JP5882790B2 - Bath equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a bath apparatus that circulates bathtub water and prevents freezing of a bath circulation circuit.

  Conventionally, in this type, a bath circulation pump that circulates bath water in the middle of a bath circulation circuit connected to the bathtub is installed, and if the outdoor air temperature detected by the outside air temperature sensor is below a predetermined value, the bath circulation pump ON to start freezing prevention operation and change the time of intermittent operation of the bath circulation pump only according to the temperature detected by the bath temperature sensor, for example, the temperature detected by the bath temperature sensor If the temperature is relatively high, by shortening the ON time of the bath circulation pump and increasing the OFF time, the operation time of the bath circulation pump can be shortened to enable freezing prevention operation with reduced power consumption. It was. (For example, Patent Document 1)

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-118648

  However, in this conventional system, when the freeze prevention operation is started immediately after draining the bath water, the bath circulation circuit is still warm at about 40 ° C. Therefore, only the temperature detected by the bath temperature sensor is used for the bath circulation pump. Since the intermittent operation time is changed, the ON time of the bath circulation pump is shortened and the OFF time is lengthened. For example, if the outside air temperature is −10 ° C., the bath circulation circuit is rapidly cooled. The bathtub water remaining in the bath circulation pump may freeze during the OFF time.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in claim 1 of the present invention, a bath circulation circuit connected to a bathtub, a bath circulation pump installed in the middle of the bath circulation circuit to circulate bathtub water, and bath water in the bathtub The remaining hot water detecting means for detecting the outdoor temperature, the outdoor air temperature sensor for detecting the outdoor air temperature, the bath temperature sensor installed in the middle of the bath circulation circuit for detecting the temperature of the bathtub water, and the outdoor air temperature sensor having a predetermined value or less. And a control unit that starts an anti-freezing operation for intermittently operating the bath circulation pump to prevent freezing of the bath circulation circuit when detected, the control unit at the start of the anti-freezing operation, the remaining hot water if tub water is detected by the detection means, in accordance with sensed values and the ambient temperature sensor and the bath temperature sensor becomes lower, the bath so that the ON time of the circulation pump is increased in the intermittent operation During those with varied.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, if the remaining hot water detection means is not detected at the start of the freeze prevention operation, the intermittent operation time is changed based on the values detected by the outside air temperature sensor and the bath temperature sensor. Therefore, intermittent operation can be performed at an appropriate time even when there is no bathtub water at the start of the freeze prevention operation, and freezing of the bathtub water remaining in the bath circulation pump can be reliably prevented.

Schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention Control block diagram of the invention Flowchart for explaining anti-freezing operation of the invention The figure explaining the time of the intermittent operation by the presence or absence of the remaining hot water of the same invention

Next, an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 is a hot water storage tank unit that houses a hot water storage tank 2, 3 is a hot water discharge pipe for discharging hot water at the upper part of the hot water storage tank 2, 4 is a water supply pipe for supplying city water to the hot water storage tank 2, and 5 is a hot water storage installed outside the room. It is a heat pump unit that heats hot water in the tank 2.

  Reference numeral 6 denotes a heat pump forward pipe that connects the lower part of the hot water storage tank 2 and the heat pump unit 5 by piping, 7 denotes a heat pump return pipe that connects the heat pump unit 5 and the upper part of the hot water storage tank 2 by pipes, and 8 denotes a heat pump forward pipe 6 and the heat pump return pipe. 7 is a heat-pump circuit composed of seven.

  9 is a water supply bypass pipe branched from the water supply pipe 4, 10 is a hot water supply mixing valve that adjusts the hot water flowing in the hot water supply pipe 3 and the hot water flowing through the water supply bypass pipe 9 at a predetermined ratio to adjust the hot water supply temperature, and 11 is a hot water supply valve The bath mixing valve adjusts the bath temperature to a set bath temperature by mixing hot water flowing in the pipe 3 and the water supply bypass pipe 9 at a predetermined ratio.

  Reference numeral 12 denotes a hot water supply pipe through which hot water mixed at a predetermined ratio by the hot water supply mixing valve 10 flows. Reference numeral 13 denotes a hot water supply installed at a washroom or the like by opening the hot water adjusted to the hot water supply temperature by the hot water supply mixing valve 10. A hot-water tap, 14 is a hot water flow sensor for detecting the flow rate of hot water flowing in the hot water pipe 12, and 15 is a hot water temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of hot water flowing in the hot water pipe 12.

  16 is a bath heat exchanger that heats the bath water stored in the bathtub 17 by exchanging heat with hot water in the hot water storage tank 2, 18 is a bath return pipe that sends the bath water to the bath heat exchanger 16, and 19 is a bath. A bath-out pipe for returning bath water heated by the heat exchanger 16 into the bathtub 17, 20 is a bath circulation circuit formed by the bath-out pipe 19, the bath heat exchanger 16 and the bath return pipe 18, and 21 is a bath circulation. It is a bath circulation pump that circulates bathtub water in the circuit 20.

  22 is a water flow switch as a remaining hot water detecting means for detecting whether bath water is flowing in the bath circulation circuit 20 by ON / OFF of the switch, and 23 is a bath temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the bath water in the bath circulation circuit 20. Each of them is installed in the middle of the bath return pipe 18.

  Reference numeral 24 denotes a hot water pipe that conveys hot water mixed by the bath mixing valve 11 to the bath return pipe 18, and a hot water temperature sensor 25 that detects the temperature of the hot water mixed by the bath mixing valve 11 in the middle of the pipe; A hot water solenoid valve 26 which opens and closes the electric valve to start and stop hot water filling in the bathtub 17, and a hot water flow rate sensor 27 which detects the amount of hot water flowing into the bathtub 17 from the flow rate of hot water flowing in the pipe. A check valve 28 for preventing the hot water in the bathtub 17 from flowing backward is installed.

  A plurality of hot water storage temperature sensors 29 are arranged in the vertical direction of the hot water storage tank 2. In this embodiment, five hot water storage temperature sensors 29 a, 29 b, 29 c, 29 d, and 29 e are installed and detected by the hot water storage temperature sensor 29. The amount of residual heat in the hot water storage tank 2 and the vertical temperature distribution in the hot water storage tank 2 can be confirmed from the temperature information.

  30 is a relief valve communicating with the upper part of the hot water storage tank 2, 31 is a water supply temperature sensor that is provided in the middle of the water supply pipe 4 to detect the temperature of the water supply flowing in the pipe, and 32 is provided in the water supply pipe 4 to reduce the pressure from the water supply. A pressure reducing valve 33 is a water supply tap that allows tap water to flow into the water supply pipe 4 by opening the plug, and 34 is a drain valve that is connected to the bottom of the hot water storage tank 2 and drains hot water outside.

  Reference numeral 35 denotes an outside air temperature sensor installed at a predetermined position in the heat pump unit 5 and detects the outside air temperature around the heat pump unit 5 installed outside the room.

  Reference numeral 36 denotes a remote controller that is installed in a bathroom 37 and has an operation unit that can be set by a user to perform various settings. The amount of hot water set by a hot water amount setting switch (not shown) is stored in the bathtub 17. A bath automatic switch 38 that flows in and keeps the set temperature for a predetermined time, a temperature change switch 39 that changes the set temperature of the bath water, and a speaker 40 that informs the set temperature of the hot water flowing into the bath 17 by voice are provided. Furthermore, the display unit 41 made of a dot matrix type fluorescent display tube is provided, so that the user can check the setting status.

  Reference numeral 42 denotes a control unit that receives an input from each sensor installed in the hot water storage tank unit 1 and controls the drive of each actuator, and compares the temperature detected by each temperature sensor with a predetermined value. Means 43 and timing means 44 for counting the ON time and OFF time of the bath circulation pump 21 during the freeze prevention operation are provided.

Next, a specific operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be described.
First, the boiling operation at normal time will be described. When the power unit price of the contracted electric power according to the time zone in each region reaches a low-night time zone, the control unit 42 heats the hot water in the hot water storage tank 2 with the heat pump unit 5. Start the boiling operation.

  The control unit 42 determines the boiling target temperature and amount of hot water stored in the hot water storage tank 2 based on the average amount of hot water used in the past week and the temperature detected by the hot water temperature sensor 29, and the target temperature at the completion time of boiling. When a boiling start time for starting a boiling operation is calculated for boiling a predetermined amount of hot water and it is determined that the boiling start time has been reached, a heat pump circulating pump (not shown) in the heat pump unit 5 is driven to store hot water. Hot water in the tank 2 flows in the heat pump circulation circuit 8 and is heated by the heat pump unit 5 to store hot water so that high temperature water is sequentially stacked from the upper part of the hot water storage tank 2.

  When the controller 42 determines that the hot water at the target boiling temperature has been stored up to a predetermined amount of hot water from the temperature detected by the hot water temperature sensor 29, the boiling operation is terminated.

Next, a hot water filling operation in which hot water of a bath set temperature flows into the bathtub 17 by the set hot water amount will be described.
When the bath automatic switch 38 of the remote controller 36 is operated, the controller 42 opens the hot water solenoid valve 26 and adjusts the opening of the bath mixing valve 11 so that hot water at the bath set temperature flows into the bathtub 17. If it is determined that the set amount of hot water has flowed into the bathtub 17 from the flow rate detected by the tension flow sensor 27, the hot water solenoid valve 26 is closed to end the hot water filling.

Next, the freeze prevention operation of the bath circulation circuit 20 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
First, the control unit 42 confirms the outside air temperature T detected by the outside air temperature sensor 35 and compares the outside air temperature T with a predetermined value of 0 ° C. or less (step S101). If the temperature is 0 ° C. or lower, the bath circulation pump 21 is started to prevent freezing of the bath water in the bath circulation circuit 20, and it has passed since the operation of the bath circulation pump 21 was started by the time measuring means 44. Time counting is started (step S102).

  When the operation of the bath circulation pump 21 is started in step S102, the control unit 42 determines whether four minutes have elapsed from the start of operation of the bath circulation pump 21 based on the time counted by the time measuring means 44 (step S103).

  If it is determined in step S103 that 4 minutes have elapsed, the control unit 42 has detected that the bath water flowing through the bath circulation circuit 20 has been turned ON during the 4 minutes counted by the time measuring means 44 and has been turned ON. Thus, it is determined whether there is bathtub water in the bathtub 17 (step S104), and if it is determined that bathtub water exists, as shown in FIG. 4, the outside air temperature T detected by the outside air temperature sensor 35 and the bath temperature sensor 23 are used. An intermittent operation in which the bath circulation pump 21 is turned ON / OFF for a time based on the detected bath temperature F is performed (step S105). If it is determined that there is no bathtub water, the outside air temperature is different from that when the bathtub water exists. An intermittent operation is performed in which the bath circulation pump 21 is turned ON / OFF for a time based on T and the bath temperature F (step S106).

  When the intermittent operation is performed in which the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on / off for a predetermined time in step S105 and step S106, the control unit 42 confirms the time elapsed since the bath circulation pump 21 was turned on / off by the time measuring means 44. (Step S107), it is determined whether or not 20 minutes have passed since the bath circulation pump 21 was turned ON / OFF (Step S108). If 20 minutes have passed, whether or not the outside air temperature T is 0 ° C. or higher again in Step S101. to decide. Note that 20 minutes determined in step S108 is a period of one cycle of intermittent operation, and the ON time of the bath circulation pump 21 shown in FIG. 4 does not include the 4 minutes determined in step S103, and in steps S105 and S106. Explains the time related to the operation.

Here, the intermittent operation of the bath circulation pump 21 depending on the presence or absence of bath water will be described in detail.
First, when it is determined that the bath water is present, the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on / off from the outside air temperature T detected by the outside air temperature sensor 35 and the bath temperature F detected by the bath temperature sensor 23 as shown in FIG. Each OFF time is changed. For example, when the outside air temperature T is −5 ° C. or more and less than 0 ° C. and the bath temperature F is 5 ° C. or more and less than 10 ° C., the bath water in the bath circulation circuit 20 is frozen because the temperature in the bath circulation circuit 20 is lowered. To prevent this, the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on for 1 minute and then turned off for 15 minutes, thereby reliably preventing the bath circulation circuit 20 and the bath circulation pump 21 from freezing. Since the pump 21 is not operated, power consumption can be reduced.

  When it is determined that the bath water does not exist, the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on from the outside temperature T detected by the outside temperature sensor 35 and the bath temperature F detected by the bath temperature sensor 23 as shown in FIG. / OFF time is changed respectively. For example, when the outside air temperature T is -5 ° C. or higher and lower than 0 ° C., if the bath temperature F is 10 ° C. or higher, the bath circulation circuit 20 is warm and the risk of freezing is low. If the bath temperature F is less than 10 ° C. and 0 ° C. or more, it is assumed that the temperature in the bath circulation circuit 20 has decreased, the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on for 1 minute and turned off for 15 minutes, and the bath temperature F is 0 ° C. If the temperature is less than that, it is assumed that the temperature in the bath circulation circuit 20 is low, and the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on for 6 minutes and turned off for 10 minutes to prevent freezing of the bath water remaining in the bath circulation pump 21. it can.

  Furthermore, when the outside air temperature T is less than −5 ° C., if the bath temperature F is 20 ° C. or higher, the temperature in the bath circulation circuit 20 is warm and the risk of freezing is low. If the bath temperature F is 10 ° C. or more and less than 20 ° C., it is assumed that the temperature in the bath circulation circuit 20 has been slightly lowered, and the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on for 1 minute and turned off for 15 minutes. If the temperature is lower than −5 ° C. or higher, the temperature in the bath circulation circuit 20 is lowered. Then, the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on for 6 minutes and turned off for 10 minutes, and if the bath temperature F is lower than −5 ° C. Since the temperature in the circulation circuit 20 is low and there is a risk of freezing, the bath circulation pump 21 is turned on for 11 minutes and turned off for 5 minutes. Thus, by performing the intermittent operation in which the ON / OFF time of the bath circulation pump 21 is changed according to the outside air temperature and the bath temperature, the hot water in the bath circulation pump 21 is reliably prevented from freezing, Since the bath circulation pump 21 is not operated for a long time when the risk of freezing is low, the power consumption can be reduced.

  In this embodiment, one cycle of the intermittent operation of the bath circulation pump 21 during the freeze prevention operation is set to 20 minutes. However, the cycle is not limited to this. For example, one cycle may be set to 30 minutes. By appropriately turning on / off the bath circulation pump 21 according to the detected outside air temperature and bath temperature, the bath circulation circuit 20 and the bath circulation pump 21 can be reliably prevented from freezing and the power consumption can be reduced. .

  Moreover, although the flowing water switch 22 is used as the remaining hot water detection means, for example, a flow sensor capable of detecting the flow rate of bath water is installed in the middle of the bath circulation circuit 20, and the flow rate detected by the flow sensor at the start of the freeze prevention operation. The presence or absence of bath water may be determined from the value and the rotation speed of the bath circulation pump 21, or the presence or absence of bath water may be determined by combining values detected by other sensors.

  As described above, when it is determined that there is no bathtub water in the bathtub 17 at the start of the freeze prevention operation, the bath circulation is performed based on the outside air temperature detected by the outside air temperature sensor 35 and the bath temperature detected by the bath temperature sensor 23. Since the ON / OFF time of the pump 21 is changed, even if the freeze prevention operation is started when the outside air temperature is low immediately after draining the bathtub water from the bathtub 17, the bath circulation pump 21 is intermittently operated with an appropriate ON / OFF time. By operating, freezing of the bath water remaining in the bath circulation pump 21 can be surely prevented, and the bath circulation pump 21 is operated in an appropriate time, so that power consumption can be reduced.

  In the present embodiment, the heating means has been described as the heat pump unit 5. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied to a hot water heater or an electric water heater using solar heat, gas, or liquid fuel.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hot water storage tank unit 2 Hot water storage tank 5 Heat pump unit 17 Bath 20 Bath circulation circuit 21 Bath circulation pump 22 Flow switch 23 Bath temperature sensor 35 Outside temperature sensor 42 Control part

Claims (1)

A bath circulation circuit connected to the bathtub, a bath circulation pump installed in the middle of the bath circulation circuit to circulate bathtub water, a remaining hot water detection means for detecting bathtub water in the bathtub, and an outdoor temperature An outside air temperature sensor, a bath temperature sensor that is installed in the middle of the bath circulation circuit and detects the temperature of the bath water, and the bath circulation circuit is operated intermittently when the outside air temperature sensor detects a predetermined value or less. And a control unit that starts an anti-freezing operation that prevents freezing of the outdoor air temperature sensor when the remaining hot water detection means does not detect bathtub water at the start of the anti-freezing operation. And the bath temperature sensor, the intermittent operation time is changed so that the ON time of the bath circulation pump becomes longer as the value detected by the bath temperature sensor becomes lower .

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