Thermal demand adjustment device for energy network and thermal demand adjustment method for energy network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11143426-B2
Application number	US-201415320429-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Jun 20, 2014
Publication date	Oct 12, 2021
Grant date	Oct 12, 2021

Abstract

The purpose of the present invention is to minimize impact on the comfort of people in a room and to achieve energy conservation in heat-source functions in an energy network comprising a plurality of heat-source functions that generate cold water and/or warm water, and a plurality of air-conditioning functions that obtain an air-conditioning effect by consuming the cold water and/or warm water generated by the heat-source functions. Disclosed is an energy network comprising a plurality of heat-source functions that generate thermal energy, and a plurality of air-conditioning functions that obtain an air-conditioning effect by consuming the thermal energy generated by the heat-source functions, wherein the energy network comprises: a first control function that selectively starts or stops the heat-source functions; and a second control function that controls the output of the air-conditioning functions. When the first control function starts or stops the heat-source function(s), the second control function controls the total load of the plurality of air-conditioning functions to a desired magnitude.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network, the energy network including a plurality of heat-source devices, a fluid path, and a plurality of air conditioners to which heat from the plurality of heat-source devices is transmitted through the fluid path, in which the plurality of heat-source devices are operated as a number of units according to a number of operating units notification signal and operated so as to set fluid in the fluid path to a predetermined value, and the plurality of air conditioners are operated to exchange thermal energy with the fluid path so as to approach an instruction value, the thermal demand adjustment device is configured to:
generate the number of operating units notification signal indicating which heat-source device is to be operated among the plurality of heat-source devices based on a determination of a trend in the thermal demand, where the trend includes categories of increasing, decreasing, and being not greatly changed;
calculate the thermal demand exchanged in an air conditioner of the plurality of air conditioners; and
generate the instruction value to the air conditioner of the plurality of air conditioners so as to improve efficiency of a corresponding heat-source device based on load characteristics of the corresponding heat-source device according to the calculated thermal demand, wherein
the thermal demand is obtained by subtracting a total current cold water demand from a predicted total cold water demand at a time later than a current time.

2. The thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network according to claim 1 ,
wherein a total load of the plurality of heat-source devices is controlled so as to be a desired magnitude.

3. The thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network according to claim 1 ,
wherein the instruction value is obtained based on efficiency with respect to a load factor in the plurality of heat-source devices.

4. The thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network according to claim 3 ,
wherein the number of operating units of the plurality of heat-source devices is determined based on at least any one of an amount of heat generation inside a room and a magnitude of invaded heat from outside.

5. The thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network according to claim 4 ,
wherein the instruction value is a setting temperature of the air conditioner.

6. The thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of heat-source devices are controlled to start or stop based on temperature information of a room in which the air conditioner is installed.

7. The thermal demand adjustment device for an energy network according to claim 1 ,
wherein the plurality of heat-source devices are refrigerators.

8. A thermal demand adjustment method for an energy network including a plurality of heat-source devices, a fluid path, and a plurality of air conditioners to which heat from the plurality of heat-source devices is transmitted through the fluid path, in which the plurality of heat-source devices are operated as a number of units according to a number of operating units notification signal and operated so as to set fluid in the fluid path to a predetermined value, and the plurality of air conditioners are operated to exchange thermal energy with the fluid path so as to approach an instruction value, the method comprising:
generating the number of operating units notification signal indicating which heat-source device is to be operated among the plurality of heat-source devices based on a determination of a trend in the thermal demand, where the trend includes categories of increasing, decreasing, and being not greatly changed;
calculating the thermal demand exchanged in an air conditioner of the plurality of air conditioners; and

generating the instruction value to the air conditioner of the plurality of air conditioners so as to improve efficiency of the plurality of heat-source devices based on load characteristics of the plurality of heat-source devices according to the calculated thermal demand, wherein
the thermal demand is obtained by subtracting a total current cold water demand from a predicted total cold water demand at a time later than a current time.

Assignees

• Hitachi Ltd

Inventors

• Takahashi Hirotaka
• Kawamura Tsutomu

Classifications

• F24F11/83 Primary

  by controlling the supply of heat-exchange fluids to heat-exchangers · CPC title

• F24F5/0003

  Exclusively-fluid systems · CPC title

• F24F11/46

  Improving electric energy efficiency or saving · CPC title

• F24F2221/54

  Heating and cooling, simultaneously or alternatively · CPC title

• F24F11/30

  for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring · CPC title