JPH07190468A - Control method of air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve energy-saving operation of an air conditioner which incorporates an inexpensive human body sensor 10 avoid noise problem, by operating an indoor fan at high rotation speeds when no human body is detected in a room during operation of a compressor. CONSTITUTION:Information such as whether or not persons are in a room C, where persons in the room, how many persons are in the room, etc., is sent to a controller 8 by a human body sensor 9 provided in an indoor unit A. When no human body is detected and a compressor 5 is in operation, an indoor fan 1 is controlled so that it is forcibly operated at high rotation speeds(strong air flow). Therefore, the heat transfer of an indoor heat exchanger 2 is stimulated and the coefficient of performance of the air conditioner is improved. As a result, as a fast start-up of cooling and heating operations is attained, the power consumption during start-up period is reduced, leading to an improvement in energy-saving. When the compressor 5 is out of operation although no person is detected, operation of the indoor fan 1 at high rotation speeds causes an improvement in temperature distribution in the room C.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for controlling an air conditioner, and in particular, it is intended to save energy in an air conditioner such as a room air conditioner which consumes the largest amount of electric power in household electric appliances. It is in.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a conventional air conditioner. In this case, the separate type in which the indoor unit A and the outdoor unit B are connected is shown, but the same applies to the integrated type of the indoor unit A and the outdoor unit B. An indoor fan 1 conveys cool and warm air to the room C. 2 is an indoor heat exchanger, an evaporator when cooling,
It functions as a condenser during heating. 3 is an outdoor heat exchanger,
It radiates heat to the outside during cooling and absorbs heat from outside during heating. Four
Is an outdoor fan, and 5 is a compressor, which compresses and circulates a refrigerant (not shown). Reference numeral 6 is a four-way valve that switches between cooling and heating operations. Reference numeral 7 is a decompressor, which is connected in a ring form a conventional air conditioner. Reference numeral 8 denotes a control unit having a rotation speed changing means for the indoor fan 1 (not shown, which normally controls the rotation speed by changing the voltage to the drive motor of the indoor fan 1) and controls the temperature of the room C. Also do.

During operation of the air conditioner configured as described above,
In particular, when there is no person in the room C while the compressor 5 is operating, for example, the living room and the dining room are pre-cooled and heated before waking up early in the morning with a timer, or the bedroom is pre-cooled before bedtime at night. I did not change the air conditioning setting, especially the rotation speed setting of the indoor fan 1 regardless of whether there are people in the room, such as when there are no people in the room even in the daytime. There wasn't. Generally, in the air conditioner, when the compressor 5 is in operation, the indoor fan 1 becomes more efficient as the wind blows stronger, and the coefficient of performance (cooling / heating capacity / power consumption) of the air conditioner becomes higher, so The power consumption will be reduced as a whole even if is slightly increased. However, when the indoor fan 1 is made to have a strong wind, the noise becomes high, and there is a problem that the indoor occupant feels uncomfortable, and the indoor fan 1 cannot be unnecessarily strengthened.

On the other hand, there has been no inexpensive human body detecting means which can be attached to an air conditioner which is very popular in each home. In the past, there was an inexpensive infrared sensor that was used to automatically open and close the door, but this is a point sensor that does not work when a person stands still and simply turns it on and off, and it cannot reliably detect the human body. There wasn't. Also,
There is also a quantum infrared sensor, but it can detect the human body, but it uses an expensive semiconductor for the sensor part and requires cooling such as liquid nitrogen in order to maintain sensitivity in the system, the device is also large and expensive, very air conditioner It couldn't be mounted on.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention is to install an inexpensive human body detecting means in an air conditioner so as to avoid the noise problem in the room and to save energy in the air conditioner. .

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems (achieve the purpose), the present invention provides an air conditioner with an inexpensive pyroelectric type human body detecting means to determine whether there is a person in the room. If there is no person in the room when the air conditioner and the compressor are operating when the air conditioner and the compressor are operated, the operation efficiency of the air conditioner and the air conditioning temperature distribution in the room can be considered first regardless of the noise of the indoor fan. It is to have a control method for changing the rotation speed.

[0007]

With the above means, it is possible to detect whether or not there is a person in the room by means of a human body detecting means (comprising a pyroelectric infrared sensor for detecting infrared rays emitted from the human body) provided in the air conditioner. When there is no air conditioner, and when the air conditioner, especially the compressor, is operating, the indoor fan is controlled to forcibly generate strong wind. Although the noise level increases, the heat transfer of the indoor heat exchanger is promoted, the cooling and heating capacity is improved, the coefficient of performance of the air conditioner is increased, and as a result, the power consumption is reduced during that time and energy can be saved. .

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an air conditioner according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of an example of a human body detecting means also mounted on the air conditioner of the present invention. FIG. 3 is also a control flow chart of the air conditioner of the present invention. For the sake of convenience, the same functional parts as those of the conventional air conditioner shown in FIG. 4 are given the same numbers. An indoor fan 1 conveys cool and warm air to the room C. Two
Is an indoor heat exchanger, 3 is an outdoor heat exchanger, 4 is an outdoor fan,
Reference numeral 5 is a compressor, and 6 is a four-way valve that switches between heating and cooling operations. Reference numeral 7 is a decompressor, which is the same as a conventional air conditioner in that these are connected in a ring to form an air conditioner. Reference numeral 8 denotes a control unit having a rotation speed changing means for the indoor fan 1, which controls the temperature of the room C as well as the indoor unit A.
A signal from the human body detection means 9 mounted on the vehicle is used to perform control as shown in the control flow of FIG. In this case, the human body detecting means 9 is, for example, a pyroelectric infrared sensor as shown in FIG. 2, 10 is a pyroelectric thin film element, and is composed of a small 8-pixel linear array of lead titanate having a high pyroelectric coefficient. ing. Reference numeral 11 is an infrared lens, an ultra wide-angle lens, and 12 is a chopper, which is a high-speed shutter type. Reference numeral 13 denotes a horizontal axis of rotation, which detects infrared rays emitted from a human body (not shown) in the room C to every corner of the room through the infrared lens 11 by the pyroelectric thin film element 10, and there are no people, anywhere in the room, Information such as how many people are present is sent to the control unit 8 to control the air conditioner.

In the air conditioner configured as described above,
The operation will be described below. A control flow showing details of the operation of the present invention is shown in FIG.

When the air conditioner is operated, the compressor 5 is operated to radiate heat to the outside by the outdoor heat exchanger 3 and the outdoor fan 4 during cooling, causing the indoor heat exchanger 2 to function as an evaporator and the indoor fan 1 to operate. When the room C is cooled and when heated, the flow of the refrigerant (not shown) is switched by the four-way valve 6 to absorb heat from the outside by the outdoor heat exchanger 3 and the outdoor fan 4, and the indoor heat exchanger 2 functions as a condenser. The indoor fan 1 heats the room C. A person in the room C is detected by the human body detecting means 9 provided in the indoor unit A (the infrared rays emitted from the human body in the room C are detected by the pyroelectric thin film element 10 through the infrared lens 11 while moving the chopper 12 and the horizontal rotary shaft 13). Information such as whether or not there are, where in the room, and how many people are present is sent to the control unit 8. For example, if you use a timer to wake up early in the morning in the living room or in the dining room in advance, or in the bedroom before you go to bed at night, or if the room is completely empty even during the day Detect that you are not there,
In addition, when the compressor 5 is operating, the indoor fan 1 is controlled so as to be forced to a high rotation speed (strong wind). Naturally, the noise in the room C rises, but it does not matter because there are no people. The heat transfer of the indoor heat exchanger 2 is promoted, the cooling and heating capacity is improved, the coefficient of performance of the air conditioner is increased, and as a result, the start-up of cooling and heating becomes faster, and the thermo-off time during cooling and heating operation becomes longer. As a result, the power consumption during that time is reduced and energy can be saved.

Even if it is detected that there is no person, the compressor 5
If the indoor fan 1 is set to a high rotation speed while the engine is stopped, the power consumption of the indoor fan 1 slightly increases, but the temperature distribution in the room C becomes better.

When the human body detector detects that a person is indoors, the setting of the indoor fan 1 is returned to the initial set value in consideration of noise.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the indoor embodiment, the same applies to an air conditioner installed in a building office.

[0015]

As is clear from the above embodiments, the compressor of the present invention has the following effects. 1) Since it detects that there are no people and controls the indoor fan to forcibly increase the rotation speed (strong wind) when the compressor is operating, the indoor heat does not depend on the indoor noise. The heat transfer of the exchanger is promoted, the cooling and heating capacity is improved, and the coefficient of performance of the air conditioner is increased. As a result, the power consumption is reduced during that period, and energy can be saved. 2) Even when the air conditioner is operating and the compressor is stopped by detecting the absence of people, the indoor fan setting is set to a strong wind, so the temperature distribution in the room does not have to worry about noise. Can be improved. 3) Since the very inexpensive human body detecting means is mounted, the above effect can be realized by an inexpensive air conditioner.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of an example of a human body detecting means also mounted on the air conditioner of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a control flowchart of the air conditioner of the present invention.

[Fig. 4] Configuration diagram of a conventional air conditioner

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Indoor fan 2 Indoor heat exchanger 3 Outdoor heat exchanger 4 Outdoor fan 5 Compressor 6 Four-way valve 7 Pressure reducer 8 Control unit 9 Human body detection means 10 Pyroelectric thin film element 11 Infrared lens 12 Chopper 13 Horizontal rotation axis A Indoor unit B Outdoor unit C indoor

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioner is constituted by a human body detection means, an indoor fan, a control unit having a rotation speed changing means for the indoor fan, an indoor heat exchanger, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor fan, a compressor, etc. A method for controlling an air conditioner, wherein the indoor fan is set to a high rotation speed when a human body is not detected in the room during operation of the compressor. 2. The method for controlling an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the compressor is in operation when the air conditioner is in operation. 3. The method for controlling an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the human body detecting means is a pyroelectric infrared sensor.