JPH0526474A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent extra static pressure to decrease noise by a method wherein a means is provided which corrects speed of a room fan so that a sum of wind volume passing through respective branch passages becomes equal to a sum of respectively needed wind volume, whereby good following property of wind volume to load variations is ensured and necessary wind volume of each room is satisfied quickly. CONSTITUTION:A controller 30 obtains a sum of necessary wind volume required by respective controllers 40 and also obtains a room fan speed corresponding to the obtained sum from speed setting conditions which are preparatorily stored in an inside memory. An output frequency F of an inverter 8 is controlled to get speed of a room fan 6 to be equal to the obtained room fan speed. A difference between the sum of necessary wind volume and the sum of wind volume obtained by the respective controllers 40 is obtained, and it is determined whether or not the difference is constant. If the difference is out of a prescribed range, the output frequency F of the inverter 8 is corrected by a prescribed value, so that the difference can enter into the prescribed range, that is, the sum of the wind volume can be substantially equal to the sum of the necessary volume. Accordingly, the wind volume follows to the load variations.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner for distributing and supplying air conditioning air to a plurality of rooms by ducts.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a building having a plurality of rooms, an air conditioner of the type used to obtain cold air or warm air by operating a refrigeration cycle and a fan and supply the cold air or warm air to a plurality of rooms by a duct.

In this air conditioner, the duct has a plurality of branch passages, and a damper is provided in each of the branch passages. Then, the air-conditioning load of each room is obtained, the required air volumes corresponding to the air-conditioning loads are obtained, and the opening degree of each damper is controlled according to the required air volumes. Further, an air volume increase command or an air volume decrease command is issued according to the total required air volume, and the speed of the fan is controlled accordingly.

[0004]

However, in the above air conditioner, an air volume increase command or an air volume decrease command is issued at fixed time intervals, and the fan speed is increased or decreased by a fixed value for each command. For this reason, there is a drawback that it takes time to reach a state in which the required air volume is satisfied, and followability to load fluctuation is poor. In order to cope with this, there is a method in which the speed of the fan is fixed to a value manually set in advance at the start of the operation in which the load changes drastically.

However, if the set speed is low, the required air volume may not be obtained. On the other hand, when the set speed is high, there is a problem that excessive static pressure occurs when the required air volume is small and noise increases. This invention takes the above circumstances into consideration,

According to the air conditioner of the first aspect, it is possible to ensure a good followability of the air volume with respect to the load fluctuation, so that the required air volume of each room can be quickly satisfied, and excessive static pressure can be prevented. The purpose is to reduce noise.

According to the air conditioner of the second aspect, it is possible to ensure a good followability of the air volume with respect to the load fluctuation, so that the required air volume of each room can be quickly satisfied, and excessive static pressure can be prevented. The purpose is to reduce noise and further reduce the power consumption of the fan to obtain an energy saving effect.

[0008]

An air conditioner according to a first aspect of the present invention has an indoor unit that blows out air-conditioning air by operating an indoor fan, and a branch passage that leads to a plurality of rooms. A duct for distributing and supplying blowout air, a damper for adjusting the blowout airflow provided in each branch of this duct, a means for determining the air conditioning load of each room, and a required airflow for each room according to these air conditioning loads. A means for obtaining, a means for controlling the opening of each of the dampers according to the required air volume, a means for setting the speed of the indoor fan to a value corresponding to the sum of the required air volumes, and a ventilation volume for each of the branch passages. A means for detecting and a means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan in a direction in which the sum of the air flow rates becomes equal to the sum of the required air flow rates.

An air conditioner according to a second aspect of the present invention has an indoor unit that blows out air-conditioning air by operating an indoor fan, and a branch path that leads to a plurality of rooms, and supplies the air blown out of the indoor unit to each room. A duct, a damper for adjusting the air flow rate provided in each branch of the duct, a means for obtaining the air conditioning load of each room, a means for obtaining the necessary air volume of each room according to these air conditioning loads, and these necessary Means for controlling the opening of each damper according to the air volume, means for setting the speed of the indoor fan to a value corresponding to the sum of the required air volumes, means for detecting the air volume of each of the branch passages, and these. A means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan in the direction in which the total ventilation volume becomes equal to the total required air volume, and when the total ventilation volume becomes equal to the total required air volume, the smaller of the dampers When One of and means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan in a direction to fit to the opening of a predetermined range from the fully open.

[0010]

In the air conditioner according to the first aspect of the present invention, the air conditioning load of each room is obtained, the required air volume of each room is obtained according to the air conditioning load, and the opening degree of each damper is controlled according to the required air volume. At the same time, the speed of the indoor fan is set to a value according to the sum of the required air volumes. Then, the air flow rate of each branch passage of the duct is detected, and the speed of the indoor fan is corrected in the direction in which the sum of the air flow rates becomes equal to the sum of the required air flow rates.

An air conditioner according to a second aspect of the present invention obtains the air conditioning load of each room, obtains the required air volume of each room according to the air conditioning load, and controls the opening of each damper according to the required air volume. At the same time, the speed of the indoor fan is set to a value according to the sum of the required air volumes. Then, the air flow rate of each branch passage of the duct is detected, and the speed of the indoor fan is corrected in the direction in which the sum of the air flow rates becomes equal to the sum of the required air flow rates. Further, when the sum of the ventilation volumes becomes equal to the sum of the required air volumes, at least one of the dampers corrects the speed of the indoor fan in the direction from the fully opened state to the opening degree within a certain range.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of rooms A,
There is a building 1 having B and C, and an indoor unit 2 is installed in the building 1.

The indoor unit 2 has an air inlet 3 and an air outlet 4, an indoor heat exchanger 5 is provided inside the air inlet 3, and an indoor fan 6 is provided inside the air outlet 4. . That is, by operating the indoor fan 6, the indoor air is sucked into the unit from the air suction port 3 and is blown out of the unit from the air outlet 4 through the indoor heat exchanger 5.

The indoor unit 2 further includes an indoor fan 6
An outlet air temperature sensor 7 is provided in the vicinity of the outlet of the indoor fan 6, and an inverter 8 for driving the indoor fan 6 is provided. The inverter 8 rectifies the voltage of a commercial AC power supply (not shown), converts it into a voltage having a frequency according to a command from a controller 30 described later, and outputs the voltage.
This output becomes drive power for the motor of the indoor fan 6.
That is, the speed of the indoor fan 6 continuously changes according to the output frequency F of the inverter circuit 8.

The duct 1 is installed in the air outlet 4 of the indoor unit 2.
Connect one end of 0. This duct 10 has an air outlet 4
The air-conditioning air blown out from the room is distributed and supplied to rooms A, B, and C.
It has 1 and 11. The branch paths 11, 11, 11 are connected to the air introduction ports of the A chamber, the B chamber, and the C chamber. Fork 1
An air volume control unit 12 is provided in each of 1, 11, and 11. These air volume control units 12 have a damper 13 and an air volume sensor 14 for adjusting the blown air volume. A specific example is shown in FIG. The opening of the damper 13 continuously changes from zero (fully closed) to fully open by driving the motor 13M.

The air flow sensor 14 comprises a propeller 14a that rotates by receiving ventilation, and a detection element 14b that outputs a voltage level signal corresponding to the number of revolutions of the propeller 14a. The air flow sensor 14 detects the amount of air flow in the branch passage 11. Work as. Further, the outdoor unit 20 is installed outside the building 1, and the outdoor unit 20 and the indoor unit 2 are connected to each other by a pair of pipes 15.
Connect with.

The outdoor unit 20 includes a variable capacity compressor 2
1, a four-way valve 22, an outdoor heat exchanger 23, an expansion valve 24, an outdoor fan 25, and an inverter 26. The outdoor heat exchanger 23 is connected to the discharge port of the compressor 21 via the four-way valve 22.
And the indoor heat exchanger 5 of the indoor unit 2 is connected to the outdoor heat exchanger 23 via one of the pipes 15.
The suction port of the compressor 21 is connected to the indoor heat exchanger 5 via the other pipe of the pipe 15 and the four-way valve 22. That is, in the outdoor unit 20 and the indoor unit 2,
It constitutes a heat pump type refrigeration cycle.

The inverter 26 rectifies the voltage of a commercial AC power source (not shown) and controls it for a controller 30 which will be described later.
Is converted into a voltage having a frequency according to the command of and output. This output serves as drive power for the motor of the compressor 21. On the other hand, the indoor unit 2 is provided with the controller 30. A controller 40 is provided in each of the air volume control units 12, 12, 12.

The controller 30 comprises a microcomputer and its peripheral circuits. The controller 30 includes a blown air temperature sensor 7, an inverter 8, a remote control type operation device (hereinafter, abbreviated as a remote controller) 31, a four-way valve 22, a motor for an outdoor fan 25, an inverter 26, controllers 40, 40 ,. 40 is connected. The remote controller 31 is for setting operating conditions such as an operation mode (cooling / heating), blown air temperature, and operation / stop.

The controllers 40, 40, 40 are composed of a microcomputer and its peripheral circuits. This controller 4
0, 40, 40, the air flow sensor 14 and the remote controller 41
Connect each. These remote controllers 41 have a function of detecting the room temperature in addition to the function of setting the room temperature. The controller 40 includes the following functional means. (1) A means for obtaining the difference between the detected temperature (indoor temperature) of the remote controller 41 and the set indoor temperature of the remote controller 41 as the air conditioning load. (2) A means for calculating and obtaining the required air volume of the corresponding room from the obtained air conditioning load. (3) A means for informing the controller 30 of the required air volume obtained. (4) Damper 1 in the corresponding room according to the required air volume obtained
A means for controlling the opening degree of 3. (5) Based on the output of the air volume sensor 14, the corresponding branch path 1
A means for detecting the ventilation volume of 1. (6) A means for notifying the controller 30 of the detected ventilation amount. The controller 30 includes the following functional means.

(1) Operation of the compressor 21 (drive of the inverter 26) and the outdoor fan 25 according to the operation of the remote controller 31.
Means for controlling the operation of, the switching of the four-way valve 22, and the operation of the indoor fan 6 (drive of the inverter 8). (2) A means for obtaining the difference between the set air temperature of the remote controller 31 and the temperature detected by the air temperature sensor 7 as the air conditioning load. (3) A means for controlling the capacity of the compressor 21 (that is, the output frequency of the inverter circuit 26) according to the obtained air conditioning load. (4) A means for obtaining the total sum of the required air volumes obtained by the respective controllers 40. (5) A means for setting the speed of the indoor fan 6 (that is, the output frequency F of the inverter 8) to a value according to the total required air volume. (6) A means for obtaining the total sum of the ventilation amounts obtained by the respective controllers 40. (7) A means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan 6 (that is, the output frequency F of the inverter 8) in the direction in which the total amount of ventilation is equal to the total amount of required air.

(8) When the sum of the airflow amounts becomes equal to the sum of the required air amounts, at least one of the dampers 13 moves from the fully opened position to the opening amount within a certain range (that is, the inverter fan speed). 8 means for correcting the output frequency F). Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. It is assumed that the cooling mode or the operation mode is selected by the remote controller 31, the desired blowout air temperature is set, and the operation start operation is performed.

Then, the operation of the outdoor unit 20 and the indoor unit 2 is started, and cool air or warm air is blown from the air outlet 4 of the indoor unit 2. The blown air is distributed and supplied to the A chamber, the B chamber, and the C chamber by the duct 10.

At this time, the air temperature of the indoor unit 2 is detected by the air temperature sensor 7, and the difference between the detected temperature and the air temperature set by the remote controller 31 is obtained as an air conditioning load.

Then, the capacity of the compressor 21 (that is, the output frequency of the inverter circuit 26) is controlled according to the obtained air conditioning load, and the blown air temperature changes toward the set room temperature. On the other hand, the controllers 40, 40, 40 are shown in FIG.
The control shown in is executed. The difference between the detected temperature (indoor temperature) of the remote controller 41 and the set indoor temperature of the remote controller 41 is obtained as an air conditioning load (step S1). The required air volume in the corresponding room is calculated and obtained from the obtained air conditioning load (step S2), and the required air volume is notified to the controller 30 (step S3).

The opening degree of the damper 13 of the corresponding room is obtained according to the obtained required air volume (step S4), and the opening degree is notified to the controller 30 (step S5). At the same time, the damper 13 is driven so as to be equal to the calculated opening (step S6). Based on the output of the air volume sensor 14, the air volume of the corresponding branch passage 11 is detected (step S7), and the air volume is notified to the controller 30 (step S8). Controller 30
Executes the control shown in FIG.

The total sum of the required air volumes obtained by each controller 40 is calculated (step U1), and the indoor fan speed corresponding to the total is calculated from the speed setting conditions prestored in the internal memory (step U2). The output frequency F of the inverter 8 is controlled so that the speed of the indoor fan 6 becomes the indoor fan speed obtained above (step U3). The difference between the total sum of the required air flows and the total air flow obtained by each controller 40 is calculated (step U4), and it is determined whether the difference is within a certain range (step U5).

If the difference is out of the fixed range, the output frequency F of the inverter 8 is set to a predetermined value in the direction in which the difference falls within the fixed range, that is, in the direction in which the total ventilation amount becomes substantially equal to the total required air amount. Correction is performed (step U6).

In this way, first, the speed of the indoor fan 6 is first set directly to a value corresponding to the total sum of the required air volumes, and then the total sum of the actual ventilation volumes becomes substantially equal to the total sum of the required air volumes. By correcting the speed of the indoor fan 6, A
It is possible to ensure good followability of the air volume with respect to load fluctuations in the rooms B, C, and C. That is, it is possible to quickly reach a state in which the required air volumes of the A room, the B room, and the C room can be satisfied. As a result, excessive static pressure can be prevented and noise can be reduced.

If the difference is within a certain range in step U5, then it is determined how much the opening degree of each damper 13 is different from the full opening (step U7). If at least one of the dampers 13 is within a certain range from the fully opened state, the speed of the indoor fan 6 at that time is maintained.

However, if none of the dampers 13 is within the opening range within a certain range from the fully opened state, the dampers 13 are not opened.
The output frequency F of the inverter 8 is lowered by a predetermined value so that at least one of them is kept within a certain range from the fully opened state (step U9), and the speed of the indoor fan 6 is reduced.

In this way, the indoor fan 6 is controlled by making the opening degree of each damper 13 as close to fully open as possible.
Can be operated at as low a speed as possible. Therefore,
The power consumption of the indoor fan 6 can be reduced, and an energy saving effect can be obtained. In the above embodiment, the case where the number of rooms is three has been described as an example, but the number of rooms is not limited.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,

In the air conditioner of the first aspect, the opening of each damper is controlled according to the required air volume of each room, the speed of the indoor fan is set to a value corresponding to the sum of the required air volumes, and the ducts The air flow rate of the branch road is detected and the speed of the indoor fan is corrected so that the sum of the air flow rates becomes equal to the sum of the required air flow rates. As a result, the required air volume in each room can be quickly satisfied, and excessive static pressure can be prevented to reduce noise.

An air conditioner according to a second aspect of the present invention controls the opening of each damper according to the required air volume of each room, sets the speed of the indoor fan to a value corresponding to the sum of the required air volumes, and sets each duct. The ventilation volume of the branch road was detected, the speed of the indoor fan was corrected so that the sum of the ventilation volumes became equal to the sum of the required air volumes, and the sum of the ventilation volumes became equal to the sum of the required air volumes. At this time, at least one of the dampers is configured to correct the speed of the indoor fan in a direction from the fully opened state to the opening degree within a certain range, so that the good followability of the air volume with respect to the load fluctuation can be secured. As a result, it is possible to quickly satisfy the required air volume in each room, prevent excessive static pressure, reduce noise, and reduce power consumption of the fan to achieve energy saving effects.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of an air volume control unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of each controller 40 in the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the controller 30 in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Building, 2 ... Indoor unit, 5 ... Indoor heat exchanger, 6 ...
Indoor fan, 10 ... Duct, 11 ... Branch, 12 ... Air volume control unit, 13 ... Damper, 20 ... Outdoor unit, 2
1 ... Variable capacity compressor, 23 ... Outdoor heat exchanger, 30 ... Controller, 40 ... Controller.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An indoor unit that blows air for air conditioning by operating an indoor fan, a duct that has a branch passage toward a plurality of rooms and distributes and supplies the blown air of the indoor unit to each room, and each of the ducts. A damper for adjusting the amount of blown air provided in the branch passage, and means for obtaining the air conditioning load of each room,
A means for obtaining the required air volume of each room according to the air conditioning load, a means for controlling the opening degree of each damper according to the required air volume, and a speed of the indoor fan set to a value according to the sum of the required air volumes. Means, a means for detecting the ventilation volume of each of the branch passages, and a means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan in a direction in which the sum of the ventilation volumes becomes equal to the sum of the required air volumes. And an air conditioner. 2. An indoor unit that blows out air-conditioning air by operating an indoor fan, a duct that has a branch path toward a plurality of rooms, and distributes and supplies the blown air of the indoor unit to each room, and each of the ducts. A damper for adjusting the amount of blown air provided in the branch passage, and means for obtaining the air conditioning load of each room,
A means for obtaining the required air volume of each room according to the air conditioning load, a means for controlling the opening degree of each damper according to the required air volume, and a speed of the indoor fan set to a value according to the sum of the required air volumes. Means, a means for detecting the ventilation volume of each of the branch passages, a means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan in a direction in which the sum of the ventilation volumes becomes equal to the sum of the required air volumes, and the sum of the ventilation volumes. Is equal to the sum of the required air flows, at least one of the dampers is provided with a means for correcting the speed of the indoor fan in a direction from the fully opened state to the opening degree within a certain range. Air conditioner.