KR100715050B1 - A air conditioner and method to display indoor temperature - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an air conditioner and a method for displaying an indoor temperature thereof. The present invention relates to a method for displaying an indoor temperature change and an indoor heat exchanger temperature change when an indoor unit is stopped. The temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger is measured, the room temperature change corresponding to the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger is confirmed from the correlation data, the indoor temperature is estimated, and the estimated indoor temperature is displayed.

Description

Air conditioner and method for displaying indoor temperature

1 is a perspective view showing an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side cross-sectional view of the indoor unit shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

3 is a block diagram showing a control configuration of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying an indoor temperature of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

            * Description of the symbols for the main functions of the drawings *

                  12: Intake 13: Display part

                  14: outlet 15: room temperature sensor

                  18: indoor heat exchanger 20: indoor fan

                  21: indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor 30: control unit

                  32: memory

The present invention relates to an air conditioner and a method of displaying the room temperature, and more particularly, to an air conditioner and a room for estimating and displaying an indoor temperature without measuring and displaying a room temperature for a predetermined time when the indoor unit is stopped. It relates to a temperature display method.

In general, an air conditioner is a device that adjusts the temperature of an indoor space to a temperature set by a user. The air conditioner includes an outdoor unit installed outdoors and an indoor unit installed indoors. Among them, the indoor unit is provided with an indoor heat exchanger and a blowing fan therein to allow the indoor air to be sucked into the indoor unit, to be heat exchanged, and to be discharged to the outside of the indoor unit. In addition, the display unit is installed in the case of the indoor unit to display the operating temperature of the room temperature or the air conditioner to the user.

On the other hand, the operation of the air conditioner and the driving strength is different depending on the difference between the set temperature and the room temperature input by the user, so almost all indoor units are equipped with an indoor temperature sensor for measuring the indoor temperature, an example of which is disclosed in Korea Patent Publication No. 1994-886. The air conditioner of Japanese Patent No. 194-11886 includes an indoor temperature sensor which detects the indoor temperature by an indoor temperature sensor, an indoor temperature display that displays the current indoor temperature state, a microcomputer for driving control of each unit, and the like. The comfort index was calculated using the room temperature measured at and used for other control. In addition, the indoor temperature measured by the indoor temperature display unit is displayed so that the user can know the current indoor temperature.

However, in the conventional method of displaying the indoor temperature of the air conditioner, since the indoor temperature measured by the indoor temperature sensor is displayed on the indoor temperature display unit as it is even when the indoor unit is stopped, the incorrect indoor temperature is measured and displayed in some cases. There was this.

This problem occurs mainly in the room type or wall-mounted indoor unit, in which the indoor temperature sensor is installed on the suction flow path of the indoor unit and installed close to the indoor heat exchanger. When the indoor temperature is measured, it is hardly affected by the indoor heat exchanger, but when the indoor unit is stopped, the indoor temperature sensor's measured value is much higher than the actual indoor temperature (when the heating operation is stopped) or lower (cooling) due to the influence of the indoor heat exchanger. Measured at the time of stopping operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner and method for displaying the indoor temperature, which estimate and display the indoor temperature when the indoor unit is stopped.

The present invention for achieving the above object is to identify the relationship between the change in the room temperature and the indoor heat exchanger temperature change when the indoor unit operation stops, and stores the relationship data, and the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger when the operation of the indoor unit is stopped Measure the temperature, and confirm the room temperature change corresponding to the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger in the correlation data to estimate the room temperature, and display the estimated room temperature.

In addition, the estimated room temperature is displayed from the time when the operation of the indoor heat exchanger is stopped until a reference time, which is an average time between the indoor temperature and the indoor heat exchanger temperature, elapses, and when the reference time passes, It is characterized by measuring the room temperature and displaying.

In addition, when the measured temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger is the same as the indoor heat exchanger temperature change rate of the correlation data, the indoor temperature may be estimated using the correlation data as it is.

In addition, when the measured temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger is different from the indoor heat exchanger temperature change rate of the correlation data, the correlation data may be corrected to estimate the indoor temperature.

In addition, an indoor heat exchanger, an indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor measuring a temperature of the indoor heat exchanger, an indoor temperature sensor installed around the indoor heat exchanger and measuring an indoor temperature, an indoor temperature change when the indoor unit is stopped, and an indoor A memory for storing the association data showing the correlation between the heat exchanger temperature change and the indoor temperature change corresponding to the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger are identified by referring to the association data until the reference time elapses when the indoor unit is stopped. A control unit for estimating room temperature and a display unit for displaying the estimated room temperature.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2, the indoor unit 10 of the air conditioner according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a casing 11 having a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and an inlet 12 is formed on the front and upper surfaces of the casing. Hot air is sucked from the inside of the room, and a discharge port 14 is formed in the lower surface of the casing 11 to discharge the air cooled inside the indoor unit. An indoor temperature sensor 15 for measuring an indoor temperature is installed below the inlet 14, and a display 13 for displaying an operating temperature of an indoor temperature or an air conditioner is provided below the front of the casing.

On the other hand, the indoor heat exchanger 18 is installed inside the indoor unit 10, the indoor heat exchanger 18 is bent to increase the heat exchange effect inside the limited casing 11, the indoor heat exchanger 18 On the side of the indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor 21 for measuring the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger 18 is installed.

A suction filter 19 is installed at the front of the indoor heat exchanger 21 to remove dust, bacteria, and the like from the indoor air sucked from the suction port 12, and the indoor air is sucked into the rear of the indoor heat exchanger 18 by rotation. An indoor fan 20 which is sucked into the 12 and discharged to the discharge port 14 is provided, and a rear guide 17 for lowering the pressure of the air is provided at the rear of the indoor fan 20. In addition, the discharge port 14 is provided with a discharge guide 16 that can adjust the direction of the cold air discharged into the room by the vertical rotation.

As shown in FIG. 3, the air conditioner according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention stores an input unit 31 and association data provided to allow a user to input a control command in addition to the components shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The memory 32, the control unit 30 for controlling the operation of the air conditioner, the compressor drive unit 33 for driving the compressor 34, and the indoor fan drive unit 35 for driving the indoor fan 20 further. Include.

The correlation data indicates an association between a change in the room temperature and a change in the indoor heat exchanger temperature after the indoor unit 10 is stopped running. When the operation of the indoor unit 10 is stopped, the refrigerant does not flow in the indoor heat exchanger 18 and the indoor fan 20 is not driven. Therefore, the indoor heat exchanger 18 stays around the indoor heat exchanger and slowly exchanges heat with indoor air that does not flow. do. In addition, since the room temperature also does not change rapidly, eventually the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger 18 is slowly changed to finally equilibrate with the room temperature.

At this time, when monitoring the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger 18 during the operation of the indoor unit 10, the temperature of the indoor heat exchanger 18 changes at almost the same speed in each experiment unless the installation environment of the indoor unit 10 changes significantly. , It can be seen that the rate of change of the temperature of the room heat exchanger 18 and the rate of change of the room temperature have a correlation. Therefore, the manufacturer of the air conditioner operates the indoor unit 10 and stops, monitors the indoor temperature and the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger, finds an association between the indoor temperature change and the indoor heat exchanger temperature change, and summarizes the associations. In the memory 32. Association data can be stored in various forms, for example, a graph between room temperature versus room heat exchanger temperature or a graph of time versus room temperature and room heat exchanger temperature.

A method of displaying room temperature of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4. Before the launch of the air conditioner, the manufacturer of the air conditioner obtains the correlation data by experiment and stores it in the memory 32 (40).

On the other hand, when the air conditioner is operated by the user's operation command, the room temperature sensor 15 measures the room temperature, and the display unit 13 displays the room temperature measured by the room temperature sensor 15. During operation of the air conditioner, the indoor air is sucked into the intake port 12 by the rotation of the indoor fan 20 and moved toward the indoor heat exchanger 18. Therefore, the indoor temperature sensor 15 is influenced by the indoor heat exchanger 18. It is possible to measure relatively accurate room temperature without receiving very little.

During operation of the indoor unit 10, the controller 30 determines whether the operation of the indoor unit 10 is stopped (42). If the operation of the indoor unit 10 is stopped, the indoor temperature measured by the indoor temperature sensor 15 is no longer measured. Without displaying, the display unit 13 displays the indoor temperature measured by the indoor temperature sensor 15 when the indoor unit stops operation (44). When the operation of the indoor unit 10 is stopped, since the rotation of the indoor fan 20 is stopped and the flow of indoor air is lost, the indoor temperature sensor 15 is affected by the indoor heat exchanger 18. Accordingly, the temperature measured by the room temperature sensor 15 will not be the actual room temperature but the temperature affected by the room heat exchanger 18. Therefore, when the indoor unit is stopped, the indoor temperature estimation process will be described later while displaying the indoor temperature measured when the indoor unit is stopped.

Next, the controller 30 determines the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger 18 by monitoring the indoor heat exchanger temperature change by the measured value of the indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor 21 (46). When the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger 18 is confirmed, the control unit 30 determines whether the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger 18 is equal to the reference speed (48), wherein the reference speed is the indoor heat exchanger of the correlation data. The rate of temperature change.

If the measured temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger 18 is equal to the reference speed, the indoor heat exchanger 18 may be regarded as changing temperature at the same rate as in the correlation data. Therefore, the change in the room temperature corresponding to the measured temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger 18 can be confirmed from the correlation data, and the present room temperature can be estimated by adding or subtracting the changed room temperature from the room temperature when the indoor unit is stopped (50). ). After the estimation of the room temperature is finished, the estimated room temperature is displayed on the display unit 13.

Next, the controller 30 determines whether the reference time has elapsed (54). If the reference time has not elapsed, the control unit 30 returns to step 46, and if the reference time has elapsed, the indoor temperature sensor 15 measures the room temperature and displays the display unit ( 13) (56). At this time, the reference time is set to an average time at which the indoor heat exchanger temperature forms a temperature equilibrium with the room temperature. When the indoor heat exchanger 18 is equal to the room temperature, the influence of the indoor heat exchanger 18 on the indoor temperature sensor 15 is determined. Since there is no possibility of measuring the wrong room temperature, the room temperature sensor 15 measures the room temperature.

On the other hand, if the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger 18 is different from the reference speed in step 48, this means that there is a separate heat source or air conditioner in the room. It is not possible to estimate the room temperature by using it as it is. Therefore, the correlation data is corrected and stored in consideration of the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger, and the indoor temperature is estimated based on the corrected correlation data. In this case, correction of the correlation data according to the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger is performed according to data obtained from an experiment conducted by the air conditioner manufacturer before the air conditioner is released.

As described above, the situation in which the correlation data should be corrected is mainly when there is a separate air conditioner when cooling stops or when there is a separate heat source when heating stops. In this case, the room temperature and the indoor heat exchanger temperature are better than the correlation data. Will change slowly. Therefore, the controller 30 corrects the correlation data in consideration of the degree of the slow change of the indoor heat exchanger temperature, and estimates the indoor temperature based on the corrected correlation data (52). When the indoor temperature is estimated, the display unit 13 displays the process and performs step 54.

As described in detail above, the present invention displays the estimated indoor temperature when the operation of the indoor unit is stopped, so that the indoor temperature sensor can be prevented from measuring and displaying the wrong indoor temperature under the influence of the indoor heat exchanger.

Claims (5)

The correlation between the indoor temperature change and the indoor heat exchanger temperature change when the indoor unit is stopped is stored and stored as the association data. When the operation of the indoor unit is stopped, the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger is measured, Estimating room temperature by checking a room temperature change corresponding to the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger in the correlation data, How to display the room temperature of the air conditioner that displays the estimated room temperature The method of claim 1, The estimated indoor temperature is displayed from the time when the operation of the indoor heat exchanger is stopped until a reference time, which is an average time between the indoor temperature and the indoor heat exchanger temperature, elapses, and when the reference time elapses, indoors. Indoor temperature display method of the air conditioner, characterized in that for measuring the temperature display The method of claim 1, If the measured temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger is equal to the temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger of the correlation data, the indoor temperature display method of estimating room temperature using the correlation data as it is The method of claim 1, If the measured temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger is different from the indoor heat exchanger temperature change rate of the correlation data, the indoor temperature is estimated after correcting the correlation data in consideration of the measured temperature change rate of the indoor heat exchanger. Room temperature display method of the air conditioner, characterized in that An indoor heat exchanger, an indoor heat exchanger temperature sensor measuring a temperature of the indoor heat exchanger, an indoor temperature sensor installed around the indoor heat exchanger and measuring an indoor temperature, an indoor temperature change and an indoor heat exchanger when the indoor unit is stopped. Memory to store the correlation data showing the correlation between the temperature change, and the indoor temperature change corresponding to the temperature change of the indoor heat exchanger is checked by referring to the correlation data until the reference time elapses when the indoor unit is stopped. An air conditioner including a control unit for estimating temperature and a display unit for displaying an estimated indoor temperature.

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