JPH0989347A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [PROBLEMS] To reduce noise generated from an indoor unit and an outdoor unit when an air conditioner is operated in a sleep mode. A user selects a sleep mode during normal operation of an air conditioner, and when it is detected that a predetermined time has elapsed in the sleep mode, the rotational speeds of an indoor fan motor 42 and an outdoor fan motor 96 decrease. It is like this. In addition to this, the compressor motor 26
The frequency-rotational speed characteristic is corrected with respect to the characteristic A in the normal mode operation under a predetermined condition in the sleep mode to obtain the characteristic B. When the frequency is controlled by this characteristic B, the rotation speed of the compressor motor 26 decreases.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to detecting a room temperature by a predetermined room temperature detecting means and setting the room temperature to a set temperature based on the detected temperature and the set temperature. The present invention relates to an air conditioner that performs control operation of air conditioning capacity to bring them closer together.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it has been known that the body temperature of a user drops during sleep when the air conditioner is switched to a so-called sleep mode by a remote controller or the like during normal operation. Therefore, when the room temperature reaches the set temperature during the operation of the air conditioner, the set temperature is controlled to increase by a predetermined temperature in the cooling mode after a predetermined time, and the set temperature is decreased in the heating mode. At this time, since the user becomes insensitive to the temperature control during sleep, the rotation speeds of the indoor fan motor and the outdoor fan motor are reduced in accordance with the change in the set temperature. Noise can be reduced by lowering the rotation speed of the fan.

However, although the number of rotations of the indoor fan motor and the outdoor fan motor is reduced, noise is reduced,
In the air conditioner, there are devices other than these, which are noise factors, and a sufficient noise reduction effect cannot be obtained. Since this noise is generated from the outdoor unit, the noise resonates around especially at night, and it has been pointed out that, for example, in a land where the houses are densely placed, it causes trouble to the neighborhood.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In consideration of the above facts, the present invention is an air conditioner capable of sufficiently exerting a noise reduction effect when the air conditioner is operated by switching from a normal operation mode to a sleep mode. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 detects the temperature in the room by a predetermined room temperature detecting means, and based on the detected temperature and the set temperature. An air conditioner that performs control operation of air conditioning ability to bring a room temperature close to a set temperature, the indoor fan motor that is installed in the indoor unit and drives an indoor fan that discharges conditioned air into the room, and an outdoor unit And an outdoor fan motor that drives an outdoor fan that releases heat absorbed by the refrigerant, and a compressor motor that drives a compressor that circulates the refrigerant by rotational driving,
Based on a predetermined frequency-rotation speed characteristic, a rotation speed control means for controlling the rotation speed of the compressor motor by frequency, and a shift to a direction in which the air conditioning capacity of the set temperature is relaxed, and the operation capacity is reduced. Selection means for selecting a mode from a plurality of operation modes including a sleep mode, and fan rotation speed control for reducing the rotation speeds of the indoor fan motor and the outdoor fan motor by a predetermined amount when the sleep mode is selected by the selection means. And a rotation speed reduction means for reducing the rotation speed by a predetermined amount with respect to the rotation speed in the other normal mode when the sleep mode is selected by the selection means.

According to the invention described in claim 1, when the sleep mode is selected and the operation is switched by the selecting means during the normal operation of the air conditioner, the set temperature in the room is set to the predetermined temperature. The number of rotations of the indoor fan motor and the outdoor fan motor decreases with the shift in the direction of relaxation. At the same time, the rotation speed of the compressor motor in the outdoor unit can be reduced by a predetermined amount as compared with the normal mode operation. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the rotation speeds of the indoor fan motor, the outdoor fan motor, and the compressor motor, which are elements that generate noise.

The invention as set forth in claim 2 is characterized in that the rotation speed reducing means corrects the frequency-rotation speed characteristic so that the rotation speed for the same frequency decreases by a predetermined ratio.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the frequency-rotational speed characteristic can be corrected so that the rotational speed at the same frequency as when the air conditioner is operated in the normal mode is reduced.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "air conditioner 10") is
The indoor unit 12 and the outdoor unit 14 are provided, and further, a remote controller 126 for sending an operation signal for remotely operating the air conditioner 10 is provided.

Between the indoor unit 12 and the outdoor unit 14, a thick refrigerant pipe 15A and a thin refrigerant pipe 15B for circulating a refrigerant are provided, and one end of each is a heat exchanger 16 in the indoor unit 12. It is connected to the.

On the other hand, in the outdoor unit 14, the other end of one refrigerant pipe 15A is connected to a valve 18, and this valve 18 is connected to a four-way valve 22 via a muffler 20A. Further, the four-way valve 22 is connected to both ends of a pipe line to which the accumulator 24, the compressor motor 26 and the muffler 20B are connected, and is further connected to one of the heat exchangers 28. The other end of the heat exchanger 28 is connected to the other end of the refrigerant pipe 15B via a cooling / heating capillary tube 30, a strainer 32, and a valve 34.

As a result, a closed refrigerant circulation path, that is, a refrigeration cycle is formed between the indoor unit 12 and the outdoor unit 14, and the operation mode of the air conditioner 10 is changed to the cooling mode (remove mode) by switching the four-way valve 22. It is switched to frost (dry) mode or heating mode. Note that FIG. 1 shows the flow of the refrigerant in each operation mode.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic structure of an electric circuit in the indoor unit 12, and FIG. 3 shows a schematic structure of an electric circuit in the outdoor unit 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, the indoor unit 12
A power supply board 38, a control board 40, and a power relay board 60A are provided in the. AC power for operating the air conditioner 10 is supplied to the power supply board 38, and a motor power supply 46 for outputting power for driving various motors in the indoor unit 12 and power for a control circuit are output. A control circuit power supply 48, a serial circuit power supply 50 that outputs electric power for the serial circuit, and a fan motor 42 (DC brushless motor, also see FIG. 1) that drives a crossflow fan that blows temperature-controlled air toward the room. A drive circuit 44 for driving is provided. The power relay board 60A is provided with a power relay 60 for opening and closing a contact 58 of a power supply circuit to the outdoor unit 14 and a temperature fuse.

The control board 40 includes a serial circuit 5
2, a drive circuit 54 for driving the upper and lower flap motors 62 for adjusting the wind direction, and a serial circuit 52, a drive circuit 44,
A microcomputer (microcomputer) 56 for controlling the operation of the air conditioner 10 is connected to the driving circuit 54, and a power relay 60 is connected to the drive circuit 54 via a temperature fuse.

The drive circuit 44 changes the DC voltage supplied from the motor power source according to the signal from the microcomputer 56, and adjusts the rotation speed of the fan motor 42, that is, the amount of air blown from the indoor unit 12 by the cross flow fan. ing. For example, the supply voltage to the fan motor 42 is 12V
By changing it in 256 steps in the range of up to 36 V, it is possible to finely adjust the air flow rate. At this time, the microcomputer 56 controls the upper and lower flap motors 62 as necessary to control not only the air volume from the indoor unit 12 but also the wind direction.

Further, the microcomputer 56 displays the operating condition and the operation mode of the air conditioner 10 by using an LED or the like, and also displays the self-diagnosis result on the display board 68 provided with a receiving circuit of the remote controller by lighting or blinking the self-diagnosis result. Multiple service LEDs 118 for operation, operation changeover switch 1
22, room temperature sensor 74 for detecting room temperature and heat exchanger 16
Heat exchanger temperature sensor 7 for detecting the temperature of the refrigerant coil inside
6 is connected.

The rotational speed of the fan motor 42 provided in the indoor unit 12 determines the conditioned air discharge amount into the room. Further, the rotation of the fan motor 42 is one of the elements that generate noise in the room.

As shown in FIG. 3, the outdoor unit 14
Is provided with a rectifier circuit 78 and a control board 80, and a terminal 84 provided on the 3P terminal board 14A.
A to 84C are the 3P terminal boards 1 of the indoor unit 12, respectively.
2A are connected to terminals 82A to 82C (see FIG. 2) by wiring (not shown) to receive electric power and to communicate with the indoor unit 12 by the microcomputer 56.
A serial signal is transmitted / received in accordance with a control signal from the device, and the frequency of the AC power supplied to the compressor motor 26 is controlled and the operation of each device is controlled.

A serial circuit 86 is provided on the control board 80, and a serial signal is transmitted / received to / from the serial circuit 52 of the indoor unit 12. Further, the control board 80 has a plurality of noise filters 88A, 88B, 88 for removing noise.
C, a switching power supply 92 for supplying electric power to an inverter circuit 90 for driving the compressor motor 26, and a microcomputer 94 are provided.

In the air conditioner 10, the frequency of driving the compressor motor 26 output from the inverter circuit 90 is changed to change the rotation speed of the compressor motor 26 to adjust the cooling / heating capacity. The control board 80 also includes the outdoor unit 1
The four-way valve 22 in 4 is connected, and the four-way valve 22 is switched to switch the operation mode. Further, the fan motor 96 (see also FIG. 1) of the heat exchanger 28 and the fan motor capacitor 96A are connected to the control board 80.
The microcomputer 94 is connected with an outside air temperature sensor 98A for detecting the outside air temperature, a coil temperature sensor 98B for detecting the temperature of the refrigerant coil in the heat exchanger 28, and a compressor temperature sensor 98C for detecting the temperature of the compressor motor 26. Therefore, the compressor motor 26 is driven while the operation of the fan motor 96, the operating state of the compressor motor 26, and the outside air temperature are detected.

The temperature of the refrigerant is adjusted according to the number of revolutions of the fan motor 96 provided in the outdoor unit 14. However, rotation of the fan motor 96 causes noise outside the room. Further, the rotation of the compressor motor 26 is one of the elements that generate noise on the outdoor side.

4A and 4B show a remote controller 126 for remotely operating the air conditioner 10. The remote controller 126 is provided with a transmitter, a room temperature sensor and the like inside, and a display unit 128 for displaying the operating state of the air conditioner 10 and a switch unit 130 for performing a driving operation on the surface. The switch unit 130 is provided with a start / stop button 132 on the front surface side of the open / close cover 131 and other operation switches for performing simple operations.

As shown in FIG. 4 (B), the switch section 130 exposed by opening the opening / closing cover 131 has a run / stop button 132 and a power saving mode button 1.
33, operation switching button 134, temperature button 136A for setting temperature (decrease set temperature), 136B (increase set temperature), wind direction button 138 for adjusting wind direction, air volume button 140 for adjusting air volume, turning on / off of timer A large number of button switches are provided for making detailed operation settings such as the switching timer buttons 142A and 142B, the timer setting input time button 144A, the timer setting time button 144B, the time setting buttons 144C and 144D.

Normally, the air conditioner 10 has the remote controller 12
Various signals such as indoor temperature detection, cooling / heating switching, temperature setting, timer setting, etc. and operation / stop operation are performed by a signal from 6.

The timer button 142B for timer switching provided on the remote controller 126 serves as a button switch for instructing the start of operation in the sleep mode according to the present embodiment. When the sleep mode is set, the air volume, temperature, etc. for maintaining a comfortable sleep are controlled, and the air-conditioning capacity is reduced. The temperature is going to drop.

There is a characteristic as shown in FIG. 5 between the frequency and the rotation speed of the compressor motor.

Characteristic A in FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the frequency and the rotation speed in the normal operation mode. In this case, the frequency and the rotation speed are proportional, and the L level (minimum rotation speed) is 1.
080 rpm, H level (maximum speed) is 1300 rp
It has become m. When the frequency is 75 Hz, the rotation speed of the compressor motor 26 reaches the maximum H level. Therefore, when the frequency is increased despite the maximum rotation speed, the maximum rotation speed is maintained regardless of the magnitude of the frequency.

On the other hand, the characteristic B in FIG. 5 shows the relationship between the frequency and the rotation speed during the sleep mode operation. This is
The characteristic A is corrected under a predetermined condition, and the values from the L level to the H level are made smaller than the characteristic A.

When the sleep mode is selected as described above, by configuring the outdoor unit 14 so that the frequency-rotation speed characteristic becomes the characteristic B, the noise factor is reduced and the air conditioner 10 is operated. It is like this.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

FIG. 6 shows a temperature control routine common to the normal operation mode and the sleep mode operation,
Each of these processes is performed by the operation / stop button 1 of the remote controller 126.
When the air conditioner 32 is turned on and the air conditioner 10 starts operating, the operation is repeated until the run / stop button is turned on again and the air conditioner 10 is stopped. Further, FIG. 7 shows a control routine during the sleep mode operation, which is repeatedly executed during the sleep mode operation of the air conditioner 10.

First, when the operation of the air conditioner 10 is started by operating the remote controller 126, the room temperature is detected in step 200.

Subsequently, at step 202, the temperature set by the user at the time of setting the operation mode is to be read out.

Further, in step 204, the difference between the room temperature obtained by the above processing and the set temperature is calculated. Based on the calculation result, the air volume in the room is controlled in step 206, and the frequency for driving the compressor motor 26 is controlled in step 208. As a result, the rotation speed of the compressor motor 26 is also controlled.

On the other hand, when the sleep mode is selected by the user, the routine shown in FIG. 7 is executed.

First, in step 300, the air conditioner 1
It is determined whether 0 is operated in the good night mode.

When it is determined that the vehicle is operating in the good night mode, the process proceeds to step 304, and it is determined whether a predetermined time has elapsed after the good night mode was selected. This predetermined time is about 1 hour in the present embodiment.

If it is determined that the predetermined time has elapsed since the sleep mode was selected, step 306
In the indoor fan motor 42 and the outdoor fan motor 9
The rotation speeds of 6 are controlled to be constant. This changes to "weak" when the air volume at the time of setting the good night mode was set to "strong" or "medium",
When set to "weak" or "fine", it means to maintain the current state.

Further, the processing shifts to step 308, and the characteristic A of the frequency-rotation speed characteristic of the compressor motor 26 is corrected under a predetermined condition. The corrected frequency-rotation speed characteristic becomes the characteristic B shown in FIG. The characteristic B is controlled so as to reduce the rotation speed of the compressor motor 26 when the frequency is the same as that of the characteristic A.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step 300 that the air conditioner 10 is not operating in the sleep mode, the frequency-rotation speed characteristic of the compressor motor 26 is set to the characteristic A of FIG.

Compressor motor 2 set in this way
When the frequency is controlled in step 208 of FIG. 6 based on the characteristic A or the characteristic B of the frequency-rotational speed characteristic of No. 6, the rotational speed of the compressor motor 26 is also controlled at the same time.

Therefore, when the air conditioner 10 is operated in the sleep mode, the rotation of the compressor motor 26 in the outdoor unit 14 is controlled so that the rotation speed is lower than that in the normal operation. As a result, the number of rotations of the indoor fan motor 42, the outdoor fan motor 96, and the compressor motor 26, which have been a cause of noise, is reduced, so that outdoor noise can be reduced.

In the frequency-rotation speed characteristic shown in FIG. 5, the H level of the characteristic A is 1300 rpm, the L level is 1080 rpm, and the H level of the characteristic B is 12.
Although it is set to 00 rpm, it is not limited to this value. With respect to the characteristic B, the number of rotations for the same frequency may be lower than that of the characteristic A.

[0046]

As described above, when the air conditioner according to the present invention is operated by switching to the sleep mode during normal operation, the rotation speed of the compressor motor provided in the outdoor unit is changed to the frequency. -Advantageously, the noise reduction effect can be sufficiently exerted by correcting the rotation speed for the same frequency of the rotation speed characteristic so as to be reduced at a predetermined rate.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a refrigerant pipeline of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electric circuit of an indoor unit of the air conditioner according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electric circuit of an outdoor unit of the air conditioner according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic external view of a remote controller.

FIG. 5 is a frequency-rotation speed characteristic diagram showing a relationship between frequency and rotation speed.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a temperature control routine of the air conditioner according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a setting control routine in a sleep mode of the air conditioner according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Air Conditioner 12 Indoor Unit 14 Outdoor Unit 16, 28 Heat Exchanger 26 Compressor Motor 42 Indoor Fan Motor 56, 94 Microcomputer 90 Inverter Circuit 96 Outdoor Fan Motor 126 Remote Controller 132 Run / Stop Button 142B Good Night Mode Button

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioner which detects an indoor temperature by a predetermined room temperature detecting means and performs a control operation of an air conditioning ability to bring the room temperature close to a set temperature based on the detected temperature and the set temperature. Indoor fan motor that drives an indoor fan that discharges conditioned air into the room, and an outdoor fan that drives an outdoor fan that discharges heat absorbed by the refrigerant. A motor, a compressor motor that drives a compressor that circulates a refrigerant by rotational driving, a rotation speed control unit that controls the rotation speed of the compressor motor by frequency based on a predetermined frequency-rotation speed characteristic, and a set temperature Modes from multiple operating modes including a sleep mode that shifts the air conditioning capacity of the vehicle to a lesser degree and reduces the operating capacity Selecting means for selecting, a fan rotation speed control means for lowering the rotation speeds of the indoor fan motor and the outdoor fan motor by a predetermined amount when the sleep mode is selected by the selecting means, and the sleep mode is selected by the selecting means And a rotation speed reduction unit that reduces the rotation speed by a predetermined amount with respect to the rotation speed in the other normal mode. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the rotation speed reducing means corrects the frequency-rotation speed characteristic so that the rotation speed with respect to the same frequency decreases by a predetermined ratio.