JPH0861600A - Emergency safety device for gas facility - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an emergency safety device for gas facility, which can ensure safety of the gas facility automatically in the case of emergency before the accident/disaster brings about damages. CONSTITUTION: When an emergency alarm anouncement is received by an emergency alarm reception part 1, an actuate signal is emitted from a code signal sensing circuit 6, and a shutoff valve 13 installed on the way of a gas piping 10 is shut by a control circuit 32 in conformity to the given actuate signal so that gas supply is shut off and also a message recorded previously is given by an alarm part 3.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a safety device for a gas facility in a gas consumer such as a general household, and more particularly, to safety of the gas facility in a so-called emergency such as when a disaster occurs or immediately before it. The present invention relates to an emergency safety device for gas equipment for achieving the purpose.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Gas equipment is used in the event of a disaster such as a typhoon or an earthquake.
Since it causes secondary and tertiary disasters,
It is desirable to have safety management such as stopping use in a disaster quickly and accurately. Conventionally, in a relatively small-scale gas facility such as a general household, it has been recommended that the user himself / herself close the gas main valve as soon as possible when an earthquake occurs. In addition, there was not a device that automatically shuts off the main gas valve, but it was activated after a gas leak or after an earthquake was detected.

[0003]

As described above, in any case, the use of gas equipment is not automatically stopped in advance before a gas leak or the like occurs in the event of a disaster. To minimize the secondary or tertiary disaster,
There has been a demand for a safety device that can ensure the safety of gas equipment as quickly and accurately as possible.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in an emergency represented by a disaster such as an earthquake, it is possible to automatically secure the safety of the gas facility before it is damaged by the disaster. A time safety device is provided. Another object of the present invention is to provide an emergency safety device for a gas facility, which is capable of ensuring safety of the gas facility in an emergency and accurately transmitting an alarm to a user.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an emergency safety device for gas equipment, comprising: receiving means for receiving an emergency alert broadcast; and gas demand when the emergency alert broadcast is received by the receiving means. And a shutoff means for shutting off the supply of gas to the house.

In particular, the receiving means detects the tuning means for tuning to the target frequency and whether or not the received radio wave detected by the tuning means includes a predetermined code signal indicating an emergency alert broadcast. A code signal detecting means is preferable.

Further, the shut-off means comprises a shut-off valve provided in the middle of the gas pipe, and drive control means for closing the shut-off valve when the receiving means receives the emergency alert broadcast. Those are preferable.

Further, it is also preferable that the receiving means is provided with a voice warning means for issuing a voice warning when the emergency warning broadcast is received. In this case, it is particularly preferable that the voice warning means includes an input / storage means for inputting and storing voice information. Further, it is preferable to have a means for manually opening a shutoff valve that has been shut off by receiving an emergency alert broadcast. This is because it is not necessary to shut off the gas at the time of an alarm regarding a typhoon.

[0009]

According to the present invention, when the emergency alert broadcast is received, a signal indicating that the emergency alert broadcast is received is output from the receiving means, and in response to this, the gas supply is shut off by the shutoff means. By doing so, the safety of the gas facility can be automatically and promptly and accurately achieved.

In particular, in the inventions according to claims 4 and 5, by shutting off the gas and generating a sound alarm, it is possible to surely transmit the necessary information to the user in an emergency. It will be.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An emergency safety device for a gas facility according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. Here, FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an emergency safety device for gas equipment according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an example of a control circuit of a gas shutoff unit in the present embodiment, and FIG. It is a flow chart which shows a control procedure of a shutoff valve by CPU used for a control circuit of an example. The members, arrangements, and the like described below do not limit the present invention and can be variously modified within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

An emergency safety device for gas equipment according to the present invention comprises an emergency alert receiving unit 1 as a receiving unit, a gas shutoff unit 2 as a shutoff unit, and an alert unit 3 as an audio alert unit.
And are roughly divided into two (see FIG. 1). The emergency safety device for a gas facility in the present embodiment uses an emergency alert broadcasting system for transmitting information on an emergency such as a notice of a disaster occurrence, when the configuration operation is generally described. When an emergency broadcast is received, the valve is closed so as to stop the use of the gas facility, and a necessary warning is given to the user.

The emergency alert receiving unit 1 has already been put to practical use for an emergency alert broadcasting system, and is generally provided with a tuner circuit 4 as a tuning unit, an audio output circuit 5, and a code signal detecting unit. The code signal detection circuit 6 and the power supply circuit 7 are roughly classified (see FIG. 1). The emergency alert broadcasting is carried out by utilizing television broadcasting or radio broadcasting in the medium wave or short wave band, and the tuner circuit 4 is a circuit for tuning to the broadcasting frequency for such purpose.

The audio output circuit 5 amplifies and outputs the broadcast selected by the tuner circuit 4. When the emergency alert broadcast is received as will be described later, the power output from the power supply circuit 7 is applied to operate the audio output circuit 5. It is supposed to do.

The code signal detection circuit 6 detects whether or not the signal received by the tuner circuit 4 includes a predetermined code signal indicating that the signal is an emergency alert broadcast defined by the emergency alert broadcast system. When a predetermined code signal is detected, a signal for driving the changeover switch 8 is output and an external circuit, that is, a gas shutoff unit 2 and an alarm unit 3 described later in this embodiment. On the other hand, an operation signal indicating that the emergency alert broadcast has been received is output.

The power supply circuit 7 supplies the power required for the operation of the emergency alert receiving unit 1 to each unit, and generates a voltage required for the circuit operation from a commercial power source (100 V AC), for example. At the same time, a so-called charging battery (not shown) is provided so that the necessary voltage can be supplied to each part even when the commercial power supply is cut off. That is, when commercial power is supplied to the power supply circuit 7, the commercial power supply generates a voltage necessary for each part of the emergency alert receiving unit 1 in the present embodiment and charges the rechargeable battery for commercial operation. When the power is cut off, power is supplied from the rechargeable battery.

In the emergency alert receiving unit 1, when the code signal detecting circuit 6 detects a predetermined code signal, the changeover switch 8 is closed by a control signal from the code signal detecting circuit 6 to output a voice. Power is supplied to the circuit 5 so that the emergency warning broadcast can be heard through the speaker 9.

On the other hand, the gas shutoff unit 2 is provided between the supply side gas pipe 10 for supplying the city gas and the demand side gas pipe 11, and has a control circuit 12 as drive control means.
And the control circuit 1 provided in the middle of the supply-side gas pipe 10.
It has a shutoff valve 13 whose operation is controlled by 2 and a flow meter 14 for measuring the gas flow rate (see FIG. 1). The supply-side gas pipe 10 is connected to a city gas source pipe (not shown), while the demand-side gas pipe 11 passes through a domestic gas pipe (not shown) to supply gas such as a stove (not shown). It is designed to be connected to equipment.

The control circuit 12, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, sends the operation signal from the emergency warning receiver 1 to the CPU.
An interface circuit 15 for performing an interface such as conversion to a necessary signal level for inputting to 17;
An analog / digital converter (abbreviated as “A / D” in FIG. 2) 16 for converting the output signal of the flowmeter 14 into a digital signal, and a CPU 17 for controlling the operation of the shutoff valve 13 as described later, The drive circuit 18 drives the shutoff valve 13 based on a control signal from the CPU 17.

The CPU 17 is a so-called one-chip microcomputer having a built-in ROM, RAM and the like. A control program is stored in the ROM, and the operation of the shutoff valve 13 is controlled by executing this program. Has become. FIG. 3 shows a control procedure of the shutoff valve 13 associated with the execution of the control program in the CPU 17, and the control operation will be described below with reference to the figure.

First, when the execution of the program is started,
It is judged whether or not the operation signal is input from the emergency alert receiving unit 1 (step 100 in FIG. 3), and if it is determined that the operation signal is input (in the case of YES), the CPU 1
A command signal is output from 7 to the drive circuit 18 to close the shutoff valve 13, and the drive circuit 18 opens the shutoff valve 13 based on the command signal so that the supply side gas pipe 10 is closed. The drive for closing is performed (step 102 in FIG. 3). As a result, the demand side gas pipe 11
The supply of gas to the equipment will be cut off, and the use of so-called gas equipment such as a gas stove will be forcibly stopped. On the other hand, when it is determined that the operation signal is not yet input (in the case of NO)
Therefore, the determination operation is repeated until it is determined that the operation signal is input.

Next, a reset signal for canceling the closed state of the shutoff valve 13 is generated, and it is judged whether or not the reset signal is input to the CPU 17 (step 104 in FIG. 3), and the reset signal is input. If judged (YES),
A command signal is output from the CPU 17 to the drive circuit 18 so that the cutoff valve 13 is opened by the drive circuit 18, and the cutoff valve 13 is opened (step 10 in FIG. 3).
6). On the other hand, when it is determined that the reset signal is not yet input (in the case of NO), the determination operation is repeated until it is determined that the reset signal is input.

Note that the control procedure shown in FIG. 3 is executed as a so-called sub routine program, and after the above-mentioned series of processing is completed, the main routine not described here is temporarily returned to, and another subroutine is executed. Processing (for example, periodic check of gas flow rate by the flow meter 14)
The above processes are executed, and thereafter, a series of processes for controlling the shutoff valve described above is performed again.

Next, the alarm unit 3 will be described. The alarm unit 3 according to the present embodiment includes a lighting circuit 19 and a voice processing circuit 20 as an input / storage means.
1 is turned on and a voice alarm is generated. That is, when an operation signal is input from the emergency warning receiver 1, the lighting circuit 19 turns on the warning light 21, for example. In addition, several kinds of messages in case of emergency are stored in advance in the voice processing circuit 20, and when an operation signal is input from the emergency alert receiver 1, these messages are reproduced from the speaker 22. It is a thing.

The voice processing circuit 20 of this embodiment is composed of the microphone 2
3 allows input of several kinds of messages (for example, the nearest wide area evacuation site, resetting method, etc.) and the storage thereof. For example, such a voice processing IC is used. It is something. Therefore, it is possible to send out a special message according to the installation location of this device. Also, this voice processing circuit 20
The contents recorded in can be rewritten by so-called overwriting.

Generally speaking, the operation of the emergency safety device for gas equipment of this embodiment is as follows. The emergency safety device for gas equipment of this embodiment is used when an emergency alert broadcast is received by the emergency alert receiving unit 1. On the basis of the received signal, the shutoff valve 13 provided in the middle of the gas pipe 10 is closed to stop the supply of gas to the gas equipment, and the alarm unit 3 lights up the warning light 21 and provides voice guidance. It is something like this.

[0027]

As described above, according to the invention described in claims 1 to 3, the gas supply is automatically cut off when the emergency alert broadcast is received.
Unlike in the past, without relying on the user, the gas is automatically and quickly shut off reliably before the occurrence of a disaster, and the use of gas equipment is forcibly prohibited, ensuring the safety of gas equipment. This has the effect of preventing the occurrence of secondary and tertiary disasters.

According to the invention described in claims 4 and 5, in addition to the above effects, information necessary for ensuring the safety of the user can be surely transmitted, which contributes to further ensuring the safety. It is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an emergency safety device for gas equipment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration example of a control circuit of a gas cutoff unit in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of a shutoff valve by a CPU used in the control circuit of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Emergency Alert Reception Unit 2 Gas Shutoff Unit 3 Alarm Unit 12 Control Circuit 13 Shutoff Valve 15 Interface Circuit 17 CPU 18 Drive Circuit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Kanako Nakayama 7-39-10 Koganehara, Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture (72) Inventor Mitsunori Komaki 2-4-17 Sarue, Koto-ku, Tokyo (72) Inventor Satoshi Morita Tokyo 6-9-5 Chuo, Ota-ku, Tokyo

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A receiving means for receiving an emergency alert broadcast, and a shutoff means for shutting off gas supply to a gas customer when the emergency alert broadcast is received by the receiving means. An emergency safety device for gas equipment. 2. The receiving means detects the tuning means for tuning to a target frequency and whether or not a predetermined code signal indicating an emergency alert broadcast is included in the received radio waves detected by the tuning means. The emergency safety device for gas equipment according to claim 1, further comprising code signal detecting means. 3. The shut-off means comprises a shut-off valve provided in the middle of the gas pipe, and drive control means for closing the shut-off valve when the emergency alert broadcast is received by the receiving means. The emergency safety device for gas equipment according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that. 4. An emergency safety system for gas equipment according to claim 1, 2 or 3, further comprising: an audio alarm means for issuing an audio alarm when an emergency alarm broadcast is received by the receiving means. apparatus. 5. The emergency safety device for a gas facility according to claim 1, wherein the voice warning means comprises an input / storage means for inputting and storing voice information. 6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising means for manually opening a shut-off valve that has been shut off upon receiving an emergency alert broadcast.
5. An emergency safety device for gas equipment according to any one of 5 above.