously for 24 hours without changing the hot water, and that you can take a bath whenever you want. In order for this device to keep the warm water clear and to heat it to a constant temperature, a member for heating the warm water and a member for keeping the warm water in the clear are required. The present inventor has
We have developed a device that uses an electric heater. This device has 24
By continuously operating for a long time, it is possible to keep the hot water clean and control it to a constant temperature. However, the device using the electric heater has a drawback that the running cost increases as the bathtub becomes larger. In order to overcome this drawback, we have developed a device that uses an oil burner instead of an electric heater, heats hot water with a boiler equipped with an oil burner, and filters the heated water with granular porous stones. However, when this device was actually operated, the warm water was slightly clouded and high transparency could not be obtained. In an apparatus using an electric heater, depending on the environment of use, warm water becomes cloudy until bacteria are sufficiently propagated in the granular porous stone, for example, for several days after the start of use. Therefore, the inventor
It was speculated that the cause of the cloudiness of the warm water was not sufficient bacterial growth on the granular porous stones, and operation was continued for several more weeks.
However, the warm water could not be clarified forever. The inventor changed the boiler to various structures and repeated the experiment. However, the cloudy warm water could not be filtered cleanly. Therefore, the inventor of the present invention prototyped and conducted an experiment on a device in which the amount of granular porous stones used was significantly increased. As a result, the cloudiness of warm water gradually decreased as the amount of granular porous stones increased. However, in order to eliminate the cloudiness of warm water, it is necessary to use several times as many granular porous stones as the conventional apparatus, and the cost of the granular porous stones has increased significantly. Especially,
Since the granular porous stone used for this purpose is unique in that it is porous, the cost of the granular porous stone is extremely high. Furthermore, the use of granular porous stone obtained by crushing natural stone and sintering it to porous has a drawback that the cost is further increased. Furthermore, this type of device reduces the amount of hot water in the bathtub,
It can be used more conveniently by adding a mechanism to automatically supply water. A device that realizes this is, for example, Jikkou Sho-9980.
It is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. In the device described in this publication, a water tank is connected to a suction side of a circulation pump via a water supply valve. When the water supply valve is opened, makeup water is supplied from the water tank to the circulation pump. The water supplied to the circulation pump is
It is supplied to the bath through the filter and the hot water can. The device of this structure has a drawback that cold water flows into the bath when water is supplied from the water supply valve without igniting the hot water can. This is because the water is not heated and flows into the bath. The present invention solves these drawbacks by heating make-up water with latent heat of granular porous stones in a filtration tank and growing bacteria on the granular porous stones so that warm water can be kept clear without clouding. A hot water circulation type bathtub device having a water supply valve is provided. Another important object of the present invention is to provide a hot water circulation type bathtub device provided with a water supply valve which allows a heat exchanger of a boiler heated by an oil burner to maintain excellent heat exchange efficiency for a long period of time.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the hot-water circulating bath apparatus having the water supply valve of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the hot water circulation type bathtub device of the present invention comprises a boiler 5,
The filtration tank 6, the level sensor 19, and the water supply valve 20 are provided. The boiler 5 is connected to the bathtub 1 via a circulation pipe 2. The boiler 5 controls the oil burner 4 with the hot water temperature sensor 3 to heat the hot water to a constant temperature. The filtration tank 6 is connected to the bath 1 via a circulation pipe 2 and a circulation pump 7. Furthermore, the filtration tank 6 is filled with granular porous stones therein, and bacteria are propagated in the granular porous stones to keep warm water clear. Level sensor 19
Measures the water level in the bathtub 1. The water supply valve 20 is controlled by the level sensor 19 to supply hot water to the bathtub 1. Furthermore, the hot water circulating bath device of the present invention comprises a filtration tank 6
Is connected between the suction side of the boiler 5 and the bathtub 1. The hot water in the bathtub 1 passes through the filtration tank 6 containing the granular porous stones 17 in which bacteria live and then flows into the boiler 5 to be heated. Further, the water supply valve 20 is connected between the bathtub 1 and the filtration tank 6, and the makeup water supplied from the water supply valve 20 passes between the granular porous stones 17 of the filtration tank 6 to the boiler 5. It flows in and is supplied to the bathtub 1 from the boiler 5.

[Action]

The hot water circulation type bathtub device of the present invention, when the hot water level in the bathtub drops below a set value, this is a level sensor.
19 and the level sensor 19 opens the water supply valve 20. When the water supply valve 20 is opened, makeup water is supplied to the suction side of the filtration tank 6 through the water supply valve 20. When the makeup water sucked into the filtration tank 6 passes through the filtration tank 6, it is heated by the latent heat of the granular porous stones 17 stored in the filtration tank 6 to be added to the bathtub 1.
Is supplied to. Granular porous stones 17 stored in the filtration tank 6
Has accumulated considerable thermal energy. This is because the amount of the granular porous stone 17 is large because it is designed in an amount sufficient for growing bacteria there and clarifying warm water. The filtration tank 6 containing a large amount of heavy stones stores a large amount of thermal energy. The heat storage amount is proportional to the weight and specific heat of the granular porous stone 17. Even more conveniently, the particulate porous stone is packed so that hot water passes through the interstices. For this reason,
The hot water passing through the gaps between the granular porous stones 17 is efficiently and quickly heated by the heat of the granular porous stones 17 and supplied to the bath 1.
Therefore, even if the water supply valve 20 is opened and cold water is replenished, it will not flow into the bathtub 1 in a cold state. Cold water is heated to a temperature close to an appropriate temperature by the granular porous stones 17 of the filtration tank 6 and then flows into the bath 1. After releasing the heat to the cold water, the temperature of the granular porous stone gradually decreases. When the temperature of the granular porous stone decreases, the boiler ignites the burner to heat the cold water and supply it to the bath. Further, the hot water circulation type bath device of FIG. 1 showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention circulates hot water in the bath 1 → circulation pump 7 → filtration tank 6 → boiler 5 heat exchanger 18 → tub 1. The filtration tank 6 is filled with granular porous stones 17 therein, and bacteria are propagated in the granular porous stones 17 to remove ammonia and proteins contained in hot water. Granular porous stone
The clear warm water filtered in 17 is continuously fed to the heat exchanger 18 of the boiler. In this way, the device of the invention that allows the hot water that has passed through the filtration tank 6 to flow into the boiler 5 is
The hot water heated to a high temperature in the boiler 5 is not allowed to flow into the filtration tank 6. Warm water at a comfortable temperature is drawn into the filtration tank 6 from the bath 1. Therefore, the bacteria inhabiting the granular porous stones 17 of the filtration tank 6 are not heated to an abnormally high temperature by the hot water heated to a high temperature. When bacteria are heated to an abnormally high temperature, the effect of clarifying the warm water is significantly reduced due to the temperature disturbance, or a part of the bacteria is killed and the clarifying effect of the warm water is lost. The device of this invention is
Since the hot water heated by the boiler 5 is not supplied to the filtration tank 6, the bacteria of the granular porous stone 17 are not killed by the heat generated by the boiler. The heat generated by the boiler 5 is so large that it cannot be compared with other heating members. Therefore, the temperature of the hot water discharged from the boiler becomes very high. If the boiler burner can be made smaller, the amount of heat generated can be made smaller and the discharge temperature of hot water can be made lower. However, it is extremely difficult to reduce the amount of heat generated by the oil burner. This is because the inner diameter of the nozzle that limits the jet amount of oil is limited. Further, if the inner diameter of the nozzle is made small, foreign matter is likely to be clogged, and there is a drawback that maintenance is extremely troublesome. Therefore, the amount of heat generated by the oil burner installed in the boiler is so large that it cannot be compared with electric heaters or heat pump type heating members, and even small ones are extremely large at tens of thousands kcal / hour or more. Therefore, the temperature of the hot water discharged from the boiler cannot be lowered, and the hot water heated to an abnormally high temperature flows into the filtration tank connected to the discharge side of the boiler, causing temperature damage to the bacteria in the granular porous stone. give. Further, the hot water circulation type bath device of the present invention allows the hot water clarified in the filtration tank to flow into the boiler, so that the heat efficiency of the heat exchanger of the boiler can be increased for a long period of time, and the fuel can be used effectively and economically. Can be used. Furthermore, the hot water circulation type bathtub device provided with the water supply valve of the present invention has a feature that the temperature change of the hot water can be reduced and can be used comfortably. This feature is realized by constantly flowing hot water into the heat exchanger regardless of whether the oil burner is ignited or extinguished, and circulating hot water at a temperature close to that in the bathtub inside the heat exchanger. To be done. That is, when the temperature of the hot water drops below the set temperature, this is detected by the temperature sensor and the oil burner of the boiler is ignited. Since hot water is continuously circulated in the heat exchanger before the oil burner is ignited, the hot water in the heat exchanger and the heat exchanger are kept at a temperature almost equal to that in the bathtub. There is. Therefore, when the oil burner is ignited and the heat exchanger is heated, the heat exchanger is gradually heated from the temperature of the hot water in the bath, whereby the hot water is gradually and gradually heated to be returned to the bath. Therefore, high temperature hot water is not injected into the bath immediately after ignition of the oil burner, and the feature that the hot water in the bath can be comfortably heated with a small temperature difference can be realized. Also, even after the oil burner has extinguished, the hot water is heated by the residual heat of the heat exchanger, but since the hot water is still circulating in this state, the temperature of the hot water in the heat exchanger will rise abnormally. In addition, the feature that the residual heat is effectively used and the warm water is efficiently heated to a proper temperature can be realized. Furthermore, since the pump that forcibly circulates the hot water in the filter is also used as the pump that supplies the hot water to the heat exchanger of the boiler, there is no need for a circulation pump dedicated to the boiler. It also realizes the features that the structure can be simplified and mass-produced at low cost.

【Example】

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the embodiments shown below exemplify a device for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and the device of the present invention has the following materials, shapes, structures, and arrangements of components. Not specific. The device of this invention is subject to various modifications within the scope of the claims for utility model registration. Further, in this specification, in order to facilitate understanding of the scope of claims for utility model registration, the numbers corresponding to the members shown in the embodiment are
It is added to the members shown in "Column for request for utility model registration", "Column for means for solving conventional problems" and "Column for action". However, the members described in the claims for utility model registration are not limited to the members shown in the examples. A hot water circulation type bathtub device including a boiler 5 shown in FIG. 1 includes a bathtub 1 and a circulation pump 7 in which a suction side is connected to a bottom portion of the bathtub 1 via a primary filter 8 and a circulation pipe 2.
A filtration tank 6 connected to the discharge side of the circulation pump 7, a water supply valve 20 connected to the suction side of the filtration tank 6 via the circulation pump 7, and a level for controlling the water supply valve 20. The sensor 19, the boiler 5 connected to the discharge side of the filtration tank 6, and the discharge side of the boiler 5 are connected to the bath 1
And a circulation pipe 2 connected to the. The boiler 5 includes a heat exchanger 18 and an oil burner 4 that heats hot water via the heat exchanger 18. In the oil burner 4, the temperature sensor 3 controls the ignition and extinguishing states so that the hot water temperature is maintained at a set temperature of 39 ° C. to 46 ° C., for example. The temperature sensor 3 is arranged in the first-stage filter so that the temperature as close as possible to the hot water in the bath 1 can be detected. The temperature sensor 3 detects the temperature of hot water in the filter, ignites the oil burner 4 when the temperature of the hot water is below a set value, and extinguishes the fire when it is above the set value. The primary filter 8 is detachably attached to the open end of the circulation pipe 2 in the bath. As the filter material of the primary filter 8, for example, synthetic resin foam having open cells, water resistant filter paper, non-woven fabric, net material, etc. can be used, and for example, one having a mesh of about 0.3 to 5 mm can be used. The filtration tank 6 has two stages of filtration tanks 6 having the same internal structure that are connected in series to improve the filtration capacity. The sectional shape of the filtration tank 6 is shown in FIG. This filtration tank 6
Includes a thin tubular casing 9, a perforated stone filter 10 arranged in the casing 9, and a hot water pipe 11 which is connected to an inlet of the hot water and pushes the hot water to the upper part of the casing. The casing 9 is formed in a double cylinder shape with an outer cylinder and an inner cylinder. A heat insulating material 12 is filled between the outer cylinder and the inner cylinder to perform heat insulation treatment, and the inner cylinder forms a part of a hot water channel having a watertight structure. Form. The casing 9 has a plurality of stages of perforated stone filters 10 housed in it that can be taken out and cleaned from the inside of the inner cylinder.
The upper end is closed by a lid 13 that can be opened and closed. With the lid 13 fixed, the lid 13 seals the upper end of the inner cylinder in a watertight manner. An air vent valve 14 is connected to the lid 13, and the air vent valve 14 holds it.
The air accumulated on the upper part of the inner cylinder is discharged to the outside. The lower part of the inner cylinder is watertightly closed by a bottom plate 15.
A discharge pipe 16 is fixed through the hole 15. A hot water pipe 11 having an upper end opening is fixed through the center of the inner cylinder vertically. The porous stone filter 10 is attached to the inner cylinder so as to be freely drawn out. The warm water that has flowed in from above is passed through vertically, and flows down to form a granular porous stone 17 in which the warm water is granular.
In order to be filtered by, the pipe is formed in a cylindrical shape having an upper opening and a water passage hole formed in the bottom, and a pipe through which the hot water pipe 11 penetrates is fixed to the center. As the granular porous stone 17, a porous natural stone, for example, “Bakuhanishi” or the like can be used so that bacteria and protozoa such as hanging worms can live therein by allowing warm water to permeate. Further, as the granular porous stone 17, it is possible to use a natural porous stone that is not used as it is, but is crushed and sintered into a predetermined outer shape to make it porous. The total amount of the granular porous stones 17 is determined to be an optimum value in consideration of the bath volume and the number of bathers per day. For a 200-1000 liter bath, 20-100 kg is used. Although not shown, hot water can be supplied to the upper end of the casing 9. In this case, the hot water pipe 11 is not necessary. In the circulation pump 7, the return water circulation amount is determined in consideration of the size of the bathtub 1 and the heat generation amount of the boiler 5, but when the size of the bathtub 1 is, for example, 500 liters, the circulation pipe 7 has a 1/4
A pump driven by a motor of about 1 horsepower is used. The greater the circulating amount of hot water of the circulation pump 7, the smaller the temperature difference of the hot water heated by the heat exchanger of the boiler 5. However,
Since the circulation pump 7 is continuously operated for 24 hours, if it is too large, the power consumption increases and the running cost increases. Therefore, the capacity of the circulation pump 7 is determined to be an optimum value in consideration of the usage state of the hot water circulation bath device. In order to reduce the temperature difference of the hot water passing through the heat exchanger 18 of the boiler 5, the oil burner 4 having a plurality of nozzles can be used. The oil burner 4 having a plurality of nozzles, for example, two nozzles, injects oil from both nozzles to increase the amount of heat generated when the temperature of the hot water is low, and when the hot water approaches the set temperature, fuel is sprayed from one nozzle. By reducing the amount of heat generated, the hot water is prevented from rising above the set temperature and the temperature difference of the hot water can be reduced. The water supply valve 20 has two branches on the suction side of the circulation pump 7 and is connected to one branch passage, and is connected via the water supply valve 20 to a makeup water passage such as tap water. The water supply valve 20 supplies makeup water to the circulation pump 7 to keep the hot water surface level of the bathtub 1 constant. Therefore, the open / close state of the water supply valve 20 is controlled by the level sensor 19 of the bathtub. When the hot water level of the bathtub falls below the set value, this is detected by the level sensor 19 and the water supply valve 20 is opened, and when the hot water surface level of the bathtub 1 is above a certain level, the water supply valve 20 is closed. . With the water supply valve 20 opened, the circulation pump 7 mixes the makeup water with the warm water from the bath 1 and sucks the mixture. Circulation pump 7
However, it is preferable that the ratio of the makeup water and the warm water from the bathtub 1 being mixed and inhaled is, for example, 2 to 20 of the bathtub warm water with respect to the makeup water 1. The higher the ratio of hot water to the make-up water, the higher the temperature of hot water discharged from the boiler will be
It is heated near the hot water temperature. In the hot water circulation type bathtub device shown in FIG. 1, the water supply valve 20 is connected to the suction side of the filtration tank 6 via the circulation pump 7. The water supply valve 20 is not shown in the drawing but is directly on the suction side of the filtration tank. It is also possible to connect to.

[Effect of device]

The hot water circulation type bathtub device provided with the water supply valve of the present invention has a feature that the water level of the bathtub can be kept constant because the water supply valve is opened to replenish water when the water level of the bathtub decreases. Further, the device of the present invention has a feature that cold water is supplied to the suction side of the filtration tank by the water supply valve, so that the supplied cold water can be heated by the latent heat of the granular porous stones of the filtration tank and flow into the bath. . The granular porous stone contained in the filtration tank is heated to a constant temperature by circulating hot water and stores a large amount of heat energy. In particular, granular porous stone is designed in a considerable amount because bacteria are grown here and warm water is clarified. A large amount of heat energy is stored in a filtration tank that contains a large amount of heavy stones. The heat storage energy of the granular porous stone increases in proportion to the weight and specific heat of the granular porous stone. More advantageously, the porous granules are packed so that hot water passes through the interstices. In other words, heat is efficiently transferred between the granular porous stones and warm water. The filtration tank, which has a large amount of heat energy to store heat and is capable of efficiently conducting heat, efficiently and quickly warms the hot water passing through the gaps between the granular porous stones.
Therefore, the device of this invention does not flow into the bathtub in a cold state even when the water level of the bathtub is lowered and the water supply valve is opened and cold water is replenished. Because it is done, there is a feature that you can bathe comfortably. Furthermore, the device of the present invention has a feature that the hot water can be kept clear even though a large capacity burner is used in the boiler. It is because the device of this invention connects a filtration tank to the suction side of the boiler and allows the hot water that has passed through the filtration tank to flow into the boiler, so that the bacteria in the granular porous stone are not affected by temperature damage and are always in an active state. This is because the warm water is efficiently clarified. That is, the hot water in the bathtub circulated in this state is circulated in the order of bathtub → filtration tank → boiler → bathtub, so the hot water heated to an abnormally high temperature in the boiler is diffused in the large bathtub and the temperature drops. Then, it is allowed to flow into the filtration tank at an appropriate temperature. The appropriate temperature warm water flowing into the filtration tank constantly grows the bacteria in an active state, decomposes ammonia and proteins contained in the warm water as food, and keeps the warm water in a clear state. In this way, the bacteria in the granular porous stone of the filtration tank,
The device of this invention, which can grow in a comfortable environment at all times, has the feature that the amount of granular porous stones used can be reduced and hot water can be filtered cleanly. This is because a large amount of bacteria propagate on the granular porous stone at all times. Therefore, the device of this invention is
It has the feature that the amount of expensive granular porous stone used can be reduced to reduce the manufacturing cost. Further, when exchanging the granular porous stone that has been used for a long period of time, a small amount of the granular porous stone is exchanged, so that there is a feature that the running cost can be reduced. Furthermore, since the apparatus of the present invention supplies the boiler with the hot water that has been filtered by the filtration tank, foreign matter can be prevented from accumulating in the boiler, and the thermal efficiency of the boiler can be prevented from decreasing over time. For this reason, maintenance of the boiler is simplified and high thermal efficiency can be maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a hot water circulation type bath device showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a filtration tank. 1 ... Bathtub, 2 ... Circulation pipe, 3 ... Temperature sensor, 4 ... Oil burner, 5 ... Boiler, 6 ... Filtration tank, 7 ... Circulation pump, 8 ... Primary filter, 9 ... Casing, 10 ... … Porous stone filter 11 …… Hot water pipe, 12 …… Insulation material 13 …… Lid, 14 …… Air vent valve 15 …… Bottom plate, 16 …… Discharge pipe 17 …… Granular porous stone, 18 …… Heat exchanger 19… … Level sensor, 20… Water valve

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A warm water is heated to a constant temperature by being connected to a bathtub (1) through a circulation pipe (2), and a hot water temperature sensor (3) being controlled by an oil burner (4). The boiler (5) and the bathtub (1) are connected to each other via the circulation pipe (2) and the circulation pump (7), and the inside is filled with porous granular porous stones (17). The granular porous stone (17) has a filtration tank (6) for warm water that keeps the warm water clear by allowing bacteria to propagate, a level sensor (19) for measuring the water level in the bath, and a level sensor (1
In a hot water circulation type bathtub device having a water supply valve (20) controlled by 9) and supplying makeup water to the bathtub (1), the water supply valve (20) is connected to the suction side of the filtration tank (6). The makeup water supplied from the water supply valve (20) is heated by the latent heat of the granular porous stone (17) stored in the filtration tank (6) and supplied to the bathtub (1). The filtration tank (6) is connected to the suction side of the boiler (5), and the hot water in the bathtub (1) is a filtration tank (6) containing a granular porous stone (17) inhabiting bacteria.
A hot water circulation type bathtub device having a water supply valve, characterized in that the hot water circulation bath device is configured to flow into the boiler (5) after passing through.