JPH0942666A - Gas water heater - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a water heater capable of detecting a fault due to the fixing of a solenoid valve when a burner is not ignited. SOLUTION: In the gas water heater 1 wherein the presence or absence of gas to be supplied to a burner 7 is controlled by controlling the opening and closing of a solenoid valve 2 provided at a gas route in the heater 1, a flow sensor 6 is provided at the burner 7 side from the valve 2, and when the introduction of the gas to the burner 7 is not detected by the sensor 6, the effect that the valve 2 is defective is self-diagnosed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a gas water heater,
In particular, it relates to a gas water heater with a gas amount sensor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various types of gas water heaters have been provided, one of which is a so-called multi-function water heater capable of supplying hot water to both a kitchen and a bathroom. . Further, there is a model of this type of gas water heater having a self-diagnosis function of self-diagnosing an internal malfunction.

[0003]

However, in the conventional gas water heater, the gas flow rate supplied to the water heater is not detected and used for self-diagnosis, and gas is supplied to the burner. There is no way to detect the absence.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional gas water heater.

The gas from the supply pipe 39 is supplied by the inner pipe 37 through the gas meter 38 to the inside of the customer's premises and is supplied to the gas water heater 31.

The gas water heater 31 includes a solenoid valve 32 for opening and closing a gas inflow path and a proportional valve 3 for adjusting the gas inflow rate.
3, a CPU 34 that controls the operation of the gas water heater 31 and performs self-diagnosis of each part of the gas water heater 31, and a CP
Display unit 35 for displaying the result of self-diagnosis in U34
And a burner 36 for warming the water for hot water supply.

The hot water supply operation of the gas water heater 31 is CP
U34 outputs a control signal to the solenoid valve 32 to open it, and outputs a control signal to the proportional valve 33 to adjust the opening and ignite.

By the way, the CPU 34 detects whether or not the burner 36 is ignited by, for example, a frame rod or the like, and when it is not ignited, it is displayed on the display unit 35 and the solenoid valve 32 is closed. To do.

As described above, in the conventional water heater, it is possible to perform self-diagnosis as to whether or not the burner has ignited, and the display section can display that the burner does not ignite. I couldn't tell if it was because gas wasn't being supplied or because of other causes.

The reason why the gas is not supplied to the burner is that the solenoid valve is stuck and does not open even if a control signal for opening the solenoid valve is output from the CPU.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a water heater capable of detecting a failure due to sticking of a solenoid valve when the burner does not ignite.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a gas water heater for controlling the presence or absence of gas to be supplied to a burner by controlling the opening and closing of a solenoid valve provided in the gas passage. A flow sensor is provided on the burner side of the solenoid valve in the gas path, and when the flow sensor does not detect the inflow of gas into the burner,
A self-diagnosis indicating that the solenoid valve is defective is performed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a gas water heater according to the present invention.

The gas from the supply pipe 10 is supplied by the inner pipe 8 via the gas meter 9 into the customer's premises and is supplied to the gas water heater 1.

The gas water heater 1 has a solenoid valve 2 for opening and closing a gas inflow path, and a proportional valve 3 for adjusting a gas inflow rate.
The gas water heater 1 controls the operation of the gas water heater 1
CPU 4 for performing self-diagnosis of each part, a display unit 5 for displaying the result of self-diagnosis in CPU 4, a burner 7 for warming water for hot water supply, and a flow rate sensor 6 for detecting the flow rate of gas reaching the burner 7. It consists of and.

The hot water supply operation of the gas water heater 1 is performed by the CPU.
4 outputs a control signal to the solenoid valve 2 to open it, and outputs a control signal to the proportional valve 3 to adjust the opening and ignite.

The CPU 4 detects whether or not the burner 7 has ignited by, for example, a frame rod or the like, and when it has not ignited, checks the detection result by the flow rate sensor 6. When the flow rate sensor 6 detects that there is a gas flow rate, the solenoid valve 2 is closed and the parts other than the solenoid valve 12 fail (for example, burner failure, etc.).
Then, the self-diagnosis is made, and the fact is displayed on the display unit 5. On the other hand, when the flow rate sensor 6 detects that there is no gas flow rate, it self-diagnoses that the solenoid valve is faulty, displays that fact on the display unit 5, and outputs a control signal for closing the solenoid valve 2. To do.

As described above, according to the water heater of the present invention, whether or not the cause of the burner not igniting is the malfunction of the solenoid valve can be separately displayed and the effective information for repairing the malfunction can be provided. can do.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the gas water heater according to the present invention.

The gas from the supply pipe 20 is supplied by the inner pipe 18 through the gas meter 19 into the customer's premises and is supplied to the gas water heater 11.

The gas water heater 11 includes a solenoid valve 12 for opening and closing a gas inflow path and a proportional valve 1 for adjusting the gas inflow rate.
3, a CPU 14 that controls the operation of the gas water heater 11 and performs self-diagnosis of each part of the gas water heater 11, and a CP
Display unit 15 for displaying the result of self-diagnosis in U14
And a burner 17 for warming water for hot water supply, and a flow rate sensor 16 for detecting the flow rate of gas reaching the burner 17.

The hot water supply operation of the gas water heater 11 is the same as that of the embodiment shown in FIG.

By the way, conventionally, by connecting a telephone line installed in each customer and a gas meter through a communication device, and communicating between a service center and a gas meter through the telephone line, the gas There has been proposed an automatic meter reading system for automating the meter reading of the used amount (see JP-A-6-85938). In view of this, the present embodiment enables communication between the gas water heater and the service center by connecting the communication device and the gas water heater in this automatic meter reading system.

The CPU 14 detects whether or not the burner 17 has ignited by, for example, a frame rod or the like, and when it has not ignited, checks the detection result by the flow rate sensor 16. When the flow rate sensor 16 detects that there is a gas flow rate, the solenoid valve 12 is closed, and a self-diagnosis is performed to determine that there is a failure in a portion other than the solenoid valve 12 (for example, a burner failure, etc.), and a message to that effect is displayed. Display on 15. On the other hand, when the flow sensor 16 detects that there is no gas flow, the self-diagnosis that the solenoid valve is defective is displayed, and the fact is displayed on the display unit 15, and the solenoid valve 1
A control signal for closing 2 is output.

Further, in the present embodiment, the result of the self-diagnosis by the CPU 14 is output to the communication device 21 and transmitted to the service center 23 via the public telephone network 22. As a result, the repair worker standing by at the service center can accurately grasp the cause of the failure of the water heater 11 and can make an immediate repair.

Although the flow rate sensor for detecting the flow rate of the gas flowing into the burner is provided in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention is not limited to this, and a pressure sensor is used instead of the flow rate sensor. A sensor may be provided to detect whether or not the gas pressure is applied. As a pressure sensor, it is general to use a deformation of a diaphragm, and as a method of converting the deformation into a voltage change or the like, there are a method using a change in capacitance or a method using a strain gauge. As the flow rate sensor, there are a hot wire type sensor in which a temperature sensor detects a temperature change of a hot wire due to gas flow, a differential pressure type sensor in which a differential pressure between two different points is measured, and the like.

Further, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, CP
Although the result of the self-diagnosis by U14 is transmitted to the service center 23, the data transmitted to the service center 23 may be the detection result of the flow rate sensor 16 and the self-diagnosis may be performed on the service center 23 side.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When the burner does not ignite, there is an effect that a self-diagnosis can be performed so as to determine whether or not the cause of the failure is the solenoid valve system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of a gas water heater according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of another embodiment of the gas water heater according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional gas water heater.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Gas Water Heater 2 Solenoid Valve 3 Proportional Valve 4 CPU 5 Display 6 Flow Sensor 7 Burner 8 Inner Tube 9 Gas Meter 10 Supply Pipe

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Suzuki Ken 1399-7-242 Sezaki-cho, Soka City, Saitama Prefecture (72) Inventor Masa Ishimoto 2-11-2 Kajigaya, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture No. 222 Kajigaya Dormitory (72) ) Inventor Satoshi Morita 6-9-5 Chuo, Ota-ku, Tokyo Omori Dorm No. 24

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A gas water heater for controlling the presence / absence of gas to be supplied to a burner by controlling the opening / closing of a solenoid valve provided in the gas passage, wherein a flow rate sensor is provided on the burner side of the solenoid valve in the gas passage. A gas water heater, which performs self-diagnosis to the effect that the solenoid valve has failed when the flow sensor does not detect the inflow of gas into the burner. 2. A gas water heater for controlling the presence / absence of gas to be supplied to a burner by controlling the opening / closing of a solenoid valve provided in the gas path, wherein a pressure sensor is provided on the burner side of the solenoid valve in the gas path. A gas water heater, wherein a self-diagnosis indicating that the solenoid valve has a failure is performed when the pressure of the gas is not detected by the pressure sensor. 3. The gas water heater according to claim 1, wherein the self-diagnosis result is transmitted to a service center. 4. The gas water heater according to claim 3, wherein the transmission of the self-diagnosis result to the service center is performed via a public telephone network.