JPH11131567A - Toilet device with indoor heating function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a heating air passage from being left to a closed state after a toilet has been used to increase the heating efficiency in a toilet room by automatically opening the heating air passage by a controller on the basis of a detected signal instructing that a user has separated from the toilet seat. SOLUTION: A heating air passage E is horizontally ramificated from the midway of the lower slant part communicating with the upper circular part of an ozone-treatment air passage R and the air exhaust opening 40 is opened to a toilet space T. A heater 41 comprising Nichrome wires (R) as a heater is arranged in the heating air passage E to heat the air to be discharged to the toilet space T through the heating air passage E. A changeover damper 44 as a distributing means is integrally fixed at the center of the rotary shaft 43 rotatably laid at the ramification part 42 of the ozone treatment air passage R and the heating air passage E. The changeover damper 44 is turned by driving a rotary motor 46 to alternatively connect or disconnect the ozone treatment air passage R and the heating air passage E.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toilet apparatus having an indoor heating function for generating warm air and discharging the warm air into a toilet room.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Today, a local washing function for washing a local portion of a user sitting on a toilet seat with water, a local drying function for drying a local portion washed with water with warm air, and heating a toilet room in winter or at low temperatures. BACKGROUND ART Toilet devices having many functions, such as an indoor heating function and a deodorizing function for removing odor generated in a bowl of a toilet bowl, are widely used. Such a multifunctional toilet apparatus tends to be large, but in order to efficiently use a narrow toilet space, it is not preferable to increase the size of the toilet apparatus.

[0003] By the way, among the above various functions, for example,
In local drying, air is generated by a fan in order to blow warm air to the local area, to blow warm air into the toilet room for indoor heating, and to suck air from the bowl of the toilet to the deodorizing unit in deodorization. It is a target. However, since the fan occupies a particularly large space among the components of the toilet apparatus, if the fan is mounted for each function as described above, the entire apparatus becomes extremely large.
Therefore, in a toilet apparatus having multiple functions, a device for forming a ventilation channel or an intake channel so that one fan can be shared by a plurality of functions has been conventionally devised.

[0004] For example, FIG.
And FIG. 11 is a front view (partially sectional view) of the multifunctional toilet seat described in FIG. In this toilet seat, a toilet seat 51 provided on the toilet body 50 so as to be openable and closable has a deodorizing device 53 attached to a rear portion thereof.

[0005] The deodorizing device 53 has one end communicating with the interior of the toilet body 50 through an intake port 54 and the other end with an exhaust port 5.
5, a deodorizer 58, a fan 60 driven by a motor 59, and a heating device 61, in order from the upstream side to the downstream side, in a toilet air discharge passage 57 communicating with the toilet space 56 via the toilet 5.
Are arranged.

Further, with this configuration, the fan 60 can be driven to allow air to pass through the deodorant 58, thereby effectively eliminating the odor generated in the toilet body 50.
By driving the heating device 61, the exhaust air is heated, and the toilet space 56 can be heated.

[0007] However, the above-mentioned conventional multifunctional toilet seat and toilet seat device still have the following problems to be solved.

That is, in the multifunctional toilet seat deodorizing device 53 shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, a deodorizing agent 58, a heating device 61 and a fan 60 are arranged in series in a single air discharge passage 57. That is, in other words, deodorization and indoor heating are performed continuously using a common fan and flow path.

[0009] Therefore, for example, in order to improve the comfort of the toilet use space, in order to warm the toilet space before the user sits down, even if the air does not yet contain odor before use, In addition to the heating by the heating device 61, the deodorant 58 having a high fluid resistance and provided in the air discharge passage 57 in the toilet must pass through. For this reason, even when the toilet seat is not used, the fan 60 must be driven with a large load or rotational torque as in the case of using the toilet seat, and there is a problem from the viewpoint of energy saving.

As a method for avoiding the above-mentioned problem,
For example, the flow path extending from the fan is branched from the middle in two directions, one branch flow path is connected to a ventilation port for indoor heating to form a heating flow path, and the other branch flow path is used as a deodorization intake port. It is conceivable to connect them to form a deodorizing flow path, and to provide flow path switching means including a damper or the like at a branch point of these flow paths. In addition, the method of using the branch flow path as described above to share one fan for a plurality of functions is not only for the combination of the indoor heating function and the deodorizing function, but also for the indoor heating function and the local drying function. It can also be applied to combinations of

[0011]

Generally speaking, the local cleaning function and the deodorizing function are mainly operated when the user is using the toilet, while the indoor heating function is mainly using the toilet. To work with no waiting time. By the way, when the flow path from the fan is branched and one branch flow path is used as a heating flow path as in the above method,
While the local cleaning function or the deodorizing function is operating by using the toilet, the other branch flow path is used, so that the heating flow path is temporarily closed. Therefore, a step of switching the flow path at any timing after the completion of the local washing or deodorization and opening the heating flow path is required, and if the step is not performed at an appropriate timing, the subsequent standby time Will hinder indoor heating.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a toilet apparatus having a heating flow path which can be opened and closed by opening and closing means such as a damper. It is another object of the present invention to provide a toilet device capable of effectively heating a toilet room by opening the heating passage at an appropriate timing.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is directed to a hot air generating means, and a heating system for discharging the hot air generated by the hot air generating means to a toilet room space. In a toilet device provided with a flow path, an opening / closing means for opening and closing the heating flow path, a seat detection means for detecting whether a user is seated / seated on the toilet seat, and the seat detection means comprising: And control means for controlling the opening / closing means so as to open the heating flow path when detecting a user's departure from the toilet.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In the toilet apparatus according to the present invention, the blowing means is constituted by using a generally used fan (for example, a sirocco fan). The heating flow path is a gas flow path from the air blowing means to a ventilation port provided at a predetermined location of the toilet device, and a heating means such as a heater is provided on the way. The seating detection means may be configured using various seating sensors conventionally used for detecting the user's seating on the toilet seat. The opening / closing means may be configured to drive a damper disposed in or near the heating channel by a motor. The control means is, for example, a control circuit configured using a microcomputer or the like, receives an input signal from the seating detection means, performs a process according to a predetermined program based on the signal, and performs a predetermined process according to a result of the process. Is sent to the opening / closing means.

In the toilet apparatus according to the present invention,
The control means may be configured to control the opening / closing means so as to close the heating channel when the seat detection means detects a user's seating on the toilet seat.

[0016]

In the toilet apparatus according to the present invention as described above, the control means automatically opens the heating flow path upon detection of the user's separation from the toilet seat. After the toilet is used, the heating passage is not left in a closed state, so that the heating efficiency of the toilet room is increased.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A sanitary washing apparatus having an indoor heating function and a deodorizing function will be specifically described as an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the toilet body A is provided with a sanitary washing device B for local washing across the upper surface on the rear side thereof.
A toilet seat 2 and an openable / closable toilet lid 3 are provided.

A hot water tank, a valve unit and the like for supplying hot water for local cleaning are arranged in the functional casing 1, and a local cleaning that moves forward and backward toward the ball portion a of the toilet body A. Nozzle 4 is provided.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the functional unit casing 1 includes a hot air fan 5 and a hot air duct 6 for local drying, in addition to the local cleaning function.

Further, a deodorizing duct 7 is provided in the vicinity of the hot air duct 6, and the deodorizing duct 7 extends into the functional unit casing 1 at the left end as shown in FIG. In communication with an ozone deodorizer M to be used.

In the ozone deodorizing apparatus M, an indoor heating channel E and an ozone processing channel R as a deodorizing channel, which will be described in detail later, are formed in a branched state (FIGS. 5 to 9). .

In the above overall configuration, first, FIGS.
The hot air fan 5 and the hot air duct 6 for forming the heating toilet seat will be briefly described with reference to FIG. And a hot air duct 6 from the hot air fan 5 crawls over the upper part of the middle part 1-3 of the casing 1 to a substantially central left part of the middle part 1-3 of the same casing 1. The hot air outlet 8 is open.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1-2 denotes a right sleeve of the functional unit casing 1, which houses the functional unit of the local cleaning device.

At a position below the hot air duct 6, FIG.
As shown in the figure, a deodorizing duct 7 is provided, and the deodorizing duct 7 has a suction port 9 at the tip end thereof opened to the ball portion a of the toilet bowl main body A. The end extends along the section 1-3 to the center of the left sleeve 1-1, and the terminal end is communicated with an ozone processing channel R formed in the ozone deodorizing device M.

As shown in FIG. 4, an exhaust port 10 is formed at the last end of the ozone treatment channel R of the ozone deodorizing apparatus M. The exhaust port 10 is connected to the left sleeve of the functional casing 1. It is open at the lower end of the hanging chamber case 11 formed in the portion 1-1.

As described above, the flow path for deodorizing the bad odor generated in the toilet body A is formed by all the flow paths from the suction port 9 of the deodorization duct 7 to the exhaust port 10 of the ozone treatment flow path R. In other words, the ozone deodorizing device M is interposed therebetween.

In this embodiment, the ozone deodorizing apparatus M is substantially built in the chamber case 11 except for the ozone generating section G.

The configuration of the ozone deodorizing apparatus M will be described below with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the ozone generator G, which constitutes a part of the ozone deodorizing device M, is disposed at the center inside the rear part of the deodorizing duct 7.

In this embodiment, the ozone generating section G
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the heater 18 and the heater 18 are disposed in the deodorization duct 7 in the same direction as the axis.
And an ozonizer 17 adhered to one side surface.

The ozonizer 17 includes the chamber case 11
Connected to the high voltage generator 19 disposed in the
The generator 19 is connected to the controller D, and applies a high voltage from the high voltage generator 19 to the ozonizer 17 based on the drive output from the controller D (FIG. 5) to remove ozone from the deodorizing duct 7. Can be generated.

The heater 18 heats the ozonizer 17 to promote the generation of ozone by the ozonizer 17.

As shown in FIG. 4, the chamber case 11
The ozone treatment channel R formed therein is formed in a hollow casing 20 extending in the vertical direction.

The upper part of the ozone treatment channel R is in communication with the internal space of the deodorizing duct 7 through the communication opening 21.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the upper part of the ozone processing flow path R, which is on the downstream side of the ozone generator G,
An intake fan F is rotatably arranged.

In the present embodiment, the intake fan F is formed by a sirocco fan in which a pair of front and rear discs 22, 23 provided at intervals are connected by a blade plate 24 provided in a circumferential direction. .

The boss 25 of the intake fan F is
It is fixed to the output shaft 26 of the rotary motor K disposed at the rear of the hollow casing 20.

The intake fan F sucks the malodorous air generated in the toilet body A into the ozone treatment channel R through the deodorizing duct 7, and also removes the ozone generated in the ozone generating section G as described later. Can be effectively mixed with odorous air.

Next, the catalyst S provided in the lower part of the ozone treatment channel R formed in the hollow casing 20, that is, on the downstream side of the intake fan F will be described.

Such a catalyst S promotes the decomposition of ozone into oxygen and active oxygen.
Deodorizing action by mixing ozone and malodor can be promoted.

The catalyst S has various compositions and forms. For example, a catalyst having a honeycomb structure containing MnO ₂ , TiO ₂ or the like as a component can be used.

The catalyst S converts ozone into O ₃ → O ₂ + O
^- actively engage in the decomposition into.

Then, the active oxygen O ^- is converted into the malodorous component H ₂ S.
And changes into H ₂ O and SO ₂ due to the chemical change, and carries out a deodorizing treatment for offensive odor.

As described above, since the catalyst S promotes the decomposition of ozone into oxygen and active oxygen, it is possible to promote the deodorizing action by mixing ozone and malodor.

According to the present invention, in the above-described ozone deodorizing apparatus M, as shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. It has a feature in a configuration that also has a function.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the heating passage E is branched in a substantially horizontal direction from the middle of the lower inclined portion communicating with the upper circular portion of the ozone treatment passage R. The air outlet 40 is open to the toilet space T.

A heater 41 composed of a nichrome wire or the like as a heating device is disposed in the heating passage E, and heats the air flowing through the heating passage E and discharged to the toilet space T. be able to.

On the other hand, a rotary shaft 43 is rotatably mounted on a branch portion 42 between the ozone treatment flow path R and the heating flow path E, and a central portion of the rotary shaft 43 is provided as a distribution means. The switching damper 44 is integrally fixed. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, one end of the rotary shaft 43 is connected to an output shaft of a rotary motor 46 attached to one side wall 20a of the casing 20.

With this configuration, by driving the rotary motor 46, the switching damper 44 is rotated, and the ozone processing flow path R and the heating flow path E can be selectively opened and closed or the communication state can be changed. .

FIGS. 7 and 8 show another embodiment.
In this embodiment, the switching damper 44 includes a return spring 47 made of normal spring steel or the like, and
It is characterized by being operable in cooperation with a shape memory alloy spring 48 which expands and contracts by heating.

That is, as shown in the drawing, a return spring 47 is provided between one side wall 20b of the casing 20 and the switching damper 44, while the casing 4
Between the other side wall 20c of 5 and the switching damper 44, a spring 48 made of a shape memory alloy is provided.

With this configuration, during normal deodorizing operation, the shape memory alloy spring 48 is not heated by energization or the like, so it is in an extended state, and the ozone treatment device R is formed (solid line position in FIG. 8). .

On the other hand, at the time of heating, the ozone treatment flow path R can be closed and the heating flow path E can be opened by contracting by heating the shape memory alloy spring 48 by energization or the like (solid line position in FIG. 7). ).

As the heat-sensitive deforming means, a spring made of a shape memory resin may be used instead of the spring made of a shape memory alloy. In this case, however, it is necessary to separately provide a heating device near the spring. There is.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment.
In the present embodiment, the heater 41 is disposed upstream of the switching damper 44 as a heating means, and the spring 41 made of a shape memory alloy expands and contracts by the heating of the heater 41, so that the switching damper 44 can be operated.

Accordingly, a motor or the like for operating the switching damper 44 is not required, and the structure of the multifunctional toilet seat having both the deodorizing function and the indoor heating function can be made compact.

The other components in the illustrated embodiment will be described. In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 30 denotes an operation unit which has various operation switches required for a local cleaning operation.

(Operation) Hereinafter, a method for deodorizing a bad odor generated in the toilet body A by the ozone deodorizing apparatus M having the above configuration and a method for heating the room will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, when the user sits on the toilet seat 2 of the toilet with the ozone deodorizing device or opens the toilet lid, the seating sensor S1 as one of toilet seat use operation detecting means provided behind the toilet seat 2 controls the ON output. The rotation damper 46 is driven by the drive output from the control unit D to switch the damper 44.
6, the intake fan F is driven, the high voltage generator 19 generates a high voltage, and the high voltage is applied to the ozonizer 17. Occurs.

As a result, the offensive odor generated in the internal space of the toilet body A is sucked into the ozone treatment flow path R, and is effectively mixed with ozone in the ozone treatment flow path R to perform the deodorization treatment.

In particular, since the catalyst S is disposed downstream of the ozone treatment channel R, when passing through the catalyst S,
The mixing of the offensive odor and ozone is further promoted, and the deodorizing treatment is further promoted.

Thereafter, the exhaust gas which has been completely deodorized is discharged from the exhaust port 10 into the toilet space.

Further, in the present invention, when the toilet is removed from the toilet seat 2 of the toilet with the ozone deodorizing device or the toilet lid is closed after the toilet, the toilet seat use operation detecting means provided behind the toilet seat 2 is provided. The seating sensor S1 sends an OFF output to the control unit D, and the drive output from the control unit D drives the rotary motor 46 to cause the switching damper 44 to assume the position shown by the phantom line in FIG. Drive. On the other hand, while the driving of the intake fan F is continued, the high voltage generator 19
The power supply to the ozone processing flow path R is stopped, and the generation of ozone in the ozone processing flow path R is stopped.

Thus, after the stool is used, the air sucked into the ozone deodorizing device M through the deodorizing duct 7 can be discharged to the outside through the heating passage E without passing through the catalyst S. Since the toilet space is heated, the toilet space can be effectively heated, and the next user can comfortably use the toilet.

Further, all or almost all of the air sucked into the ozone deodorizing device M through the deodorizing duct 7 can be discharged to the outside through the heating channel E without passing through the catalyst S, so that the fluid resistance is significantly reduced. The intake fan F can be rotated with a low torque, and energy can be saved.

The switching damper 44 serves as a distribution means.
Although the distribution means is shown, various changes can be made as the distribution means, such as a rotation of a disk, or a movable plate slidable left and right or up and down.

The interior heating flow path and the deodorization flow path are not completely selectively communicated with each other, but one of the interior heating flow path and the deodorization flow path is configured to be mostly communicated and the other is slightly communicated. Can also.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a toilet with an ozone deodorizer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall plan view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway plan view of a main part of the toilet body.

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway front view of a main part of the ozone deodorizing device.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway side view of a main part of the ozone deodorizing device.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an ozone deodorizing device.

FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway side view of a main part of an ozone deodorizing apparatus according to another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the ozone deodorizing apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a partially cutaway side view of a main part of an ozone deodorizing apparatus according to another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing a configuration of a conventional multifunctional toilet seat.

FIG. 11 is a front sectional view of the multifunctional toilet seat.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A: toilet body a: ball section D: control section E: heating channel G: ozone generating section M: ozone deodorizing device R: ozone processing channel S: catalyst S1: seating sensor 9: suction port 10: exhaust port 44: Switching damper 46 ... Rotary motor

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A toilet apparatus comprising: a hot air generating means; and a heating flow path for discharging hot air generated by the hot air generating means to a toilet room space, wherein the heating apparatus includes a heating flow path for opening and closing the heating flow path. Opening / closing means, seat detection means for detecting the user's seating / seating from the toilet seat, and opening the heating passage when the seating detecting means detects the user's seating from the toilet seat Control means for controlling the opening and closing means as described above. 2. The control means controls the opening / closing means so as to close the heating passage when the seat detection means detects a user sitting on the toilet seat. A toilet device according to claim 1.