Bathroom air-conditioner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9746197-B2
Application number	US-51964508-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2008
Priority date	Jan 30, 2007
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A bathroom air-conditioner includes a refrigerant circuit in which a compressor, a radiator, a decompressing mechanism and a heat absorber are connected with one another through a pipe, a circulating air-course, and a ventilating air-course. In the circulating air-course, the radiator and a circulating fan for circulating the air of the bathroom are placed. In the ventilating air-course, the heat absorber and a ventilating fan for discharging the air from the bathroom to the outside are placed. The heat absorber makes the refrigerant absorb heat from the air of the bathroom, and the radiator makes the refrigerant dissipate heat to the air of the bathroom for heating the bathroom. During the heating of the bathroom, when a temperature of the bathroom becomes higher than a given temperature, a controller reduces an air-blow amount from the ventilating fan.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A bathroom air-conditioner comprising:
a refrigerant circuit which connects a compressor for compressing refrigerant, a radiator for making the refrigerant dissipate heat to supplied air, a decompressing mechanism for making the refrigerant expand to decompress, and a heat absorber for absorbing heat from the supplied air, through a pipe;
a circulating air-course running from an intake port open to a bathroom for drawing air in the bathroom to a blowout port open to the bathroom for blowing out the air to the bathroom at a different place from the intake port; and
a ventilating air-course running from an interior intake port open to a room other than the bathroom to an outer blowout port which blows out the air from the room to an outside, the ventilating air-course isolated from the circulating air-course,
wherein the radiator and a circulating fan, which circulates the air of the bathroom, are placed in the circulating air-course, and the heat absorber and a ventilating fan, which discharge the air of the room to the outside of the bathroom, are placed in the ventilating air-course,
wherein the heat absorber makes the refrigerant absorb heat from the air discharged from the room to the outside while the radiator makes the refrigerant dissipate heat to the air blown in the bathroom for heating the bathroom,
wherein during the heating of the bathroom, when a temperature of the bathroom becomes higher than a predetermined temperature, an air-blow amount supplied by the ventilating fan can be reduced by a controller.

2. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 1 , further comprising:
a partition for isolating the circulating air-course from the ventilating air-course,
wherein the compressor, the decompressing mechanism, and the controller are disposed in a side of the partition providing the ventilating air-course, and the ventilating fan and the heat absorber are disposed in this order from the outer blowout port.

3. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 1 , wherein a radiating plate is attached to the controller, the radiating plate radiates heat from the controller, and the radiating plate is disposed in the ventilating air-course such that a face having a smallest projection area among other faces of the radiating plate vertically confronts an air-blowing direction of the ventilating air-course.

4. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 1 , wherein a shutter plate is disposed in the ventilating air-course for controlling an air volume of the bathroom flowing to the compressor and the controller.

5. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 1 , further comprising:
an overload sensor which senses an over loaded status of at least one of the compressor and the controller.

6. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 4 further comprising:
a temperature sensor which senses a temperature in a vicinity of at least one of the compressor and the controller.

7. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 4 further comprising:
a humidity sensor which senses a humidity in a vicinity of at least one of the compressor and the controller.

8. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 5 , wherein the overload sensor is a load-temperature sensor which senses a temperature of at least one of the compressor and the controller.

9. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 5 , wherein the overload sensor is a current detector which detects an electric current of at least one of the compressor and the controller.

10. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 8 , wherein the load-temperature sensor is a non-contact temperature sensor which senses a temperature of at least one of the compressor and the controller in a non-contact manner.

11. A bathroom air-conditioner comprising:
a refrigerant circuit which connects through a pipe a compressor for compressing refrigerant, a radiator for making the refrigerant dissipate heat to supplied air, a decompressing mechanism for making the refrigerant expand to decompress, and a heat absorber for absorbing heat from the supplied air;
a circulating air-course running from an intake port open to a bathroom for drawing air in the bathroom to a blowout port open to the bathroom at a different place from the intake port for blowing out the air to the bathroom; and
a ventilating air-course running from an interior intake port open to a room other than the bathroom to an outer blowout port which blows out the air from the room to an outside, the ventilating air-course isolated from the circulating air-course,
wherein the heat absorber and a circulating fan, which circulates the air of the bathroom, are placed in the circulating air-course, and the radiator and a ventilating fan, which discharges the air from the room to the outside, are placed in the ventilating air-course,
wherein the heat absorber makes the refrigerant absorb heat from the air in the bathroom while the radiator makes the refrigerant dissipate heat to the air to be discharged from the room to the outside for cooling the bathroom,
wherein a controller is configured to, during the cooling of the bathroom, when a temperature of the bathroom becomes lower than a predetermined temperature, reduce an air-blow amount supplied from the ventilating fan.

12. A bathroom air-conditioner comprising:
a ventilating fan arranged to draw air through a first intake port and ventilate the air through an evacuating port to provide a ventilation course;
a circulating fan arranged to draw air from a second intake port and ventilate the air to a bathroom through a blow-out port to provide a circulating air course, the ventilation course isolated from the circulating air course;
a first heat exchanger disposed in the ventilation course;
a second heat exchanger coupled to the first heat exchanger via a refrigerant circuit, wherein the first heat exchanger exchanges heat with the air in the ventilation course while the second heat exchanger exchanges heat with air in the circulating air course;
a temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of the bathroom;
a controller configured to operatively control rotation of the ventilating fan and the circulating fan so that a rotation of the ventilating fan is decreased in accordance with the temperature of the bathroom, thereby increasing a difference in temperature between the air exchanging heat with the first heat exchanger and the air ventilated through the evacuating port so that heat dissipation loss can be reduced.

13. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 12 , further comprising a shutter plate disposed in the ventilation course for controlling an air volume of the air from the bathroom flowing to the controller.

14. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 12 , further comprising a partition for isolating the circulating air course from the ventilation course,
wherein the first heating exchanger and the controller are disposed on a side of the partition providing the ventilation course, and the ventilating fan and the first heating exchanger are disposed in this order from the evacuating port,
wherein air is drawn through an interior intake port, which is open to a room other than the bathroom, into the ventilation course.

15. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 1 , wherein
the predetermined temperature increases by 5° C.,
a rpm (revolution per minute) of the ventilating fan is set at a first rpm until the temperature of the bathroom rises to a first predetermined temperature, and
the controller reduces the rpm of the ventilating fan step-by-step with each 5° C. increase of the temperature of the bathroom.

16. The bathroom air-conditioner of claim 11 , where

Assignees

• Katsumi Yoshimasa
• Nishizuru Yoshihiro
• Saitou Kazuhiro
• Matubara Mitunori
• Tsubouchi Masafumi
• Sugata Yuuji
• Tsuihiji Hiroshi
• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Katsumi Yoshimasa
• Nishizuru Yoshihiro
• Saitou Kazuhiro
• Matubara Mitunori
• Tsubouchi Masafumi
• Sugata Yuuji
• Tsuihiji Hiroshi

Classifications

• F24F2007/001

  with exhausting air ducts · CPC title

• F24D5/12

  using heat pumps · CPC title

• Y02B30/563

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F24F11/0001 Primary

  for ventilation (F24F11/30 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F24D5/04

  with return of the air or the air-heater · CPC title