JPH07145980A - Control device for air-conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform control of air-conditioning in an optimum state by a method wherein when a person enters a room to be airconditioned and a quiet state is continued, an active state before the person enters the room is directly inputted. CONSTITUTION:The action of a person in a room to be airconditioned is detected and it is decided by an indoor active state deciding means 1 whether the person is in an active state or in a quiet state. An active state before the person enters the room to be air-conditioned is inputted to a means 2 to input an active state before entrance to a room. A plurality of change patterns with a time of a metabolism amount of a person predicted in a quiet state after entrance to a room corresponding to a predetermined active state before entrance to a room are stored at a memory means 3 A change with time pattern responding to input of the means 2 to input an active state before entrance to a room is decided from a plurality of change with time patterns, stored at the memory means 3, by a means 4 to decide a change with time of an metabolism amount. Control is effected by a control means 5 so that an air-conditioning temperature is adjusted to an optimum value based on an output of a metabolism amount predicted at each point of time decided by the means 4 to decide a change with time of a metabolism amount after a quiet state is decided by the indoor active state deciding means 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for an air conditioner which controls an air conditioner according to a change with time of metabolic rate of a human body in a resting state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a control device for an air conditioner of this type, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-93232. This control device determines the activity level of the human body by detecting the frequency of movement of the human body per unit time, and controls the air conditioning temperature according to the activity level.

[0003]

In the conventional air conditioner control device, it is determined that the degree of activity is low when a person is sitting or in a resting state, and is determined while the resting state is maintained. The temperature is controlled to be constant at a set temperature according to the low activity level. However, when a person enters the air-conditioned room after an activity state such as walking or running and maintains a resting state, the metabolic rate of the human body is high at the beginning of resting after the activity and then decreases with time, showing a constant change. In addition, the change over time in the metabolic rate of the human body in the resting state after entering the room also differs depending on how intense the activity was before entering the room. Therefore, in the above conventional control method, the ambient temperature is felt high at first even in the same sitting and resting state after entering the room, so the set temperature is lowered,
After that, as the ambient temperature feels lower with time, change the set temperature so that the set temperature is gradually increased.
It had to be done directly whenever humans felt uncomfortable.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems. When a person enters a room to be air-conditioned and maintains a resting state, the time course of the metabolic rate of the human body after the start of the resting state varies depending on the activity state before entering the room. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a control device for an air conditioner that automatically controls air conditioning so as to always maintain a comfortable state.

[0005]

According to the present invention, an indoor activity state determining means for detecting a motion of a person in an air-conditioned room to determine an activity state and an activity state before a person enters the air-conditioned room are input. Pre-entry activity state input means, storage means for storing a plurality of time-dependent change patterns of the metabolic rate of the human body in a resting state after entering the room according to a predetermined pre-entry activity state, a plurality of storage means stored in the storage means Metabolism amount temporal change determination means for determining the temporal change pattern according to the input of the pre-entry activity state input means from the temporal change pattern, output of the indoor activity state determination means and the metabolic amount temporal change determination A control device for an air conditioner, comprising: a control means for controlling the air conditioning temperature at each time point based on the output of the metabolic rate predicted at each time point determined by the means.

Further, according to the present invention, the indoor activity state determining means determines the activity state in the room based on at least one of the respiratory rate, the heart rate, and the body temperature of the person in the air-conditioned room. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1.

[0007]

In the above structure, when a person enters the air-conditioned room and remains in a rest state, the person directly inputs the activity state before entering the room, or after entering the room, the breathing rate at the start of the rest state is detected to enter the room. By determining the previous activity status, it changes depending on the activity status before entering the room.The change pattern of the metabolic rate of the human body that is predicted after the start of the rest state is determined, and it is optimal according to the predicted metabolic rate at each time point. Air conditioning control can be performed. Further, as a result, even if the metabolic rate changes with time in the same resting state, it becomes possible to automatically maintain a comfortable air-conditioning environment without the need for a human to change the set temperature.

[0008]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below. First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram thereof. In FIG. 1, the indoor activity state determination means 1 detects the motion of a person in the air-conditioned room and determines whether the person is in an active state or a resting state.
The temperature distribution of the human body is detected based on the signal from the infrared sensor, and the amount of movement per unit time is calculated to make a determination. The pre-entry activity state input means 2 can input the activity state before a person enters the air-conditioned room. When a person runs into the air-conditioned room from the operation unit 8 of the controller such as a remote controller as shown in FIG. 5 and enters the room, the switch 9 is pressed, and when a person walks in and enters the room, the switch 10 is pressed to enter the room. Enter the activity status. The storage means 3 stores a plurality of temporal change patterns of the metabolic rate of the human body predicted in the resting state after entering the room, which corresponds to a predetermined activity state before entering the room.

FIG. 3 shows, as an example of storage of the storage means 3, a time-dependent change pattern of the metabolic rate of the human body in a resting state after entering the room and a case of walking in and entering the room when the user comes in from the outside and enters the room. The time-dependent change pattern of the metabolic rate of the human body in the resting state after entering the room and the constant metabolic rate of the human body in the case of keeping the resting state before entering the room are shown. The metabolic amount temporal change determination means 4 determines a temporal change pattern corresponding to an input from the pre-entry activity state input means 2 from a plurality of temporal change patterns stored in the storage means 3. After the resting state is determined by the indoor activity state determining unit 1, the control unit 5 determines the metabolic rate at each time point based on the output of the metabolic rate predicted at each time point determined by the metabolic rate change determination unit 4. Air conditioning is controlled to optimize the air conditioning temperature.

FIG. 4 shows the amount of metabolism in the resting state after entering the room when running and entering the room as shown in FIG. 3, when entering the room by walking, and when always maintaining a resting state before entering the room. The change over time of the air-conditioning temperature controlled by the control means 5, which is necessary for always maintaining a comfortable state against change over time, is shown.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram thereof. Note that, for simplification, the elements common to those in FIG. In FIG. 2, the body movement detecting means 6 has a function of detecting a person's body movement transmitted as a vibration to the surface of the chair with which the person comes into contact when the person enters the air-conditioned room and maintains a quiet state. As shown in FIG. 6, the body movement detecting means 6 arranges the piezoelectric element 12 inside the surface of the backrest 11 of the chair 13 with which the chest contacts when the person sits on the chair 13, and the human body 11 detects the backrest 11 of the chair 13. It is used to detect, as a voltage signal due to a piezoelectric effect, from a coarse body movement when the user touches the body to a fine body movement such as a breath and a heartbeat when the person leans on the backrest 11 and maintains a resting state.

The respiration rate detecting means 7 detects the respiration rate per unit time based on the output of the body movement detecting means 6. For example,
The waveform of the voltage signal in the resting state output by the body movement detecting means 6 is subjected to frequency analysis, and the frequency range 12 to
The peak frequency in 45 breaths / minute is detected as the respiratory rate per unit time. FIG. 7 shows an example of the power spectrum obtained by the frequency analysis.

The pre-entry activity state determination means 2'determines the activity state before a person enters the air-conditioned room based on the output of the respiratory rate detection means 7. For example, breathing rate is 12-18 times /
Minutes, it was judged that the activity state before entering the room was resting, and
At times / minute, it was determined that the activity state before entering the room was a state of walking,
At 25 to 45 times / minute, it is determined that the vehicle is running. Otherwise, the same operation as in FIG. 1 is performed.

Although the respiratory rate is used as a parameter in the above embodiment, it may be based on the heart rate or the body temperature.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a person enters the air-conditioned room and remains in a resting state, it is determined that the person's movement is in a resting state, and the person is in an activity state before entering the room. By directly inputting or by detecting the respiratory rate at the start of resting state after entering the room and determining the activity state before entering the room, the metabolic rate of the human body predicted after the start of the resting state that differs depending on the activity state before entering the room Since the time-dependent change pattern is determined and optimal air conditioning control is performed according to the predicted metabolic rate at each time point, it is necessary for humans to change the set temperature even when the metabolic rate changes in the same resting state. Instead, it can automatically maintain a comfortable air conditioning environment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control device for an air conditioner according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control device for an air conditioner according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a characteristic diagram showing a storage example of a temporal change pattern of metabolic rate of a human body in a storage unit of the control device of the air conditioner.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram showing an example of a temporal value of an air conditioning temperature by a control unit of the control device of the air conditioner.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of an operation unit of pre-entry activity state input means of the control device for the air conditioner.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an example of body movement detecting means in the control device for the air-conditioning apparatus of the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a power spectrum of an output waveform of a body movement detecting means in the control device for an air conditioner of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Indoor activity state determination means 2, 2'Activity state input means before entering a room 3 Storage means 4 Metabolism amount temporal change determination means 5 Control means

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hisashi Kodama 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An indoor activity state determining means for detecting a movement of a person in an air-conditioned room to determine an activity state, and an activity state input means before entering a room for inputting an activity state before a person enters the air-conditioned room. A storage unit storing a plurality of time-dependent change patterns of the metabolic rate of the human body in a resting state after entering the room according to a predetermined pre-entry activity state, and a plurality of the time-dependent change patterns stored in the storage unit. Metabolism time-dependent change determining means for determining the time-dependent change pattern in accordance with the input of the pre-entry activity state input means, output of the indoor activity state determining means, and each time determined by the metabolic rate time-dependent determination means. A control device for an air conditioner, comprising: a control means for controlling the air conditioning temperature at each time point based on the output of the metabolic rate predicted at the time point. 2. The indoor activity state determining means determines the activity state in the room based on at least one of human respiration rate, heart rate, and body temperature in the air-conditioned room. Item 1. The control device for an air conditioner according to Item 1. 3. A chair is provided inside the air-conditioned room, which a person comes into contact with when the person enters the air-conditioned room and maintains a rest state, and the means for detecting at least one of the breathing rate, heart rate, and body temperature of the human is the chair. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the control device is provided in the.