Air-conditioning unit control device and air-conditioning unit control program for minimizing power consumption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9752791-B2
Application number	US-201314381781-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 26, 2012
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

An air-conditioning unit control device controls an air-conditioning unit system including one or more outdoor units and a plurality of indoor units. The air-conditioning unit control device includes an environment target value setting unit to set an environment target value for an environment intended to be achieved by air conditioning through each of the indoor units, a zone setting unit to form one or more groups of the indoor units and set a zone for each of the groups, a zone load calculating unit to calculate a heat load on the set zone, an air conditioning capacity allocation calculating unit to determine an allocation of operation capacity to each of the indoor units and the outdoor units based on power consumption of each of the indoor units and the outdoor units, and a control instructing unit to transmit a control signal based on each operation capacity.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An air-conditioning unit control device that controls an air-conditioning unit system including one or more outdoor units and a plurality of indoor units connected to the outdoor units by pipes, the indoor units being configured to condition air in a space, the air-conditioning unit control device comprising:
an environment target value setting unit configured to set an environment target value for an environment intended to be achieved by air conditioning through each of the indoor units;
a zone setting unit configured to form one or more groups of the indoor units and set a zone for each of the groups or change the zone based on a difference between the environment target value and an environment-condition-related value detected by indoor environment condition detecting unit in an installation position for each of the indoor units, the zone serving as a subspace;
a zone load calculating unit configured to calculate a heat load on the zone set or changed by the zone setting unit;
an air conditioning capacity allocation calculating unit configured to calculate and determine an allocation of operation capacity to each of the indoor units and the outdoor units based on power consumption of each of the indoor units and the outdoor units so as to minimize the total power consumption;
a control instructing unit configured to transmit a control signal based on the operation capacity of each of the indoor units and the outdoor units calculated by the air conditioning capacity allocation calculating unit to each of the indoor units and the outdoor units; and
an environment status input unit configured to input data representing qualitative information which is an environment-status-related value,
wherein the environment target value setting unit changes the environment target value based on each environment-condition-related value and the environment-status-related value.

2. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , wherein when the zone setting unit determines that a difference between the environment target value and each environment-condition-related value in a first zone is greater than or equal to 0 and a difference between the environment target value and each environment-condition-related value in a second zone next to the first zone is less than 0 while the air-conditioning unit system is in a cooling operation, the zone setting unit allows the first zone to include the second zone.

3. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , wherein the zone setting unit forms one or more groups of the indoor units based on the difference between the environment target value and each of the environment-condition-related values and sets the zone for each of the groups.

4. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , further comprising:
an environment condition predicting unit configured to predict a time period and energy consumption for an environment condition in the zone to reach a target environment value based on the allocations determined by the air conditioning capacity allocation calculating unit.

5. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , wherein the zone setting unit forms a plurality of groups of the one or more indoor units based on the difference between the environment target value and each of the environment-condition-related values and adds, changes, or removes a zone in which one or more indoor units in one of the groups are shared with another of the groups.

6. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , wherein the zone setting unit changes the zones based on the difference between the environment target value set for each zone and set for each time period and either of each environment-condition-related value and the environment status.

7. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , wherein the air conditioning capacity allocation calculating unit calculates the operation capacity of each of the outdoor units and each of the indoor units or air conditioning capacity compensating units based on the environment target value, the environment-condition-related value, and time required to reach the environment target value.

8. The air-conditioning unit control device of claim 1 , wherein the zone setting unit forms a plurality of groups of the one or more indoor units based on a target value of power consumption of the indoor units, the outdoor units, and another power consuming device for a predetermined time period and the difference between the environment target value and each of the environment-condition-related values, and sets or changes the zones such that one or more indoor units in at least one group are shared with another group.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program instructions that cause a computer to execute a method for controlling an air-conditioning unit system including one or more outdoor units and a plurality of indoor units connected to the outdoor units by pipes, the indoor units being configured to condition air in a space, the method comprising:
setting step of setting an environment target value for an environment intended to be achieved by air conditioning through each of the indoor units;
forming one or more groups of the indoor units and setting a zone tier each of the groups or changing the zone based on a difference between the environment target value and an environment-condition-related value detected by indoor environment condition detecting unit in an installation position for each of the indoor units, the zone serving as a subspace;
calculating a heat load on the zone set or changed;
calculating and determining an allocation of operation capacity to each of the indoor units and the outdoor units based on power consumption of each of the indoor units and the outdoor units so as to minimize the total power consumption;
transmitting a control signal based on the operation capacity of each of the indoor units and the outdoor units calculated to each of the indoor units and the outdoor units; and
predicting a time period and energy consumption for an environment condition in the zone to reach a target environment value based on the determined allocation.

Assignees

• Mori Kazuyuki
• Kitamura Shoichi
• Hashimoto Hiroyuki
• Ueno Yohei
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Mori Kazuyuki
• Kitamura Shoichi
• Hashimoto Hiroyuki
• Ueno Yohei

Classifications

• F24F11/64

  using pre-stored data · CPC title

• F24F11/46 Primary

  Improving electric energy efficiency or saving · CPC title

• F24F11/30 Primary

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

• F24F11/0009 Primary

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F24F11/006

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic