Air-conditioning system, air-conditioning control method, and non-transitory computer readable medium storing program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10655879-B2
Application number	US-201616082301-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2016
Priority date	Apr 19, 2016
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

An air-conditioning system according to the present invention includes plural air-conditioning apparatuses which air-condition the same space, and a controller which includes a communication unit, a data collection unit and a determination unit. The communication unit communicates with the plural air-conditioning apparatuses via a communication line. The data collection unit collects air-conditioning data including information indicating an air-conditioning efficiency from each of the plural air-conditioning apparatus via the communication unit. The determination unit determines one of the air-conditioning apparatuses which has the lowest air-conditioning efficiency, as a low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, based on the collected air-conditioning data, reduces the load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, and causes one or ones of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which are other than the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, to bear an amount of load by which the load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An air-conditioning system comprising:
plural air-conditioning apparatuses configured to air-condition the same space; and
a controller configured to
communicate with the plural air-conditioning apparatuses via a communication line;
collect air-conditioning data including information indicating an air-conditioning efficiency from each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses via the communication line;
determine one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a lowest air-conditioning efficiency, as a low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, based on the collected air-conditioning data;
reduce a load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus; and
cause one or ones of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses, which are other than the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, to bear an amount of load by which the load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced,
wherein the controller is further configured to
cause at least one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses, which is other than the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, to bear the amount of load by transmitting an instruction signal to the at least one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses to change a target temperature set value by a pre-determined value, and
reduce the load of the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus by transmitting an instruction signal to the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus to reduce the load by changing a target temperature set value in accordance with the pre-determined value.

2. The air-conditioning system of claim 1 ,
wherein the information indicating the air-conditioning efficiency includes a coefficient of performance, and
wherein the controller is further configured to: refer to the air-conditioning data on each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses to determine one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a smallest value of the coefficient of performance, as the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, and determine one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a greatest value of the coefficient of performance, as a high-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus; and cause the high-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus to bear the amount of load by which the load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced.

3. The air-conditioning system of claim 1 ,
wherein each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses transmits the air-conditioning data to the controller, the air-conditioning data including information indicating a use state of at least one component related to an air-conditioning operation, and
wherein the controller is further configured to refer to the air-conditioning data transmitted by the each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses, determine whether a function of the at least one component deteriorates or not, based on the information indicating the use state of the at least one component, and determine one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which uses a component whose function deteriorates, as the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus.

4. The air-conditioning system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to transmit the instruction signal including information regarding changing of the target temperature set value, which is made in accordance with the amount of load by which the load on which the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced, to the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus via the communication line.

5. A method of an air-conditioning control, which is executed by a controller configured to control plural air-conditioning apparatuses configured to air-condition the same space, the method comprising:
collecting air-conditioning data including information indicating an air-conditioning efficiency from each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses via a communication line;
determining one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a lowest air-conditioning efficiency, as a low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, based on the collected air-conditioning data;
reducing a load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus by transmitting an instruction signal to the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus to reduce the load by changing a target temperature set value in accordance with a pre-determined value; and
causing at least one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses, which is other than the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, to bear an amount of load by which the load on the Hall low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced, by transmitting an instruction signal to the at least one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses to change a target temperature set value by the pre-determined value.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program to cause a computer configured to control plural air-conditioning apparatuses configured to air-condition the same space to execute the processes of:
collecting air-conditioning data including information indicating an air-conditioning efficiency from each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses via a communication line;
determining one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a lowest air-conditioning efficiency, as a low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, based on the collected air-conditioning data;
reducing a load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus by transmitting an instruction signal to the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus to reduce the load by changing a target temperature set value in accordance with a pre-determined value; and
causing at least one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses, which is other than the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, to bear an amount of load by which the load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced, by transmitting an instruction signal to the at least one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses to change a target temperature set value by the pre-determined value.

7. The method of claim 5 ,
wherein the information indicating the air-conditioning efficiency includes a coefficient of performance, and
further comprising: referring to the air-conditioning data on each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses to determine one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a smallest value of the coefficient of performance, as the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus, and determining one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which has a greatest value of the coefficient of performance, as a high-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus; and causing the high-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus to bear the amount of load by which the load on the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus is reduced.

8. The method of claim 5 ,
wherein each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses transmits the air-conditioning data to the controller, the air-conditioning data including information indicating a use state of at least one component related to an air-conditioning operation, and
further comprising: referring to the air-conditioning data transmitted by the each of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses, determining whether a function of the at least one component deteriorates or not, based on the information indicating the use state of the at least one component, and determining one of the plural air-conditioning apparatuses which uses a component whose function deteriorates, as the low-efficiency air-conditioning apparatus.

9. The method of claim 5 , further comprising transmitting the instruction signal including information regarding changing of the target temperature set value, which is made in accordance wit

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Muramatsu Hidenori

Classifications

• H05K7/207

  Thermal management, e.g. cabinet temperature control · CPC title

• H05K7/20209

  Thermal management, e.g. fan control · CPC title

• F24F11/46 Primary

  Improving electric energy efficiency or saving · CPC title

• F24F11/64

  using pre-stored data · CPC title

• F24F2140/60

  Energy consumption · CPC title