Air-conditioning apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9534797-B2
Application number	US-200913265340-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 13, 2009
Priority date	May 13, 2009
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

Provided is an easy-to-design, inexpensive air-conditioning apparatus in which an external static pressure and an airflow are calculated without using a static-pressure detector and an indoor-unit-side fan is controlled using those values. An air-conditioning apparatus according to the present invention is configured such that a control unit (indoor-unit-side control unit) stores an external static pressure of an indoor unit calculated from a rotation speed of an indoor-unit-side fan when the airflow of the indoor-unit-side fan is controlled to a predetermined rated airflow and controls the rotation of the indoor-unit-side fan so that the external static pressure of the indoor unit obtained thereafter from the rotation speed of the indoor-unit-side fan approaches the stored external static pressure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An air-conditioning apparatus comprising:
a heat-source-side unit including a compressor, a heat-source-side heat exchanger, and a throttle device;
a use-side unit including an air duct, a use-side fan, and a use-side heat exchanger;
a control unit configured to control rotation speed of the use-side fan; and
a memory configured to store
a first tabular form which specifies first relationships between a rotation speed of the use-side fan and an airflow of the use-side fan for each output of the use-side fan, and
a second tabular form which specifies second relationships between an external static pressure in the air duct and the airflow of the use-side fan for each of the outputs of the use-side fan,

wherein when selecting an initialization mode,
the control unit is configured to
operate the use-side fan with a first output,
determine a first rotation speed of the use-side fan operated with the first output,
calculate a first airflow of the use-side fan based on the first tabular form, the first output, and the first rotation speed,
calculate an initial external static pressure based on the second tabular form, the first output, and the first airflow,

the memory is configured to store the initial external static pressure,
wherein after finishing the initialization mode,
the control unit is configured to
operate the use-side fan with a second output,
determine a second rotation speed of the use-side fan operated with the second output,
calculate a second airflow of the use-side fan based on the first tabular form, the second output, and the second rotation speed,
calculate a current external static pressure based on the second tabular form, the second output, and the second airflow, and
control the rotation speed of the use-side fan based on the current external static pressure and the initial external static pressure.

2. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the control unit controls capacity of the compressor;
the apparatus comprises a blown-out-air temperature sensor that detects a temperature of air blown out from the use-side fan; and
the control unit controls the capacity of the compressor so that the temperature detected by the blown-out-air temperature sensor reaches a predetermined temperature.

3. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 2 , comprising:
a gas-liquid two-phase temperature sensor installed in the vicinity of the center of the path of the use-side heat exchanger;
wherein the control unit
controls the capacity of the compressor so that at least either the temperature detected by the blown-out-air temperature sensor or the temperature detected by the gas-liquid two-phase temperature sensor reaches a predetermined temperature.

4. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , comprising:
a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of an air-conditioning target area; and
a calculating portion that calculates a necessary airflow from a set temperature set by a user and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor,
wherein the control unit
controls at least one of the use-side fan and the compressor in accordance with input information from the calculating portion.

5. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 4 , wherein
the temperature sensor and the calculating portion are provided in an operating portion that receives various instructions from the user.

6. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the control unit is equipped with a nonvolatile memory that stores the initial external static pressure calculated by the control unit.

7. An air-conditioning apparatus comprising:
a heat-source-side unit including a compressor, a heat-source-side heat exchanger, and a throttle device;
a use-side unit including an air duct, a use-side fan and a use-side heat exchanger; and
a controller configured to control a rotation speed of the use-side fan and a frequency of the compressor,
wherein when selecting an initialization mode, the controller is configured to
operate the use-side fan with a first rotation speed, and
determine an airflow of the use-side fan based on the first rotation speed,
calculate an initial external static pressure in the air duct based on the first rotation speed and the airflow of the use-side fan,

wherein after finishing the initialization mode, the controller is configured to
operate the use-side fan with a second rotation speed,
calculate a current external static pressure in the air duct based on the second rotation speed,
when a difference between the current external static pressure and the initial external static pressure is within a predetermined range, maintain the rotation speed of the use-side fan,
when the difference is below a lower limit of the predetermined range, operate the use-side fan with a third rotation speed which is larger than the second rotation speed, and
when the difference is above an upper limit of the predetermined range, operate the use-side fan with a fourth rotation speed which is lower than the second rotation speed and decrease the frequency of the compressor after starting to operate the use-side fan with the fourth rotation speed.

8. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 7 , wherein
when the difference is below the lower limit of the predetermined range, the controller is configured to operate the use-side fan with the third rotation speed and increase the frequency of the compressor after starting to operate the use-side fan with the third rotation speed.

9. An air-conditioning apparatus comprising:
a heat-source-side unit including a compressor, a heat-source-side heat exchanger, and a throttle device;
a use-side unit including an air duct, a damper, a use-side fan and a use-side heat exchanger; and
a temperature sensor configured to detect a first temperature of the air-conditioning target area,
a controller configured to control a rotation speed of the use-side fan, a frequency of the compressor and an opening-degree of the damper,
wherein when selecting an initialization mode, the controller is configured to
operate the use-side fan with a first rotation speed, and
determine a first airflow of the use-side fan based on the first rotation speed,
calculate an initial external static pressure in the air duct based on the first rotation speed and the first airflow of the use-side fan,

wherein after finishing the initialization mode, the controller is configured to
operate the use-side fan with a second rotation speed,
determine a second airflow of the use-side fan based on the second rotation speed,
calculate a necessary airflow based on a first difference between the first temperature and a second temperature set by a remote controller,
control the opening degree of the damper to be a predetermined opening-degree based on the first difference,
calculate a current external static pressure in the air duct based on the second rotation speed,
when a second difference between the current external static pressure and the initial external static pressure is above a first predetermined value, operate the use-side fan with a third rotation speed which is lower than the second rotation speed and maintain the opening-degree of the damper,
when the second difference is equal to or below the predetermined value
and when a third difference between the second airflow and the necessary airflow is above a second predetermined value, operate the use-side fan with the third rotation speed and maintain the opening-degree of the damper,
and when the third difference is equal to or below the second predetermined value, operate the use-side fan with a fourth rotation speed which is larger than the second rotation speed or maintai

Assignees

• Tsutsumi Hiroshi
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Tsutsumi Hiroshi

Classifications

• F24F11/77

  by controlling the speed of ventilators · CPC title

• F24F3/0442 Primary

  with volume control at a constant temperature · CPC title

• F24F11/74

  for controlling air flow rate or air velocity · CPC title

• Y02B30/767

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F24F11/0079

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic