JP2924287B2 - Water heater - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a water heater with a wireless remote controller for heating water with gas, petroleum, electricity, or the like, and controlling operation by transmission and reception by radio waves.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 4, a conventional water heater of this type has a wall 11 between a controller 6 provided inside a water heater 1 installed outdoors and a remote controller 23 installed indoors. Penetrated and connected by a remote control cable 24,
Is transmitted to the water heater 1 via the remote control cable 24. 7 is a floor of the apartment, 8 is a door for opening and closing a space called a pipe shaft of the apartment where the water heater 1 is installed, 9 is an exhaust port of the water heater 1, 10 is a pipe for hot water supply and gas supply.

As a wireless remote controller, there is a wireless remote controller as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-77671.
A configuration has been devised in which a water heater is remotely controlled by a wireless remote controller using radio waves or a state of the water heater is remotely monitored by a wireless remote controller.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional remote control cable system, when installing a hot water supply device, a hole 11a is made in the wall 11 and a remote control cable 24 consisting of 2 to 8 core signal lines is passed through the hot water supply device. The machine 1 and the remote controller 23 had to be connected. For this reason, there is a problem that the wall needs to be penetrated and there is a fear that a connection error of the remote control cable may occur.

In the configuration of the water heater using the wireless remote controller, there is almost no disclosure about an antenna for efficiently transmitting and receiving radio waves and a specific configuration of mounting the antenna. However, in order to put this kind of wireless remote control type hot water supply apparatus into practical use, an antenna and an antenna mounting method are very important issues.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and does not require wall drilling work and cable connection work, has good workability, and has a wireless remote control type hot water supply device having an antenna which is hardly affected by surroundings. The purpose is to provide.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a water heater of the present invention has a water heater, a water heater antenna, and a ground plane perpendicular to the antenna at a feed point side of the water heater antenna. Hot water transmission / reception that transmits and receives control signals using radio waves between the ground plate, an antenna cover that is spaced apart from the water heater antenna and surrounds the water heater antenna with an insulator, and a remote controller of the water heater via the water heater antenna A hot water supply apparatus comprising a water heater and an antenna cable for connecting a water heater antenna and a hot water transmitter / receiver.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the above structure allows the antenna to be mounted at a free position away from the water heater, and prevents a metal object from approaching within a certain distance from the antenna during or after mounting. Even if installed, the performance of the antenna can be secured stably.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a water heater, 2 denotes a water heater transmitter / receiver, 3 denotes a rod-shaped water heater antenna, 4 denotes a ground plate, 5 denotes an antenna cable, and 6 denotes control of transmission / reception and control of the overall operation of the water heater 1. It is a controller. In a collective building such as an apartment building, the water heater 1 is mounted in a space 17 called a pipe shaft, as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 8 denotes a door for opening and closing the pipe shaft space 17. Reference numeral 9 denotes an exhaust port of the water heater 1, and a door 8
Through to the outside. Reference numeral 10 denotes a pipe for supplying water, hot water, fuel, and the like, which is normally raised vertically from the floor surface 7 and connected to the bottom surface of the water heater 1. Numeral 11 denotes a wall surface forming a pipe shaft space 17, through which radio waves emitted from the water heater antenna 3 and the remote control antenna 12 are transmitted. Reference numeral 13 denotes a remote control for remotely controlling the remote control water heater 1, and reference numeral 14 denotes a remote control transceiver. Reference numeral 15 denotes a plastic antenna, which concentrically surrounds the periphery of the water heater antenna 3 and has a hollow antenna cover, and reference numeral 16 denotes another metal pipe in a pipe shaft space 17.

FIG. 2 is a characteristic graph of transmission / reception output depending on the distance between the metal pipe and the water heater antenna. In a monopole antenna, the antenna's characteristics are greatly affected by the space capacitance between the antenna and the ground plane.If the ground plane becomes unstable or a metal object approaches, the antenna's characteristic impedance changes and the antenna performance becomes unstable. become. Therefore, in order to ensure stable antenna performance, it is necessary to keep a metal body away from a sufficient ground plane and near the antenna. In the embodiment of the present invention, the metal body in the pipe shaft space 17 is a metal pipe 16. The distance was set to 1/10 wavelength of the transmission / reception radio wave.

According to the above configuration, when sufficient space for mounting the water heater antenna 3 around the housing of the water heater 1 cannot be obtained, the water heater antenna 3 can be mounted in a distant empty space in the pipe shaft space 17. In addition, since the antenna 3 is provided with the ground plate 4 provided on the power supply side of the antenna and the antenna cover 15 surrounding the space around the antenna with an insulator, a metal object approaches the antenna or the grounding surface is poor. This prevents the antenna performance from becoming unstable due to becoming stable. Further, the antenna cover 15 can prevent damage due to external factors of the antenna.

FIG. 3 is a control function block diagram of the water heater 1 and the remote controller 13. Reference numeral 17 denotes a temperature detector, reference numeral 18 denotes a combustor, reference numeral 19 denotes a water heater power supply, which is controlled by the controller 6 and realizes functions of the water heater 1. The remote control 13
It comprises a display 20, an operation unit 21, and a remote control power supply 22. Also, a hot water supply transceiver 2 in the water heater 1 and a remote control 13
The remote control transmitter / receiver 14 inside can communicate with each other by radio waves via the antennas 3 and 12 of each other.

With this configuration, when the content operated by the operation device 21 of the remote controller 13 is transmitted to the water heater 1 as a radio signal, the hot water supply transceiver 2 receives the content, and the controller controls the content based on the content. Reference numeral 6 denotes an operation of the water heater 1. The operation state of the water heater 1 is such that when transmitted from the hot water supply transmitter / receiver 2 to the remote controller 13 as a radio signal, the remote control transmitter / receiver 14 receives the signal and outputs it to the display 20.

[0014]

According to the water heater of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Depending on the mounting position of the water heater, even when the water heater antenna cannot be installed at a desired position, the antenna can be mounted in an empty space based on the performance of the antenna, so that stable transmission and reception is always achieved. Can be secured.

(2) The antenna cover prevents a metal body from approaching the antenna at the time of mounting or after mounting, and also prevents damage to the antenna.

(3) It is possible to provide a practical wireless remote control type hot water supply apparatus which does not require remote control cable construction.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a water heater according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transmission output characteristic depending on a distance between an antenna and a metal pipe in the device.

FIG. 3 is a control block diagram of the apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional water heater.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hot-water heater 2 Hot-water supply transceiver 3 Hot-water heater antenna 4 Ground plate 5 Antenna cable 13 Remote control 15 Antenna cover

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yasuo Yoshimura 1006 Kazuma Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-1-147246 (JP, A) 9056 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Showa 60-14418 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F24H 1/10 301

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A water heater antenna, a ground plate for forming a ground plane on a feed point side of the water heater antenna in a direction perpendicular to the antenna, an antenna cover which is surrounded by an insulator at a spatial distance from the water heater antenna, A water heater comprising: a water heater transceiver for transmitting and receiving a control signal to and from a remote controller of the water heater using a radio wave via the water heater antenna; and an antenna cable connecting the water heater antenna and the water heater transceiver.