JPH11311437A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable an air conditioning of a wide space efficiently at a low cost and with a simple structure and to realize an energy saving simultaneously. SOLUTION: In an air conditioner 10, an interior 11 is divided into a plurality of control regions 12A, 12B, 12C..., air conditioning instruments are independently installed in respective control regions, a centralized control equipment 17 distinctly separates the control regions into man present control regions X and man absence control regions Y in response to signals from camera devices 15 installed in the interior and an image processing controller 16, and air conditionings suitable for these man presence control regions X and the man absence control regions Y are carried out by the air conditioning instruments. In such an air conditioner 10, the air conditioning instruments are indoor machines 14A, 14B, 14C... which are connected with an outdoor machine 13 by way of refrigerant pipings 18, and a controller controls a flow rate of refrigerant supplied to respective indoor machines so as to carry out the air conditionings suitable for the man presence control regions and man absence control regions.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner for air conditioning a large room such as an office building.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, an air conditioner 100 for air-conditioning a room 101 such as an office building, a large-scale store or an office has a plurality of control areas 102A, 102B and 102C. , And each of the control areas 102A, 102B, 102C,.
103B, 103C, an air outlet 104A provided with 103C,
Are individually installed, and the control device 10B
5 uses the imaging device 106 such as a visible image camera installed in the room 101 to control the control areas 102A, 102B,
.. Are divided into an occupied control area x where a person is present and an absent control area y where no person is present, and further, the control device 105 causes each of the dampers 103A, 103B, 103C.
Are controlled by controlling the air outlets 104A, 104B, 104C,... Of the air supplied from the so-called central type air conditioner 107 installed in the room 101, for example.
The air conditioning is performed by appropriately changing the amount of air blown out from the occupant control area x and the absence control area y.

Thus, in the room 101, a large amount of air-conditioned air is blown out from the air conditioner 107 to the occupied control area x, thereby ensuring comfort. A small amount of air is blown out or stopped from the conditioner 107, thereby realizing energy saving.

[0004]

However, in the air conditioner 100, even if it is desired to perform air conditioning only in the occupant control area x, the air inlet 1 of the air conditioner 107 can be controlled.
08 is open to the absence control area y, the suction air flows from the occupant control area x to the air suction port 108 as shown by the arrow S, and as a result, a wide range of air conditioning is performed. And the efficiency is reduced.

In this case, in order to improve the air conditioning efficiency, each of the control areas 102A, 102B, 102C.
In addition, it is necessary to connect the air conditioner 107 with an air inlet, and as a result, the structure becomes complicated and the cost increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an air conditioner that can efficiently air-condition a large room with a low-cost and simple structure and realize energy saving. To provide.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
The room is divided into a plurality of control areas, air conditioning equipment is individually installed in each control area, human body detection means installed in the room determines presence or absence of a person in the control area, and the control device performs the human body detection Based on the information from the means, the control area, the occupied control area where a person is present, and the absence control area where no person is present are distinguished, and these occupied control areas, air conditioning adapted to the absence control area, In the air conditioner implemented using the air conditioner, the air conditioner is an indoor unit connected to an outdoor unit via a refrigerant pipe, and the control device controls a refrigerant flow rate flowing through each indoor unit. By controlling, air conditioning adapted to the occupied control area and the absent control area is performed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the human body detecting means processes an image pickup device and a signal from the image pickup device to determine the presence or absence of a person in each control area. And an image processing control device, wherein the imaging device is individually installed in each control area.

The invention described in claim 3 is the first or second invention.
In the invention described in (1), the control device is capable of controlling the air conditioning capability of the absence control region near the occupant control region with a different capability from the other absence control regions.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, in the cooling operation, the control device controls an air blowing speed blown from the indoor unit in the occupied control region. The air conditioning is performed by increasing the room temperature target temperature to or near the allowable limit value and setting the room temperature target temperature higher than the comfortable room temperature.

The first aspect of the invention has the following operation.

Since the control device controls the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing through each of the indoor units individually installed in the plurality of control areas to perform air conditioning suitable for the occupied control area or the absent control area, the absence control is performed. By suppressing the air-conditioning ability of the area to be smaller than the air-conditioning ability of the occupant control area, for example, a large space can be efficiently air-conditioned and energy can be saved.

The air conditioner installed in each control area is an air outlet, and the air conditioning of each control area is realized by controlling the amount of air-conditioned air supplied to the air outlet. In the case of the conventional technology, it is necessary to provide an air intake port in addition to an air outlet in each control area in order to achieve good air conditioning in each control area, resulting in a complicated structure and an increase in cost. Resulting in. On the other hand, in the present invention, in each control area in the room, an indoor unit connected to the outdoor unit and the refrigerant pipe is individually installed, and the air conditioning of each control area is controlled by controlling the amount of refrigerant flowing through each indoor unit. Since each indoor unit sucks and blows out the air in each control area, there is no need to separately provide an air outlet in each control area, so that the room can be efficiently air-conditioned with a low-cost and simple structure.

The second aspect of the present invention has the following operation.

Since the image pickup devices are individually installed in each control area, the presence or absence of a person in each control area can be accurately determined.

The third aspect of the invention has the following effects.

[0017] Since the control device can control the air conditioning performance of the absence control area near the occupied control area with a different ability from the other absence control areas, for example, the absence control area near the occupied control area can be controlled. If the number of people entering and exiting the room is severe, control the air conditioning capacity close to the air conditioning capacity of the occupied control area. By controlling with ability,
It is possible to more efficiently perform indoor air conditioning and further promote energy saving.

The invention according to claim 4 has the following operation.

At the time of cooling operation, in the occupant control area,
The air blowing speed from the indoor unit is approached to or near the permissible limit value, and the indoor target temperature is set higher than the comfortable indoor temperature. it can.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

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

The air conditioner 10 shown in FIG. 1 air-conditions a large room 11 such as an office building, a large-scale store, or an office. 12B, 12C,... And air conditioning is performed for each of the control areas 12A, 12B, 12C,.

In other words, the air conditioner 10 includes, for example, one outdoor unit 13 having a built-in compressor, a four-way valve, a heat exchanger, a fan, and the like, and an air conditioner having a heat exchanger, a refrigerant flow regulating valve, a fan, and the like. A plurality of indoor units 14A, 14B as devices;
14C, an imaging device 15 and an image processing control device 16 as human body detecting means, and a centralized control device 17 as a control device.

In the room 11, each control area 12A, 12
B, 12C ..., for example, on the ceiling, indoor units 14A, 14C
B, 14C,... Are individually installed, and these indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C,. These indoor units 14A, 1
.. Are small-capacity indoor units of, for example, 2 horsepower (cooling and heating capacity is 5.6 kW and 6.3 kw, respectively) or less. Moreover, these indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C ...
The flow rate of the refrigerant flowing from the outdoor unit 13 through the refrigerant pipe 18 is adjusted by changing the opening degree of the refrigerant flow control valve, and the air blowing speed is adjusted by changing the rotation amount of an unillustrated indoor fan. Each control area 12A, 12B, 1
The room temperature and the like of 2C.
B, 12C ... air conditioning is implemented.

The imaging device 15 is, for example, an infrared imaging device, a digital still camera, a visible image camera, or the like, and is individually installed in each of the control areas 12A, 12B, 12C,. This imaging device 15
As shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG.
B, 12C..., One in each of the columns and rows, for example, a total of seven in the figure, or one in the vertical direction of the room 11.
A total of two units may be installed, one in the horizontal direction. Further, the image processing control device 16 captures and processes an image signal from the imaging device 15, and controls each of the control regions 12A, 12B, 12B.
The presence or absence of a person at C ... is determined, and the information is transmitted to the central control device 17.

The central control unit 17 is connected to the image processing control unit 16 by a communication line 19, and further connected to a communication line 20.
And the outdoor unit 13 through the interface 21, the relay relay base 22, and the external contact input / output terminal (not shown).
And the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C... Then, the central control device 17 communicates with these communication lines 19.
., The control area 12A, 12B, 12C,... Based on information from the image processing control device 16 through the communication line 20; , The air conditioning adapted to the occupied control area X and the absent control area Y is determined by the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C,... This is performed using.

That is, the central control device 17 sets the indoor target temperature to a comfortable temperature (for example, 24 to 26 ° C. during the cooling operation) for the occupant control area X, and sets the outdoor unit 13 and the occupant control area X Indoor units 14A, 14B, 1 corresponding to
4C... Are performed, and in the absence control area Y, the operation of the corresponding indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C.
4B, 14C... Are operated with a suppressed capacity.

As a method of suppressing the operation capability, the indoor target temperature is relaxed, the blown air temperature is relaxed, and the operation (thermo O
N) There are methods such as shortening of time. The above-mentioned indoor target temperature is alleviated by lowering the indoor target temperature in the absence control area Y as compared with the indoor target temperature in the occupant control area X (set to 1 to 3 ° C higher in the cooling operation, and 1 to 3 ° C in the heating operation). Lower setting). The mitigation of the blow-out air temperature is controlled by the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C corresponding to the absence control area Y.
... to reduce the temperature of the blown air in the absence control area Y compared to the temperature of the blown air in the occupant control area X (set 1 to 5 ° C. higher in the cooling operation and 1 to 5 ° C. in the heating operation). 5 ° C. lower). In addition, the reduction of the operation time is achieved by the central control device 17 being in the absence control area Y.
.. Corresponding to the absence control area Y, the thermo-ON time per unit time of the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C. Indoor unit 1 corresponding to control area X
Thermo ON per unit time of 4A, 14B, 14C ...
In this method, the operation rate is set to about 20 to 80% of the time.

The centralized control device 17 is provided with the absence control area Y.
, An area near the occupant control area X, that is, an absent control area Z (shown by a mesh display in FIG. 2) adjacent to the occupant control area X, or an absent control area adjacent to the occupant control area X It is also possible to operate the absent control area adjacent to the outside of Z with a different air conditioning capability from the other absent control areas Y. For example, the centralized control device 17 relaxes the indoor target temperature, relaxes the blown air temperature, and operates (thermo O
N) By implementing a method such as shortening the time, the occupant control area X
The driving ability of the absence control area Z adjacent to the
In some cases, the absence control region adjacent to the outside of the absence control region Z adjacent to the resident control region X is also set adjacent to the occupancy control region X by the same method. The operation capability is set to be lower than the operation capability of the absence control region Z, and the operation of the other absence control regions Y is stopped.

Further, the centralized control unit 17 sets the air blowing speed blown from the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C... In the occupied control area X to the allowable limit value of the indoor air flow, particularly when the cooling operation is performed. The room airflow is increased to or near 0.8 m / s at a room temperature in the range of 26 to 28 ° C. to increase the wind speed in the vicinity of a human (for example, 0.5 to 0.8 m / s). X is set higher than the comfortable temperature (24 to 26 ° C.) (26 to 28).
° C) to perform air conditioning.

Next, a specific example of air conditioning of the room 11 by the central control device 17 will be described.

In the case of cooling operation of the office, if the air conditioning is performed only in the occupant control area X when there are many people coming and going like a weekday, it may cause discomfort to visitors. Therefore, for the absence control area Y including the absence control area Z adjacent to the occupancy control area X, the indoor target temperature is set to the indoor target temperature (2
8 ° C.), energy saving operation is performed, and for the occupied control area X, the air blowing speed from the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C... Corresponding to the occupied control area X is set to an allowable limit value (0.8 m / S), the indoor target temperature is set to a temperature (26 ° C.) lower than the comfortable temperature, and an operation for ensuring comfort and saving energy is performed.

In a holiday office, since people do not enter and exit frequently, the indoor units 14A and 14A corresponding to the absence control area Y (including the absence control area Z adjacent to the presence control area X)
.. Are stopped, only the occupied control area X is set to a comfortable indoor target temperature (24 to 26 ° C.), and the occupied control area X is air-conditioned in a spot manner to save energy.

Therefore, the air conditioner 1 of the above embodiment is
According to 0, the following effects are obtained.

The centralized control unit 17 controls a plurality of control areas 1
Each indoor unit 1 installed individually in 2A, 12B, 12C ...
4A, 14B, 14C,.
Since the air conditioning adapted to the occupied control area X or the absent control area Y is performed, the air conditioning ability of the absent control area Y is suppressed more than the air conditioning ability of the occupied control area X. Can be efficiently air-conditioned and energy can be saved.

As shown in FIG. 3, each control area 102
Air conditioning equipment installed in A, 102B, 102C... Are air outlets 104A, 104B, 104C... And control the amount of air-conditioned air supplied to the air outlets 104A, 104B, 104C. In the case of the conventional air-conditioning apparatus 100 that achieves air conditioning of each of the control areas 102A, 102B, 102C,..., Each of the control areas 102A, 102B, 102C,. Control areas 102A, 102B, 10
2C ... air outlets 104A, 104B, 104C ...
In addition, it is necessary to provide the air suction port 108, which results in a complicated structure and an increase in cost.

On the other hand, the air conditioner 1 of the present embodiment
0, each control area 12A, 12B, 12C in the room 11
, The indoor unit 1 connected to the outdoor unit 13 by the refrigerant pipe 18
4A, 14B, 14C... Are individually installed, and the air conditioning of each control area 12A, 12B, 12C.
A, 14B, 14C,... Are implemented by controlling the amount of refrigerant flowing through each of the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C,. Since it is not necessary to separately provide an air suction port in 12C, air conditioning in the room can be efficiently performed with a low-cost and simple structure.

The imaging device 15 controls each of the control areas 12A, 12A.
B, 12C..., Can accurately determine the presence or absence of a person in each of the control areas 12A, 12B, 12C.

The central control device 17 determines the air conditioning capability of the absence control area Y near the occupancy control area X (especially, the absence control area Z adjacent to the occupancy control area X). Since it is possible to control with different abilities, for example, the air conditioning ability of the absence control area Y near the occupant control area X (especially the absence control area Z adjacent to the occupant control area X) can be controlled by the entry and exit of the person into the room 11. When it is intense, control is performed by approaching the air conditioning ability of the occupant control area X, and when there are few people entering and exiting the room 11, by controlling with the same air conditioning ability as the other absence control areas Y, The air conditioning of the room 11 can be performed more efficiently, and energy saving can be further promoted.

During the cooling operation, in the occupant control region X, the air blowing speed from the indoor units 14A, 14B, 14C... Is brought close to or near the allowable limit value (0.8 m / s) and the indoor target temperature is comfortably set. Since the temperature is set to be higher than the room temperature (26 ° C.), it is possible to further promote energy saving while securing the comfort of the occupant control area X.

Although the present invention has been described based on one embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this.

[0042]

According to the present invention, a room is divided into a plurality of control areas, and indoor units are individually installed in each control area, and the control device changes the control area based on information from the human body detecting means to the occupant control where a person is present. Area and the absence control area where no person exists,
Since the air conditioning adapted to the occupied control area and the absence control area is performed by controlling the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing from the outdoor unit to the indoor unit, a large room can be efficiently manufactured with a low-cost and simple structure. Air conditioning and energy saving can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing a division state in a room in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a system diagram showing a conventional air conditioner.

FIG. 4 is a plan view schematically showing a division state in a room in FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 air conditioner 11 indoor 12A control area 12B control area 12C control area 13 outdoor unit 14A indoor unit 14B indoor unit 14C indoor unit 15 imaging device 16 image processing control device 17 centralized control device X occupant control region Y absence control region Z Absence control area adjacent to human control area X

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hirokazu Suzuki 2-1 Tsukudo-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Kumagaya Gumi Tokyo head office (72) Inventor Kohei Sato 2-5-2-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Yoshitaka Hara 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka No.5 Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kazutomo Kagami 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] A control unit that divides a room into a plurality of control areas, individually installs air conditioning equipment in each control area, and determines whether or not a human body is present in the control area by a human body detecting unit installed in the room; Is, based on the information from the human body detection means, the control area, the presence of a person in the control area, and the absence of a person in the absence control area is distinguished sharply, these people control area,
An air conditioner that performs air conditioning adapted to the absence control region using the air conditioner, wherein the air conditioner is an indoor unit connected to an outdoor unit via a refrigerant pipe, Is an air conditioner that controls the flow rate of refrigerant flowing through each indoor unit to perform air conditioning suitable for the occupied control area and the absent control area. 2. The human body detecting means includes an imaging device, and an image processing control device that processes a signal from the imaging device to determine the presence or absence of a person in each control area. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the air conditioner is individually installed in an area. 3. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is capable of controlling the air conditioning capability of the absence control region near the occupant control region with a capability different from that of the other absence control regions. 3. The air conditioner according to 2. 4. In the cooling operation, the control device increases the air blowing speed blown from the indoor unit to or near an allowable limit value in the occupied control region, and raises the room temperature target temperature to be higher than the comfortable room temperature. The air conditioner according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the air conditioner is set to perform air conditioning.