JP2014214965A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

An air conditioner that further improves comfort is provided. The operation limiting means is configured such that, during heating operation, the room illuminance detected by the illuminance detecting means is brighter than the preset set illuminance, and the outside air temperature detected by the outside air temperature detecting means is preset. When the temperature is higher than the preset temperature, the set temperature is lowered according to a preset amount of decrease, and the indoor unit and the outdoor unit are operated. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present embodiment relates to an air conditioner.

  Conventionally, an air conditioner controls the interior of a room to a set temperature desired by a user by detecting the temperature inside the room. In recent years, it has also been proposed to detect the brightness of the interior of the room, that is, the illuminance in order to control the room temperature more precisely by eliminating external factors. However, a lighting device is provided in the room. Therefore, when detecting the illuminance of the room, it is affected by the lighting device. Therefore, it is conceivable that the lighting in the room hinders control of the operation of the air conditioner based on the illuminance and impairs comfort.

JP 2011-149567 A JP 2011-202892 A

  An object of this embodiment is to provide an air conditioner that further improves comfort.

In view of the above problems, the air conditioner of the present embodiment includes an indoor unit, illuminance detection means, an outdoor unit, outside air temperature detection means, set temperature reception means, operation control means, and operation restriction means.
The indoor unit is provided inside the room. The illuminance detection means is provided in the indoor unit and detects the brightness of the room as room illuminance. The outdoor unit is provided outside the room and constitutes the indoor unit and a heat pump. The outside air temperature detecting means is provided in the outdoor unit and detects the outside air temperature outside the room. The set temperature receiving means receives the temperature for maintaining the room as the set temperature. The operation control means performs a cooling operation or a heating operation on the indoor unit and the outdoor unit to maintain the room at the set temperature. In the heating operation, the operation restriction unit is configured such that the room illuminance detected by the illuminance detection unit is brighter than a preset set illuminance, and the outside air temperature detected by the outside air temperature detection unit is outside a preset setting. When the temperature is higher than the air temperature, the indoor unit and the outdoor unit are operated by lowering the set temperature according to a preset amount of decrease.

The schematic diagram which shows the structure of the air conditioner by one Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the structure of the air conditioner by one Embodiment. Schematic which shows the flow of a process of the air conditioner by one Embodiment.

Hereinafter, the air conditioner of this embodiment is demonstrated based on drawing.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the air conditioner 10 includes an indoor unit 11, an outdoor unit 12, and a remote controller 13 as remote control means. The indoor unit 11 is provided inside the room 15 of the house 14. The outdoor unit 12 is provided outside the room 15 of the house 14. The indoor unit 11 and the outdoor unit 12 constitute a heat pump. Thereby, the air conditioner 10 sends cool air to the inside of the room 15 during cooling, and sends warm air to the inside of the room 15 during heating. The room 15 is provided with a lighting device 16.

  In addition to the indoor unit 11 and the outdoor unit 12, the air conditioner 10 includes an illuminance sensor 21 as illuminance detection means, an outside air temperature sensor 22 as outside air temperature detection means, a room temperature sensor 23 that detects the temperature of the room 15, and a transmission / reception unit 24. And a control unit 25. The illuminance sensor 21 is provided in the indoor unit 11 and detects the brightness of the room 15 as the room illuminance R. The illuminance sensor 21 outputs the detected room illuminance to the control unit 25 as an electrical signal. The room 15 is provided with a lighting device 16. Also, outside light such as sunlight enters the room 15 from an opening such as a window. The illuminance sensor 21 detects the brightness of the room 15 due to the illumination device 16 or external light as the room illuminance R.

  The outside air temperature sensor 22 is provided in the outdoor unit 12 and detects the temperature outside the room 15 as the outside air temperature To. The outside air temperature sensor 22 outputs the detected outside air temperature To as an electric signal to the control unit 25. The room temperature sensor 23 is provided in the indoor unit 11 and detects the temperature inside the room 15 as the room temperature Ti. The room temperature sensor 23 outputs the detected room temperature Ti to the control unit 25 as an electrical signal. The transmission / reception unit 24 includes, for example, a light emitting element and a light receiving element (not shown), and transmits an infrared signal and receives an infrared signal. The control unit 25 is provided in the indoor unit 11 and includes a microcomputer having a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM. The control unit 25 controls the air conditioner 10 by executing a computer program stored in the ROM. The control unit 25 is connected to the storage unit 26. The storage unit 26 is a non-volatile storage medium such as an EEPROM and stores various settings.

  The remote controller 13 includes a control unit 31, an input unit 32, and a transmission / reception unit 33. The control unit 31 is composed of a microcomputer having a CPU, a ROM, and a RAM. The control unit 31 controls the remote controller 13 by executing a computer program stored in the ROM. The input unit 32 has operation buttons, for example. The user inputs a set temperature necessary for controlling the air conditioner 10 from the input unit 32. The transmission / reception unit 33 includes, for example, a light emitting element and a light receiving element (not shown), and transmits an infrared signal and receives an infrared signal. As a result, the indoor unit 11 and the remote controller 13 can communicate with each other wirelessly using infrared rays. The room temperature sensor 23 may be provided in the remote controller 13 instead of the indoor unit 11. The room temperature sensor 23 may be provided in both the indoor unit 11 and the remote controller 13.

  In addition to the above, the air conditioner 10 further includes a set temperature reception unit 41, an operation control unit 42, an operation restriction unit 43, and a setting release unit 44. The set temperature reception unit 41, the operation control unit 42, the operation restriction unit 43, and the setting release unit 44 are realized in software by executing a computer program in the control unit 25. The set temperature reception unit 41, the operation control unit 42, the operation restriction unit 43, and the setting release unit 44 may be realized in hardware or in cooperation with software and hardware. The set temperature reception unit 41, the operation control unit 42, the operation restriction unit 43 and the setting release unit 44 are provided in the indoor unit 11.

  The set temperature reception unit 41 is provided in the indoor unit 11 as described above. The set temperature receiving unit 41 receives the temperature at which the room 15 is maintained as the set temperature Td. Specifically, the user inputs the set temperature Td from the input unit 32 of the remote controller 13. The remote controller 13 transmits the set temperature Td input from the input unit 32 as an infrared signal from the transmission / reception unit 33 to the transmission / reception unit 24 of the indoor unit 11. The set temperature receiving unit 41 receives the set temperature Td from the infrared signal transmitted from the remote controller 13.

  The operation control unit 42 performs a cooling operation or a heating operation on the indoor unit 11 and the outdoor unit 12. That is, the operation control unit 42 cools or heats the inside of the room 15 by changing, for example, the operation and work amount of the heat pump and the amount of air blown by a fan (not shown) of the indoor unit 11. Thereby, the operation control unit 42 maintains the inside of the room 15 at the set temperature Td received by the set temperature receiving unit 41. The operation control unit 42 mainly controls the room temperature Ti detected by the room temperature sensor 23 to control the temperature of the room 15 to approximate the set temperature Td. In addition, the operation control unit 42 automatically uses either one or both of the room temperature Ti detected by the room temperature sensor 23 and the outside air temperature To detected by the outside air temperature sensor 22 to execute the cooling operation or the heating operation. Judgment.

When the operation restriction unit 43 is in the heating operation, the operation restriction unit 43 reduces the set temperature Td in accordance with a preset decrease d. Specifically, the operation restriction unit 43 reduces the set temperature Td by a decrease amount d by satisfying a preset condition when the heating operation is being performed. The conditions under which the operation restriction unit 43 lowers the set temperature Td are as follows.
(A) The room illuminance R detected by the illuminance sensor 21 is brighter than the preset illuminance Rd.
(B) The outside air temperature To detected by the outside air temperature sensor 22 is higher than a preset outside air temperature Tod.

The operation restriction unit 43 reduces the set temperature Td set by the user by a decrease amount d when both (A) and (B) are satisfied during the heating operation. As a result, the reset temperature Tr reset by the operation restriction unit 43 is Tr = Td−d.
When the reset temperature Tr is set, the operation restricting unit 43 changes the operation and work amount of the heat pump, the amount of air blown by a fan (not shown) of the indoor unit, and the like, similarly to the operation control unit 42. To cool or heat the interior of Accordingly, the operation restriction unit 43 maintains the interior of the room 15 at the reset temperature Tr that is lower than the set temperature Td received by the set temperature receiving unit 41. For example, the reduction amount d is set to d = 0.5 ° C. Therefore, the operation limiting unit 43 sets the reset temperature Tr to Tr = 26−0.5 = 25.5 ° C. when the user sets Td = 26 ° C. as the set temperature Td.

Here, the set illuminance Rd, the set outside air temperature Tod, and the reduction amount d can be arbitrarily set. That is, the user can input the set illuminance Rd, the set outside air temperature Tod, and the decrease amount d from the input unit of the remote controller 13. The set illuminance Rd, the set outside air temperature Tod, and the decrease amount d input from the user are stored in the storage unit 26.
The setting canceling unit 44 cancels the reset temperature Tr by the operation limiting unit 43. Specifically, the user can cancel the reset temperature Tr by the operation limiting unit 43 by inputting a specific operation from the input unit 32 of the remote controller 13, for example. That is, when there is an input at the input unit 32 of the remote controller 13 or a specific part of the indoor unit 11, the setting release unit 44 releases the reset temperature Tr by the operation restriction unit 43. At this time, the air conditioner 10 returns to normal operation, and the operation is controlled by the operation control unit 42.

Next, the flow of operation of the air conditioner 10 having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG.
When the air conditioner 10 is being operated, the operation control unit 42 determines whether or not the heating operation is being performed (S101). For example, when the room temperature Ti detected by the room temperature sensor 23 is lower than the outside air temperature To detected by the outside air temperature sensor 22, the operation control unit 42 performs the heating operation. Thereby, the indoor unit 11 sends warm air to the inside of the room 15. Note that the criterion for determining whether to perform the heating operation is not limited to the above example, and can be arbitrarily set.

  When the heating operation is being executed (S101: Yes), the operation restriction unit 43 acquires the room illuminance R (S102). That is, the operation restriction unit 43 acquires the room brightness as the room illuminance R from the illuminance sensor 21. On the other hand, when the heating operation is not executed (S101: No), the operation restriction unit 43 returns to S101 and continues the process of shifting to S101.

  When the room illuminance R is acquired in S102, the operation restriction unit 43 determines whether the room illuminance R is brighter than the set illuminance Rd (S103). When the operation restriction unit 43 determines that the room illuminance R is brighter than the set illuminance Rd (S103: Yes), the operation restriction unit 43 acquires the outside air temperature To (S104). That is, the operation restriction unit 43 acquires the temperature outside the room 15 from the outside air temperature sensor 22 as the outside air temperature To. Then, the operation restriction unit 43 determines whether or not the acquired outside air temperature To is higher than the set outside air temperature Tod (S105). When determining that the outside air temperature To is higher than the set outside air temperature Tod (S105: Yes), the operation restricting unit 43 corrects the set temperature Td and sets the reset temperature Tr (S106). When the reset temperature Tr is set, the operation restriction unit 43 operates the indoor unit 11 and the outdoor unit 12 based on the reset temperature Tr. (S107).

  The operation limiting unit 43 acquires not only the room illuminance R that is the brightness of the room, but also the outside temperature To. Thereby, it is determined whether the air conditioner 10 is controlled using the reset temperature Tr in consideration of the outside temperature To in addition to the room illuminance R. With room illuminance R alone, it is difficult to distinguish between brightness due to the lighting device 16 and brightness due to sunlight. Therefore, the operation restriction unit 43 considers the outside temperature To in addition to the room illuminance R. It is considered that sunlight is sufficiently incident on the inside of the room 15 when the room illumination R is high and the outside temperature To is high mainly during heating such as in winter. Therefore, the user who is inside the room 15 has a relatively high sensible temperature. As a result, the user's comfort is maintained even when the heating operation is executed based on the reset temperature Tr. For example, in the conventional case where only the room illuminance R is used for automatic heating operation, the heating operation of the air conditioner 10 may be weakened when the illuminance of the lighting device 16 increases. As a result, although the outside air temperature is decreasing, the operation of the air conditioner 10 is also weakened, and there is a possibility that an inconsistency may occur with the temperature experienced by the user in the room 15. On the other hand, in the case of this embodiment, the mismatch which arises between a user's sensible temperature and the driving | running of the air conditioner 10 is eliminated.

  When it is determined that the room illuminance R is smaller than the set illuminance Rd in S103 (S103: No), the operation restriction unit 43 returns to S101 without changing the set temperature Td. When the operation control unit 42 determines in S104 that the outside air temperature To is lower than the set outside air temperature Tod (S105: No), the operation control unit 42 returns to S101 without changing the set temperature Td.

  In one embodiment, the operation restriction unit 43 determines whether or not to change the set temperature Td by adding the outside air temperature To to the room illuminance R as described above. Therefore, when the sensible temperature of the user inside the room 15 is considered to be high, the air conditioner 10 is controlled with the reset temperature Tr changed to the side where the set temperature Td is lowered. On the other hand, when the sensible temperature of the user inside the room 15 is considered low, the air conditioner 10 is controlled while maintaining the set temperature Td. Therefore, while being able to improve comfort more, the consumption of the electric power in the air conditioner 10 can be reduced, without impairing comfort.

  In one embodiment, the set illuminance Rd, the set outside air temperature Tod, and the decrease amount d can be arbitrarily set. The illuminance sensor 21 has a illuminance detection capability that varies depending on the surrounding environment such as a place where the illuminance sensor 21 is installed. Therefore, if the set illuminance Rd is uniformly set, it may not be possible to cope with changes in the shape and size of the indoor unit 11 or the environment of the room 15 in which the indoor unit 11 is installed. Further, the temperature range of the outside air temperature sensor 22 to be detected varies depending on the surrounding environment such as a place where the outdoor unit 12 is installed. For this reason, if the set outside air temperature Tod is uniformly set, it may not be possible to cope with changes in the environment or the like that differ depending on the daylight of the outdoor unit 12 or each house 14. Furthermore, if the reduction amount d is also set uniformly, there is a possibility that the position of the room 15 in the house 14 or the ventilation of the room 14 cannot be handled. Therefore, the set illuminance Rd, the set outside air temperature Tod, and the reduction amount d can be arbitrarily changed. Thereby, the operation limiting unit 43 adjusts the set time and set value of the reset temperature Tr according to the environment where the air conditioner 10 is installed. Therefore, comfort can be improved according to the environment where the air conditioner 10 is installed.

  In one embodiment, the operation restriction by the operation restriction unit 43 is released by the setting release unit 44. Depending on the use conditions and use environment of the air conditioner 10, the comfort may be impaired. For example, it may be considered that the restriction of driving is not preferable for a user who is undergoing medical treatment. Therefore, the function of the operation restriction unit 43 is canceled by the setting cancellation unit 44. Therefore, comfort can be enhanced according to the user's wishes.

  As mentioned above, although several embodiment of this invention was described, these embodiment was shown as an example and is not intending limiting the range of invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

  In the drawings, 10 is an air conditioner, 11 is an indoor unit, 12 is an outdoor unit, 13 is a remote control (remote control means), 15 is a room, 21 is an illuminance sensor (illuminance detection means), and 22 is an outside air temperature sensor (outside air temperature). Detection means), 41 is a set temperature reception unit (set temperature reception means), 42 is an operation control unit (operation control means), 43 is an operation restriction unit (operation restriction unit), and 44 is a setting release unit (release means). .

Claims (3)

An indoor unit provided inside the room,
Illuminance detection means provided in the indoor unit for detecting the brightness of the room as room illuminance,
An outdoor unit that is provided outside the room and constitutes a heat pump with the indoor unit;
An outside air temperature detecting means provided in the outdoor unit for detecting an outside air temperature outside the room;
About the temperature for maintaining the room, set temperature receiving means for receiving as a set temperature;
An operation control means for cooling or heating the indoor unit and the outdoor unit, and maintaining the room at the set temperature;
During the heating operation, when the room illuminance detected by the illuminance detection means is brighter than a preset set illuminance, and the outside air temperature detected by the outside air temperature detection means is higher than a preset set outside temperature An operation restriction means for operating the indoor unit and the outdoor unit by lowering the set temperature according to a preset amount of decrease;
Air conditioner equipped with.   The air conditioner according to claim 1, further comprising a change accepting unit that accepts any one or more changes among the set illuminance, the set outside air temperature, and the amount of decrease. Remote operation means provided remotely from the indoor unit, and having an input unit capable of inputting the set temperature and the reduction amount to the change receiving means to the set temperature receiving means;
A release unit that is provided in the indoor unit or the remote control unit, and that cancels the decrease in the set temperature by the operation limiting unit;
The air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising:

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