Patent Application
20240191899
The disclosure relates to an air conditioner and a control method of the air conditioner and, more particularly, to an air conditioner that may determine a degree of contamination of each of a dust collection filter and a pre-filter, and a control method of the air conditioner.
An air conditioner that may remove fine dust in the air has been developed recently.
The air conditioner may include a pre-filter that physically filters large dust in the air, and a dust collection filter that electrically collects small-sized dust contained in the air that has passed through the pre-filter.
When the pre-filter and the dust collection filter are used for a long time, filter performance is lowered as dust is accumulated, thereby degrading the performance of the air conditioner. Accordingly, when the degree of contamination of a filter reaches a predetermined level, the air conditioner may provide a notification indicating the necessity of cleansing or replacing the filter to the user.
Therefore, there is a need for an air conditioner and a control method thereof that may efficiently determine the exact contamination status of each of the pre-filter and the dust collection filter.
Provided is an air conditioner that determine a degree of contamination of each of a pre-filter and a dust collection filter by using a sensor and a control method of the air conditioner.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, an air conditioner includes: a filter assembly including a first filter and a second filter sequentially disposed in an air flow path; a differential pressure sensor configured to detect a differential pressure value corresponding to a pressure difference between a front surface and a rear surface of the second filter; a memory; and a processor configured to store, in the memory, differential pressure values detected by the differential pressure sensor, wherein the processor may be further configured to: identify a degree of contamination of the second filter based on a magnitude of the differential pressure values, determine a rate of change of the differential pressure values stored in the memory over time, and identify a degree of contamination of the first filter based on the rate of change.
The air conditioner may further include a user interface, the memory may be configured to store a first threshold value set with respect to the differential pressure value and a second threshold value set with respect to the rate of change, and the processor may be further configured to: based on the differential pressure value exceeding the first threshold value, provide a notification for replacing the second filter through the user interface, and based on the rate of change being less than the second threshold value, provide a notification for cleansing the first filter through the user interface.
The processor may be further configured to: based on the rate of change decreasing and then increasing, identify that the first filter is cleansed, and update the degree of contamination of the second filter based on the differential pressure value detected by the differential pressure sensor after identifying that the first filter is cleansed.
The processor may be further configured to, based on identifying that the first filter is cleansed, store, in the memory, a number of cleansing the first filter.
The memory may be further configured to store a third threshold value greater than the second threshold value, and the processor may be further configured to, based on the rate of change exceeding the third threshold value, provide a notification for replacing the first filter through the user interface.
The processor may be further configured to control the user interface to display the degree of contamination of the first filter and the degree of contamination of the second filter.
The user interface may include a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs), and the processor may be further configured to change at least one of a number and a color of LEDs among the plurality of LEDs based on the degree of contamination of the first filter or the degree of contamination of the second filter.
The air conditioner may further include a communication interface, and the processor may be further configured to control the communication interface to transmit, to an external device, at least one of the degree of contamination of the second filter and the degree of contamination of the first filter.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, a control method of an air conditioner, includes: storing differential pressure values detected by a differential pressure sensor, the differential pressure values corresponding to differences in pressure between a first filter and a second filter sequentially disposed in an air flow path of the air conditioner; identifying a degree of contamination of a dust collection filter based on a magnitude of the differential pressure values; determining a rate of change of the differential pressure values over time; identifying a degree of contamination of the first filter based on the rate of change; based on a differential pressure value exceeding a first threshold value, providing a notification for replacing the dust collection filter; and based on the rate of change being less than a second threshold value, providing a notification for replacing the first filter.
The first threshold value may be set with respect to the differential pressure value and the second threshold value is set with respect to the rate of change.
The control method may further include: based on the rate of change decreasing and then increasing, identifying that the first filter is cleansed; and updating the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter based on the differential pressure value detected by the differential pressure sensor after identifying that the first filter is cleansed.
The control method may further include, based on identifying that the first filter is cleansed, storing a number of cleansing of the first filter.
The control method may further include, based on the rate of change exceeding a third threshold value, providing a notification for replacing the first filter.
The control method may further include displaying the degree of contamination of the first filter and the degree of contamination of the second filter through a user interface.
The user interface may include a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs), and the displaying the degree of contamination of the first filter and the degree of contamination of the second filter through the user interface may include changing at least one of a number and a color of LEDs among the plurality of LEDs based on the degree of contamination of the first filter or the degree of contamination of the second filter.
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain embodiments of the disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Examples described hereinafter are for easy understanding of the disclosure, and it should be understood that various changes can be made to examples described herein and the disclosure can be embodied in different forms. In addition, in the following description, detailed descriptions of well-known functions or configurations will be omitted since they would unnecessarily obscure the subject matters of the disclosure. In addition, it should be noted that the drawings as attached are just for easy understanding of the disclosure, and are not illustrated as really scaled, and dimensions of some elements may be exaggerated.
The terms used in the present specification and the claims are general terms identified in consideration of the functions of the various embodiments of the disclosure. However, these terms may vary depending on intention, legal or technical interpretation, emergence of new technologies, and the like of those skilled in the related art. Also, there may be some terms arbitrarily identified by the applicant. Unless there is a specific definition of a term, the term may be construed based on the overall contents and technological common sense of those skilled in the related art.
In the description of the disclosure, the order of each operation should be understood unless a preceding operation must be performed before a subsequent operation logically and temporally. That is, except for the exceptional case above, although a process described as a subsequent operation is performed before a process described as a preceding operation, it does not affect the essence of the disclosure and the scope of the disclosure should be defined regardless of order of operations.
As used herein, the expressions “have,” “may have,” “including,” or “may include” may be used to denote the presence of a feature (e.g., a component, such as a numerical value, a function, an operation, a part, or the like), and does not exclude the presence of additional features.
The expressions “first”, “second”, or the like, used in the disclosure may indicate various components, but the components should not be limited by the expressions. The expressions may be used only to distinguish one component from the other components. For example, the first component may be named the second component and the second component may also be similarly named the first component, without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
In the disclosure, components required for the description of each embodiment of the disclosure are described and thus, the embodiment is not necessarily limited thereto. Accordingly, some components may be changed or omitted and other components may be added. In addition, components may be disposed and arranged in different independent devices.
The term “couple” and the derivatives thereof refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with each other. The terms “transmit”, “receive”, and “communicate” as well as the derivatives thereof encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms “include” and “comprise”, and the derivatives thereof refer to inclusion without limitation. The term “or” is an inclusive term meaning “and/or”. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof, refer to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like. The term “controller” refers to any device, system, or part thereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and/or firmware. The functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. The phrase “at least one of,” when used with a list of items, means that different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used, and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, “at least one of A, B, and C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C, and any variations thereof. The expression “at least one of a, b, or c” may indicate only a, only b, only c, both a and b, both a and c, both b and c, all of a, b, and c, or variations thereof. Similarly, the term “set” means one or more. Accordingly, the set of items may be a single item or a collection of two or more items.
Further, embodiments of the disclosure are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and the contents described in the accompanying drawings, but the disclosure is not limited or restricted by the embodiments. Hereinafter, the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to
Hereinafter, an air conditioner according to an embodiment described below refers to an air purifier as an example, and the air conditioner may be various devices that suck, condition, and send the conditioned air. The air conditioner may be, for example, an air-conditioning device, a cooling/heating device, an air purifier, a humidifier, or the like.
Referring to
The air conditioner 100 may transmit and receive various data by communicating with the server 200 or the user terminal device 300.
The air conditioner 100 includes a pre-filter and a dust collection filter. In some embodiments, the pre-filter is called as a first filter and the dust collection filter is called as a second filter. The dust collection filter means a filter for filtering dust, and a pre-filter means a filter performing previous filtering ahead of the dust collection filter. Generally, a dust collection filter needs to be replaced when performance is degraded, but a pre-filter may be reused by cleansing.
In some embodiments, the air conditioner 100 detects a difference of a pressure, that is, at least one differential pressure value, between a front surface and a rear surface of the dust collection filter by using one sensor. The air conditioner 100 may identify a degree of contamination of the dust collection sensor based on the detected differential pressure value and may identify a degree of contamination of a pre-filter based on the change rate of the differential pressure value.
The air conditioner 100 may notify a replacement timing or a cleansing timing of each filter according to the identified degree of contamination or may perform other various operations. The detailed description of a method of identifying the degree of contamination and an operation according thereto will be described with reference to the drawings below.
The air conditioner 100 may transmit the differential pressure value detected by the differential pressure sensor 120 to the server 200 and an operation of identifying the degree of contamination of the pre-filter 111 and the dust collection filter 112 may be performed by the server 200.
The server 200 may refer to an electronic device for collecting and processing data of an external device. For example, the server 200 may be implemented as various electronic devices such as a smart phone, a tablet, a wearable device, a PC, etc. capable of performing a function of a server together with other functions as well as a device capable of performing a function exclusive to the server like a cloud server. However, this is merely an embodiment, and the server 200 may be implemented as various types of electronic devices that are not listed. In addition, the server 200 may be implemented as one device, or may be implemented as a group composed of a plurality of devices.
The air conditioner 100 may, when it is identified that the degree of contamination of the pre-filter and the dust collection filter exceeds a threshold value set with respect to each filter, provide a cleansing notification or a replacement notification to notify necessity of cleansing filters or replacing filters.
If it is identified that the degree of contamination of the pre-filter and the dust collection filter is beyond a threshold condition set for each filter, the air conditioner 100 or the server 200 may transmit a cleansing notification or a replacement notification to the user terminal device 300.
Accordingly, the user terminal device 300 may provide notification or information related to the degree of contamination of each filter to a user. The threshold condition is individually set for the pre-filter and the dust collection filter. For convenience of description, in this disclosure, a case where a dust collection filter exceeds a first threshold value is set to a threshold condition, and a case where the pre-filter falls below a second threshold value is set to a threshold condition. The first threshold value may be a value set for the differential pressure value itself, and the second threshold value may be a value set for the rate of change of the differential pressure value.
The user terminal device 300 is a device capable of performing various functions such as providing information to a user or receiving a user command. Specifically, the user terminal device 300 may be various electronic devices such as a smartphone, a tablet, a wearable device, and a PC. The user terminal device 300 may receive a user command from a user and transmit the user command to the air conditioner 100 through the server 200 or may directly transmit the user command to the air conditioner 100. When the air conditioner 100 communicates directly with the user terminal device 300, the air conditioner 100 may perform communication by using a short-range wireless communication method such as Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth.
Referring to
The filter assembly 110 is configured to filter foreign substances such as dust included in the air introduced into the air conditioner 100, and may include a plurality of filters having various functions. Referring to
For example, the pre-filter 111 may filter a portion of dust having size of PM10 and dust having size of PM2.5, and the dust collection filter 112 may be configured to have a performance of filtering a portion of dust having size of PM1.0 and dust having size of PM2.5.
In some embodiments, the filter assembly 110 may further include, in addition to the pre-filter 111 and the dust collection filter 112, a deodorization filter to remove various bad smell and harmful gases, a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter to remove fine dust in the air, a carbon dioxide (CO2) adhesion filter to remove CO2 in the air.
In the meantime, the pre-filter 111 and the dust collection filter 112 may be sequentially disposed on the air flow path. That is, the pre-filter 111 and the dust collection filter 112 may be disposed sequentially with reference to a direction of sucking the air.
Referring to
The differential pressure sensor 120 is configured to detect a pressure difference between a front surface and a rear surface of the filter. The differential pressure sensor 120 may transmit an electric signal to the processor 140 or store the sensing result in the memory 130 of the air conditioner 100 or an external device.
In particular, the differential pressure sensor 120 may be configured to detect a pressure difference between the front surface and the rear surface of the dust collection filter 112. Referring to
The memory 130 may store instructions or data related to the elements of the air conditioner 100 and operating system (OS) for controlling an overall operation of elements of the air conditioner 100.
The memory 130 may be implemented as a volatile memory such as a static random access memory (S-RAM), a dynamic random access memory (D-RAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory, a read only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), a hard disk drive (HDD), or a solid state drive (SSD), or the like. The memory 130 may be accessed by the processor 140, and data reading/writing/modifying/deleting/updating, or the like, by the processor 140 may be performed. The term memory of the disclosure may include the memory 130, RAM, ROM in the processor 140, or a memory card (e.g., a micro secure digital card, a memory stick, etc.) mounted to the air conditioner 100.
Here, the processor 140 and the memory 130 may be implemented as configurations physically separated respectively or a single configuration like the processor 140 including the memory 130. Further, in the processor 140, the single configuration or a plurality of configurations may be implemented as one system. In the memory 130, the single configuration or a plurality of configurations may be implemented as one system.
In particular, the memory 130 may store the differential pressure value detected from the differential pressure sensor 120. In addition, the memory 130 may store information such as a date and a time when the differential pressure value is measured, or the like.
The processor 140 may control the overall operation of the air conditioner 100. For example, the processor 140 may be connected to configurations such as the differential pressure sensor 120, the memory 130, or the like, and may control the air conditioner 100.
The processor 140 may be referred to as various names such as a digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), a micro controller unit (MCU), a micro processing unit (MPU), a neural processing unit (NPU), a controller, and an application processor (AP), but will be referred to as the processor 140 herein. The processor 140 may be implemented as a system on chip (SoC) or a large scale integration (LSI), or a field programmable gate array (FPGA) type. In addition, the processor 140 may include volatile memory such as SRAM.
According to an embodiment, the processor 140 may store the differential pressure value detected through the differential pressure sensor 120 in the memory 130, identify the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter 112 based on the magnitude of the detected differential pressure value, calculate a change rate of the differential pressure value stored in the memory 130 over time, and identify the degree of contamination of the pre-filter 111 based on the calculated change rate. A detailed description related to the operation of the processor 140 will be described below.
Referring to
The user interface 150 is configured to provide a user with information or receive various commands from a user.
In some embodiments, the user interface 150 may be implemented as a display 151, a speaker 152, an LED level meter 153, or the like, and may be implemented as a format to include at least one according to a price or a type of an air conditioner.
The display 151 may display information in a visual format. The display 151 may be implemented as various types of displays such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), light emitting diode (LED), organic light emitting diode (OLED), liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), digital light processing (DLP), and the like. The display 151 may be combined with a touch panel and may be implemented as a touch screen.
The air conditioner 100 may output the cleansing notification or the replacement notification notifying necessity of cleansing or replacement of each filter in a visual message format through the display 151.
The speaker 152 is a device to output information in an audible format (e.g., voice). The speaker may output various notification sounds or a voice message directly as sound. For example, the air conditioner 100 may output the cleansing notification or the replacement notification notifying necessity of cleansing or replacement of each filter in a visual message format through the speaker 152.
The LED level meter 153 may be implemented in a form including a plurality of LEDs, and may provide information in a visual form through control of changing at least one of the number and color of the turned-on LEDs among the plurality of LEDs. For example, referring to
The air conditioner 100 may provide a cleansing notification or a replacement notification for each filter through the user interface 150 such as the display 151, the speaker 152, the LED level meter 153, or the like, but the embodiment is not limited thereto, and a notification may be provided to a user in various ways.
The communication interface 160 may transmit and receive various types of data by communicating with an external device (for example, a server, a smartphone, and the like) according to various types of communication methods. For example, the communication interface 160 may transmit information obtained by the differential pressure sensor 120, information generated through the processor 140, and the like to an external device such as the server 200, the user terminal device 300, or the like, or may receive a control command for driving the air conditioner 100 from the external device. For this, the communication interface 160 may include at least one of a Bluetooth chip, a Wi-Fi chip, a wireless communication chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip for performing wireless communication, an Ethernet module and a USB module for performing wired communication. In this case, the Ethernet module and the USB module for performing wired communication may communicate with an external device through an input/output port.
Here, the input/output port may be implemented as a wired port such as a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, a display port, an RGB port, a digital visual interface (DVI) port, Thunderbolt, a local area network (LAN) port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, a lightning cable port, a component port, and the like. The input/output port may communicate with various types of external devices through each communication standard and transceiver various types of data.
The processor 140 may control the communication interface 160 to transmit at least one of the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter identified through the differential pressure value and the degree of contamination of the pre-filter to the external device. For example, the air conditioner 100 may transmit the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter and the degree of contamination of the pre-filter to the user terminal device 300 so as to provide information about the degree of contamination of each filter to the user through an output interface (for example, a display) of the user terminal device 300.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the processor 140 of the air conditioner 100 may identify the degree of contamination of the pre-filter 111 based on the calculated change rate by calculating the change rate over time of the differential pressure value detected through the differential pressure sensor 120.
In this case, the differential pressure value is obtained by measuring the pressure difference between the front and rear surfaces of the dust collection filter 112, and thus has a close relationship with the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter 112. The dotted line 510 shown in the graph indicates a reference line in which the differential pressure value gradually increases when it is assumed that the degree of contamination of the pre-filter is maintained to zero (or clean state) while other environmental conditions are constant, that is, when only the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter 112 acts as a variable. As the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter 112 increases, the pressure P2 of the rear surface of the dust collection filter increases, thereby showing a pattern in which the differential pressure value rises.
When the differential pressure value exceeds a first threshold value (TH1), the processor 140 may identify that the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter 112 reaches a level of replacement and the processor 140 may provide a notification for replacing the dust collection filter through the user interface 150.
In the meantime, the degree of contamination of the pre-filter 111 may affect a change in the differential pressure value measured by the dust collection filter 112. When the degree of contamination of the pre-filter 111 is high, the overall flow rate of dust passing through the dust collection filter 112 is reduced due to dust laminated on the pre-filter 111, so the change rate of the differential pressure value measured at the same time interval may be low as compared to the case where the degree of contamination of the pre-filter 111 is low.
Referring to
The processor 140 may identify that the degree of contamination of the pre-filter reaches a level to be cleansed if the change rate of the differential pressure value is less than the second threshold value, and provide a pre-filter cleansing notification through the user interface 150.
In the meantime, when dust filtering performance of the pre-filter is degraded due to frequent cleansing of the pre-filter, contamination of the dust collection filter may be performed faster. In this case, the differential pressure value change rate may appear greater than when the pre-filter performs a normal function. Accordingly, when it is confirmed that the change rate of the differential pressure value exceeds the third threshold value, the processor 140 may determine that the existing pre-filter is no longer useful for filtering, and thus, may provide a notification for replacing the pre-filter through the user interface 150. The third threshold value is greater than the second threshold value.
In the meantime, whenever it is identified that the pre-filter is cleansed, the processor 140 may update the number of cleansing of the pre-filter and store the same in the memory 130, and if the number of cleansing exceeds the preset number, the processor 140 may provide a pre-filter replacement notification.
As described above with reference to
Referring to
The processor 140 may store the degree of containment of the updated dust collection filter in the memory 130 to identify the degree of contamination of the pre-filter and the degree of containment of the dust collection filter based on the updated degree of contamination of the dust collection filter.
Referring to
A control method of an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the disclosure includes storing differential pressure values detected through a differential pressure sensor in operation S910, identifying a degree of contamination of a dust collection filter based on a magnitude of the detected differential pressure values in operation S920, calculating a rate of change of the stored differential pressure values over time and identifying a degree of contamination of the pre-filter based on the calculated rate of change in operation S930, based on the detected differential pressure value exceeding the first threshold value, providing a notification for replacing the dust collection filter in operation S940, and based on the calculated change rate being less than the second threshold value, providing a pre-filter cleansing notification in operation S950.
First of all, the air conditioner may store the differential pressure value detected through the differential pressure sensor in operation S910.
In addition, the air conditioner may identify the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter based on the detected magnitude of the differential pressure value in operation S920.
In addition, the air conditioner may calculate the change rate over time of the stored differential pressure values and may identify the degree of contamination of the pre-filter based on the calculated change rate in operation S930.
In addition, the air conditioner may, when the detected differential pressure value exceeds a first threshold value, provide a notification for replacing the dust collection filter in operation S940.
Here, the first threshold value is a value set for a differential pressure value, and the air conditioner may identify that the degree of contamination of the dust collection filter reaches a threshold value when the differential pressure value exceeds the first threshold value.
In addition, the air conditioner may, when the calculated change rage is less than a second threshold value, provide a notification for replacing the pre-filter in operation S950.
Here, the second threshold value is a value set for the rate of change of the differential pressure value, and the air conditioner may identify that the degree of contamination of the pre-filter reaches a level to be cleansed if the differential pressure value change rate is less than the second threshold value.
According to one or more embodiments described above, computer instructions for performing processing operations of the air conditioner according to the one or more embodiments described above may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The computer instructions stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium may cause a particular device to perform processing operations on the air conditioner according to the one or more embodiments described above when executed by the processor of the particular device.
The non-transitory computer-readable medium does not refer to a medium that stores data for a short period of time, such as a register, cache, memory, etc., but semi-permanently stores data and is available of reading by the device. Specifically, programs of performing the above-described various methods may be stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium such as a CD, a DVD, a hard disk, a Blu-ray disk, universal serial bus (USB), a memory card, ROM, or the like, and may be provided.
The methods according to one or more embodiments herein may be provided in a computer program product. A computer program product may be exchanged between a seller and a purchaser as a commodity. A computer program product may be distributed in the form of a machine-readable storage medium (e.g., compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM)) or distributed online through an application store (e.g. PlayStore™) directly between two user devices (e.g., smartphones). In the case of on-line distribution, at least a portion of the computer program product may be stored temporarily or at least temporarily in a storage medium such as a manufacturer's server, a server of an application store, or a memory of a relay server.
While certain embodiments have been shown and described, this is not limiting, and various modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the relevant technical field, without departing from the gist of the disclosure as claimed by the appended claims. Also, it is intended that such modifications are not to be interpreted independently from the technical idea or prospect of the disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2021-0113471 | Aug 2021 | KR | national |
This application is a by-pass continuation application of International Application No. PCT/KR2022/009947, filed on Jul. 8, 2022, which is based on and claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0113471, filed on Aug. 26, 2021, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/KR2022/009947 | Jul 2022 | WO |
| Child | 18585758 | US |
