JP2007309813A - Reserved operation system of heating/cooling equipment and its program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To start operation of heating/cooling equipment at an alarm time only by setting the alarm time on an alarm clock. <P>SOLUTION: This system includes an alarm generation means 106 for generating an alarm at the alarm time set on the alarm clock 101, and a transmission means 107 for transmitting alarm generation notification to the heating/cooling equipment through an in-house network when the alarm is generated. The heating/cooling equipment 102 includes a receiving means 110 for receiving the alarm generation notification from the alarm clock, and an operation control means 111 for switching on operation of the heating/cooling equipment when receiving the alarm generation notification. Hereby, the alarm time is set on the alarm clock 101, and the alarm generation notification is transmitted to the heating/cooling equipment 102 at the alarm time, to switch on the operation of the heating/cooling equipment. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a reserved operation system for an air-conditioning apparatus and a program therefor, which is connected to a home network and is capable of preparing a setting for reserved operation of an air-conditioning apparatus such as an air conditioner or a warm air heater.

  In recent years, Internet home appliance systems that attempt to control home appliances using a home network in accordance with standards such as Echonet have been put into practical use, and operation of air conditioners in remote rooms using net home appliance controllers Systems that can turn on and off have also been put into practical use.

  Many people use air conditioning equipment such as air conditioners and warm air heaters to set a timer reservation in the morning to wake up and make the room temperature comfortable when they wake up. However, when setting a timer reservation for an air conditioner, it is necessary to set the timer reservation using the remote control of each air conditioner or the operation panel of the device. This is the same when timer reservation is performed using a network home appliance controller. In order to perform timer reservation for a plurality of network home appliances, a reservation time must be set for each device.

  For this reason, it is troublesome to learn how to make a timer reservation for each air conditioner and to remember to set timer reservation for the air conditioner at bedtime.

  As a method for solving this annoyance, a method has been proposed in which timer reservation times of a plurality of home appliances are simultaneously set using an alarm clock (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 6 shows a conventional reservation time setting system described in Patent Document 1. In FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, an alarm setting unit 603 for setting an alarm time and a transmission unit 604 for transmitting the set alarm time to a home appliance for which timer reservation is desired when the alarm time is set by the alarm setting unit 603 are provided. There is an alarm clock 601.

In addition, the receiving unit 605 that receives the time transmitted from the transmitting unit 604 of the alarm clock 601, the timer reservation setting unit 606 that sets the timer reservation using the time received by the receiving unit 605 as the reserved time, and the time management And a home appliance 602 provided with a timer reservation means 608 for turning on the operation when the reservation time comes.
JP 2000-176133 A

  However, in the conventional configuration, when the alarm time is set using the alarm setting means 603 in the alarm clock 601, the time is transmitted to the home appliance 602, so that the timer reservation time of the home appliance 602 is set. . For this reason, after the alarm time is set by the alarm clock 601, the schedule changes, and even if the alarm of the alarm clock is canceled, the timer reservation of the home appliance 602 is not canceled.

In addition, in order to cancel the timer reservation of the home appliance 602, there is still a problem that it is necessary to individually cancel the timer reservation using the remote control or the operation panel of each home appliance 602.

  Moreover, since the alarm clock 601 only transmits the time, the home appliance 602 needs to include the clock means 607 and the timer reservation means 608, which causes a cost increase.

  The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems. The alarm time is set by an alarm clock, the alarm is set to ON, and when the alarm time is reached, the operation of the air conditioning apparatus is turned ON and the alarm of the alarm clock is set. It is an object of the present invention to provide a reserved operation system for air-conditioning equipment and a program for the air-conditioning equipment so that the operation of the air-conditioning equipment is not turned ON even when the set alarm time is reached.

  In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, a reservation operation system for an air conditioning apparatus and a program therefor according to the present invention include an alarm generating means for generating an alarm when an alarm clock reaches an alarm time set, and an alarm occurrence notification when an alarm occurs. Transmitting means for transmitting to the air conditioning equipment via the network, the air conditioning equipment comprises receiving means for receiving an alarm occurrence notification from the alarm clock, and an operation control means for turning on the operation of the air conditioning equipment when the alarm occurrence notification is received. Is.

  As a result, when the alarm time is set in the alarm clock and the alarm is set to ON, when the alarm time is reached, an alarm occurrence notification is sent to the air conditioning equipment, and the operation of the air conditioning equipment is turned on. Also, even if the alarm is turned ON, if the schedule changes and the alarm of the alarm clock is turned OFF, the alarm occurrence notification is not sent and the operation of the air conditioning equipment is not turned ON.

  The reservation operation system for air-conditioning equipment and the program of the present invention set the alarm clock alarm time and turn on the alarm. When the alarm time comes, the air-conditioning equipment operation is turned on, and the alarm clock alarm If is turned OFF, the operation of the air conditioning equipment can be prevented from being turned ON even when the alarm time comes.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, an alarm clock is connected to a cooling / heating device such as an air conditioner or a warm air heater via a home network, and the alarm clock includes clock means for managing time and alarm time setting for setting an alarm time. Means, an alarm ON / OFF means for setting whether to generate an alarm when the time set by the alarm time setting means is reached, and the alarm time setting means when the alarm ON / OFF means is set to ON. Alarm generating means for generating an alarm when the time set in (i) is reached, and transmission means for transmitting an alarm occurrence notification to the air conditioning apparatus via the home network when an alarm occurs, wherein the air conditioning apparatus is sent from the alarm clock. Receiving means for receiving the alarm occurrence notification, and the reception Stage and a driving control means for ON operation of the heating and cooling equipment and to receive alarm notifications.

  As a result, when the alarm is turned on in the alarm clock, when the alarm time comes, the alarm clock is turned on and an alarm occurrence notification is sent to the air conditioning equipment. The alarm time of the alarm clock is set, the alarm is turned on, the air conditioner is turned on when the alarm time is reached, and the alarm time is set when the alarm of the alarm clock is turned off. Even if it becomes, the operation of the air conditioning equipment can be prevented from being turned on.

  According to a second aspect of the invention, in particular, the alarm clock includes calendar management means for managing a calendar, and the alarm generation means inquires of the calendar management means when the time set by the alarm time setting means is reached, By determining which air-conditioning equipment to send the alarm occurrence notification to in accordance with the month, and instructing the transmission means to send the alarm occurrence notice, in the summer, the alarm occurrence notification to the air-conditioning equipment such as an air conditioner It is possible to send an alarm notification to a heating device such as a warm air heater during the winter, and you can wake up by setting alarm clock ON / OFF throughout the year. You can get a comfortable room temperature when you come.

  Since the third invention is a program, in particular, in any one of the first and second inventions, a program for realizing at least a part of the means in the reserved operation system for an air conditioning equipment by a computer is provided. In addition, by cooperating hardware resources such as electricity / information and a computer, it is possible to easily realize at least a part of the reserved operation system for the air conditioning equipment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of a reserved operation system for air-conditioning equipment and a program thereof according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, an alarm clock 101 is connected to an air conditioning device 102 in a home network and can communicate.

  The clock means 103 of the alarm clock 101 keeps the current time. The alarm time setting means 104 is a means for setting the time when the user wakes up in the morning. The alarm ON / OFF means 105 is a means for setting whether to sound an alarm at the time set by the user.

  The alarm generating means 106 generates an alarm when the alarm time is reached when the alarm is ON. When an alarm occurs, the transmission means 107 transmits an alarm occurrence notification to the air conditioning equipment 102. The alarm sound generation means 108 sounds an alarm sound such as a buzzer when an alarm occurs to notify the user that the alarm time has come.

  The time display means 109 displays the current time that the clock means 103 has carved. Further, when the alarm time is set by the alarm time setting means 104, it is also used for displaying the time to be set.

  The receiving means 110 of the air conditioning / heating device 102 receives the alarm occurrence notification from the alarm clock 101. When the operation control unit 111 receives the alarm occurrence notification, the operation control unit 111 starts the operation of the air conditioning equipment.

  About the reservation driving | running system and its program which were comprised as mentioned above, the operation | movement and an effect | action are demonstrated below.

  First, the user uses the alarm time setting means 104 of the alarm clock 101 to set the alarm clock 101 in the morning at the desired time. The alarm time to be set is temporarily displayed on the time display means 109 instead of the current time while the alarm time is being set.

  The alarm time setting unit 104 notifies the alarm generation unit 106 of the time set by the user as the alarm time. The alarm generation means 106 stores the notified alarm time.

  Further, when the user wants to sound an alarm sound to wake up at the set alarm time, the alarm is turned ON using the alarm ON / OFF means 105. On the other hand, if the alarm time is set but it is not desired to sound an alarm sound even when the alarm time comes, such as on a holiday, the alarm ON / OFF means 105 is used to set the alarm to OFF.

  The alarm ON / OFF means 105 notifies the alarm generation means 106 of the alarm ON / OFF setting set by the user. The alarm generation means 106 stores the notified alarm ON / OFF setting. As the alarm ON / OFF setting means, for example, a slide type or push type switch can be considered.

  The clock means 103 of the alarm clock 101 keeps the current time, for example, notifies the alarm generation means 106 of the current time every second or every minute. Further, the current time is displayed by the time display means 109.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the alarm generation means 106. Hereinafter, the operation of the alarm generation means 106 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When receiving the notification of the current time from the clock means 103 (step 201), the alarm generation means 106 compares it with the alarm time stored inside (step 202). If the current time does not match the alarm time, the process returns to waiting for the next current time notification.

  On the other hand, when the current time matches the alarm time, the alarm ON / OFF setting stored in the inside is referred to (step 203). In addition to instructing (step 204), the alarm sound generating means 108 is instructed to generate an alarm sound (step 205).

  Upon receiving an alarm sound generation instruction, the alarm sound generation means 108 sounds a buzzer or a bell to notify the user that the alarm time has come.

  Moreover, the transmission means 107 will transmit an alarm generation notification with respect to the air conditioning equipment 102, if the transmission instruction | indication of an alarm generation notification is received. When there are a plurality of air conditioning devices 102 connected to the alarm clock 101 via the home network, the transmission means 107 transmits an alarm occurrence notification to the plurality of connected air conditioning devices 102.

  The air conditioner 102 receives the alarm occurrence notification from the alarm clock 101 by the receiving means 108 (step 206). When receiving the alarm occurrence notification, the receiving unit 108 notifies the operation control unit 109 of the reception of the alarm occurrence notification. When the operation control means 109 receives the notification of the alarm occurrence notification, it starts the operation of the air conditioning equipment (step 207).

As described above, in the present embodiment, alarm clock 101 and air conditioner 102 are connected via a home network, alarm clock 101 is provided with alarm generating means 106 and transmitting means 107, and air conditioner 102 is provided with receiving means 110 and operation. By providing the control means 111, when the alarm time set by the alarm clock 101 is reached, an alarm occurrence notification is transmitted to the air conditioning device 102, and the air conditioning device 102 receives the alarm occurrence notification and starts operation, Even if the alarm time of the alarm clock 101 is set without setting the timer reservation of the air conditioning apparatus 102 individually, the operation of the air conditioning apparatus 102 can be started when waking up in the morning.

  In this embodiment, since the timer reservation function of the air conditioner 102 is not used, the air conditioner 102 does not need to have timer reservation means or clock means, and the cost of the air conditioner 102 can be reduced. .

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a reservation operation system for air-conditioning equipment and a program thereof according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 3, a calendar management unit 301 manages the current date in cooperation with the clock unit 103.

  The other components in FIG. 3 are the same as those in (Embodiment 1), and a description thereof will be omitted.

  About the reservation driving | operation system comprised as mentioned above and its program, the operation | movement and an effect | action are demonstrated centering on the difference from the following (Embodiment 1).

  The steps up to the point where the user performs alarm time setting and alarm ON / OFF setting of the alarm clock 101 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the alarm generation means 106 in (Embodiment 2). Hereinafter, the operation of the alarm generation means 106 according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  When receiving the notification of the current time from the clock means 103 (step 201), the alarm generation means 106 compares it with the alarm time stored inside (step 202). If the current time does not match the alarm time, the process returns to waiting for the next current time notification.

  On the other hand, if the current time matches the alarm time, the alarm ON / OFF setting stored inside is referred to (step 203). Information is extracted (step 401).

  The alarm generation means 106 determines whether the current time is summer or winter based on the extracted date information (step 402). In the case of summer, the alarm generation notification destination is set to the cooling device (step 403). In the case of winter, the transmission destination of the alarm occurrence notification is set to the heating equipment (step 404).

  Then, the transmission unit 107 is instructed to transmit an alarm occurrence notification to the set transmission destination (step 204), and the alarm sound generation unit 108 is instructed to generate an alarm sound (step 205).

  Upon receiving an alarm sound generation instruction, the alarm sound generation means 108 sounds a buzzer or a bell to notify the user that the alarm time has come.

In addition, when the transmission unit 107 receives an alarm generation notification transmission instruction from the alarm generation unit 106, the transmission unit 107 refers to the registration table of the cooling / heating device 102 as shown in FIG. If it is a transmission instruction, an alarm occurrence notification is transmitted to the air conditioning apparatus 102 registered as the cooling apparatus, and if it is a transmission instruction to the heating apparatus, the air conditioning apparatus 102 registered as the heating apparatus is transmitted. Send alarm notification.

  There may be a plurality of cooling devices and heating devices to which the transmission unit 107 transmits the alarm occurrence notification, and one cooling / heating device may be registered in both the cooling device and the heating device. In that case, an alarm occurrence notification is transmitted to a plurality of cooling devices or heating devices.

  In the case of the registration table as shown in FIG. 5, the cooling devices are the air conditioner 1 and the air conditioner 2, and the heating devices are the air conditioner 1 and the fan heater 1.

  Note that when the alarm generation means 106 determines whether it is summer or winter based on the information of the extracted month and day, for example, if it is between July and September, it may be between summer and December to February. For example, it may be determined that the season is winter, or the user may be able to set the alarm clock 101 for the period of summer and winter.

  In addition, regarding the air-conditioning device 102, which device is the air-conditioning device and which device is the heating device, the attribute information is given to the air-conditioning device and is connected to the alarm clock 101 when the air-conditioning device is connected to the home network. You may make it notify, and you may make it make the alarm clock 101 distinguish and register a cooling device and a heating device.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the alarm generation means 106 uses the month and day information managed by the calendar management means 301 to select the air conditioning equipment that starts operation when the alarm time comes, In the summer when cooling is required, operation starts when the cooling equipment reaches the alarm time, and in winter when heating is required, operation starts when the heating equipment reaches the alarm time, and when it is not in summer or winter, the alarm time is set. Even after that, the air conditioning equipment can be prevented from starting operation, and when it wakes up in the morning throughout the year, the operation of the appropriate air conditioning equipment can be started.

  Note that the means described in this embodiment causes hardware resources such as a CPU (or microcomputer), a RAM, a ROM, a storage / recording device, an electrical / information device including an I / O, a computer, a server, and the like to cooperate. You may implement with the form of a program. In the form of a program, new functions can be distributed / updated and installed easily by recording them on a recording medium such as magnetic media or optical media or distributing them using a communication line such as the Internet.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to start the operation of the air conditioning equipment when the alarm time is reached simply by setting the alarm time in the alarm clock. It is useful as a timer reservation method for home appliances.

The block diagram of the reservation operation system of the air-conditioning equipment in Embodiment 1 of this invention The flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the alarm generation means in Embodiment 1 of this invention. The block diagram of the reservation operation system of the air-conditioning equipment in Embodiment 2 of this invention, and its program The flowchart which shows the operation | movement of the alarm generation means in Embodiment 2 of this invention. The figure which shows the example of the registration table for distinguishing the air_conditioning | cooling apparatus and heating apparatus in Embodiment 2 of this invention. Configuration diagram of a conventional reservation system for air conditioning equipment

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Alarm clock 102 Air-conditioning / equipment 103 Clock means 104 Alarm time setting means 105 Alarm ON / OFF means 106 Alarm generation means 107 Transmission means 108 Alarm sound generation means 109 Time display means 110 Reception means 111 Operation control means 150 Home network 301 Calendar management means 601 Alarm clock 602 Home appliance 603 Alarm setting means 604 Transmission means 605 Reception means 606 Timer reservation setting means 607 Clock means 608 Timer reservation means

Claims (3)

The alarm clock and the air conditioning equipment are connected by a home network,
The alarm clock includes clock means for managing time, alarm time setting means for setting an alarm time, and alarm ON / OFF means for setting whether to generate an alarm when the time set by the alarm time setting means is reached. , An alarm generating means for generating an alarm when the time set by the alarm time setting means comes when the alarm ON / OFF means is set to ON, and when the alarm occurs, the one or Transmission means for transmitting an alarm occurrence notification to a plurality of air conditioning units,
The air conditioner includes a receiving unit that receives an alarm occurrence notification sent from the alarm clock, and an operation control unit that turns on the operation of the air conditioning unit when the receiving unit receives the alarm occurrence notification. Equipment reservation operation system. The alarm clock includes calendar management means for managing a calendar, and the alarm generation means inquires the calendar management means when the time set by the alarm time setting means is reached, and depending on the month, which air conditioning equipment The reservation operation system of the air-conditioning equipment of Claim 1 which judges whether an alarm occurrence notification is transmitted to a transmission means and instruct | indicates transmission of an alarm occurrence notification to a transmission means. The program which implement | achieves at least one part of the reservation operation system of the air-conditioning equipment of Claim 1 or 2 with a computer.

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