WO2018198401A1

WO2018198401A1 - Air conditioner

Info

Publication number: WO2018198401A1
Application number: PCT/JP2017/036082
Authority: WO
Inventors: 茂高畑; 貴郎上田; 光梅澤
Original assignee: 日立ジョンソンコントロールズ空調株式会社
Priority date: 2017-04-28
Filing date: 2017-10-04
Publication date: 2018-11-01
Also published as: CN110352320A; FR3065788B1; JP6290492B1; FR3076890B1; MY169021A; TW201839326A; FR3066806B1; JP2018189257A; FR3076890A1; FR3066806A1; CN110352320B; FR3065788A1; ES2687781A1; TWI638119B

Abstract

This air conditioner (S) comprises: a cleaning means for cleaning an indoor heat exchanger (102); and a control means (130) for controlling the cleaning means. In a case where the indoor heat exchanger is to be cleaned by the cleaning means after completion of a heating operation, the control means causes the cleaning means to clean the indoor heat exchanger after a prescribed first delay time, from when the heating operation stops, has passed.

Description

Air conditioner

The present invention relates to an air conditioner.

In the heat exchanger (indoor heat exchanger) of the indoor unit attached to the inside of the air conditioner, dust, microorganisms, etc. (hereinafter referred to as dust) that have passed through the dust removal filter are accumulated in the indoor heat exchanger. It has the problem of emitting an offensive odor. In addition, there is also a problem that the efficiency of the heat exchanger is lowered and the energy saving performance is deteriorated. A plurality of non-removable pipes pass through the interior of the indoor heat exchanger, and it is difficult to remove the indoor heat exchanger from the indoor unit for cleaning.

As a technique for cleaning the indoor heat exchanger without removing it from the indoor unit, for example, the following are known. That is, in Patent Document 1, “After the heating operation, the cooling operation is performed as a moisture applying means for adhering water to the fin surface, and the heat exchanger in the heating operation is automatically applied by applying the moisture on the fin surface. "Always keep clean" is described.

Patent No. 4931566 Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2016-200348

However, since the technology described in Patent Document 1 starts cleaning the indoor heat exchanger without considering the presence of the user in the room, the cold air that leaks due to the cleaning may cause the user to feel discomfort or the refrigerant cycle. There is a problem that abnormal noise caused by the rapid reverse rotation of the sensor causes a user to feel distrust.

Then, an object of this invention is to provide the air conditioner which wash | cleans the stain | pollution | contamination which adhered to the indoor heat exchanger smoothly.

In order to solve the above-mentioned subject, the present invention is provided with cleaning means which cleans an indoor heat exchanger, and control means which controls the cleaning means, and the control means is the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning means. The cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning means is performed after a predetermined first delay time has elapsed since the heating operation was stopped after the heating operation is finished.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the air conditioner which wash | cleans the stain | pollution | contamination adhering to the indoor heat exchanger smoothly can be provided.

It is a front view of an indoor unit, an outdoor unit, and a remote control which an air conditioner concerning an embodiment of the present invention has. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line II in FIG. It is a functional block diagram of the apparatus with which the indoor unit of the air conditioner concerning embodiment of this invention is provided. It is a typical perspective view of the indoor heat exchanger with which the air harmony machine concerning the embodiment of the present invention is provided. It is an image waveform of the differential analysis result of the image which imaged the indoor heat exchanger with which the air conditioner which concerns on embodiment of this invention is equipped. It is the graph which showed the correlation of the time required for the fluctuation | variation of room temperature to reach a standard value and the capacity | capacitance of a room, and its correction value. It is a flowchart which shows the process of the main microcomputer with which the air conditioner concerning embodiment of this invention is equipped.

FIG. 1 is a front view of an indoor unit 100, an outdoor unit 20, and a remote control Re included in an air conditioner S according to the first embodiment.
The indoor unit 100 and the outdoor unit 200 are connected by a refrigerant pipe (not shown), and the refrigerant cycle air-conditions the room in which the indoor unit 100 is installed. Moreover, the indoor unit 100 and the outdoor unit 200 mutually transmit and receive information via a communication cable (not shown).

Although not shown, the outdoor unit 200 includes a compressor, a four-way valve, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor fan, and an expansion valve. Then, in the refrigerant circuit in which the compressor, the four-way valve, the outdoor heat exchanger, the expansion valve, and the indoor heat exchanger 102 (see FIG. 2) are sequentially connected in an annular manner, the refrigerant is circulated in the heat pump cycle. There is.

The remote control Re is operated by the user, and transmits an infrared signal to the remote control transmission / reception unit Q of the indoor unit 100. The content of the signal is an instruction such as an operation request, change of the set temperature, setting of the timer value, change of the operation mode, and stop request. The air conditioner S performs air conditioning operation such as a cooling mode, a heating mode, a dehumidifying mode, and the like based on these signals. Further, information such as room temperature information, humidity information, and electricity cost information is transmitted from the remote control transmission / reception unit Q of the indoor unit 100 to the remote control Re, and the user is notified of these information.

At the lower part of the front of the indoor unit 100, an imaging means 110A for acquiring image information in the room and a visible light cut filter part 117A are installed. The installation positions of the imaging unit 110A and the visible light cut filter unit 117A can be changed according to the purpose of acquiring image information to be described later, and are not limited to the positions in FIG. The reason for providing the visible light cut filter section 117A in the present embodiment will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the indoor unit 100 of FIG. 1 taken along the line II.
The housing base 101 accommodates internal structures such as the indoor heat exchanger 102, the blower fan 103, and the filter 108. The filter 108 is installed on the air suction side of the indoor heat exchanger 102.

The indoor heat exchanger 102 has a plurality of heat transfer pipes 102a, and the air taken into the indoor unit 100 by the blower fan 103 is subjected to heat exchange with the refrigerant flowing through the heat transfer pipes 102a to heat or cool the air. It is configured to The heat transfer pipe 102a communicates with the refrigerant pipe (not shown), and constitutes a part of a known refrigerant cycle (not shown).

When the blower fan 103 shown in FIG. 2 rotates, room air is taken in via the air suction port 107 and the filter 108, and the air heat-exchanged by the room heat exchanger 102 is guided to the blowoff air passage 109a. Furthermore, the air guided to the blowoff air path 109a is adjusted in wind direction by the left and right wind direction plates 104 and the up and down wind direction plates 105, and is blown from the air blowout port 109b to air-condition the room.

The left and right wind direction plate 104 follows the instruction from the main microcomputer 130 (control means: see FIG. 3) described later, and the left and right wind direction plate motor (not shown) with the pivot shaft (not shown) provided at the lower part as a fulcrum. Is rotated by
The vertical wind direction plate 105 is rotated by a vertical wind direction plate motor (not shown) around pivot shafts (not shown) provided at both ends according to an instruction from a main microcomputer 130 described later. Thus, the conditioned air can be blown to a predetermined position in the room.

An imaging unit 110A and a visible light cut filter unit 117A are provided under the front panel 106 installed to cover the front of the indoor unit 100. The imaging unit 110A is installed so as to face downward by a predetermined angle with respect to the horizontal direction from the installation position of the imaging unit 110A, so that the room in which the indoor unit 100 is installed can be appropriately imaged. However, the detailed mounting position and angle of the imaging unit 110A may be set according to the specification and application of the air conditioner S, and the configuration is not limited.

The configuration of the air conditioner S shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is merely an example according to the present embodiment, and it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the present embodiment and applied.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of the air conditioner S.
The main microcomputer 130 shown in FIG. 3 controls the load drive unit 150 based on the environment information detected by the environment detection unit 160 and the operation instruction received by the remote control transmission / reception unit Q (see FIG. 1). Each device provided in the outdoor unit 200 is controlled.

As shown in FIG. 3, the image pickup means 110A digitally converts the signal of the image pickup element 112A and the image pickup element 112A which converts the room light incident from the optical lens 111A into an electric signal, And a digital signal processing unit 114A for correcting the luminance and color tone of the image information.
The imaging means 110B is also configured similarly to the imaging means 110A.

The image detection unit 122 performs various types of image processing on the indoor image information acquired by the imaging unit 110A. The image detection unit 122 can be configured to include an image detection unit that performs various image detection, such as a dust detection unit 122a that detects the presence or absence of dust.
At this time, each image detection unit may be configured to perform image detection from the same image information acquired by the imaging unit 110A, or the digital signal processing unit of the imaging unit 110A may use an imaging parameter suitable for each image detection. The image detection may be performed using a dedicated captured image that is transmitted to 114A and captured according to the imaging parameter.

The operation processing unit 132 is notified of the detection result of the user's position information detected by the image detection unit 122 and the operation command based on the detection result.
The arithmetic processing unit 132 generally controls the control block of the air conditioner, controls the drive control unit 133 according to the operation setting of the air conditioning, and the operation command based on the detection result, and performs the air conditioning operation. The imaging unit 110 </ b> A performs an imaging operation according to the operation command of the imaging request signal from the arithmetic processing unit 132.

The drive control unit 133 notifies the load drive unit 150 of the drive signal to issue a drive instruction.
The load drive unit 150 is installed on a refrigerant cycle (not shown), an indoor fan motor (not shown) provided in the indoor unit 100, a compressor motor (not shown) provided in the outdoor unit 200, and the up and down wind direction plate 105. Individual driving of a vertical wind direction plate motor (not shown) and a horizontal wind direction plate motor (not shown) installed on the left and right wind direction plates 104 is performed. The load drive unit 150 may further be configured to drive the imaging unit 110A, the near-infrared light projector 115, or the filter drive unit 116 that rotates the visible light cut filter unit 117A.

The storage units 121 and 131 are configured to include a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), and the like. Then, a program stored in the ROM is read by a central processing unit (CPU) in the arithmetic processing unit 132 of the main microcomputer 130, expanded in the RAM, and executed.

As the environment detection means 160, various sensors such as a temperature sensor based on a thermopile, an activity detection sensor using a Fresnel lens and an infrared sensor, etc. may be provided in the air conditioner S main body.

With the above configuration, the main microcomputer 130 operates the air conditioner S according to the image information input from the imaging unit 110A, the command signal input from the remote control Re, the sensor output input from various sensors, etc. Detailed control can be achieved by comprehensive control.

The detection result obtained by the image processing of the image detection unit 122 is only information such as the user's position and activity amount, distance information and the like, and does not include image information that can be visually grasped by a person. good. Thereby, reduction of the amount of data held in the storage means 121 and 131 can be realized. Further, since the image information can not be extracted outside the main microcomputer 130, privacy protection of the user in the air-conditioned room can be realized.

The indoor unit 100 has an automatic cleaning operation function as a cleaning means of the indoor heat exchanger 102. The control means of the automatic cleaning operation (hereinafter referred to as the automatic cleaning operation) of the indoor heat exchanger 102 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

In the automatic cleaning operation, the indoor heat exchanger 102 is cooled, moisture in the surrounding air is attached to the indoor heat exchanger 102, and the indoor heat exchanger 102 is cleaned with the moisture.
In order to cause water to adhere to the indoor heat exchanger 102, the main microcomputer 130 can set the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant in the automatic cleaning operation lower than the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant in the dehumidifying operation. If a higher cleaning capacity is required, the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant can also be set below freezing.

The amount of dirt adhering to the indoor heat exchanger 102 varies depending on the operating time of the air conditioner S, the operating mode used, the amount of dust in the indoor air, and the like.
Therefore, the main microcomputer 130 calculates the operation integrated time from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, the number of operations from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, or the progress from the installation of the air conditioner S. When the time reaches a predetermined value, the automatic cleaning operation is performed. This makes it possible to perform an automatic cleaning operation when necessary, and can suppress the accumulation of dust and the sticking of dirt. Further, energy saving can be achieved by reducing the number of times of execution as compared with the case of performing the automatic cleaning operation every time the air conditioning operation is stopped.

Acquisition of the operation integration time of each operation mode is performed as follows. That is, the main microcomputer 130 stores the time information managed by the time management unit 134 in the storage means 131, and reads it from the storage means 131 periodically or when an event occurs, and the time information and current time at the previous automatic cleaning operation The accumulated operation time of each operation mode is acquired by taking the difference of the time information of (4).
Also for the acquisition of the number of times of operation, the same process as described above is performed on the operation information managed by the operation information management unit 135.
The same process as described above is performed on the time information at the time of installation, which is managed by the time management unit 134, also for acquiring the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner.
The time management unit 134 may grasp calendar information including a date as well as time information.

The following exist as time information setting means. That is, the user inputs time information to the remote control Re (FIG. 1), transmits the input time information as a remote control signal from the remote control Re (FIG. 1) to the remote control receiver of the indoor unit 100, and transmits time information to the main microcomputer 130. It is possible to set The user can also transmit time information from the information terminal to the indoor unit 100 via the communication network 190 and set the time information in the main microcomputer 130.
Further, the indoor unit 100 may be configured to have a time information automatic acquisition function of automatically acquiring time information of a time management server (such as NTP) existing on the communication network 190.

The indoor unit 100 sets the acquired current time information in the time management unit 134 in the main microcomputer 130. The time management unit 134 continues to count up the set time as time passes. Thus, the time management unit 134 manages the correct current time.

The user can use the time information setting means to update the current time managed by the time management unit 134 at an arbitrary timing. Further, by setting the indoor unit 100 to periodically execute the above-described time information automatic acquisition function, it is possible to periodically and automatically update the current time managed by the time management unit 134. is there. This prevents the occurrence of a gap between the current time managed by the time management unit 134 and the actual current time.

The various driving information is managed by the driving information management unit 135. The operation information management unit 135 performs operation such as switching of the operation mode by the input from the remote control Re (FIG. 1), switching of the operation mode by the input via the communication network 190, or switching of the operation mode by the built-in timer of the indoor unit 100. Manage.
By recording the operation information and the current time managed by the time management unit 134 in the storage unit 131, the integrated operation time of each operation mode, the number of operations, and the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner S It is possible to acquire.

A predetermined value is stored in advance for each of the operation integrated time from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, the number of operations from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, and the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner S. It is stored in 131. The operating condition of the automatic cleaning operation and that the operation integrated time stored in the storage means 131, the number of operation times stored in the storage means 131, or the elapsed time reach each predetermined value stored in the storage means 131 Do.

There is no limitation on the combination of the operating conditions of the automatic cleaning operation, as long as the automatic cleaning operation is performed at regular time intervals or at regular intervals. One or more of the above conditions may be satisfied.
Moreover, it does not matter about the calculation method of the said driving | operation integration time, the said frequency | count of driving | operation, and the said elapsed time. For example, the following calculation method can be considered. The value of the operation integration time and the number of operations may be reset to 0 after the execution of the automatic cleaning operation. After the automatic cleaning operation is performed, the number of automatic cleaning operations is counted up, and the product of the number of automatic cleaning operations, the reference integrated operation time, the number of operations, and the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner S is calculated. It may be executed when the product becomes equal to or more than a predetermined value.
The predetermined value of the operation integration time, the number of operations, and the elapsed time may be arbitrarily set by an input device such as a remote control Re or an information terminal connected to the communication network 190.

When the operation condition of the automatic cleaning operation is satisfied, when the heating operation is finished, the automatic cleaning operation is performed after a predetermined first delay time has elapsed from the time of stopping the heating operation.
When performing the automatic cleaning operation from the cooling, dehumidifying or air blowing operation, the automatic cleaning operation is performed immediately after the operation is stopped or after the second delay time shorter than the first delay time has elapsed. Run.
The stop of operation here means that each device such as the compressor of the air conditioner S and the blower fan 103 has stopped.

If the heating operation has been completed, by setting the predetermined first delay time, it becomes possible to cool the indoor heat exchanger 102 and then perform the automatic cleaning operation, thereby saving energy in the automatic cleaning operation. It is possible. Also, during this time, the user can complete the room exit, and it is possible to prevent the cold air of the automatic cleaning operation from making the user uncomfortable. In addition, it is possible to suppress the generation of abnormal noise and the like by rapidly switching the refrigerant cycle to reverse rotation.
The setting of the predetermined first delay time at the time of factory shipment may be, for example, about 3 minutes. This is sufficient time for the user to complete the exit, cool the indoor heat exchanger 102, and silently switch the four-way valve to reverse the refrigerant cycle.

It is desirable to drive the blower fan 103 or open the vertical air flow direction plate 105 within the delay time. Thereby, the indoor heat exchanger 102 can be cooled quickly. Moreover, it becomes possible to equalize and acquire room temperature by a ventilation driving | operation, and according to the degree of the fluctuation | variation of room temperature, the cooling temperature etc. of an automatic cleaning operation can also be optimized.
In addition, a hygrometer (not shown) is installed in the vicinity of the indoor heat exchanger 102, the humidity in the vicinity of the indoor heat exchanger 102 is measured within the delay time, and the automatic cleaning operation to be performed thereafter is performed according to the measurement result. You may optimize. For example, when the humidity is high and the amount of moisture around the indoor heat exchanger 102 is large, the cooling time of the automatic cleaning operation can be shortened. If the cooling time is set to 20 minutes, it is possible to collect sufficient water for automatic washing operation even in dry winter, but when there is a lot of water around the indoor heat exchanger 102, the cooling time It may be about 15 minutes.

The indoor heat exchanger 102 (FIG. 2) shown in the indoor unit 100 (FIG. 2) is provided with a filter 108 (FIG. 2) above it to prevent the indoor heat exchanger 102 from becoming dirty by removing large dust. There is. The accumulation of dust on the filter 108 causes clogging, the air passing through the indoor heat exchanger 102 decreases, and the air conditioning capacity of the indoor unit 100 is reduced. In order to prevent this, the indoor unit 100 may be provided with filter cleaning means for automatically cleaning the filter 108 using a brush (not shown) after completion of the operation such as air conditioning and heating.

When the indoor unit 100 is provided with filter cleaning means, fine dust falls on the indoor heat exchanger 102 when the brush rubs the filter 108. Dust that is dropped by the filter cleaning is a large amount compared to dust that adheres during normal air conditioning operation, and causes accumulation of dust on the indoor heat exchanger 102 and sticking of the dirt.
Therefore, it is desirable to clean the filter 108 by the filter cleaning means during the delay time. As a result, dust that has fallen due to the execution of the filter cleaning can be cleaned by the automatic cleaning operation immediately after the fall, and it is possible to prevent the contamination of the indoor heat exchanger 102 due to the filter cleaning.

The time it takes for the user to leave will vary depending on the situation. The time required to cool the indoor heat exchanger 102 varies depending on the temperature and the like. Therefore, it is desirable that the delay time be changeable.
For example, the indoor unit 100 may include an information terminal connected to the communication network 190, or an input unit for inputting the delay time from the remote control Re.

When the delay time is present, it is desirable that the user can be notified that the automatic cleaning operation is to be performed during the delay time. This can prevent the user from having a sense of distrust. Therefore, the indoor unit 100 is provided with notification means such as a display lamp (not shown) for notifying execution of the automatic cleaning operation within the delay time and an alarm sound generation unit (not shown) until the automatic cleaning operation is started. The notification content of the notification means may be changed in accordance with the remaining time of the message. The change of the notification content corresponds to, for example, changing the blinking cycle of the display lamp or making an announcement by using a voice guide.

If there is no user, even if the automatic cleaning operation is started immediately after stopping the air conditioning operation, the cold air of the automatic cleaning operation does not make the user uncomfortable.
Therefore, when the cooling / dehumidifying / blowing operation is completed when the operation condition of the automatic cleaning operation is satisfied, if the person detecting unit of the indoor unit 100 does not detect a person indoors, immediately after the operation is stopped. An automatic cleaning operation may be performed.

Moreover, when the air conditioning operation is stopped by remote input from outside, there is a high possibility that the room is unmanned.
Therefore, if the air conditioning operation has been stopped by remote input from an information terminal connected to the communication network 190 when cooling, dehumidifying, or blowing operation has ended after satisfying the operation conditions of the automatic cleaning operation. The automatic cleaning operation may be performed immediately after the operation stop.

However, even when the air conditioning operation is stopped by the remote input, it is conceivable that there is a person in the room. Therefore, when the human detection means detects a human indoors, the automatic cleaning operation may be performed after the delay time has elapsed.

The following exist as human detection means. That is, the human detection unit 122b may analyze the image captured by the imaging unit 110A to detect whether a person is shown. Further, infrared rays generated from a human body may be detected by a human sensor (not shown). Thus, the start of the automatic cleaning operation can be controlled based on the detection result of the person in the room.

If the operating condition of the automatic cleaning operation is not satisfied for a long time and dust is accumulated in the indoor heat exchanger 102, it may be considered that the user desires to execute the automatic cleaning operation immediately after the air conditioning operation is stopped. Therefore, when an instruction to execute the automatic cleaning operation is input from the remote control Re or an information terminal connected to the communication network 190, the automatic cleaning operation may be performed immediately after the input.

As the room to be air-conditioned becomes wider, the total amount of dust in the room increases. Since dust in the air passes through the indoor heat exchanger 102 by the blower fan 103, the size of the room and the amount of dust deposited on the indoor heat exchanger 102 are correlated. Therefore, the air conditioner S includes a capacity detection unit that detects the capacity or the size of the room, and according to the detection result, the operation integration time from the previous cleaning to execute the automatic cleaning operation, the operation from the previous cleaning It is desirable to be configured to be able to predetermine the threshold of the number.

The following exists as said capacity detection means. That is, from the time required for detecting the room temperature by the room temperature detection unit 161 and for the fluctuation of the room temperature to reach a reference value (for example, 1 degree) (hereinafter referred to as room temperature fluctuation time), It may be detected automatically.

The room temperature fluctuation time is measured in advance by experiment for each capacity of the room, and correlation data (FIG. 6A) between the room temperature fluctuation time and the capacity or size of the room is stored in the storage means 131. Here, since the correlation changes depending on the cooling and heating capacity of the air conditioner S, each model of the air conditioner S performs the above measurement separately for the cooling and heating capacity and acquires correlation data in accordance with the cooling and heating capacity. desirable.
Further, the correlation between the room temperature fluctuation time and the capacity of the room is influenced by the room temperature at the start of the measurement, the illuminance in the room, and the like. In order to remove this influence, the adjustment value α (FIG. 6 (b)) related to the room temperature and room temperature fluctuation time at the start of measurement, the adjustment value β related to the room illuminance and room temperature fluctuation time at the start of measurement It is desirable to measure) in advance by experiment, and to store the adjustment value α and the adjustment value β in the storage means 131 as well.
The capacity detection means may obtain room temperature and illuminance in the room using the room temperature detection unit 161 and the illuminance detection unit 162, and detect the capacity of the room in comparison with the correlation data, the adjustment value α, and the adjustment value β. It is possible.

Further, the capacity or the size of the room may be detected based on the image information input from the imaging unit 110A. For example, in Patent Document 2, "the image pickup means 13 recognizes information such as the number of people who are in or out, the number of people in the room, the location, the amount of activity, and the space and the area where sunlight is inserted." Have been described. As described above, by detecting the floor portion in the image information input from the imaging unit 110A, the area such as a wall other than the floor may be estimated, and the capacity or the size of the room may be calculated from these area ratios. . In this manner, the automatic cleaning operation can be optimized based on the capacity or the size of the room to be conditioned.

The capacity detection means is to obtain the approximate size of the room. Therefore, the capacity detection means does not have to be highly accurate. However, in order to cope with the case where the difference between the detection result and the actual capacity of the room becomes large, it is desirable to have the following function. That is, in addition to automatically detecting the capacity of the room, the user inputs the capacity or size of the room to be air-conditioned from the information terminal connected to the communication network 190 or the remote control Re, or the initial value The indoor unit 100 may be configured to have an input unit that can be reset.
The main microcomputer 130 executes an operation integration time from the previous cleaning and an operation from the previous cleaning to execute the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning unit based on the volume or size of the room input by the input unit. Determine the threshold number of times.

In order to make the automatic cleaning operation more efficient, the indoor unit 100 is provided with a dirt detection means for detecting dirt on the indoor heat exchanger 102, and storage is performed when the dirt detected by the dirt detection means exceeds a predetermined amount. The automatic cleaning operation is performed regardless of the value of the integrated operation time from the previous cleaning stored in the means 131, the number of operations from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, or the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner S. It is desirable to do. As a result, automatic cleaning is performed before dust is accumulated and dirt is accumulated in the indoor heat exchanger 102, and the indoor heat exchanger 102 is cleaned with less power without requiring a large amount of water to clean the indoor heat exchanger 102. It is possible to keep

The dirt detection means may include an imaging means 110B using visible light or near infrared light as a light source, and an optical filter for blocking or attenuating light of a specific wavelength. The image information input from the imaging unit 110B is image-analyzed by the dust detection unit 122a of the image detection unit 122 of the camera microcomputer, and the dust portion in the image information is detected as dirt.

In the indoor heat exchanger 102, metal plates are arranged at equal intervals at a very fine pitch as shown in FIG. 4 (a). When the indoor heat exchanger 102 is imaged by the imaging means 110B, the metal plate portion is white because light is reflected, and the air layer between the metal plates is imaged black because light is not reflected, and the metal plates are arranged at equal intervals. It is possible to acquire an image that can be confirmed. When differential analysis is performed on the image by the analysis line 301, an image waveform shown in FIG. 5A is obtained.
Here, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), when the indoor heat exchanger 102 to which the dust 401A is attached is imaged by the imaging means 110B, the unclear metal plates of the white-black boundary are arranged at equal intervals. An image that can not be confirmed is acquired. When differential analysis is performed on the image in the analysis line 302, an image waveform shown in FIG. 5B is obtained, and it is possible to confirm an image waveform 401B with no peak due to the adhesion of dust. The adhesion of dust can be detected from here.

The following exists as an example of means for improving the accuracy of the imaging means 110B. That is, the infrared light emitting unit (not shown) and the visible light cut filter unit 117B (FIG. 3) make the image data of only a specific wavelength, thereby removing the influence of disturbance from the image data, and the dust detecting unit 122a (FIG. 3) It is possible to improve the recognition accuracy of

The amount of dirt adhering to the indoor heat exchanger 102 varies depending on the operation mode such as cooling, heating, dehumidifying operation, and the like. Therefore, the value of the operation integration time from the previous cleaning, the number of operations from the previous cleaning, or the elapsed time since the installation of the air conditioner S is set for each operation mode such as heating operation, cooling operation, dehumidification operation, etc. It is desirable to

The operation integrated time from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, the number of operations from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit 131, the value of the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner S do not satisfy the set values, and the filter Even when the cleaning is not performed, the user may wish to execute the automatic cleaning operation. Here, in order to suppress a user's discomfort etc., it is desirable to be able to make a reservation setting so that the user can start the automatic cleaning operation at a time when the user is not inside the room. Therefore, an information terminal connected to the communication network 190 or an input unit for inputting from the remote control Re may be provided, and the start time of the automatic cleaning operation may be inputted by the input unit.
The processing executed by the main microcomputer 130 will be described below as an example.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing of the main microcomputer 130 when the cleaning processing is started.
In step S101, the main microcomputer 130 determines whether the start condition of the cleaning process is satisfied. As described above, the "cleaning process start condition" is, for example, a condition that a value obtained by integrating the air conditioning operation time from the end of the previous cleaning process has reached a predetermined value. When the start condition of the cleaning process is satisfied in step S101 (S101: Yes), the process of the main microcomputer 130 proceeds to step S102. On the other hand, when the start condition of the cleaning process is not satisfied (S101: No), the main microcomputer 130 ends the series of processes (END).

In step S102, the main microcomputer 130 causes the notification sound generation unit (not shown) to generate a predetermined notification sound, and turns on a display lamp (not shown). That is, before starting the cleaning process such as freezing of the indoor heat exchanger 102, the main microcomputer 130 notifies the notification sound generation unit and the display lamp that the cleaning process is to be performed. Thereby, the user can be notified in advance that the cleaning process is to be started.

Next, in step S103, the main microcomputer 130 sets a delay time until the cleaning process of the indoor heat exchanger 102 is started. This delay time (for example, 3 minutes) is a time from when the user is notified in advance that the cleaning process is to be started in step S102 to when the cleaning operation is actually started, and is set in advance.

In step S104, the main microcomputer 130 determines in advance whether or not a predetermined delay time has elapsed after notifying the user in advance that cleaning processing is to be started (S102). If the predetermined delay time has elapsed (S104: Yes), the processing of the main microcomputer 130 proceeds to step S105. The lighting of the display lamp may be continued (S102) until the delay time elapses.
In step S105, the main microcomputer 130 executes the cleaning process of the indoor heat exchanger 102.

On the other hand, when the predetermined delay time has not elapsed in step S104 (S104: No), the processing of the main microcomputer 130 proceeds to step S106.
In step S106, the main microcomputer 130 determines whether or not there is a cancel instruction of the cleaning process by the operation of the remote control R or the information terminal (not shown). When there is no cancellation command for the cleaning process (S106: No), the process of the main microcomputer 130 returns to step S104. On the other hand, when there is a cancel instruction of the cleaning process (S104: Yes), the process of the main microcomputer 130 proceeds to step S107.

In step S107, the main microcomputer 130 causes the notification sound generation unit to generate a predetermined notification sound, and turns on the display lamp. By this, it is possible to notify the user that the cleaning operation is actually canceled according to the operation of the remote control R or the like.

Preferably, the notification sound and the like (S107) described above are different from the notification sound and the like (S102) for notifying the cleaning process in advance. This is because the user can be informed in an easy-to-understand manner that the cleaning process is actually canceled.

Next, in step S108, the main microcomputer 130 cancels the cleaning process of the indoor heat exchanger 102. That is, the main microcomputer 130 cancels the cleaning process including the freezing of the indoor heat exchanger 102 based on the signal from the remote control R or the information terminal. More specifically, when a predetermined cancel instruction is received from the remote control R or the information terminal before the predetermined delay time elapses from the start of the notification (S102) before the cleaning process (S104: No, S106: Yes And the main microcomputer 130 do not perform cleaning processing including freezing of the indoor heat exchanger 102 (S108). Thus, the main microcomputer 130 can appropriately cancel the cleaning process of the indoor heat exchanger 102 in accordance with the user's intention. Then, after performing the process of step S108, the main microcomputer 130 ends the series of processes (END).

The 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 configurations described. Moreover, it is possible to add, delete, and replace other configurations for part of the configurations of the respective embodiments.
Further, the mechanisms and configurations described above indicate what is considered to be necessary for the description, and not all the mechanisms and configurations of the product are necessarily shown.

S air conditioner 100 indoor unit 101 housing base 102 indoor heat exchanger 103 air blower fan 104 left and right air direction plate 105 upper and lower air direction plate 106 front panel 107 air inlet 108 filter 109a outlet air path

109b air outlet

110A, 110B imaging means 111A Optical lens 112A Image sensor 113A A / D converter 114A Digital signal processing unit 116

Filter drive unit

117A, 117B Visible light cut filter unit 120 Camera microcomputer 121, 131 Storage means 122 Image detection unit 122a Dust detection unit (Soil detection means)
122b Human Detection Unit (Human Detection Means)
130 Main microcomputer (control means)
132 operation processing unit 133 drive control unit 134 time management unit 135 operation information management unit 150 load drive unit 160 environment detection means 161 room temperature detection unit 162 illumination detection unit 190 communication network 200 outdoor unit Q remote control (input means)
301, 302 Analysis line 401 A Dust 401 B Image waveform without peak due to dust adhesion

Claims

Cleaning means for cleaning the indoor heat exchanger;
And control means for controlling the cleaning means.
The control means
In the case where the indoor heat exchanger is cleaned by the cleaning means, cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning means is performed after a predetermined first delay time has elapsed since the heating operation was stopped after the heating operation is finished. An air conditioner characterized by performing.
The control means
In the case where the indoor heat exchanger is cleaned by the cleaning means after the cooling, dehumidifying, or blowing operation is completed, the room by the cleaning means is elapsed after a second delay time shorter than the first delay time has elapsed. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger is cleaned.
Storage means for storing the operating condition of the air conditioner;
The control means
The operation integrated time from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit, the number of operations from the previous cleaning stored in the storage unit, or the elapsed time from installation of the air conditioner reaches a predetermined threshold value The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein, in the case where the air conditioner is used, the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger is performed by the cleaning unit.
A blower fan installed in an indoor unit and feeding air to the indoor heat exchanger;
An up and down wind direction plate for adjusting the wind direction of the air blown out from the indoor unit;
The control means
The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the blower fan is driven or the upper and lower wind direction plates are opened during the period from when the heating operation is stopped to when the first delay time elapses.
Filter cleaning means for cleaning the filter installed on the air suction side of the indoor heat exchanger;
The control means
The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning of the filter by the filter cleaning unit is performed during a period from when the heating operation is stopped to when the first delay time elapses.
The said control means sets the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant | coolant when the said indoor heat exchanger is wash | cleaned by the said washing | cleaning means lower than the evaporation temperature of the said refrigerant | coolant in dehumidification driving | operation. Air conditioner.
The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the control means sets the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant when the indoor heat exchanger is being cleaned by the cleaning means, to a temperature below the freezing point.
The execution of the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning means is from the time of the stop of the heating operation to the elapse of the first delay time, or from the time of the stop of the cooling, dehumidifying or air blowing operation. The air conditioner according to claim 2, further comprising: notification means for notifying before the second delay time has elapsed.
The information terminal connected to the communication network, or an input unit for inputting an execution instruction of cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning unit from a remote control.
When the execution instruction of the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning unit is input by the input unit, the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning unit is performed immediately after the input. The air conditioner according to 2.
A capacity detection means for detecting the capacity or the size of the room to be air conditioned;
The control means is based on the capacity or size of the room detected by the capacity detection means, the threshold value of the operation integration time from the previous cleaning to execute the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning means, or The air conditioner according to claim 3, wherein the threshold value of the number of operations since the previous cleaning is determined.
The said capacity | capacitance detection means detects the capacity | capacitance or the area of the said room based on the time elapsed by the time of the fluctuation | variation of room temperature reaching reference temperature from the measurement start time of room temperature. Air conditioner.
The air conditioner according to claim 10, wherein the capacity detection means detects a capacity or a size of the room based on image information input from an imaging means for imaging the room.
It has an input means for inputting the capacity or the size of a room to be air-conditioned, from an information terminal connected to a communication network or a remote control,
The control means is based on the capacity or size of the room inputted by the input means, the threshold value of the operation integration time from the previous cleaning to execute the cleaning of the indoor heat exchanger by the cleaning means, or The air conditioner according to claim 3, wherein the threshold value of the number of operations since the previous cleaning is determined.
A dirt detection means for detecting dirt on the indoor heat exchanger;
The said control means performs washing | cleaning of the said indoor heat exchanger by the said washing | cleaning means, when the stain | pollution | contamination detected by the said stain | pollution | contamination detection means exceeded predetermined amount, The 1st-3rd The air conditioner according to any one of the items.
The dirt detection means is
Imaging means using visible light or near infrared light as a light source;
An optical filter for blocking or attenuating light of a specific wavelength,
The air conditioner according to claim 14, wherein dirt on the indoor heat exchanger is detected based on image information input from the imaging means.
The threshold value of the operation integration time from the previous cleaning, the number of operations from the previous cleaning, or the elapsed time from the installation of the air conditioner is set for each operation mode such as heating operation, cooling operation, dehumidifying operation, etc. The air conditioner according to claim 3, characterized in that:
The air conditioning according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: an information terminal connected to a communication network, or an input unit for inputting a cleaning start time of the indoor heat exchanger from a remote control. Machine.