JPH0748008B2 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a hygienic air conditioner, and more specifically,
The present invention relates to an air conditioner capable of blowing clean air from an evaporator into a room.

[Prior Art] For example, an air conditioner for a vehicle includes a compression refrigerator having an evaporator having a large number of heat transfer fins, and a blower that introduces outside air or inside air into the evaporator and is not cooled. The outside air or the inside air, which is air, is introduced into the evaporator, heat exchange is performed, and the air is cooled and sent into the room.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-described conventional air conditioner, the evaporator is cooled by the evaporation of the refrigerant inside during the cooling operation,
Moisture in the introduced air condenses and adheres to the surface of the evaporator. Since the evaporator has a large number of heat transfer fins and a complicated shape to increase the heat exchange rate, the water condensed on the surface of the evaporator will evaporate for a long time at room temperature after the cooling operation is stopped. As a result, it was found that a large amount of fungi such as mold grew on the surface of the evaporator, and the fungus was blown out into the room during the next operation, which is hygienically harmful.

To prevent the growth of fungi such as mold in this evaporator,
Every time the cooling operation is stopped, it is sufficient to perform the air blowing operation until the condensed water on the evaporator surface is sufficiently evaporated.However, the evaporated water causes high humidity in the room, and when the humidity of the introduced air is high, it evaporates. There is a problem that the container cannot be dried. Alternatively, it is possible to periodically clean (remove the mold) with a vacuum cleaner or the like, but a satisfactory result cannot be expected due to the complicated shape of the evaporator.

The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and it is an object to be solved to provide an air conditioner excellent in hygiene.

[Means for Solving the Problems] An air conditioner according to the present invention includes a refrigerator provided with an evaporator for cooling indoor air, an ozone generating section for generating ozone by electric discharge, and ozone-containing air generated in the ozone generating section. The configuration includes an ozone blower that blows air into the evaporator and a controller that activates the ozone generator and the ozone blower in response to a command.

[Operation] The ozone blower blows ozone-containing air containing ozone generated by the ozone generator onto the surface of the evaporator. As a result, bacteria such as mold on the surface of the evaporator, which generally has a complicated shape and to which condensed water adheres during cooling, is sterilized and deodorized in every corner. Also, ozone dissolves in condensed water,
It remains in the condensed water and prevents the growth of various bacteria.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the air conditioner of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

This air conditioner is used for vehicles and
As shown in the figure, a compressor 60 drivingly connected to the automobile engine 2 through an electromagnetic clutch 3 and a high-pressure gaseous refrigerant discharged from the compressor 60 are heat-exchanged with external air to become liquid. A condenser 70 for condensing, a gas-liquid separator 80 for decomposing the liquid refrigerant condensed by the condenser 70 and the uncondensed gas refrigerant, and a refrigerant flow rate by increasing or decreasing the flow passage area of the refrigerant. The expansion valve 90 is formed of an electromagnetic control valve as an expansion means for decompressing while controlling, and an evaporator 40 for evaporating a low-pressure liquid refrigerant by exchanging heat with the inside air of the vehicle. Is incorporated in the indoor unit 1 as shown in FIG.

The indoor unit 1 includes a case 10, an air filter 20 housed in the case 10, an indoor blower 30, and indoor air (inside air).
It consists of an evaporator 40 for cooling and an ozonizer 50.

An air supply port 11 is opened at one end face of the case 10, and an outside air intake port 12 and a return air intake port 13 are opened at the opposite end face thereof.
11, 12 and 13 are respectively connected to different ducts (not shown).

The air filter 20, the indoor blower 30, and the evaporator 40 are outside air intake ports.
12 and the return air suction port 13 side are arranged in this order from the air supply port 11 side. The evaporator 40 is composed of a refrigerant pipe 41 which meanders and has both ends connected to a main part (not shown) of a refrigerator in an outdoor unit (not shown), and a large number of cooling fins 42 welded to the refrigerant pipe 41. .

The ozonizer 50 includes a suction cylinder 51, a drying section 52, and an ozone blowing section 5
3. It consists of an ozone generator 54 and a sending cylinder 55. The suction cylinder 51 is
The air filter 20 and the indoor blower 30 are arranged on the upstream side of the evaporator 40 and below the air filter 20 and the indoor blower 30.
Inhale air from between. The drying unit 52 has an electric heater (not shown) for drying the air sucked by the suction cylinder 51, and the ozone blower unit 53 has a fan (not shown) for blowing the dry air sucked from the drying unit 52. Have). The ozone generator 54 generates ozone by AC silent discharge in the dry air blown from the ozone blower 53, and
The ozone-containing air is blown toward the evaporator 40 from the cylinder 55 between the indoor blower 30 and the evaporator 40.

The control unit 3 is a device that controls the operation of the air conditioner 2, and is fixed to the outer surface of the case 10.

Since the operation of this air conditioner is well known below, its explanation is omitted.

The operation of the ozonizer 50 related to the present invention will be described below with reference to the flowchart of the control unit 3 shown in FIG.

First, initialization is performed (S10), then the operating state of the indoor blower 30 is checked, and the operation of the indoor blower 30 is waited for (S12). When the operation of the indoor blower 30 is completed, the drying section 52 and the ozone blowing section 53 of the ozonizer 50 are operated to dry the dew condensation in the ozone generating section 54 (S14), and after about 3 minutes have passed (S16), the drying is performed. The energization to the part 52 is stopped and the ozone generating part 54 is operated (S18). Note that the above-described drying is performed because if the inside of the ozone generating section 54, especially the discharge portion thereof is wet, the insulation resistance is reduced and spark discharge is generated, which may damage the electrodes and the like. By this operation, the ozone-containing air is blown from the sending cylinder 55 to the evaporator 40, and the bacteria attached to the surface of the evaporator are killed. Then, ozone is dissolved in the condensed water adhering to the surface of the evaporator and sterilized, and even if the temperature of the condensed water rises, the growth of various bacteria is prevented. Further, by blowing the ozone-containing air, the evaporation of the condensed water on the evaporator surface is promoted.

Next, the operation timer is started (S20), and it is checked whether or not the indoor blower 30 has been started (S22). If it is started, the ozone-containing air is sent out immediately until the operation timer is turned off. After continuing (S2
4) The operation of the ozone blower 53 and the ozone generator 54 is stopped (S26). The operation timer is built in the control unit 3 and is set to about 15 minutes.

The air conditioner of this embodiment described above has the following advantages.

(1) Even if the surface of the evaporator 40 having a complicated shape is wet, sterilization with ozone is performed for about 15 minutes after the end of the air conditioning operation including the cooling operation, so even if the evaporator 40 is still wet, Ozone remaining in the condensate prevents mold growth. Further, a drying effect of the evaporator 40 by the ozone-containing air can be expected.

(2) Ozone-containing air is sent in a large amount because the ozone-containing air is sent during the period when the operation of the indoor blower 30, which has a stronger blowing capacity than the ozone blower 53, is stopped. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the human beings in the room from being adversely affected, and it is possible to make the ozone concentration around the evaporator 40 dense.

(3) Since the ozonizer 50 is built in the indoor unit 1, the device can be made compact by sharing the power supply unit and the air filter 20.

A modification of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In this flowchart, ozone-containing air is automatically sent assuming that the surface of the evaporator 40 is wet only when the blowing operation is completed within one hour after the cooling operation is stopped (S11) (S12). ing.

By doing so, the surface of the evaporator 40 gets wet, and the air-blowing operation ends after the cooling operation in which the most molds propagate and the evaporator 40 ends.
The ozone-containing air is blown out only when it can be considered that the surface of the ozonizer is wet, so that wasteful operation of the ozonizer 50 is prevented and the life of the ozonizer 50 is increased. It is possible to reduce blowout to the air.

In addition, the moisture in the evaporator 40 or its vicinity is detected by a moisture sensor, or the humidity of the blown air is detected by a humidity sensor, and the blowing of ozone-containing air is performed only under high humidity conditions and when the blowing operation is stopped. You can also do it. In addition, if the ozone concentration is 0.1 ppm or less, which does not affect the human body, intermittent blowing may be performed regardless of the operation of the blower.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described above, the air conditioner of the present invention has the ozone generator and the ozone blower for blowing the ozone-containing air into the evaporator for cooling the indoor air. The bacteria can be sterilized on the surface of the evaporator, which is a breeding environment for bacteria such as fungi, to prevent the propagation of bacteria.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an embodiment of an indoor unit of an air conditioner of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the control unit 3 in FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing another operation mode of the control unit 3, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the overall configuration of the air conditioner of the present invention. 40 ... Evaporator 53 ... Ozone blower 54 ... Ozone generator 3 ... Control unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerator equipped with an evaporator for cooling indoor air, an ozone generator for generating ozone by electric discharge, and an ozone blower for blowing ozone-containing air generated by the ozone generator into the evaporator. An air conditioner including a control unit that activates the ozone generator and the ozone blower in response to a command.