JPS58136931A - Control method for air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the comfortability of the air cooling and heating without stopping of the auxiliary heater by a method wherein the operating electric current is restrained less than the designated value by the phase-controlling of the power supply for an auxiliary heater, in a cooling and heating combination air conditioner which is used jointly with the auxiliary heater. CONSTITUTION:In a cooling and heating combination air conditioner 2 which is used jointly with a auxiliary heater 3, a power supply 1 for the auxiliary heater 3 is phase-controlled, that is, initially, the total amount (whole electric current Io) including an operating electric current of said air conditioner 2 and an electric current for the auxiliary heater 3 is detected by a electric current transformer 5, then, said whole current Io is compared with the reference electric current I1 in an electric current level judging circuit 7. When said current Io is equal to said reference current I1, the present timing is maintained, while when said current Io is not equal to said reference current I1, the phase angle is changed by a phase angle changing circuit 8, then a triac 10 is driven by a timing signal circuit 9. Thereby, the whole current Io is changed by supplying the phase-controlled current to the auxilliary heater 3, and the supplying of said phase-controlled current is repeated until the whole current Io is coincided with the reference current value Io.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for controlling a heating and cooling air conditioner that also uses an auxiliary heater.

A conventional air conditioner for heating and cooling that uses an auxiliary heater will be explained with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 14 denotes a power supply, 2 a main body of the air conditioner for heating and cooling, and 3 an auxiliary heater, which is energized by a relay switch 4 for controlling the auxiliary heater.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a current transformer that detects the operating current of the main body 2 of the air conditioner for heating and cooling. A control unit 6 compares the signal level from the current transformer 5 and opens the auxiliary heater control relay switch 4 when the current exceeds a certain value. Conventional heating/cooling air conditioners that use an auxiliary heater in such a configuration have the disadvantage that when the operating current reaches a certain value, the supply of electricity to the auxiliary heater is stopped, resulting in an extremely low discharge air temperature that impairs comfort. It had

An object of the present invention is to provide improved comfort without stopping the auxiliary heater while keeping the operating current below a certain value.

In order to keep the operating current below a certain value, the present invention focused on controlling the auxiliary heater current rather than the air conditioner itself, and chose phase control as a means to achieve this. In addition, in order to keep the value constant, the problem is solved by feedback of the total current.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. 7 is a current level determining circuit, and 8 is a phase angle changing circuit which determines the phase angle based on a signal from the current level determining circuit 7. A timing signal circuit 9 outputs a timing signal based on a signal from the phase angle changing circuit 8 to drive the triac 10 and energize the auxiliary heater 3. Components with the same symbols as in FIG. 1 indicate the same components. The operation of this embodiment will be explained with the above configuration. The current transformer 5 detects the sum of the operating current of the heating/cooling air conditioner 1fi2 and the auxiliary heater current (hereinafter referred to as the total current Io), and the current level judgment circuit 7 compares it with the reference current value ■1. If they are equal, the current If the timing does not match the reference current value I+, the phase angle changing circuit 8 changes the phase angle, and the timing signal circuit 9 drives the triac lO. As a result, a phase-controlled current flows to the auxiliary heater 3, and the total current Io
changes. This is then repeated until the total current Io matches the reference current value ■l. The above operation is shown in FIG. According to this embodiment, there is an effect of suppressing the operating current to a certain value or less without stopping the energization to the auxiliary heater.

According to the present invention, since the operating current can be kept at a constant value without stopping the auxiliary heater, operation can be performed without lowering the discharge air temperature, which has the effect of improving comfort. Furthermore, if the reference current value is set to 15 A or less, there is an effect that the device can be used in a general household outlet.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a circuit diagram of a conventional air conditioning/heating air conditioner that uses an auxiliary heater, Figure 2 is a circuit diagram of a heating/cooling air conditioner that uses an auxiliary heater according to an embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 3 is a circuit diagram of a heating/cooling air conditioner that uses an auxiliary heater. Operation flowchart of the invention. 1...Power supply, 2...Heating/cooling air conditioner body, 3...
- Auxiliary heater, 4... Auxiliary heater control relay switch, 5... Current transformer, 6... Control unit, 7...
Current level determination circuit, 8... Phase angle change circuit, 9...
- Timing signal circuit, 10...triac. Representative Patent Attorney Susuki 1) Interest d thing r

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A method for controlling an air conditioner, which comprises controlling the phase of power supplied to the auxiliary heater in a heating and cooling air conditioner that also uses an auxiliary heater. 2. The method for controlling an air conditioner according to claim 1, in which an arbitrary phase angle is determined based on the value of the operating current obtained by a current transformer. 3. The method of controlling an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the operating current is kept below a certain value by controlling the phase of the auxiliary heater.