Patent Application
20160102906
The present invention relates to, for example, an indoor unit of a refrigeration cycle apparatus used in an air-conditioning apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a temporary hanging of a decorative panel disposed at, for example, an air inlet of the indoor unit.
For example, in a conventional air-conditioning apparatus, for example a four direction cassette type indoor unit has such a structure that a decorative panel covering the lower surface (the surface facing the inside of the room) is attached to an indoor unit body suspended in a space above a ceiling. It has been proposed that, when the decorative panel is to be attached to the indoor unit body, the decorative panel is temporarily hung, for example, by hooking two temporary hanging levers disposed on the edge of an air inlet of the decorative panel on L-shaped temporary hanging hooks provided on the indoor unit body, and then the decorative panel is fixed to the indoor unit body with screws (see, for example, Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2).
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Utility Application Publication No. 62-117428 (FIG. 5)
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-75985 (FIG. 5)
For example, when a decorative panel is to be attached to an indoor unit body above a ceiling, the decorative panel is often held by hooking the edges of two sides opposed to each other (opposed sides) of an air inlet with thumbs to stably lift the decorative panel. However, for example, if temporary hanging levers are provided on the same side or two adjacent sides of the air inlet of the decorative panel and the decorative panel is to be temporarily hung on a case forming the indoor unit body, the opposed sides of the air inlet cannot be held and the decorative panel is to be lifted unstably.
An object of the present invention is to provide an indoor unit or the like in which a decorative panel can be easily temporarily hung.
An indoor unit according to the present invention includes a case having an opening part on a lower surface thereof when the indoor unit is installed, and a decorative panel having a rectangular air inlet being open to the opening part of the case and being attached to the lower surface of the case. The decorative panel has temporary hanging levers attached to opposed positions shifted from midpoints on any opposed two of four sides on edges of the air inlet parallelly toward any opposed vertexes. The case has temporary hanging hooks corresponding to the temporary hanging levers on edges of the opening part.
According to the indoor unit of the present invention, the temporary hanging levers hooked on the temporary hanging hooks of the case to temporarily hang the decorative panel are attached to opposed positions shifted from midpoints on opposed two sides on edges of the air inlet of the decorative panel parallelly toward opposed vertexes. Thus, an installation worker can insert their fingers into the edges of the air inlet of the decorative panel, hold temporary hanging levers while pressing them with their fingers, and temporarily hang the decorative panel on the case in a stable state. At this time, the worker can hold the temporary hanging levers in front of their head, and thus the temporary hanging levers are easily seen during the temporary hanging.
As shown in
The decorative panel 3 is attached to the lower part of the case 2 to cover the case 2 and to face the indoor side. The central part of the decorative panel 3 is open in a substantially rectangular shape (square shape) (to have a rectangular shape). This opening is an air inlet space 6 serving as an air inlet through which indoor air is sucked in when the indoor fan is driven. The edges of four sides that surround the opening (define the air inlet space 6) are air inlet side surfaces 7. A suction grille 4 covers the air inlet space 6. Air outlets through which air passing through the indoor heat exchanger is blown out into the room when the indoor fan is driven are provided along the air inlet side surfaces 7.
In Embodiment 1, of edges of the four sides that are the air inlet side surfaces 7, a pair of sides opposed to one another each have a temporary hanging lever 8 attached to the air inlet side surface 7 thereof to protrude into the air inlet space 6. The temporary hanging lever 8 is attached not to a central part of the air inlet side surface 7 (a position at the midpoint of the side) but to a position slightly shifted toward a vertex of the rectangle. The temporary hanging levers 8 are attached to positions opposed to each other on two opposed sides (positions line-symmetric with respect to a line parallel to the two opposed sides and passing through the center of the air inlet space 6 (positions in a mirror-image relationship)). Attaching the temporary hanging levers 8 to positions shifted from the centers makes the temporary hanging levers 8 and the temporary hanging hooks 9 easily seen when the decorative panel 3 is lifted and temporarily hung on the case 2, facilitating the temporary hanging.
As described above, according to the indoor unit of the air-conditioning apparatus of Embodiment 1, the temporary hanging levers 8 of which the hook portion 8a are hooked on the temporary hanging hooks 9 of the case 2 to temporarily hang the decorative panel 3 are attached to opposed positions shifted from midpoints on opposed two sides of the air inlet side surfaces 7 on edges of the air inlet formed on the decorative panel 3 parallelly toward opposed vertexes. Thus, for example, a worker can hold the edges of the air inlet while pressing the temporary hanging levers 8 with their thumbs, and temporarily hang the decorative panel 3 on the case 2 in a stable state. At this time, the worker can hold the temporary hanging levers 8 in front of their head, and thus the temporary hanging levers 8 are easily seen during the temporary hanging. The worker can attach even a square decorative panel 3 such as a four direction cassette type without any error in the orientation of installation, for example, without attaching in an orientation rotated 180 degrees. Thus, the decorative panel 3 can be easily screwed to the case.
In the indoor unit of Embodiment 1, in relation to the temporary hanging levers 8 formed of iron wire to each have a hook portion 8a, rotating shaft portions 8b and 8c, and an operating portion 8d, the worker pushes up the operating portions 8d of the temporary hanging levers 8 protruding into the air inlet space 6 with their thumbs or the like to turn the temporary hanging levers 8 so that the hook portions 8a are hooked on the temporary hanging hooks 9 of the case 2. Thus, the temporary hanging can be easily performed. By causing the operating portions 8d of the temporary hanging levers 8 to get over the protruding portions 7c when turning the temporary hanging levers 8, the temporary hanging levers 8 can be fixed in an upward position, facilitating the temporary hanging.
Although, in the above-described Embodiment 1, attaching the temporary hanging lever 8 to a position shifted from the central part of the side toward a vertex has been described, the direction of shifting is not particularly limited. For example, the center of gravity, which is normally at substantially the center of the air inlet, moves forward when the raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is attached to the decorative panel 3.
In Embodiment 2, the temporary hanging lever 8 is shifted toward a position on which the raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is installed. The raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is located on the position in front of the worker, and thus the worker can stably lift the decorative panel 3 on which the raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is installed.
For example, when the raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is attached to an air inlet side surface 7, the position of the center of gravity of the decorative panel 3 shifts from the center to the side of the position where the raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is attached. However, if the temporary hanging levers 8 are disposed on the positions shifted from the center of the air inlet space 6 toward the position on which the raisable and lowerable electric component box 11 is installed, the temporary hanging can be performed such that the balance of the decorative panel 3 is kept even when the decorative panel 3 is lifted and the temporary hanging levers 8 are hooked on the temporary hanging hooks 9 of the case 2.
The compressor 311 compresses and discharges sucked refrigerant. Although the invention is not particularly limited, the compressor 311 may have a capability of varying the capacity (the amount of refrigerant fed per unit time) by arbitrarily varying the operating frequency, for example, with an inverter circuit. The four-way valve 312 is a valve for switching the flow of refrigerant, for example, between the flow for a cooling operation and the flow for a heating operation.
The outdoor heat exchanger 313 exchanges heat between refrigerant and air (outdoor air). For example, during the heating operation, the outdoor heat exchanger 313 functions as an evaporator, and evaporates and gasifies refrigerant. During the cooling operation, the outdoor heat exchanger 313 functions as a condenser, and condenses and liquefies refrigerant.
The expansion valve 314 of an expansion device (flow rate control unit) or the like decompresses and expands refrigerant. For example, when the expansion valve 314 is an electronic expansion valve or the like, the opening degree is adjusted based on the instruction of a control unit (not shown) or the like.
The indoor heat exchanger 211 of the indoor unit 200 exchanges heat, for example, between air in the indoor space 1 and refrigerant. During the heating operation, the indoor heat exchanger 211 functions as a condenser, and condenses and liquefies refrigerant. During the cooling operation, the indoor heat exchanger 211 functions as an evaporator, and evaporates and gasifies refrigerant.
First, the cooling operation of the refrigeration cycle apparatus will be described based on the flow of refrigerant. In the cooling operation, the four-way valve 312 is switched to establish a connection relationship shown by solid lines. High-temperature high-pressure gas refrigerant compressed and discharged by the compressor 311 passes through the four-way valve 312 and flows into the outdoor heat exchanger 313. Then, the refrigerant condensed and liquefied by passing through the outdoor heat exchanger 313 and exchanging heat with the outdoor air (liquid refrigerant) flows into the expansion valve 314. The refrigerant brought into a two-phase gas-liquid state by being decompressed by the expansion valve 314 flows out of the outdoor unit 300.
The two-phase gas-liquid refrigerant flowing out of the outdoor unit 300 flows through the liquid refrigerant pipe 500 into the indoor unit 200, and passes through the indoor heat exchanger 211. The refrigerant evaporated and gasified by exchanging heat, for example, with the air in the indoor space 1 (gas refrigerant) flows out of the indoor unit 200.
The gas refrigerant flowing out of the indoor unit 200 flows through the gas refrigerant pipe 400 into the outdoor unit 300. The refrigerant then passes through the four-way valve 312 and is sucked into the compressor 311 again. As described above, the refrigerant of the air-conditioning apparatus is circulated and air-conditioning (cooling) is performed.
Next, the heating operation will be described based on the flow of refrigerant. In the heating operation, the four-way valve 312 is switched to establish a connection relationship shown by dotted lines. High-temperature high-pressure gas refrigerant compressed and discharged by the compressor 311 passes through the four-way valve 312 and flows out of the outdoor unit 300. The gas refrigerant flowing out of the outdoor unit 300 flows through the gas refrigerant pipe 400 into the indoor unit 200. The refrigerant condensed and liquefied by exchanging heat, for example, with air in the indoor space 1 while passing through the indoor heat exchanger 211 flows out of the indoor unit 200.
The refrigerant flowing out of the indoor unit 200 flows through the liquid refrigerant pipe 500 into the outdoor unit 300. The refrigerant brought into a two-phase gas-liquid state by being decompressed by the expansion valve 314 flows into the outdoor heat exchanger 313. Then, the refrigerant evaporated and gasified by passing through the outdoor heat exchanger 313 and exchanging heat with the outdoor air (gas refrigerant) passes through the four-way valve 312 and is sucked into the compressor 311 again. Thus, the refrigerant of the air-conditioning apparatus is circulated and air-conditioning (heating) is performed.
As described above, the air-conditioning apparatus (refrigeration cycle apparatus) of Embodiment 3 achieves the same advantageous effects as those of Embodiments 1 and 2 by employing the indoor unit 200 described in Embodiments 1 and 2 to form the configuration.
Although, in the above-described Embodiments 1 to 3, a four direction cassette type ceiling embedded indoor unit that blows out air in four directions has been described, the technique herein can also be applied to indoor units that blow out air, for example, in two directions and three directions.
Although, in the above-described Embodiments 1 to 3, an air-conditioning apparatus has been described as an example of a refrigeration cycle apparatus, the technique herein can also be applied, for example, to a refrigerating apparatus or the like that is another refrigerating cycle apparatus. The technique herein can be applied not only to refrigeration cycle apparatus but also, for example, to a ventilation apparatus.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-149551 | Jul 2013 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2014/064342 | 5/29/2014 | WO | 00 |
