JPS63143449A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To adequately carry out space heating of an entire room and improve the air conditioning comfortableness by providing control means for independently controlling respective air flow direction changing mechanism so as to change the discharge direction to a direction where no person is present by the detection signal from person's position detecting means. CONSTITUTION:The discharge direction from discharge ports 7 and 9 provided in plurality in an air conditioner main body 1 is set so that respective perpendicular deflection means 11 and 12 and horizontal deflection means 13 and 14 are individually controlled, while for instance, an independent discharge air flow is imparted from the lefthand discharge port 7 to a remote unit region and from the righthand discharge port 8 to a near unit region in accordance with the selected position of the finely divided unit region. For this reason, within the unit regions where the absence of person is judged, a plurality of absent regions are divided and hot air discharge is imparted thereto. Alternatively, by selecting nearer absent unit regions, hot air flow discharge is carried out and the air flow is propagated directly from the floor surface and thereafter to the entire part of the floor surface in the form of an air current of a low flow speed and proper space heating is imparted to the entire part of the room.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) This invention relates to an air conditioner, and in particular, improves air conditioning comfort by automatically changing the direction of air blowing from the air conditioner body. Related to air conditioners that can improve

(Prior art) When an air conditioner is used to heat a room, warm air rises due to natural convection. By emitting air at a low level near the foot of the room, comfortable heating can be provided throughout the room. however,
If the above-mentioned blown air directly hits a person on the floor, the person may feel uncomfortable.

Therefore, a specific device for preventing such direct wind from hitting people is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-38778. FIG. 14 shows an indoor layout of the device, and as shown in the figure, the floor-standing air conditioner main body 50 includes:
Detection device 5 consisting of a photoelectric switch and a floodlight on its front
1,52,53 are attached, and reflecting plates 54,55.
56 are arranged respectively. Therefore, when the light traveling back and forth between each detection device 51, 52, 53 and the reflecting plate 54, 55, 56 is blocked, it is determined that there is a person in the blocked direction, and the wind blown from the main body 50 is The air blowing direction is automatically changed to a direction other than that direction to prevent discomfort caused by the blowing air directly hitting the human body.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) By the way, when the air conditioner body is placed indoors, it is usually placed next to a wall, or if the floor is a rectangular room, it is placed on the wall on the short side of the room. There are many.

In such a placement situation, like the conventional device,
If the area for detecting the presence of a person in a room is divided only by direction, for example, as in the above device, only a small number of three-way areas can be obtained, and in this case, if there are people in all three directions. It is expected that this could easily occur. In this case, the direction of the air blowing from the air conditioner body will be changed so that it blows toward the ceiling so that the air does not blow directly onto people, and at this time, the air is heated toward the floor where people are located. Wind is not supplied and circulated, and the feeling of heating is therefore impaired. Furthermore, if there is a direction in which there is no person,
Even if hot air is blown in this direction, the problem is that, for example, the hot air will only flow to one side of the room, and residents on the other side will not feel much of a heating sensation. There is also.

This invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its purpose is to improve heating of the entire room without making residents feel uncomfortable due to direct wind. An object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner that can improve air conditioning comfort by performing the following steps.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Therefore, the air conditioner of the present invention is provided with an independently controllable wind direction changing mechanism 9.10 for each of the plurality of blowing lowers 8 formed in the air conditioner body 1. Each of the wind direction changing mechanisms 9.10 has a vertical deflection means 11.12 and a horizontal deflection means 1.
3.14 is a wall-mounted air conditioner that is installed at a high place on a wall, with boundaries intersecting in the direction of airflow from the blowout lower and 8 to define perspective areas, and further intersecting with boundaries defining these areas. A human position detecting means 22 for detecting a unit area where a person is located from among a plurality of unit areas defined by further dividing the far and near areas with boundaries extending in the direction; A controller 1.2 for independently controlling each of the above-mentioned wind direction changing mechanisms 9.10 so as to change the blowing direction in a direction where the airflow direction is not located.
32.

(Function) In the air conditioner with the above configuration, the area in which the presence of a person is detected is divided into far and near directions and in a direction crossing these directions, so that it is divided into more subdivided unit areas than in conventional devices. It is divided.

Therefore, the probability that a person exists in every unit area, that is, the frequency that hot air cannot be blown toward the floor surface, is small. Furthermore, the direction of the air from the air blower lowers 8, which are provided in the air conditioner main body 1 which is installed at a high place on the wall, is determined by the direction of air from each of the vertical deflection means 1], 12 and the horizontal deflection means 13.
14 individually, depending on the selected location of each subdivided unit area, for example, from the left outlet lower to a far unit area, and from the right outlet 8 to a nearby unit area, It is also possible to make the air blow out in such a way that the air blows out evenly. For this reason, it is possible to blow hot air into a plurality of unoccupied areas, for example, in a degree area for which it is determined that no one is present by the human position detection means 22, or to select a nearby unoccupied unit area. By blowing hot air directly from the floor surface, and then creating a low-velocity air current that spreads over the entire floor surface, suitable heating of the entire °C room is provided. be able to.

(Example) Next, regarding a specific example of the air conditioner of this invention,
This will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 8 shows a side view of the air conditioner main body 1 which is installed at a high place on a wall. An indoor heat exchanger 2 and a blower fan 3 are arranged inside the main body 1, and when the blower fan 3 is operated, indoor air is sucked in through a suction grill 4 formed on the front surface of the main body 1. Indoor heat exchanger 2 above
The air that has passed through is blown out from a blow-off grille 5 formed at the lower part of the front side. As shown in FIG. 9, the outlet grille 5 has two outlet lowers 8 divided into left and right sides by a partition plate 6 extending vertically at the center. In order to change the blowing direction of the blowing air, wind direction changing mechanisms 9, 10 which are each independently controlled are provided. Each of these wind direction changing mechanisms 9.10 is composed of a vertical deflection means, ie a vertical flap 11.12, and a horizontal deflection means, ie a horizontal flap 13.14, in addition to the left vertical flap 11; The right vertical flap 12, the left horizontal flap 13, and the right horizontal flap 14 are operated by first to fourth step motors 15, 16, respectively.
17 and 18, respectively, via link mechanisms. By controlling the rotation of each step motor 15.16.17.18, each of the flaps 11.12.13.
By changing the direction of the air blower 14, the blowing direction of the air from the main body 1 can be set to an arbitrary direction, and the blowing lower blower 8 can be set to a different blowing direction.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
1, a human body position detection device 2 serving as a human position detection means.
2 is attached.

The human detection sensor 20 is composed of a pyroelectric infrared sensor, and receives infrared rays equivalent to body temperature emitted from a human body, and when the intensity changes within a preset detection area. respond to 1. This makes it possible to detect the presence of a person within the detection area.

On the other hand, the ultrasonic sensor 21 has an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver, and emits ultrasonic waves in the direction of approximately the center of the detection area of the human detection sensor 20, and the reflected waves reflected by objects in that direction return. (The distance from the ultrasonic sensor 21 to the object is detected by the time it takes for the object to reach the object.)

FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the human body position detection device 22. As shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the sensor box 23 containing the human detection sensor 20 and the ultrasonic sensor 21 can be controlled to rotate vertically and horizontally by two step motors 24 and 25 for scanning the detection area. It is configured as follows.

Next, we will explain the detection of the human body position when the air conditioner main body 1 equipped with the human body position detection device 22 as shown in "-" is installed at a high place on the wall, for example, as shown in FIG. 11. The step motors 24 and 25 are driven to sequentially change the detection direction of the human detection sensor 20 to move and scan the detection area on the indoor floor. and the first
When there is a person in the room as shown in Figure 1, for example, when the head of the human body enters the detection area of the human detection sensor 20 during the scanning process, the human detection sensor 20 senses the human body and generates a human body detection signal. is generated. Each step motor 24 at this time.
The horizontal angle θ of the detection direction is determined by the rotation control angle of 25.
1 and a vertical angle θ2 are given, respectively, and these directional angles θ1 and θ2 are stored as detected direction information. Further, at this time, the distance to the head of the person is also determined by the ultrasonic sensor 21 at the same time. Further, from the above θ2 and L, for example, the horizontal distance a from the air conditioner main body 1 to the person's position can be easily determined by calculating /=L-cos θ2.

The above explanation is for the case where a person's head is detected, but even when the human detection sensor 20 detects bare feet, the calculation result of the distance l to the person's position is given as the same value as above,
Therefore, the position information of the person on the floor can be accurately obtained as the position information of the person's feet, regardless of the person's standing position or assets.

Next, based on the detection results of the human body position detection device 22,
Control of the blowing air during heating will be explained.

FIGS. 12 and 13 are a control fffll block diagram and a control flowchart. In FIG. 12, when the ON operation signal of the operation switch 3 attached to the air conditioner body 1 or the remote control switch box (not shown) is input to the control means, that is, the control device 32, A detection operation of the human body position detection device 22 is started.

When a detection signal of a human body in the room is input from the human detection sensor 20 to the position information calculation device 33, the calculation device 30 calculates the distance information of the ultrasonic sensor 21 at that time and the detection of each of the above-mentioned sensors 20.21. Based on the detected angle information from the motor control device 34 that controls the area scanning step motors 24 and 25, the horizontal distance β from the air conditioner main body 1 to the person is calculated, and this l and each of the above The control device 32 uses the detection direction angles θ1 and θ2 as human body position information.
Enter.

In the control device 32, each time the entire floor surface is scanned in the human body position detection operation, the flap deflection angle is determined based on the human body position information obtained in the current scan to provide a suitable heating effect as described below. Determine. The deflection angle signal thus determined is output to the step motor control device 35. and left vertical flap 11 and horizontal flap 13
is operated by the step knob motor 15, 17, and the right vertical flap 12 and horizontal flap 14 are operated by the step motor 1.
6.18, each is changed and set according to the above deflection angle signal. Such a control method will be further explained in detail based on the flowchart of FIG.

When the heating operation is started by operating the operation switch 31, the human body position detection operation as described above is also started in step S1. Then, by repeating step S2 of determining whether scanning of the entire area of the indoor floor surface is completed and step S1 described above, the above-mentioned step S2 is repeated until the detection area of the human body position detection device 22 finishes scanning the entire area of the indoor floor surface. Continue detection scanning. When the above-mentioned scanning is completed, the process moves from step S2 to step S33, and it is determined whether or not a person has been detected in the detection scanning at that time. If it is unattended, the process moves from step S3 to step S34, and the preset deflection angle of each flap, for example, horizontal flap 13.14 is 70° (however, the horizontal position is set to 0°, The direction of the lower blade is set at a deflection angle of 90°), while the vertical flaps 11, 12 are set at angles that allow the blowing air to spread throughout the room. Then, the process moves to step S8 and each flap 11, 12, 13, 1 is actually
After that, the process returns to step S1 and repeats the above steps, and the flap control is sequentially performed based on the detection result of the next scan of the human body position detection operation.

If it is determined in step S3 that a person has been eaten, the process moves from step S3 to S5. In this control, flap control is performed by determining the presence or absence of a person in each unit area set by dividing the indoor floor surface as described below. In this embodiment, the unit area is set as follows. For example, as shown in the schematic plan view of the room in FIG. Vertical center line L1
The boundary marked as
The interior of the room is divided into four by a boundary marked as a horizontal center line L2 in the figure for equal division, and each of the four divided areas is defined as a unit area. The above four unit areas will be explained below by naming the area close to the main body 1 and on the right side as area A, the area on the left side as area B, the area far from main body 1 and on the right side as area C, and the area on the left side as area D. do.

In step S5, the detected position is classified into the areas A, B, C, and D based on the human body position information obtained by the human body position detection operation.Then, the presence or absence of a person is determined for each area. If an area where no one is present is determined, the process moves from step S5 to S7. In step S7, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 7,
The deflection angle of each flap is determined so that the air is blown toward an area where no one is present. For example, in Figure 7 there is one area,
The figure shows a case where there is no person in area B, and in this case, the blowing direction toward area B is determined.

Moreover, FIGS. 1 to 4 show the blowing directions when it is detected that people are present in two areas. In these cases,
The wind direction changing mechanisms 9 and 10 in the two Suita lowers and 8 of the air conditioner main body 1 are independently controlled, and each flap is configured so that the air is blown out to the absent area on the side closer to the respective blowout lowers and 8. Determine the deflection angle of In addition, Figures 5 and 6 show cases where a person is detected only in one area, but in this case, two areas are selected from among the three absent areas that suitably surround the area where the person is present. , two blowout lowers, 8
The deflection angle of each wind direction changing mechanism 9 and IO is determined. After determining each of the above deflection angles, step S8
In each vertical and horizontal flap 11.12.13.14
is changed/set, and the process returns to step S1 again to continue flap control based on the next human body position detection operation. Therefore, when a person moves around the room, the flap deflection angle is automatically changed to follow the movement. In addition, in step S5, if the presence of a person is detected in all the unit areas, the process moves to step S6, and the horizontal flaps 13 and 14 are deflected at the deflection angle O.
The aim is to blow the air horizontally towards people's heads, so as not to cause discomfort to residents due to direct wind hitting them.

As described above, in the air conditioner in the above embodiment, by dividing the room in the far and near directions from the air conditioner main body 1, more subdivided detection unit areas are set, and each unit area is A person position detection means is provided which can detect the presence or absence of a corresponding person. Therefore, the probability that a person exists in every unit area becomes small, and the time for which hot air is blown toward the floor increases accordingly, improving heating efficiency. Furthermore, each of the air conditioner's multiple air outlets is equipped with a wind direction changing mechanism that can independently change the direction of the air being blown out. By blowing hot air around the occupants, it is possible to provide improved heating comfort without causing the occupants the discomfort of being directly exposed to the wind.

Note that the above embodiments do not limit this invention, and various changes can be made within the scope of this invention. For example, in the above embodiment, an example was explained in which the room was divided into four, but it is also possible to further increase the number of divisions, and an example in which two air outlets were formed in the air conditioner main body was explained, but it is possible to further increase the number of partitions. It is also possible to increase the number of outlets.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the human position detecting means is configured by a device having a drive mechanism that scans the detection area, but for example, a plurality of pyroelectric human detection sensors may be attached corresponding to each unit area in the room. It can also be configured. Furthermore, the boundaries that divide the room can be set in the shape of, for example, concentric circles centered on the air conditioner main body, radial lines, etc., and each can be set as unit areas with different sizes and shapes.

(Effects of the Invention) As mentioned above, in the air conditioner of this invention, the human detection area can be subdivided and the direction of air flow from the plurality of air outlets provided in the air conditioner body can be independently controlled. So,
Since there are people in all the detection areas, the probability that the blowing direction will not contribute to the heating of the room is reduced, which improves heating efficiency and allows the entire room to be heated in areas where no people are present. It is possible to automatically change the blowing direction from the air conditioner main body by appropriately selecting the direction.

Therefore, air conditioning comfort can be improved without causing discomfort to the occupants due to direct wind.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 13 are diagrams showing embodiments of the air conditioner of the present invention, and FIG. 1 fal (b) to FIG. 7 (a) (
bl indicates a unit area when determining the position of a person in the room, and also a schematic interior plan view and a schematic interior side view explaining the direction of the air blowing from the air conditioner body, No. 8
The figure is a side view of the air conditioner body, Figure 9 is a perspective view of the vertical flap and horizontal flap, Figure 10 is a perspective view of the human body position detection device, Figure 11 is an explanatory diagram of human position detection, and Figure 12. 13 is a control block diagram of vertical and horizontal flaps, FIG. 13 is a control flowchart, and FIG. 14 is a schematic indoor plan view showing a conventional device. ■... Air conditioner body, 7.8... Air outlet, 9.1
0... Wind direction changing mechanism, 11.12... Vertical flap (vertical changing means), 13.14... Horizontal flap (horizontal changing means), 22... Human position detection device (person position detecting means) , 32...control device (control means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of air outlets (
7) Each of (8) is provided with an independently controllable wind direction changing mechanism (9) (10), and each of the above wind direction changing mechanisms (9)
(10) is a wall-mounted air conditioner constructed from vertical deflection means (11), (12) and horizontal deflection means (13), (14), and wherein Among the multiple unit areas defined by defining perspective areas by providing boundaries that intersect with the direction of air flow from the air, and further dividing the perspective areas by boundaries that extend in a direction that intersects the boundaries that define these areas, A person position detecting means (22) for detecting a unit area where a person is located, and each of the wind direction changing mechanisms (9) so as to change the blowing direction in a direction where no person is located based on the detection signal of the person position detecting means (22). )(10
) and a control means (32) for independently controlling the air conditioner.