AIR-CONDITIONING CONTROL SYSTEM
In order to create a desired air-conditioned space by reducing influences to adjacent spaces and sending proper air-conditioning air to the target space, the air-conditioning control system is provided with: a first temperature setting unit to set a preset temperature for an air-conditioning target space which is among spaces under or between two indoor units adjacent to each other, the air-conditioning target space having been requested a change in the preset temperature by a user, the indoor units each including multiple blowout openings; a second temperature setting unit to set a preset temperature of an adjacent air-conditioning space adjacent to the air-conditioning target space; a first air-conditioning air control unit to determine a first blowout opening from among the multiple blowout openings for realizing the preset temperature set by the first temperature setting unit, to control temperature, airflow volume, and a blowout wind direction of the air-conditioning air sent out from the first blowout opening, and a second air-conditioning air control unit to determine a second blowout opening for realizing the preset temperature set by the second temperature setting unit, to control temperature, airflow volume, and a blowout wind direction of the air-conditioning air sent out from the second blowout opening.
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The present invention relates to an air-conditioning control system to perform air-conditioning in a space such as an office where multiple users are present, which can provide the multiple target users with a comfortable air-conditioned space by controlling multiple air-conditioning indoor units.
BACKGROUND ARTA general air-conditioning system operates the air conditioners to equalize the room temperature in the space. Patent Document 1, for example, discloses an invention to eliminate temperature unevenness by turning blowout panels of multiple indoor units toward a predetermined swirling direction to swirl the air of the entire room.
In contrast, such an air conditioning system is also used that can improve user's comfort by providing air-conditioning control only for a specific area in the space while achieving energy saving. Patent Document 2, for example, discloses a technique in which the space is segmented into “a presence area” where a user is present, “an absence area” where no user is present and “a boundary area” where the wind direction of an indoor unit is directed downward in order to generate an air curtain to keep the conditioning air in the presence area from outflowing into the absence area. Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a technique in which, when multiple users are present adjacently, a personal comfort level (PMV: Predicted Mean Vote) is calculated with respect to each of an air-conditioning requester and adjacent persons to generate a local airflow to the requester within a range not impairing the adjacent persons' PMVs, and thereby create an air-conditioned space in the area where the requester is present.
PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS Patent DocumentsPatent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication No. 4952722
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Publication No. 4165604
Patent Document 3: International Laid-Open Publication No. WO2008/87959
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the InventionIn the prior arts, the number of the target areas is limited to the number of the indoor units and no consideration has been given on how to control the area between indoor units. Because the local airflow to the requester influences the adjacent persons, the airflow controlled within the range not impairing the comfort of the adjacent persons sometimes fails to achieve the requester's personal comfort.
The present invention is made to solve the problems described above and aims to provide an air-conditioning control system which can create a desired air-conditioned space in a target area without limitation about the number of indoor units and with influence as little as possible to the adjacent persons.
Means for Solving the ProblemsAn air-conditioning control system which relates to the present invention includes: a first temperature setting unit to set a preset temperature for an air-conditioning target space which is among spaces under or between two indoor units adjacent to each other, the air-conditioning target space having been requested a change in the preset temperature by a user, the indoor units each including multiple blowout openings; a first air-conditioning air control unit to determine a first blowout opening to blow out air-conditioning air from among the multiple blowout openings of the multiple indoor units for realizing the preset temperature set by the first temperature setting unit, to control temperature and airflow volume of the air-conditioning air sent out from the first blowout opening, and to control a blowout wind direction of the air-conditioning air; a second temperature setting unit to set a preset temperature of an adjacent air-conditioning space adjacent to the air-conditioning target space; a second air-conditioning air control unit to determine a second blowout opening to blow out air-conditioning air from among the multiple blowout openings of the multiple indoor units for realizing the preset temperature set by the second temperature setting unit, to control temperature and airflow volume of the air-conditioning air sent out from the second blowout opening, and to control a blowout wind direction of the air-conditioning air.
Effect of the InventionAccording to the present invention, it will be possible to create a desired air-conditioned space in a target area with influence as little as possible to the areas adjacent to the target area, to achieve personal comfort of users in the adjacent areas as well as in the target area.
The air-conditioning control system 10 controls the indoor units 41 to 44 using information on the space, the users' settings, and information from the sensors. As shown in
First, the positions of the air-conditioning indoor units 41 to 44, the air-conditioning characteristics such as capacity of air conditioners, the positions of the sensors 51a to 51i, and the positions of the users are inputted using, for example, the mouse 35 and the keyboard 36, and stored in the storage drive 34 of the air-conditioning control system 10.
As shown in
As shown in
The functions of the first temperature setting unit 11, the second temperature setting unit 12, the first air-conditioning air control unit 13, and the second air-conditioning air control unit 14 shown in
In
The second temperature setting unit 12 may set the preset temperature of the adjacent air-conditioning spaces so that the actual temperature change in the adjacent air-conditioning spaces will not exceed a predetermined range.
Next, taking a case of air cooling, the operation of the air-conditioning control system according to this Embodiment will be described.
When a seated user has specified a preset temperature, the first temperature setting unit 11 of the air-conditioning control system firstly determines that the space where the user having specified the preset temperature is present is a target area, and determines that spaces adjacent to the target space are adjacent areas, and then, sets a preset temperature regarded as an actual target temperature for the target area on the basis of the user-requested temperature.
Then, the air-conditioning control system collects temperature at each user's seat from the temperature sensor. If the temperature of the determined target area is different from the preset temperature, the air-conditioning control system operates to adjust the temperature to the preset temperature. Determining that in the adjacent area where a user is present and has not specified the preset temperature, the user has implicitly performed setting so as to make no change in the current temperature, the air-conditioning control system regards the current temperature as the preset temperature, and operates to adjust the temperature to the preset temperature.
Next, in order to adjust the temperature of the target area to the preset temperature, the first air-conditioning air control unit 13 of the air-conditioning control system determines the wind direction of the closest first blowout opening to the target area among the blowout openings facing thereto, and the change values of the blowout temperature and the airflow volume of the indoor unit which includes the closest first blowout opening. In
As shown in
In setting the wind direction of the first blowout opening, the wind's depression direction θz and the wind's lateral direction θx are determined from the positions of the first blowout opening and the seat in the target area so that the wind blows against the seat, and then the angles of the vane 41 shown in
In setting the airflow volume of the indoor unit which includes the first blowout opening, firstly the blowout speed of the air-conditioning air blown out from the first blowout opening which enables the air-conditioning air to reach the seat in the target area at a speed, for example, of 0.3 m/s or less is calculated from the relation between the airflow speed and the distance D from the first blowout opening to the position of the seat in the target area, and secondly the blowout airflow volume Va is calculated so as to satisfy the blowout speed.
The relation between the airflow volume Va from the blowout opening and the airflow speed Vs at the blowout opening, as well as the relation between the distance from the blowout opening and the airflow speed are, for example, derived from results of observed values obtained from an experiment in advance.
In the temperature settings of the indoor unit which includes the first blowout opening, the preset temperature of the indoor unit is calculated for the space of the current air temperature Tn, using the relation between the reaching distance D of the air blown out at the airflow volume of Va and the temperature change of the blowout air, and the temperature difference ΔT between the current temperature Tn at the seat position in the target area and the preset temperature Ts so that the temperature of the blown out air reaching the seat position in the target area will be Ts-ΔT degrees Celsius, which is the preset temperature reduced by the temperature difference.
The relation between the reaching distance D of the air blown out from the blowout opening and the temperature change of the blowout air is, for example, derived from results of observed values obtained from an experiment in advance.
The changed set values determined as above described for the first blowout opening of the indoor unit 42 in the case of
Next, the air-conditioning control system calculates temperature influence on the adjacent areas in a case where the air-conditioning settings are changed as described above. A target area under an indoor unit would influence less the surroundings. However, in a case where the target area is somewhat away from the first blowout opening, such as located between indoor units, the air-conditioning air blown out is diffused into an adjacent area close to the first blowout opening and an adjacent area in the side opposite to the first blowout opening with respect to the target area as shown in
The second temperature setting unit 12 of the air-conditioning control system sets preset temperatures regarded as actual target temperatures for the adjacent areas on the basis of the calculation result.
The second air-conditioning air control unit 14 firstly calculates to find an adjacent area where the temperature change exceeds the predetermined temperature limit value, and next, determines the second blowout opening which is not the former mentioned first blowout opening and is closest to the adjacent area found by the calculation from among the blowout openings facing an intermediate spot between the adjacent area and the target area and then, determines the wind direction from the closest second blowout opening and the change values of the blowout temperature as well as of the blowout airflow volume of the indoor unit which includes the second blowout opening, so as to less influence the adjacent area and make the temperature become the preset temperature. In
In setting the wind direction of the second blowout opening, a target position is determined whose horizontal position is the intermediate spot between the horizontal positions of the target area and the adjacent area and whose height is the same as the seat. Also the longitudinal wind direction θz and the lateral wind direction θx are determined in which the wind blows from the position of the second blowout opening to reach the target position.
In setting the airflow volume from the indoor unit which includes the second blowout opening, first the wind speed Vb at the target position is calculated from the wind speed at the first blowout opening and the relation between the distance from the blowout opening and the airflow speed, and then the airflow volume is computed so as to make the wind speed at the target position equal to the calculated wind speed.
In setting the temperature of the indoor unit which includes the second blowout opening, the preset temperature of the indoor unit is calculated from the relation between the temperature difference ΔTb from the current temperature, calculated as an influence to the adjacent area and the temperature change in the air which has been blown out at the airflow volume Va into the space of the current air temperature Tn and then reaches a position the distance Db away, so that when reaching the target position, the temperature becomes Tsb+ΔTb, which is the sum of the adjacent area's preset temperature Tsb and the temperature difference.
As described above, the changed set values of the second blowout opening of the indoor unit 41 have been determined in the case of
Note that the set values of blowout openings other than the first blowout opening and the second blowout opening remain unchanged from the set values before the user performed temperature setting. These values are also shown in
The air-conditioning control system changes the settings of the air conditioners according to the set values of the first and the second blowout openings which are determined as described above. The angles of the vanes 41a to 44d are controlled to change the wind directions. The rotation speeds of the fans 41e to 44e of the air-conditioning indoor units are controlled to change the airflow volumes. When changing temperatures of the indoor units, the operation of the compressors and the outdoor units are controlled to change the temperatures of refrigerants and the flow amounts thereof in order to lower the blowout temperatures.
By the above-described control operation, not only the area under the indoor unit but also the areas between the indoor units can be controlled to create the desired air-conditioned spaces.
The above-described control operation can also prevent the local airflow to the target area from entering the adjacent areas, to create a desired air-conditioned space in the target area without impairing the comfort of the adjacent persons.
Embodiment 1 of the present invention has been described above. The concrete configuration for carrying out the invention, however, is not limited to the description.
The system described above has been explained in a case of air-cooling operation, but can similarly be applied to a case of heating operation.
In order to determine the blowout opening's wind direction and wind speed and the indoor unit's temperature, the relations among the distance from the blowout opening, the temperature and the wind speed have been derived from experimental results to be used. However, a method such as Airflow Simulation and CFD analysis (Computational Fluid Dynamics) may be used to calculate in more detail how the blown out air-conditioning air diffuses into and influences the target area and the surroundings.
Embodiment 2In the air-conditioning control system according to Embodiment 1, the positions of the users and the temperature sensors 51a to 51i are stored in advance in the storage drive for later reference. As shown in
Even if a user in the air-conditioning space moves, the configuration shown in
In the air-conditioning control system described in the former embodiments, the preset temperatures are to be specified by users. Instead, as shown in
With the configuration shown in
In the air-conditioning control systems shown above in Embodiment 1 to Embodiment 3, the preset temperature is to be set by the user. Instead, the individual characteristics such as gender, age, temperature preference (sensitive to heat or cold), height, weight, metabolic rate, body fat mass, and clothing may be inputted in advance so that the air-conditioning control system can determine appropriately the comfortable preset temperature for the individual user to use the temperature as the target preset temperature.
The air-conditioning control systems described above include air-conditioning indoor units each having blowout openings in the four directions and a suction opening at its center. The air-conditioning indoor unit is not limited to the above, and may have multiple blowout openings and multiple suction openings, both of which may be of free shape.
INDUSTRIAL AVAILABILITYAs described above, the air-conditioning control system according to the present invention can be applied to the air-conditioning control system for air-conditioning the space such as an office where multiple users are present.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS
- 10: air-conditioning control system
- 11: first temperature setting unit
- 12: second temperature setting unit
- 13: first air-conditioning air control unit
- 14: second air-conditioning air control unit
- 20: bus
- 21: air-conditioning control network
- 31: CPU
- 32: ROM
- 33: RAM
- 34: storage drive
- 35: mouse
- 36: keyboard
- 37: display
- 38: input/output controller
- 39: network controller
- 41 to 44: air-conditioning indoor unit
- 41a to 44d: blowout opening
- 45: compressor
- 46: fan
- 51: user, temperature sensor
- 52: air-conditioning controller
- 53: position sensor
- 54: PMV sensor
Claims
1-6. (canceled)
7. An air-conditioning control system comprising:
- a first temperature setter to set a preset temperature for an air-conditioning target space between two indoor units adjacent to each other, the air-conditioning target space having been requested a change in the preset temperature by a user, the indoor units each including multiple blowout openings;
- a second temperature setter to set a preset temperature of an adjacent air-conditioning space adjacent to the air-conditioning target space, the adjunct air-conditioning space being a space under one of the two indoor units adjacent to each other;
- a first air-conditioning air controller to determine a first blowout opening to blow out air-conditioning air toward the air-conditioning target space from among the multiple blowout openings of the multiple indoor units for realizing the preset temperature set by the first temperature setter, to control temperature and airflow volume of the air-conditioning air sent out from the first blowout opening, and to control a blowout wind direction of the air-conditioning air; and
- a second air-conditioning air controller to determine a second blowout opening to blow out air-conditioning air toward between the air-conditioning target space and the adjunct air-conditioning space from among the multiple blowout openings of the multiple indoor units for realizing the preset temperature set by the second temperature setter, to control temperature and airflow volume of the air-conditioning air sent out from the second blowout opening, and to control a blowout wind direction of the air-conditioning air.
8. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 7, wherein the second temperature setter sets the preset temperature of the adjacent air-conditioning space so that an actual temperature change in the adjacent air-conditioning space will not exceed a predetermined range.
9. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 7, wherein the second air-conditioning air controller controls the second blowout opening to blow out the air-conditioning air so that the temperature of the adjunct air conditioning space will be equal to the temperature set by the second temperature setter, considering an influence of the air-conditioning air from the first blowout opening.
10. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 8, wherein the second air-conditioning air controller controls the second blowout opening to blow out the air-conditioning air so that the temperature of the adjunct air conditioning space will be equal to the temperature set by the second temperature setter, considering an influence of the air-conditioning air from the first blowout opening.
11. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 7, further comprising temperature sensors to obtain temperatures in the air-conditioning target space and the adjacent air-conditioning space.
12. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 8, further comprising temperature sensors to obtain temperatures in the air-conditioning target space and the adjacent air-conditioning space.
13. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 9, further comprising temperature sensors to obtain temperatures in the air-conditioning target space and the adjacent air-conditioning space.
14. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 10, further comprising temperature sensors to obtain temperatures in the air-conditioning target space and the adjacent air-conditioning space.
15. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 7, further comprising a position sensor to obtain position information of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first air-conditioning air controller and the second air-conditioning air controller control the blowout wind directions of the air-conditioning air sent out to the air-conditioning target space on the basis of the position information.
16. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 8, further comprising a position sensor to obtain position information of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first air-conditioning air controller and the second air-conditioning air controller control the blowout wind directions of the air-conditioning air sent out to the air-conditioning target space on the basis of the position information.
17. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 9, further comprising a position sensor to obtain position information of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first air-conditioning air controller and the second air-conditioning air controller control the blowout wind directions of the air-conditioning air sent out to the air-conditioning target space on the basis of the position information.
18. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 10, further comprising a position sensor to obtain position information of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first air-conditioning air controller and the second air-conditioning air controller control the blowout wind directions of the air-conditioning air sent out to the air-conditioning target space on the basis of the position information.
19. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 11, further comprising a position sensor to obtain position information of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first air-conditioning air controller and the second air-conditioning air controller control the blowout wind directions of the air-conditioning air sent out to the air-conditioning target space on the basis of the position information.
20. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 12, further comprising a position sensor to obtain position information of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first air-conditioning air controller and the second air-conditioning air controller control the blowout wind directions of the air-conditioning air sent out to the air-conditioning target space on the basis of the position information.
21. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 7, further comprising a comfort indicator sensor to obtain a comfort indicator of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first temperature setter and the second temperature setter set the respective preset temperatures on the basis of the comfort indicator.
22. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 8, further comprising a comfort indicator sensor to obtain a comfort indicator of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first temperature setter and the second temperature setter set the respective preset temperatures on the basis of the comfort indicator.
23. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 9, further comprising a comfort indicator sensor to obtain a comfort indicator of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first temperature setter and the second temperature setter set the respective preset temperatures on the basis of the comfort indicator.
24. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 10, further comprising a comfort indicator sensor to obtain a comfort indicator of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first temperature setter and the second temperature setter set the respective preset temperatures on the basis of the comfort indicator.
25. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 11, further comprising a comfort indicator sensor to obtain a comfort indicator of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first temperature setter and the second temperature setter set the respective preset temperatures on the basis of the comfort indicator.
26. The air-conditioning control system according to claim 15, further comprising a comfort indicator sensor to obtain a comfort indicator of the user who has requested the preset temperature to be set by the first temperature setter, wherein the first temperature setter and the second temperature setter set the respective preset temperatures on the basis of the comfort indicator.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 16, 2015
Publication Date: May 17, 2018
Applicant: MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORPORATION (Tokyo)
Inventors: Yoshihiro OTA (Tokyo), Yosuke KANEKO (Tokyo)
Application Number: 15/572,238