KR100758898B1 - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an air conditioner having a stable and efficient oxygen generating capacity. To this end, the present invention includes an air conditioner for maintaining indoor air at a predetermined temperature and humidity, including an indoor unit, an outdoor unit, and a refrigerant pipe; An air conditioner including an oxygen generator, an oxygen discharger, and an oxygen transfer pipe, which supplies oxygen to a room through the air conditioner, wherein the outside of the oxygen generator is used to increase the temperature of the outside air and to reduce humidity. It provides an air conditioner, characterized in that the heating member of the predetermined form is provided in the air intake.

Air Conditioner, Oxygen Supply, Heating Element

Description

Air Conditioner {AIR CONDITIONER}

1 is a schematic view showing the configuration of an air conditioner according to the present invention.

2 is a schematic view showing the configuration of an oxygen generator in the oxygen supply device of the present invention.

3 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of a heating member according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a perspective view showing a second embodiment of the heating member according to the present invention.

Description of the main parts of the drawing

10: outdoor unit 20: indoor unit

100: oxygen generator 110: outer part

120: drive unit 121: air pump

122a, 122b: first and second switching pump 123: adsorption tower

124: check valve 125a, 125b: first and second flow path

126a, 126b: first and second air pipes 131: mesh type heater

132: hot wire 133: through hole

200: oxygen discharger 300: oxygen transfer pipe

The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner that can control the temperature and humidity of indoor air, and at the same time can supply oxygen beneficial to the human body.

In general, the air conditioner maintains the indoor air at a constant temperature and humidity through the heat exchange action by the working fluid, that is, the refrigerant, and there are various forms such as a separate type and a window type air conditioner according to the relative positions of the respective components.

Recently, complex and additional functions are required for the air conditioner in addition to the basic air conditioner, for example, an air conditioner having an anion generator is commercially available. The negative ion generating air conditioner supplies anion, which is beneficial to the human body, with the cooled air to the room during operation.

At present, air conditioners having more complex functions have been developed, and this development trend is further increased by various users' demands and related technologies. On the other hand, in addition to such a complex function, the development for the convenience of use should also be parallel to satisfy the needs of the user.

The present invention has been devised in accordance with this tendency, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner capable of efficiently supplying oxygen to a room.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes an air conditioner for maintaining indoor air at a constant temperature and humidity, including an indoor unit, an outdoor unit and a refrigerant pipe; An air conditioner including an oxygen generator, an oxygen discharger, and an oxygen transfer pipe, which supplies oxygen to a room through the air conditioner, wherein the outside of the oxygen generator is used to increase the temperature of the outside air and to reduce humidity. It provides an air conditioner, characterized in that the heating member of the predetermined form is provided in the air intake.

The heating member may be a mesh heater installed inside the suction unit and allowing external air to flow, or a heating wire wound outside or inside the suction unit.

More preferably, the external air inlet further comprises a plurality of through holes.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention in which the above objects can be specifically realized are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In describing the present embodiment, the same name and the same reference numerals are used for the same configuration and additional description thereof will be omitted below.

1 is a schematic diagram showing the air conditioner having an oxygen supply function according to the present invention as a whole, and the configuration of the present invention will be described with reference to this.

As shown, the air conditioner according to the present invention is a separate type, in addition to the air conditioning device for maintaining the indoor air at a constant temperature and humidity, the oxygen generating device for supplying a certain amount of oxygen to the room in conjunction with the air conditioning device further. It is made to include.

First, the air conditioner includes an outdoor unit 10 that compresses and condenses a refrigerant as a whole, and an indoor unit 20 that exchanges heat with indoor air by evaporating the compressed refrigerant, and a refrigerant pipe 20 is used to transfer the refrigerant. The outdoor unit 10 and the indoor unit 20 are connected.

Here, the outdoor unit 10 includes a condenser 11 for condensing the refrigerant, a blowing fan 12 for blowing air to the condenser 11, and a compressor 13 for compressing the refrigerant and supplying the refrigerant to the condenser 11. It includes. The indoor unit 20 includes an evaporator 21 for expanding and evaporating the supplied high temperature and high pressure refrigerant, a blower fan 22 for supplying air heat exchanged from the evaporator 21 to the room, and the evaporator 21, respectively. ) And a suction port 23 / discharge port 24 formed in a case of the indoor unit 20 adjacent to the blowing fan 22.

In the air conditioner of the present invention, the outdoor unit 10 and the indoor unit 20 are the same as the general air conditioner, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted, and the oxygen generator will be described in detail as follows.

The oxygen generator connects the oxygen generator 100 installed at an arbitrary position of the outdoor unit 10, the oxygen discharger 200 installed in the indoor unit 10, and the oxygen generator 100 and the oxygen discharger 200. It is made of an oxygen transfer pipe (300).

In the air conditioner according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the oxygen generator 100 and the oxygen discharger 200 are positioned separately from the outdoor unit 10 and the indoor unit 20, respectively, and provide smooth oxygen supply. To operate in conjunction with the indoor and outdoor air (10, 20) respectively. Accordingly, the oxygen generator can be relatively easily installed in a general air conditioner, and since the operating oxygen generator 100 is located outside, the operation noise can be prevented from entering the room. And unlike the general oxygen generator is independently located in the room in the present invention, since the oxygen generator is provided integrally with the air conditioner, the indoor space is not reduced by the oxygen generator. In addition, in the attachment position of the oxygen generator 100, the oxygen generator 100 on the upper portion of the outdoor unit 10 can be more easily installed than the other side portion and is supported more stably. Therefore, the oxygen generator 100 may be located at any position of the outdoor unit 10 as described above, that is, at any position of the outdoor unit 10 except for the suction unit, but as shown in FIG. 1, the outdoor unit 10 may be located. It is preferably located at the top of.

The oxygen generator 100 of the overall configuration of the oxygen generator of the present invention operates independently in the air conditioner of the invention to generate oxygen, a general configuration of such an oxygen generator is schematically shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, the oxygen generator 100 includes a driving unit 120 formed of a plurality of components to substantially perform an oxygen generation function, and an exterior unit 110 protecting the driving unit.

Here, the driving unit 120 generally separates and supplies approximately 21% of oxygen contained in the atmosphere to the user. The oxygen generation method of the driving unit 120 may be applied to the electrolysis of water, the reaction of chemicals, etc. Recently, direct adsorption using an adsorbent has been used. Among these various methods, the present invention adopts an adsorbent method that is easy to handle and has high stability, and thus, FIG. 2 shows a configuration of an oxygen generator by the adsorbent method.

As shown, the driving unit 120 is connected to the air pump 121 for forced circulation of the air, the first and second switching valve 122a for selectively generating an air flow path in parallel with the air pump 10, 122b), an adsorption tower 123 connected to the first / second switching valves 122a and 122b and filled with an adsorbent for adsorbing nitrogen from the air therein, and a check valve installed on the oxygen transfer pipe 300; 124.

A first flow path 125a is formed to interconnect the air pump 121, the first switching pump 122a, and the adsorption tower 123, and the air pump 10, the first switching pump 122b, and A second flow path 125b is formed to interconnect the adsorption tower 123. In addition, the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b communicate the outside air with the respective switching valves 122a and 122b, and the external air is thus connected to the oxygen through the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b. It is sucked into the generator 200.

 In this case, since the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b perform the same function, the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b may be preferably integrated into one unit to facilitate the design and installation of the driving unit 120. In addition, the adsorption tower 123 is preferably filled with a zeolite (zeolite) excellent in nitrogen adsorption in general as an adsorbent, more preferably a predetermined amount of the absorbent in order to prevent the water absorption of the adsorbent and the resulting performance degradation It is filled.

On the other hand, the oxygen generator 100 using such an adsorbent requires a constant supply of high temperature, low humidity external air in order to maintain stable operation and constant oxygen generation performance.

If the humid air is sucked into the oxygen generator 100 according to the season, especially in summer, the adsorbent in the adsorption tower 123 is exposed to air having a large amount of moisture despite the use of the predetermined amount of the absorbent mentioned above. do. Therefore, the nitrogen affinity of the adsorbent and the oxygen generation performance thereby decreases due to water absorption. And since the discharge of the absorbed moisture is not performed smoothly, the life of the adsorbent is shortened. In addition, when low temperature air is sucked in winter, relatively low temperature air is sucked into the adsorption tower 123 in spite of the effect of temperature increase by the compression in the air pump 121. Due to the low temperature air intake, the performance of the oxygen generator 100 is reduced, and high concentration of oxygen extraction is impossible.

According to these conditions, the air intakes of the oxygen generator 100, that is, the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b, as shown in FIG. It is preferable that a heating member of a predetermined form is provided.

As shown in FIG. 3, the heating member may be a mesh type heater 131 installed inside the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b. The mesh heater 131 heats the outside air without disturbing the flow in the air tubes 126a and 126b.

In addition, since the heating wire 132 may be used as the heating member, the heating wire 132 may be applied to both the inside and the outside of the air pipes 126a and 126b because they do not substantially impede the air flow.

Meanwhile, when the heating members 131 and 132 are installed as described above, the air pipes 126a and 126b may further include a plurality of through holes 133. Air heated by the heating members 131 and 132 through the through hole 133 flows through the air pipes 126a and 126b and repeats partial discharge and resorption to the outside. That is, the heated air is discharged to the outside to locally increase the temperature of the ambient air, and the ambient air is re-absorbed again, mixed with the air flow inside the air tubes 126a and 126b, and heated again. Therefore, the heating efficiency of the outside air is substantially improved by a kind of heat exchange through the through hole 133.

On the other hand, the oxygen transfer pipe 300 of the oxygen generating device of the present invention transfers the oxygen generated in the oxygen generator 100 to the oxygen discharger (200). Here, it is preferable that the coolant tube 30 of FIG. 1 is disposed adjacent to the coolant tube through which the low temperature and low pressure refrigerant flows, rather than the coolant tube through which the high temperature and high pressure refrigerant flows. This is because the temperature of oxygen transported by this arrangement is lowered so that fresh and comfortable oxygen can be supplied. In addition, in order to more effectively lower the oxygen temperature, the oxygen delivery pipe 300 is more preferably arranged to be wound around the coolant tube of the low temperature and low pressure.

Finally, the oxygen discharger 200 of the oxygen generating device is connected to the oxygen transfer pipe 300 to perform the function of releasing oxygen into the room. Here, the oxygen evacuator 200 may be disposed in front of the evaporator 21 through which the air to be cooled is sucked or behind the evaporator 21 through which the cooled air is discharged. Therefore, in any case, oxygen from the oxygen discharger 200 may be cooled and supplied freshly.

As described above, the air conditioner according to the present invention has a configuration capable of supplying oxygen to the room, and the operation of the present invention by such a configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

The operation of the present invention can be largely divided into an air conditioning process for maintaining indoor air at a constant temperature and humidity and an oxygen supply process for supplying a certain amount of oxygen to the room. The air conditioning process is performed using the outdoor unit 10 and the indoor unit 20, and the oxygen supply process is performed using the oxygen generator 100, the oxygen discharge unit 200, and the like.

In the air conditioning process, first, the compressor 13 compresses the low temperature low pressure refrigerant transferred from the evaporator 21 through the refrigerant pipe 30. Thereafter, the compressed refrigerant is phase-transformed into a liquid refrigerant having a high temperature and high pressure in the condenser 11, and is transferred to the evaporator 21 through the refrigerant pipe 30. The refrigerant expanded and evaporated in the evaporator 21 exchanges heat with the air passing through the inlet 23, and the air cooled in this way is supplied into the room through the outlet 24.

Since the air conditioning process of the present invention is a general one, a detailed description thereof will be omitted, and the oxygen supply process will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 as follows.

The oxygen supply process is the oxygen generation process performed by the oxygen generator 100, the oxygen transfer process for transferring the generated oxygen to the oxygen discharger 200 through the oxygen transfer pipe 300, and the oxygen discharger It may be subdivided into the oxygen discharge process performed by (200).

During the oxygen supply process, the oxygen generation process is divided into a step of pressurizing the inside of the adsorption tower 123 to adsorb nitrogen from the outside air and generate oxygen, and a vacuum step of desorbing and desorbing nitrogen adsorbed to the adsorbent.

First, in the pressurization step, external air is introduced and compressed through the first switching valve 122a and the first air pipe 126a by the operation of the air pump 121. Thereafter, the compressed air is supplied into the adsorption tower 123 through the second switching valve 122b and the second flow path 125b, and the adsorption tower 123 is pressurized by the introduced external air.

During the pressurization, oxygen contained in the external air is adsorbed by the adsorbent in the adsorption tower 123 to separate oxygen, and when the pressure is higher than a predetermined pressure, the oxygen is discharged to the oxygen transport pipe 300 by the check valve 124.

As described above, the external air may be sucked into the adsorption tower 121 through the first and second air pipes 126a and 126b in a constant state of high temperature and low humidity by being heated by the installed heating members 131 and 132. Accordingly, in the present invention, a high concentration of oxygen is constantly generated regardless of the state of the outside air during the pressurizing step, and the life of the adsorbent can be extended due to the prevention of water absorption used at the same time.                     

Meanwhile, in the vacuum step, the first and second switching valves 122a and 122b switch flow paths as opposed to the pressurization step. That is, the first switching valve 122a is connected to the first flow path 125a and the second switching valve 122b is connected to the second air pipe 126b. In this case, since the air pump 121 transfers air from the first switching valve 122a to the second switching valve 122b in the same manner as the pressurizing step, the suction pump 30 is moved by the suction force of the air pump 121. Becomes a vacuum state. The check valve 124 also remains closed for this reverse air flow. Nitrogen gas is desorbed from the adsorbent during the vacuum process so that the first flow path 125a, the first switching valve 122a, the air pump 121, the second switching valve 122b, and the 2 is sequentially discharged through the air pipe 126b. Accordingly, the adsorbent in the adsorption tower 123 is reduced to a state capable of generating oxygen again by the pressurization step.

As described above, the oxygen generation process continuously generates oxygen by repeatedly performing the pressurization step and the vacuum step.

Then, in the oxygen transfer process, the oxygen is delivered to the oxygen discharger 200 through the oxygen transfer pipe 300, and finally the indoor unit 20 together with the air cooled by the air conditioning process in the oxygen discharge process. From the room.

Although only a few embodiments have been described herein above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. Therefore, the above-described embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and thus, the invention is not limited to the above detailed description, but may vary within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

The effect of the air conditioner according to the present invention described above is as follows.

First, the air conditioner according to the present invention has a structure that can effectively supply oxygen to the room.

In the present invention, according to the structure of the separate air conditioner, the oxygen generator is separated into an oxygen generator and an oxygen discharger and integrated with an outdoor unit and an indoor unit, respectively. As such, the air conditioner has an oxygen supply capability without changing the structure by an oxygen generator optimized for the air conditioner structure. In addition, since only the oxygen discharger is built in the indoor unit, the air conditioner has an oxygen supply capacity but does not increase in appearance and does not reduce the indoor space.

Second, the performance of the oxygen generator inside the air conditioner can be substantially improved.

As described above, by installing the heating member on the suction part of the oxygen generator, that is, the first and second air pipes, the outside air is constantly introduced into a high temperature and low humidity state. Therefore, high concentration of oxygen is generated uniformly and the service life of the adsorbent can also be improved.

In addition, the oxygen generating device may have various advantages in operation by partially interlocking with the air conditioner. That is, the oxygen transfer pipe is arranged near the refrigerant pipe of low temperature and low pressure, and the oxygen generated by the oxygen discharge unit is located before and after the evaporator can be supplied to the room more freshly. In addition, since the air pipes of the driving unit are disposed around the compressor, the oxygen generation efficiency may be increased by the hot air sucked into the driving unit.

Claims (4)

An air conditioner for maintaining indoor air at a constant temperature and humidity, including an indoor unit, an outdoor unit, and a refrigerant pipe; In the air conditioner comprising an oxygen generator, including an oxygen generator, an oxygen discharger and an oxygen transfer pipe to supply oxygen to the room through the air conditioner, Air conditioner, characterized in that the heating element of the predetermined type is installed in the outside air suction portion of the oxygen generator to increase the temperature and humidity of the outside air. The method of claim 1, And the heating member is a mesh-type heater installed inside the suction part and capable of flowing external air. The method of claim 1, And the heating member is a heating wire wound around the inside or outside of the suction unit. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the external air suction unit further comprises a plurality of through holes.

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