WO2017006466A1

WO2017006466A1 - Indoor unit for air conditioner

Info

Publication number: WO2017006466A1
Application number: PCT/JP2015/069687
Authority: WO
Inventors: 直之伏見; 龍太大橋
Original assignee: ジョンソンコントロールズヒタチエアコンディショニングテクノロジー（ホンコン）リミテッド
Priority date: 2015-07-08
Filing date: 2015-07-08
Publication date: 2017-01-12
Also published as: JPWO2017006466A1; EP3321602B1; US20180195790A1; JP6488011B2; EP3321602A4; CN107850337A; EP3321602A1

Abstract

An indoor unit for an air conditioner is provided with a heat exchanger (4) that encloses the direction in which air is discharged from a blower fan, a drain pan (5) disposed below the heat exchanger (4), and an antimicrobial unit (15) installed in the drain pan (5), the antimicrobial unit (15) having an antimicrobial agent for sterilizing drain water. At least part of the antimicrobial unit (15) is disposed directly below the heat exchanger (4). Thereby provided is an indoor unit for an air conditioner in which an antimicrobial agent is installed in a drain pan (5) while any reduction in the cross-sectional area of an outlet air duct is minimized.

Description

Indoor unit of air conditioner

The present invention relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner, and more particularly to an indoor unit of a ceiling-embedded air conditioner.

As an indoor unit of an air conditioner, there is a type (ceiling recessed type) in which the indoor unit is embedded in the ceiling. The indoor unit of the ceiling-embedded air conditioner sucks the air in the room by rotating a centrifugal fan, cools the sucked air with a heat exchanger, and cools the room by blowing it out from the outlet.

In the indoor unit of such an air conditioner, drain water is generated in the heat exchanger during the cooling operation, and the drain water is accumulated in the drain pan and discharged out of the indoor unit by the drain pump. However, since the drain pump can not drain drain water below its suction limit height, a certain amount of drain water always remains in the drain pan after the operation is stopped. Bacteria may be propagated to the remaining drain water to generate slime in the muddy water, which may cause clogging of the drain pump.

In order to prevent such problems, measures are generally taken to install an antimicrobial agent inside the drain pan.
Conventionally, for example, a method of applying a liquid antibacterial agent to the inner surface of a drain pan or kneading an antibacterial agent into a resin drain pan sheet on the surface of the drain pan so that the antibacterial agent dissolves little by little in the drain water is there. However, with this measure, the antifungal effect is weakened relatively quickly, so the drain pan itself had to be replaced in order to sustain the antifungal effect.
Therefore, recently, it has been generally practiced to put a solid antibacterial agent in a case and install it on the bottom of a drain pan (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Patent No. 4821342 Patent No. 4252530

The antimicrobial agent is often installed near the drain pump where the drain water collects in the drain pan in order to efficiently disinfect the drain water. In addition, a float switch is installed near the drain pump to prevent overflow of the drain water from the drain pan. Therefore, a space for installing the antibacterial agent is newly required at the place on the drain pan where such various parts are installed.

However, widening (increasing) the drain pan to provide an installation space for the antimicrobial agent in the vicinity of the drain pump on the drain pan reduces the cross-sectional area of the air path of the cooling air formed between the drain pan and the main body case. It will be done. This leads to an increase in noise and an increase in fan power. In particular, in a small indoor unit, the same drain pump, float switch, and antibacterial agent as in a standard indoor unit are generally used, so the ratio of the space occupied by these components to the entire drain pan increases, and disconnection of the blowoff air path The reduction of the area is further increased.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an indoor unit of an air conditioner in which an antibacterial agent is installed on a drain pan while suppressing a reduction in the cross-sectional area of the air passage. Do.

In order to solve the above problems, an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to the present invention includes a blower fan provided in a housing, a heat exchanger that encloses the discharge direction of air from the blower fan, and the heat exchanger A drain pan disposed below and an antimicrobial unit disposed on the drain pan and having an antimicrobial agent that disinfects drain water, at least a portion of the antimicrobial unit being disposed immediately below the heat exchanger .

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the indoor unit of the air conditioner which installed the antibacterial agent on the drain pan can be provided, suppressing reduction of the cross-sectional area of a blowing air path.

It is a half section view of the indoor unit of the air conditioner concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a cross-sectional perspective view for demonstrating the flow of the air in the indoor unit shown by FIG. It is a cross-sectional perspective view which shows the drain pump periphery of the indoor unit shown by FIG. It is a perspective view for demonstrating the installation state of the antimicrobial unit on a drain pan. It is a top view for demonstrating the installation state of the antimicrobial unit on a drain pan. It is a top view which shows the installation position of the antimicrobial unit as a comparative example. It is a top view which shows the installation position of the antimicrobial unit in this embodiment. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 7; FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG. 7; It is a figure for demonstrating the modification of this embodiment.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings as appropriate.
In the drawings shown below, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a half cross-sectional view of an air conditioner indoor unit (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “indoor unit”) 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional perspective view for explaining the flow of air in the indoor unit 100 shown in FIG. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the decorative panel 42 (see FIG. 1) is removed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the indoor unit 100 according to the present embodiment is an indoor unit of a type (ceiling-embedded type) embedded in a ceiling 41. In the air conditioner according to the present embodiment, the indoor unit 100 and the outdoor unit (not shown) are connected by a refrigerant pipe (not shown) to form a refrigeration cycle to perform air conditioning.

The indoor unit 100 has a main body case 1 and a decorative panel 42. The lower surface of the decorative panel 42 faces the room, and the main body case 1 is disposed to be embedded in the ceiling 41. The decorative panel 42 is attached below the main body case 1 so as to be substantially flush with the surface of the ceiling 41. The main body case 1 is installed and fixed on the ceiling back (above the surface of the ceiling 41) using a hanging bracket and a hanging bolt (not shown). The decorative panel 42 is fixed to the main body case 1 using a screw member (not shown) or the like.

The main body case 1 includes a housing 1a and a heat insulating material 1b. The housing 1a has a rectangular shape in a plan view, and is formed in a bottomed box shape having an opening at the lower side using a metal plate. Here, "rectangular" is a concept including "substantially rectangular" in which, for example, corners are chamfered or rounded in addition to "strict rectangular". The housing 1a is formed by pressing two or more sheet metals into a predetermined shape and joining them by screws, rivets, and the like. In the main body case 1, a heat insulating material 1 b for heat insulation, condensation prevention, sound insulation, and the like is disposed in the inside of the housing 1 a with the opening facing downward.

The indoor unit 100 includes a blower fan 2 provided in the housing 1 a, a heat exchanger 4 surrounding the discharge direction of air from the blower fan 2, and a drain pan 5 disposed below the heat exchanger 4. ing. The blower fan 2 is, for example, a centrifugal fan, changes the direction of the air flow by approximately 90 degrees, and sends it to the heat exchanger 4. The blower fan 2 is rotationally driven by a fan motor 3 provided in the housing 1a. The fan motor 3 is fixed to the top plate of the housing 1a. The blower fan 2 and the fan motor 3 constitute a blower.

The drain pan 5 receives and collects drain water that condenses and drips on the surface of the heat exchanger 4. The drain pan 5 is, for example, a foamed polystyrene molded product, and a resin layer made of a resin such as an ABS resin is formed on the inner surface side in contact with the drain water.

At the center of the lower surface of the indoor unit 100, an air inlet 6 is provided. Further, at the periphery of the lower surface of the indoor unit 100, air outlets 7 (here, four places) are provided. The blower fan 2 is provided in an air passage in a housing 1 a that connects the suction port 6 and the blowout port 7. The heat exchanger 4 is disposed between the blower fan 2 and the blower outlet 7. A bell mouth 8 is provided between the blower fan 2 and the suction port 6.

As shown in FIG. 2, the indoor air 21 is sucked from the suction port 6 (see FIG. 1) by the rotational operation of the blower fan 2, passes through the blower fan 2 and is blown out toward the heat exchanger 4. In the case of the cooling operation, the air 21 is cooled by passing through the heat exchanger 4. The air 21 which has been cooled by leaving the heat exchanger 4 passes through the blowout air passage 9 formed between the drain pan 5 and the heat insulating material 1b of the main body case 1 and passes through the blowout port 7 (see FIG. 1) The air is blown out from the indoor unit 100 into the room.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional perspective view showing the vicinity of the drain pump 14 of the indoor unit 100 shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view for explaining the installation state of the antibacterial unit 15 on the drain pan 5. FIG. 5 is a plan view for explaining the installation state of the antibacterial unit 15 on the drain pan 5. In FIG. 4, the display of the heat exchanger 4 is abbreviate | omitted on account of description.

As shown in FIGS. 3 to 4, the drain pan 5 is a primary space and a downstream located on the upstream side (primary side) of the flow of the air 21 (see FIG. 2, hereinafter the same) of the heat exchanger 4 on the drain pan 5. It has the partition wall 12 which divides the secondary space located in the side (secondary side). Further, the partition wall 12 is formed with an opening groove portion 13 partially cut away so as to allow the primary space and the secondary space to communicate with each other.

When the indoor air 21 is dehumidified by the heat exchanger 4, drain water is generated. The drain water is divided into drain water 10 flowing down to the primary space on the drain pan 5 and drain water 11 flowing down to the secondary space on the drain pan 5.

The indoor unit 100 (see FIG. 1, hereinafter the same) includes a drain pump 14 that discharges drain water accumulated in the drain pan 5. The drain water 10 flowing down into the primary space on the drain pan 5 is led to the drain pump 14 through the opening groove 13 of the partition wall 12. The drain water 10 and the drain water 11 join in the vicinity of the opening groove 13 of the partition wall 12, are sucked up by the drain pump 14, and are discharged to the outside of the machine. The drain pump 14 can not drain drain water below the suction limit height, so a fixed amount of drain water always remains in the drain pan 5 after the operation of the air conditioner is stopped. Bacteria may be propagated to the remaining drain water to generate slime in the drain, which may cause the drain pump 14 to be clogged.

As a measure for preventing this, on the drain pan 5, an antimicrobial unit 15 having an antimicrobial agent that disinfects drain water is installed. The antibacterial unit 15 is configured by housing a solid antibacterial agent in a resin case. The wall portion of the case is formed with a plurality of through holes that allow drain water to pass through the case. The antibacterial unit 15 is fixed on the drain pan 5 using, for example, a screw member 16.

The antimicrobial unit 15 is preferably installed near the drain pump 14 on the drain pan 5. The bottom surface of the drain pan 5 at a position facing the suction port 14 a of the drain pump 14 is formed lower than the peripheral portion, and the drain water is collected toward the drain pump 14.

As shown in FIG. 5, the drain pan 5 has a square frame shape in plan view. Here, the “square frame shape” is a concept including, in addition to the “strict square frame shape”, for example, a “substantially square frame shape” in which a corner is expanded or chamfered to the outside. The drain pump 14 is generally installed at the corner of the drain pan 5 together with the float switch 17.

The blowout air passage 9 formed between the drain pan 5 and the heat insulating material 1b (see FIG. 2) of the main body case 1 in the radial direction of the rotational axis of the blower fan 2 has a rectangular shape in the circumferential direction. It is formed between five adjacent corner portions. The blowout air path 9 is formed in four places here. The symbols L1 to L4 shown in FIG. 5 indicate the circumferential length (hereinafter also referred to as “the circumferential dimension of the air passage cross section”) of the cross section perpendicular to the air flow direction in each of the blowout air passages 9.

The float switch 17 detects that the amount of drain water accumulated in the drain pan 5 has reached a predetermined amount or more. When it is detected by the float switch 17 that the amount of drain water accumulated in the drain pan 5 has reached a predetermined amount or more, the operation of the air conditioner is stopped. Thereby, the overflow from drain pan 5 of drain water can be prevented now.

By the way, particularly in the indoor unit 100 of a small ceiling-embedded air conditioner, the installation space of parts at the corner of the drain pan 5 is narrowed, and the drain pump 14, the float switch 17 and the antibacterial unit 15 are It is difficult to place in the same corner of the.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the installation position of the antibacterial unit 15 as a comparative example. The comparative example shown in FIG. 6 is an example in which the installation space of the corner portion of the drain pan 5 is expanded (increased). However, in this comparative example, the circumferential dimension L0 of the air passage cross section becomes shorter as the installation space of the corner portion of the drain pan 5 is expanded. For this reason, the cross-sectional area of the blowoff air passage 9 is reduced, which may cause an increase in noise and an increase in fan power.

The amount of generated drain water is larger in the drain water 10 (see FIG. 3) than in the drain water 11 (see FIG. 3). This is because, in the heat exchanger 4, the amount of heat exchange is the highest in the vicinity of the refrigerant pipe in the first row from the primary side (the upstream side of the flow of air). As shown in FIG. 6, drain water 10 and 11 (see FIG. 3) collected toward the drain pump 14 flow as

drain water

10a, 10b, 11a and 11b along the four paths, respectively. However, in the comparative example shown in FIG. 6, the

drain water

10a, 10b, 11b flows far from the antibacterial unit 15, so that the antibacterial unit 15 is difficult to be antibacterial and there is a possibility that the antibacterial effect can not be sufficiently exhibited.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the installation position of the antibacterial unit 15 in the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 7, in the present embodiment, the antibacterial unit 15 is disposed immediately below the heat exchanger 4 (see also FIG. 3). Here, almost the entire antibacterial unit 15 is disposed immediately below the heat exchanger 4, but a part of the antibacterial unit 15 may be disposed immediately below the heat exchanger 4.

Specifically, the antibacterial unit 15 is installed in the opening groove portion 13 of the partition wall 12 in the drain pan 5. The opening groove portion 13 is formed to have a size corresponding to the size of the antibacterial unit 15 so that the antibacterial unit 15 is fitted into the opening groove portion 13. Accordingly, the circumferential dimension L1 of the air passage cross section in the present embodiment can ensure the same dimension as the dimension when the antibacterial unit 15 is not installed. That is, according to the present embodiment, it is not necessary to make ΔL shorter than the dimension L1 in the case where the antibacterial unit 15 is not installed as in the circumferential direction dimension L0 of the air passage cross section in the comparative example.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, the drain pump 14, the antibacterial unit 15, and the float switch 17 have the same corner of the drain pan 5 having a square frame shape in plan view, that is, a square shape in plan view. It is installed at the same one of four corners in the housing 1a.

The heat exchanger 4 has two bent portions 4a at one corner in the housing 1a, specifically at the corner where the drain pump 14 is installed. And the antimicrobial unit 15 is arrange | positioned in planar view, and is arrange | positioned between said two bending

parts

4a and 4a. The antibacterial unit 15 is installed such that the longitudinal direction of the antibacterial unit 15 in plan view is along the extending direction of the heat exchanger 4 in plan view.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8, the bottom surface of the opening groove portion 13 is located on the bottom surface of the primary space (the space located upstream of the heat exchanger 4) of the drain pan 5 and the secondary space (downstream of the heat exchanger 4). It is set to the same height as the bottom of the space) side.

The partition wall 12 has a function to prevent the air 21 (see FIG. 2, the same applies hereinafter) to the secondary side (downstream side) of the heat exchanger 4 without passing through the heat exchanger 4. . And, on the partition wall 12, a resistor 30 of air is provided to fill the gap between the partition wall 12 and the heat exchanger 4. Moreover, as for the opening groove part 13 of the partition wall 12, it is desirable for air 21 not to pass but to pass only drain water. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 9, an air resistor 31 is provided on the antibacterial unit 15 so as to fill the gap between the antibacterial unit 15 and the heat exchanger 4 (and the resistor 30). As materials of the

resistors

30, 31, for example, materials such as foamed rubber may be used. In the other drawings such as FIG. 1, the display of the

resistors

30 and 31 is omitted for convenience of description.

As described above, the indoor unit 100 of the air conditioner according to the present embodiment includes the heat exchanger 4 surrounding the discharge direction of the air from the blower fan 2, and the drain pan 5 disposed below the heat exchanger 4. And an antimicrobial unit 15 disposed on the drain pan 5 and having an antimicrobial agent that disinfects drain water, and at least a part of the antimicrobial unit 15 is disposed immediately below the heat exchanger 4.

According to such this embodiment, the indoor unit 100 of the air conditioner which installed the antibacterial agent on the drain pan 5 can be provided, suppressing the reduction of the cross-sectional area of the blowing air path 9. FIG. Therefore, the cross-sectional area of the outlet air passage is reduced, and the increase in noise and the increase in fan power are not caused.

Further, in the present embodiment, the antibacterial unit 15 is installed in the opening groove portion 13 of the partition wall 12 in the drain pan 5. In this configuration, by forming the opening groove portion 13 corresponding to the antibacterial unit 15 in the partition wall 12 on the drain pan 5, the antibacterial unit 15 can be efficiently installed on the drain pan 5. Moreover, since the antibacterial unit 15 is installed in the opening groove part 13 used as the part which the drain water which flows on drain pan 5 passes or merges, it becomes possible to fully exhibit the antibacterial effect by the antibacterial unit 15. FIG.

Further, in the present embodiment, the drain pump 14, the antibacterial unit 15, and the float switch 17 are installed at the same corner in the housing 1a. Therefore, the antimicrobial unit 15 can be installed in a narrow space near the drain pump 14 or the float switch 17 on the drain pan 5. Further, since the drain water is collected toward the drain pump 14, the drain water around the drain pump 14 can be efficiently antibacterially prevented, and the generation of slime can be more effectively prevented.

Further, in the present embodiment, since the bottom surface of the opening groove 13, the bottom surface on the primary space side of the drain pan 5 and the bottom surface on the secondary space side have the same depth, the flow of drain water is not hindered . Thereby, it can suppress that drain water stagnates and bacteria reproduces.

Moreover, in this embodiment, the antibacterial unit 15 is arrange | positioned between two bending

parts

4a and 4a of the heat exchanger 4 in the one corner in the housing | casing 1a. For this reason, while being able to secure the space where drain pump 14 is installed in the corner in case 1a, antibacterial unit 15 can be efficiently arranged near drain pump 14.

In the present embodiment, the longitudinal direction of the antibacterial unit 15 in plan view is generally along the extending direction of the heat exchanger 4 in plan view. For this reason, it is possible to position most of the antibacterial unit 15 immediately below the heat exchanger 4, and it is possible to further suppress the reduction in the cross-sectional area of the blowoff air passage 9.

Further, in the present embodiment, the resistor 31 of air is disposed on the antibacterial unit 15. In this configuration, since the gap between the antibacterial unit 15 and the heat exchanger 4 in the opening groove portion 13 of the partition wall 12 is filled with the resistor 31, only drain water can be passed without passing the air 21. It becomes. Moreover, when there is drain water up to the height of the antibacterial unit 15 during the cooling operation of the indoor unit 100, it is possible to prevent the air 21 from leaking to the secondary side of the heat exchanger 4.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on embodiment, this invention is not limited to above-described embodiment, A various modified example is included. For example, the above-described embodiments are described in detail to explain the present invention in an easy-to-understand manner, and are not necessarily limited to those having all the described configurations. In addition, it is possible to add, delete, and replace other configurations for part of the configurations of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a view for explaining a modification of the present embodiment.
In the above-mentioned embodiment, although the antimicrobial unit 15 is installed in the opening groove part 13 of the partition wall 12 in the drain pan 5, this invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the drain pan 5a may have a step composed of a first bottom surface 12a and a second bottom surface 12b lower than the first bottom surface 12a. In this case, a recess 13a may be formed in a portion of the first bottom surface 12a located below the heat exchanger 4, and the antibacterial unit 15 may be installed in the recess 13a.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 main body case 1a housing | casing 2 ventilation fan 3 fan motor 4 heat exchanger

4a bending part

5, 5a drain pan 6 suction port 7 blower outlet 8 bell mouth 9

blowout air path

10, 11 drain water

12 partition wall 13 opening groove portion 14 drain pump 15 antibacterial unit 17 float switch 21

air

30, 31 resistor 100 air conditioner air conditioner

Claims

A blower fan provided in the housing;
A heat exchanger surrounding the discharge direction of air from the blower fan;
A drain pan disposed below the heat exchanger;
And an antimicrobial unit disposed on the drain pan and having an antimicrobial agent that disinfects drain water.
An indoor unit of an air conditioner, wherein at least a part of the antibacterial unit is disposed immediately below the heat exchanger.
The drain pan has a partition wall that partitions a primary space located upstream of the heat exchanger and a secondary space located downstream of the heat exchanger on the drain pan,
The partition wall is formed with an open groove portion partially cut away so as to allow the primary space and the secondary space to communicate with each other,
The indoor unit of the air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the antibacterial unit is installed in the opening groove of the partition wall.
A drain pump for discharging drain water accumulated in the drain pan;
The indoor unit of the air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the drain pump and the antibacterial unit are installed at the same corner in the housing which exhibits a square shape in plan view. .
The room of the air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein a bottom surface of the opening groove portion is set at the same height as a bottom surface on the primary space side of the drain pan and a bottom surface on the secondary space side. Machine.
The heat exchanger has two bent portions at one corner in the casing which has a rectangular shape in plan view,
The indoor unit of an air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the antibacterial unit is disposed between the two bent portions in plan view.
The air conditioning according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the antibacterial unit is installed such that the longitudinal direction of the antibacterial unit in plan view is along the extending direction of the heat exchanger in plan view. Indoor unit of the aircraft.
The room of the air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a resistor of air which fills the gap between the antibacterial unit and the heat exchanger is installed on the antibacterial unit. Machine.