JP7159087B2 - Hot water storage unit and hot water heater having the same - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a hot water storage unit and a hot water heater having the same.

In a hot water storage unit of a hot water heater, piping is often provided around the leg at the bottom of the hot water storage tank, and from the viewpoint of protection of the piping and aesthetics, it is widely practiced to provide a leg cover surrounding the side of the leg. Although metal may be used as the material for the leg cover, it is desirable to use resin from the standpoint of ease of processing the leg cover, which is performed along with installation of pipes of the hot water storage unit.

JP 2012-21695 A

The leg cover is preferably configured by connecting members respectively arranged on four sides. A metal case, for example, is arranged above the hot water storage unit, and cover members are attached along the four sides of the case on the lower end side of the case. For example, the lower end of the case and the upper end of the cover are overlapped, and an insertion member such as a screw is inserted through a screw hole provided in each of the case and the cover to be fastened and fixed.

When attaching a cover made of polypropylene (PP) resin, which is a typical resin, to a case made of iron, which is a typical metal, for example, the coefficient of linear expansion of PP resin is about 10 times that of iron, so when the outside air temperature changes, the PP resin expands and contracts more than iron. However, the material strength of PP resin is about 1/100 that of iron, and iron does not substantially deform in accordance with the expansion and contraction of PP resin. There is a risk that the cover may be curved or a gap may be generated between the cover on the back and the cover on the side, for example, thereby degrading the aesthetic appearance. Therefore, when the case and the cover are made of materials with significantly different coefficients of linear expansion, it is desirable to be able to suppress the effects of deformation due to temperature changes.

The present invention, which has been made in view of the above circumstances,
a case;
legs supporting the case;
a cover arranged around the leg and attached to the lower end side of the case, the hot water storage unit comprising:
The cover is made of a material having a coefficient of linear expansion different from that of the case, and has a positioning hole and a horizontally elongated hole through which the insertion member is inserted.

1 is an exploded left front perspective view of a hot water storage unit and a leg cover according to an embodiment; 1 is an exploded perspective view of a hot water storage unit and a rear cover according to an embodiment; FIG. Front view of back cover of embodiment FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the hot water storage unit and the left side cover of the embodiment; Front view of the left side cover of the embodiment Left side view of hot water storage unit It is a BB cross-sectional view of FIG. 6, (a) state at the time of installation, (b) state under high temperature environment, (c) front view of the connection part of the side cover and the rear cover Front view of front cover of embodiment

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the hot water storage unit 20 and the leg cover 10 of the embodiment.

The hot water storage unit 20 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape that includes a hot water storage tank that stores hot water. A leg cover 10 is provided around the leg 13 between the hot water tank and the ground (installation surface).
The hot water storage tank of the hot water storage unit 20 includes a front case 21 located on the front side, left side cases 23 and 25 located on the left side, a right side case located on the right side, and a rear case 22 located on the back side. Five sides are covered with the located top case 27 .
A plurality of legs 13 are provided at the bottom of the hot water storage unit 20, and the hot water storage unit 20 is fixed to the installation surface (ground) by fastening the legs 13 to the installation surface (ground) with bolts or the like.

The leg 13 is surrounded by a front cover 90, a rear cover 30, a left side cover 50, and a right side cover.

[Rear cover 30]
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the hot water storage unit 20 and the back cover 30 of the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a front view of the back cover 30 of the embodiment.
The rear cover 30 is made of resin and has two parts, a rear cover mounting portion 31 on the top and a rear cover portion 32 on the bottom. The rear cover mounting portion 31 has a plurality of holes 38 and 39. The holes 38 and 39 are aligned with the prepared holes 37 of the metal rear case 22, for example, and insertion members such as screws are inserted through both. The rear cover 30 can be attached to the lower end side of the rear case 22 by fastening and fixing it.

Some of the holes 38 and 39 of the back cover mounting portion 31, for example, the positioning hole 38 on the center side, are formed in a circular shape having substantially the same outer diameter as the fastening member (screw), and the other part or the remainder of the oblong hole 39 is the fastening member. It has a horizontally long shape that is longer than the horizontal dimension of After the rear cover 30 is attached to the rear case 22, the rear cover 30 expands and contracts due to changes in outside air temperature. At this time, the circular positioning hole 38 serves as a reference position, and the oblong hole 39 plays a role of absorbing the deformation of the rear cover 30 . Since the periphery of the rear cover 30 is deformed with the positioning hole 38 as a reference, the holes 38 and 39 which are generally horizontally aligned are provided with one positioning hole 38 and the other or remaining portion with the horizontally elongated hole 39 to prevent thermal expansion and heat. It becomes easier to absorb the influence of deformation due to shrinkage.

The rear cover portion 32 has a piping window inside 40 and a piping window outside 41, which are integrally formed at the time of shipment. When the hot water storage unit 20 is installed on-site (at the time of installation), for example, before the process of passing the pipes through the rear surface in the installation work, the boundary 42 between the inside 40 of the piping window and the outside 41 of the piping window is cut to open the piping window. The inside 40 can be removed, and piping can be passed through the space created by the removal.

The boundary 42 is formed along the outer peripheral surface of the inside 40 of the piping window so that it can be cut with a simple tool such as a cutter knife. Since sufficient strength is required for the inside 40 of the piping window and the outside 41 of the piping window, the thickness can be set to 3 mm or more, and the thickness of the boundary 42 can be set to 1 mm or less. The boundary 42 may be entirely made of a resin portion having a thickness of 1 mm or less, or may be partially provided with a void portion where no resin is provided. By providing the gap portion, it is possible to absorb the expansion and contraction of the back cover 30 that occurs when the temperature changes before the boundary 42 is cut. For example, when the width of the rear cover 30 is 650 mm, the coefficient of linear expansion of PP resin is about 10×10 ^-5 K ^-1 . The lateral dimensional change of the rear cover 30 is 3.25 mm (650 mm×50° C.×10×10 ⁻⁵ ). If the width of the gap is set to 3.25 mm or more, the deformation of the back cover 30 due to temperature change before the boundary 42 is cut can be suppressed. The void portion is preferably provided at a curved portion of the boundary 42 where the cutting operation is difficult. Such deformation is likely to occur when the linear expansion coefficients of the materials of the case and cover are approximately five times or more.

[Shape and Attachment Method of Left Side Cover 50]
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the hot water storage unit 20 and the left side cover 50 of the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a front view of the left side cover 50 of the embodiment.
The left side cover 50 has an upper left side cover mounting portion 51 and a lower left side cover portion 52 . The left side cover mounting portion 51 has a positioning hole 57 and a plurality of horizontally elongated holes 58. The holes 57 and 58 are aligned with, for example, a lower hole 56 of the left side case 23 made of metal, and an inserting member is inserted through both. The left side cover 50 can be attached to the lower end side of the left side case 23 by inserting and fastening. As with the rear cover portion 32 , the left side cover portion 52 can remove the pipe window outside 59 by cutting the boundary between the pipe window inside 60 and the pipe window outside 59 .

[Joint Portion Between Left Side Cover 50 and Rear Cover 30]
6 is a left side view of the hot water storage unit 20. FIG. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. 6, showing (a) the state at the time of installation and (b) the state in a high-temperature environment. FIG. 7(c) is a front view of the connecting portion between the side cover and the rear cover.
Regarding the left side cover 50, the rear cover 30 side is connected to the pipe window exterior 60 extending in the front-rear direction and is inclined to the right (the hot water storage tank side. Inward. In FIG. 6, toward the back side of the paper surface). An inner extending portion 61 extending rearward from the inner end (hot water tank side end) of the inner inclined portion 64 and a rear surface portion 54 extending inward from the rear end of the inner extending portion 61 are provided. A space 70 (rear side space) is present between the rear surface portion 54 and the rear surface cover 30 in the front-rear direction.

The rear cover 30 has a protruding portion 63 which protrudes forward and is inserted into and connected to an insertion hole 71 provided along the rear surface 54 . As a result, lateral misalignment between the rear cover 30 and the left side cover 50 is suppressed.

The rear cover 30 has, on its left end side, an outer extension portion 33 that extends forward and faces or abuts the left surface (outer surface) of the inner extension portion 61 , and the front end of the outer extension portion 33 is inclined inward. It has an approximate C cut 65 .

A gap 66 is present between the inner inclined portion 64 and the substantially C-cut 65 in the front-rear direction. Since the inner sloping portion 64 and the substantially C-cut 65 are slanted away from each other, the gap 66 (front side gap) is open to external light (for example, sunlight) and shadows are less likely to form. That is, the structure is such that the gap 66 is difficult to see visually. The angle θ between the inwardly inclined portion 64 and the inwardly extending portion 61 is an obtuse angle, and the angle between the substantially C-cut 65 and the inwardly extending portion 61 is also an obtuse angle.

The inner extension portion 61 may move relative to the outer extension portion 33 due to expansion or contraction due to temperature changes after installation. At high temperatures, it expands so that the gap 70 is reduced, and at low temperature it contracts so that the gap 66 is reduced. For example, when the width of the left side cover 50 in the depth direction is 740 mm, the linear expansion coefficient of PP resin is about 10×10 ⁻⁵ K ⁻¹ , so the dimensional change is from −20° C. to 30° C. 50° C., the longitudinal dimensional change of the left side cover 50 is 3.7 mm. Therefore, even if the inner extending portion 61 is thermally deformed, the influence thereof is hardly visible.

Specifically, the inner extending portion 61 is installed so as to face or abut on the front end of the outer extending portion 33 (approximately the C-cut 65 in this embodiment) by 3.7 mm or more. As a result, even if the outside air temperature at the time of installation fluctuates from a high temperature environment to a low temperature environment such as in winter and the left side cover 50 thermally contracts, the rear end of the inner extension portion 61 will remain in contact with the outer extension portion 33 . Positioning ahead of the front end is suppressed.

Also, the inner extension portion 61 is installed so as to have an air gap 70 of 3.7 mm or more. This can prevent the rear end of the inner extension portion 61 from being pressed against the rear cover 30 and bent due to thermal expansion in a high-temperature environment after installation.

That is, by setting the positional relationship between the front and rear ends of the inner extending portion 61 and the outer extending portion 33 in this way, even if the cover is made of resin or the like, which is easily deformed by heat, the separation and bending of the covers 50 and 30 will cause the deformation of the cover. It is possible to suppress the deterioration of beauty.

A similar arrangement preferably also has a right side cover. Also, 3.7 mm is the amount of deformation when the resin material of the cover is placed in an environment different by 50° C. in this way. For this reason, the same applies to the horizontally elongated holes, and it is preferable that the horizontal dimension is equal to or greater than the horizontal dimension of the inserted screw plus 3.7 mm.

8 is a front view of the front cover 90. FIG. The front cover 90 is also fixed to the front case 21 by inserting insertion members such as screws through holes provided in the upper portion thereof. However, it is preferable that the front cover 90 has only the oblong hole 91 through which the insertion member is inserted, and that the front cover 90 does not have a positioning hole or, even if it has a positioning hole, the insertion member is not inserted therethrough. The front cover 90 is preferably removable by the general user for maintenance. Since the rear cover 30, the left side cover 50, and the right side cover are provided with oblong holes, they may be misaligned due to thermal deformation. This is because the degree of freedom in positioning cannot be ensured, making it difficult for general users to attach and detach.

13 Legs 20 Hot water storage unit 30 Rear cover 33 Outer extending portion 38 Positioning hole 39 Horizontal hole 50 Left side cover (side cover)
54 Back side 60 Piping window exterior 61 Inner extending portion 64 Inner inclined portion 66 Gap (front side gap)
70 air gap (rear side air gap)
71 insertion hole 90 front cover

Claims (6)

a case;
legs supporting the case;
a cover arranged around the leg and attached to the lower end side of the case, the hot water storage unit comprising:
The cover is made of a material having a coefficient of linear expansion different from that of the case, and has a positioning hole and a laterally elongated hole through which the insertion member is inserted, respectively ,
The case is made of metal, the cover is made of resin,
The cover includes a side cover and a back cover,
The rear end side of the side cover has an inner inclined portion inclined toward the leg side and an inner extension portion extending rearward from the rear end side of the inner inclined portion ,
the side cover side of the back cover has an outer extending portion that faces or abuts a surface of the inner extending portion that is farther from the leg;
A hot water storage unit having a rear gap between the rear end of the inner extension and the rear cover . The rear end of the inner inclined portion and the front end of the outer extending portion are separated from each other,
2. The hot water storage unit according to claim 1 , wherein a front gap is provided between the front end of the outer extending portion and the inner inclined portion. 3. The hot water storage unit according to claim 2 , wherein the front and rear sides of the front space are inclined in directions away from each other. The cover includes a side cover, a rear cover and a front cover,
The side cover and/or the back cover each have a positioning hole and a horizontally elongated hole through which an insertion member is inserted,
4. The hot water storage unit according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the front cover has a horizontally elongated hole through which an insertion member is inserted. 4. The lateral dimension of the oblong hole is equal to or greater than the sum of the lateral dimension of the insertion member and the dimension that the resin forming the cover deforms when placed in a temperature environment different by 50° C. or the hot water storage unit according to item 1. A water heater comprising the hot water storage unit according to any one of claims 1 to 5 .

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