A preferred embodiment according to the present invention will be described hereunder.
The air conditioner 100 of this embodiment is a separation type heat pump type air conditioner 100 having an outdoor unit 1 and an indoor unit 2. An outdoor refrigerant pipe 10 of the outdoor unit 1 and an indoor refrigerant pipe 20 of the indoor unit 2 are connected to each other through a link pipe 30, and a controller 4 controls the operation of each of the outdoor unit 1 and the indoor unit 2.
The outdoor unit 1 is disposed outdoors. As shown in FIG. 1, a compressor 11 is disposed in the outdoor refrigerant pipe 10, an accumulator 12 is connected to the suction side of the compressor 11, and a four-way valve 13, an outdoor heat exchanger 14 and an electrically-driven expansion valve 15 are successively connected to the discharge side of the compressor 11 in this order. Furthermore, an outdoor fan 16 for blowing air to the outdoor heat exchanger 14 is disposed in the outdoor unit 1.
The indoor unit 12 is disposed indoors. As shown in
The air conditioner 100 is designed so that the flow direction of refrigerant flowing in a refrigerant circuit 100a is switched by switching the four-way valve 13 to thereby switch cooling operation and heating operation to each other. Under cooling operation, refrigerant flows in a direction indicated by a solid-line arrow in
Next, the construction of the indoor unit 2 will be described with reference to
The indoor unit 2 of this embodiment is designed as a ceiling-suspension type. It is hooked to suspension bolts suspended from the ceiling and fixedly set up at the lower surface of the indoor ceiling plate.
In
A drain pan 61 of foamed polystyrene is disposed at the lower side of the indoor heat exchanger 24 and the air filtering unit 5 in the housing 23. A drain pump 62 is disposed in a drain pool 61 of the drain pan 61, and a drain hose 63 for discharging drain water to the outside of the indoor unit 2 is connected to the drain port of the drain pump 62.
The air filtering unit 5 is used to bring filtering water into contact with air which has been heat-exchanged by the indoor heat exchanger 24, thereby filtering the air which has been subjected to air conditioning operation. A filtering water supply pipe 51 (liquid supply unit) is connected to the air filtering unit 5, and filtering water is supplied from the filtering water supply pipe 51 to the air filtering unit 5. In the filtering water supply pipe 51 are successively disposed a flow amount adjusting valve 52 for adjusting the flow amount of filtering water supplied to the air filtering unit 5, an electrolytic unit 7 for generating from tap water or the like electrolytic water containing active oxygen species as filtering water, an electric conductivity meter for detecting the electric conductivity of tap water or the like, and an opening/closing valve 55 for selectively supplying tap water or the like to the electrolytic unit 7.
As shown in
In this embodiment, the gas-liquid contact member 56 is subjected to a water affinity treatment, so that the gas-liquid contact member 56 has high affinity to electrolytic water. Accordingly, the water retentivity of the gas-liquid contact member 56 to the electrolytic water (wettability) is kept, and the contact between the filtering water and the introduced air can be kept for a long time.
The water dispersing tray 57 has a connection port 57a formed in the side surface thereof, and the filtering water supply pipe 51 is connected to the connection port 57a. Many holes (not shown) through which filtering water supplied through the filtering water supply pipe 51 is dropped and dispersed to the gas-liquid contact member 56 are formed in the bottom surface of the water dispersing tray 57.
The water receiving tray 58 holds the gas-liquid contact member 56 from the lower side, and it can stock filtering water passing through the gas-liquid contact member 56. A drain pipe 59 for guiding filtering water to the drain pan 61 (
As shown in
Here, the active oxygen species means oxygen molecules having higher oxidizing activity than normal oxygen and also related substance thereof, and contain not only so-called narrowly-defined active oxygen such as superoxide anion, singlet oxygen, hydroxyl radical and hydrogen peroxide, but also so-called broadly-defined active oxygen such as ozone, hypochlorous acid, hypohalous acid, etc.
The electrodes 71, 72 may be constructed by two electrode plates each of which comprises a base of Ti (titan) and a coated layer of Ir (iridium), Pt (platinum).
When current is supplied to tap water by the electrodes 71, 72, the following reaction occurs at the cathode:
4H++4e−+(4OH−)→2H2+(4OH−)
Furthermore, the following reaction occurs at the anode:
2H2O→4H++O2+4e−
At the same time, chlorine ions contained water (chlorine ions are added in tap water in advance) reacts as follows:
2Cl−→Cl2+2e−
Furthermore, Cl2 thus generated reacts with water as follows:
Cl2+H2O→HClO+HCl
In this construction, by supplying current to the electrodes 71, 72, HClO (hypochlorous acid) having strong sterilizing power is generated. Therefore, air is passed through the gas-liquid contact member 56 supplied with the filtering water containing this hypochlorous acid to inactivate virus, etc. floated in the air passing through the gas-liquid contact member 56, thereby filtering the air, and also breeding of various bacteria, fungus, etc. in the gas-liquid contact member 56 can be prevented. Furthermore, when odor components pass through the gas-liquid contact member 56, the odor components also react with hypochlorous acid in the filtering water, and they are ionized and dissolved in the filtering water, whereby the odor components can be removed from air and thus the air is deodorized.
When current having a predetermined current density (for example, 20 mA/cm2 or the like) is supplied to the electrodes 71, 72, electrolytic water containing active oxygen species (hypochlorous acid) having a predetermined concentration (for example, free residual chlorine concentration of 1 mg/l or the like) can be generated.
The flow rate adjusting valve 52 is used to adjust the flow rate of the filtering water supplied to the air filtering unit 5 by adjusting the opening degree thereof. In this construction, by adjusting the opening degree of the flow rate adjusting valve 52, the concentration of hypochlorous acid in the filtering water can be changed to a predetermined value (1 to 20 mg/l). Specifically, when the flow rate adjusting valve 52 is adjusted so as to close the opening degree thereof, the flow rate of tap water or the like which flows between the electrodes 71 and 72 of the electrolytic unit 7 is reduced. On the other hand, when the voltage applied between the electrodes 71, 72 is constant irrespective of the flow rate of the tap water or the like, the amount of current flowing to the tap water or the like per unit volume is increased. Therefore, the electrolysis reaction at each of the electrodes 71, 72 is promoted, and the concentration of generated hypochlorous acid can be increased. Conversely, when the opening degree of the flow rate adjusting valve 52 is adjusted to be opened, the flow rate of tap water or the like flowing between the electrodes 71, 72 of the electrolytic unit 7 is increased, and thus the concentration of generated hypochlorous acid can be reduced.
The electrical conductivity meter 54 detects the electrical conductivity of tap water or the like which is supplied to the electrolytic unit 7. The opening degree of the flow rate adjusting valve 52 is adjusted on the basis of the electrical conductivity detected by the electrical conductivity meter 54 and a preset target concentration of active oxygen species so that the concentration of hypochlorous acid contained in the electrolytic water is equal to the target concentration concerned.
Next, the operation of the air conditioner 100 according to this embodiment will be describe.
In the air conditioner 100, the cooling operation or heating operation is carried out by switching the four-way valve 13 provided to the outdoor unit 1 to the cooling side or heating side.
First, the operation of the cooling operation will be described. When the four-way value 13 is switched to the cooling side, the refrigerant flows in the refrigerant circuit 100a as indicated by the solid-line arrow of
In the air conditioner 100 according to this embodiment, for example when air of 27° C. DB (dry-bulb temperature), 19° C. WB (wet-bulb temperature) and 45% RH (relative humidity) is supplied to the heat exchanger during cooling operation as shown in
On the other hand, when the arrangement of the indoor heat exchanger 24 and the air filtering unit 5 is inverted with respect to the air flow passage in the housing 23 as shown in
On the other hand, when the four-way valve 13 is switched to the heating side, the refrigerant flows in the refrigerant circuit 100a as indicated by the chain-line arrow of
In the air conditioner 100 of this embodiment, as shown in
On the other hand, when the arrangement of the indoor heat exchanger 24 and the air filtering unit 5 is inverted with respect to the air flow passage in the housing 23 as shown in
As described above, according to this embodiment, in the air conditioner 100 having the air filtering unit 5, a predetermined concentration of filtering water is supplied to the air filtering unit 5 and the heat-exchanged air is passed through the gas-liquid contact member 56, whereby the heat-exchanged indoor air is brought into contact with the filtering water to inactivate the virus, etc. In this construction, for example when influenza virus invades into indoor air, the active oxygen species function to break down and vanish (remove) the surface protein (spike) of the virus concerned which is in dispensable for infection. When the surface protein of influenza virus is broken down, the influenza virus is not joined to a receptor which is necessary for infection of the virus concerned, so that infection can be prevented. As a result of a verification test which was made in cooperation with Sanitary Environment Research, it has been found that when air in which influenza virus invades is passed through the gas-liquid contact member 56 of this embodiment, 99% or more of the virus concerned can be removed.
Furthermore, according to this embodiment, indoor air sucked from the suction port 21 provided to the bottom surface of the housing 23 is brought into contact with electrolytic water dropped to the gas-liquid contact member 56 in the air filtering unit 5, and then blown out from the blow-out port 22 provided to the front side of the housing 23. Therefore, even when the suspension type air conditioner 100 is set up in a so-called large space such as a kindergarten, an elementary/junior high/high school, long-term care insurance facilities, a hospital or the like, air which has been air-conditioned and filtered (inactivated, sterilized or the like) can be blown out far away in the large space, so that filtering (sterile filtration or the like) of air can be efficiently performed in the large space.
As described above, when indoor air is filtered according to the wet system, according to the air conditioner 100 of this embodiment, the air flow passage is formed so as to extend from the air suction port 21 to the air blow-out port by the air blowing fan 25, and the air filtering unit 5 is disposed at the downstream side of the indoor heat exchanger 24 with respect to the air flow direction in the air flow passage. Therefore, when the air conditioner 100 is made to execute cooling operation by switching the four-way valve 13, air which is cooled in the heat exchanger to have higher relative humidity is supplied to the air filtering unit 5. During heating operation, air which is heated in the heat exchanger to have low relative humidity is supplied to the air filtering unit 5. Accordingly, even when the air is brought into contact with liquid having a filtering effect in the air filtering unit 5, during cooling operation, the relative humidity of the air can be suppressed from increasing after the air filtering operation because air which has been already high in relative humidity is supplied to the air filtering unit 5, and also during heating operation, air having low relative humidity is supplied to the air filtering unit 5 and thus the relative humidity of the air can be increased after the air filtering operation. Accordingly, the air filtering/purification is carried out according to the wet system, and also the cooling operation and the heating operation are switched to each other by switching the four-way valve 13, whereby the humidification amount of the air under air conditioning operation can be automatically controlled without increasing the air conditioning load, and the air atmosphere of the room can be kept comfortable.
Furthermore, during cooling operation, air after the heat exchanger is filtered in the air filtering unit 5, and the indoor clean air can be supplied. Furthermore, the relative humidity of the air supplied to the air filtering unit 5 is high, and thus the consumption of the filtering water can be suppressed.
When air is humidified in the summer season where humidity is high, a user feels the sensible temperature high and also the discomfort index is high. Therefore, it has been hitherto general that the air filtering operation based on the wet system is executed only in the winter season. However, according to this embodiment, air filtering can be performed in the summer season without humidifying air, and air-conditioned and filtered air can be supplied to the room even in the summer season. Furthermore, since the operation of the air conditioner having the air filtering function according to the present invention can be executed even in the summer season, active oxygen species can be supplied to the gas-liquid contact member 56 of the air filtering unit 5 at all times, and breeding of various bacteria, fungus, etc. in the gas-liquid contact member 56 and the air filtering unit 5 can be prevented.
Furthermore, the indoor unit 2 of the air conditioner 100 according to this embodiment is equipped with the air filtering water supply pipe 51 for supplying air filtering water to the air filtering unit 5, and the air filtering water supply pipe 51 is connected to at least a pair of electrodes 71, 72 for electrolyzing tap water or the like to generate air filtering water containing hypochlorous acid or the like, and a flow rate adjusting valve 52 for adjusting the concentration of hypochlorous acid or the like in the air filtering water to a predetermined concentration by changing the flow rate of tape water or the like which passes between the electrodes 71, 72. Therefore, in accordance with the kind of the virus, etc., the air filtering water containing hypochlorous acid or the like whose concentration is set to such a concentration as to inactivate the virus, etc. can be generated. Accordingly, the air filtering water containing hypochlorous acid of the concentration concerned is supplied to the air filtering unit 5, and air is passed through the gas-liquid contact member 56 of the air filtering unit 5, whereby the target virus, etc. can be effectively inactivated. Furthermore, when odor components are passed through the gas-liquid contact member 56, the odor components react with hypochlorous acid or the like in the air filtering water, and the odor components are ionized and solved in the air filtering water, so that the odor components are removed from the air and thus the air is deodorized.
According to this embodiment, the filtering water containing hypochlorous acid or the like is discharged from the lower portion of the air filtering unit 5 to the drain pan 61. Therefore, the filtering water is contaminated into the drain water stocked in the drain pan 61, thereby preventing occurrence of various bacteria, fungus, etc. in the drain water and thus occurrence of slime on the drain pan 61. Therefore, the cleaning and maintenance frequency of the drain pan 61 is reduced, and thus the labor of the cleaning and maintenance work can be reduced.
Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the air filtering unit 5 is provided to the air blow-out port 22 side of the indoor unit 2, and thus hypochlorous acid, etc. contained in the air blown out from the air filtering unit 5 is not directly introduced into the indoor heat exchanger 24. Therefore, the indoor heat exchanger 24 can be prevented from being eroded by hypochlorous acid or the like.
According to this embodiment, the opening degree of the flow rate adjusting valve 52 is adjusted in accordance with the electrical conductivity of tap water or the like so that the concentration of hypochlorous acid or the like in the filtering air is adjusted to a predetermined concentration. For example, when virus as an inactivation target is specified and variation of the electrical conductivity of tap water or the like is little, the electrical conductivity may be measured when the air conditioner is set up, and the valve opening degree may be set to the valve opening degree corresponding to the measured electrical conductivity and the target concentration of hypochlorous acid or the like in advance. Furthermore, in this construction, the detection of the electrical conductivity of tap water or the like my be carried out at the time when the electrolysis of tap water or the like is started. However, it is unnecessary to detect the electrical conductivity every time the electrolysis is carried out because the electrical conductivity of tap water or the like is not greatly varied in a day, and the electrical conductivity of tap water or the like may be detected once per several times of electrolysis.
Furthermore, in this embodiment, the concentration of hypochlorous acid or the like in the air filtering water is adjusted to the predetermined concentration by changing the flow rate of tap water or the like which is passed between the electrodes 71, 72. However, the concentration of hypochlorous acid or the like in the air filtering water may be adjusted to the predetermined concentration by changing the current flowing between the electrodes 71, 72 or the voltage applied between the electrodes 71, 72. According to this construction, even when the float rate adjusting valve 51 is not disposed in the filtering water supply pipe 51, the concentration of hypochlorous acid in the filtering water can be changed to a high concentration by increasing the current flowing between the electrodes 71, 72 (for example, 40 mA/cm2 in current density), for example. In this case, by merely using the existing electrodes 71, 72, the concentration of hypochlorous acid or the like in the filtering water can be freely changed. Therefore, the number of parts can be suppressed, and the cost and the space can be saved. Furthermore, this construction may be combined with the construction of the above embodiment described above. Accordingly to this construction, for example, filtering water containing a high concentration of hypochlorous acid can be generated.
Furthermore, according to this embodiment, for example, the concentration of hypochlorous acid in filtering water is adjusted to a predetermined concentration by changing the flow rate of tap water passing between the electrodes 71, 72. However, by changing the current supply time to the electrodes 71, 72, the concentration of hypochlorous acid in filtering water may be adjusted to a predetermined concentration, for example. According to this construction, the concentration of hypochlorous acid in filtering water may be changed with a simpler construction as compared with the construction that the current flowing between the electrodes 71, 72 or the voltage applied between the electrodes is changed. By combining this construction with the construction of the above embodiment, the current time to the electrodes 71, 72 can be reduced, and the lifetime of the electrodes 71, 72 can be increased.
In the above embodiment, hypochlorous acid is generated as active oxygen species. However, Ozone (O3) or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) may be generated as active oxygen species. In this case, when platinum tantalum electrodes are used as the electrodes 71, 72, active oxygen species can be highly efficiently and stably generated from water in which ion species are rare.
At this time, at the anode, the following reaction occurs:
2H2O→4H++O2+4e−
3H2O→O3+6H++6e−
2H2O→O3+4H++4e−
Furthermore, at the cathode, the following reactions occur:
4H++4e−+(4OH−)→2H2+(4OH−)
O2−+e−+2H+→H2O2
In this construction, ozone (O3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) which have strong sterilizing power are generated by supplying current to the electrodes 71, 72, and electrolytic water containing ozone (O3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) can be created. The concentration of ozone or hydrogen peroxide in the filtering water (electrolytic water) is adjusted to a value suitable for inactivate target virus or the like and air is passed through the gas-liquid contact member 56 supplied with the filtering water having this concentration, whereby target virus, etc. floating in the air can be inactivated. Furthermore, even odor reacts with ozone or hydrogen peroxide in the filtering water when passing through the gas-liquid contact member 56, and ionized and dissolved in the electrolytic water, whereby the odor components are removed from the air and thus the air is deodorized.
In this embodiment, the filtering water discharged from the air filtering unit 5 is stocked in the drain pan 61, and the discharged to the outside of the air conditioner through the drain pump 62 together with the drain water. However, a part or all of the drain water may be returned to the electrolytic unit 7, and reused. In this construction, the filtered water which has been used for air filtering is electrolyzed in the electrolysis unit 7 again, and thus various fungus, bacteria, etc. in the filtering water can be prevented from occurring in connection with the re-use. Furthermore, the supply flow amount of tap water or the like can be reduced by re-using the filtering water, and thus the energy can be saved.
When scale deposits on the electrode (cathode) by electrolyzing tap water, the electrical conductivity is lowered, and it is difficult to continue electrolysis. In this case, it is effective to invert the polarities of the electrodes 71, 72 (the plus and minus of the electrodes are switched to each other). The scale depositing on the cathode can be removed by electrolyzing the cathode as the anode. With respect to this polarity inverting control, the inverting operation may be periodically carried out by using a timer, for example, or it may be carried out irregularly, for example, every time the operation is started. Furthermore, the increase of the electrolysis resistance (decrease of the electrolysis current, or increase of the electrolysis voltage) is detected, and the polarities may be inverted on the basis of the detection result.
Furthermore, in the above embodiment, one indoor unit 2 is connected to one outdoor unit 1. However, the present invention may be applied to a multi-type air conditioner in which plural indoor units 2 are connected to one outdoor unit in parallel.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-209443 | Aug 2006 | JP | national |