JPS6310340B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic hot water supply device that supplies hot water to a bathtub or the like.

Conventionally, hot water storage type water heaters have often been used to supply hot water into bathtubs. This water heater stores pre-warmed hot water in a tank with an appropriate volume, and when taking a bath, the manual faucet is opened to fill the bathtub with hot water. Of course, the capacity of the hot water storage tank is chosen to be large considering the amount of water used, and in many cases hot water can be supplied to the kitchen or washroom other than the bathtub if necessary. Therefore,
Such water heaters not only require a large hot water storage tank for bathing and other uses, but also have the disadvantage that it is difficult to maintain a constant water temperature during use.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, control the temperature of hot water using a combination of a temperature sensor, a heater, and a mixing faucet, and enable automatic hot water supply, thereby reducing the volume of a hot water storage tank. To provide an automatic hot water supply device that can be made small and take up little space when installed.

According to the present invention, a water level sensor is set in the upper part of the tank and detects whether the tank is full of water, and a water level sensor is set in the lower part of the tank and turns on when the water level sensor detects that the water is full. a first heater set in the lower part of the tank, the temperature of the water warmed by the heater being predetermined;
a lower sensor that detects whether the temperature has reached the temperature of
an upper sensor that is set in the upper part of the tank and detects whether the water temperature around the upper part exceeds the predetermined first temperature; The lower sensor includes an inserted mixer faucet and an automatic on-off valve inserted between the mixer faucet and the hot water inlet of the piping, and the lower sensor detects that the water temperature warmed by the heater is the predetermined first temperature. When it detects that the temperature has reached , the heater is turned off and the automatic on-off valve is opened to mix the high temperature water flowing into the mixer faucet with the cold water supplied from another socket to create a predetermined second temperature. By adjusting the water temperature to a temperature of , supplying hot water from the hot water supply port, and replenishing cold water from the lower part of the tank during hot water supply, the lower sensor detects that the water temperature is lower than the predetermined first temperature. When it detects that the temperature has decreased, the heater is turned on again, and then the upper sensor turns on the predetermined first
The automatic hot water supply device is characterized in that the automatic opening/closing valve is closed when it is detected that the water temperature has fallen below the temperature.

Next, an embodiment of an automatic hot water supply apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment according to the present invention. According to this example, first, when the operation switch for applying power and the automatic hot water supply switch to the bathtub are both turned on, the water level sensor 8 detects whether the water in the tank 1 is empty or full. A detection signal from this water level sensor 8 is sent to a controller to be described later. Here, when the water level sensor 8 detects that the tank is full of water, an ON signal is sent to the controller to operate the relay and drive and control the heat pump 2. A heat exchanger (condenser) 2a attached to the heat pump 2 is located near the bottom of the tank 1, and the water temperature is increased by operation of the heat pump 1. And also tank 1
When the lower tank sensor 5 installed at the bottom of the tank detects a temperature of, for example, 65°C, this detection signal is sent to the controller to operate a relay, which opens the electromagnetically controlled automatic on-off valve 11. At the same time, the heat pump 2 stops operating. When the automatic on-off valve 11 is opened, the hot water in the tank 1 first flows into the mixing faucet 10, where it mixes with water from the city water pipe 6 and reaches a temperature of 45°C.
After the hot water is controlled to the hot water of the bathtub 1 from the hot water supply port 14
Supplied within 7 days.

When the amount of hot water in the tank 1 decreases due to the supply of hot water to the bathtub 17, at the same time, the pressure reducing check valve 7 is removed from the city water pipe 6.
Cold water flows through the tank 1, creating a cold water layer in tank 1.
A warm water layer of 65℃ is formed. When the 65°C hot water layer rises to the tank sensor 9 installed at the top and the temperature of the hot water drops below 65°C, the upper tank sensor 9 detects the temperature and automatically opens/closes the valve via the controller. 11 and finish the first hot water supply. Here, while the lower tank sensor 5 detected a temperature of 65°C or higher, the heat pump 2 stopped operating, but the heat pump 2 started operating again when the temperature dropped to 65°C or lower. after that,
When the lower tank sensor 5 detects 65° C. again, the automatic on-off valve 11 opens as before, and hot water supply to the bathtub 17 is restarted. In this way, the above operation is repeated until the position of the water level sensor 15 provided in the bathtub 17 is filled with hot water and the water level sensor 15 detects an ON signal.

When the water level sensor 15 turns on, its detection signal is sent to the controller, which closes the automatic on-off valve 11, completing the supply of hot water into the bathtub 17. At the same time, the automatic water supply switch to the bathtub 17 is automatically turned off and normal operation is resumed. According to this example, the normal operating state is such that the operation of the heat pump 2 is turned on in response to the presence or absence of a detection signal from the lower tank sensor 5.
OFF, and also turns ON and OFF the electric heater 4 connected to the power source 3 in response to the presence or absence of a detection signal from the upper tank sensor 9. By repeating this operation, the tank 1 The temperature of the hot water inside is maintained at an appropriate temperature. The electric heater 4 is controlled by the upper tank sensor 9 to form a high temperature layer of 80°C.
Since it is ON/OFF controlled, if the water temperature drops during bathing, high-temperature water can be introduced into the bathtub by opening the manual reheating valve 12. Furthermore, by opening the manual valve 13, 45°C hot water can also be supplied as needed. Note that the upper tank sensor 9 is an electric heater.
Although it also serves as an ON/OFF control sensor, the electric heater 4 may be provided with a dedicated control sensor.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the above embodiment. Referring to this chart, from the start of operation to the automatic stop of hot water supply, the water level sensor 8 detects that the tank is full, the heat pump operates, the lower tank sensor 5 detects 65°C, the heat pump stops, and the automatic open/close valve 11 The procedure includes opening and closing the automatic on-off valve 11 depending on whether or not the upper tank sensor 9 detects 65°C, and controlling the automatic on-off valve 11 when the water level sensor 15 detects that the bathtub is full of water and closes the automatic on-off valve 11. You will understand it well.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a controller applied to the embodiment of FIG. 1. This controller has an input port 21,
A/D converter 22, one-chip microcomputer 23, output port 24, and relay circuit 25
It is made up of. On the input side of the input port 21, the water level sensor 8, the lower tank sensor 5, and the upper tank sensor 9 described in FIG.
Lead wires from the and bathtub water level sensor 15 are connected, and ON and OFF signals detected from each sensor are switched by a changeover switch for each mode and obtained on the output side.
These outputs are applied to an A/D converter 22 for each mode and converted into bit codes depending on the presence or absence of a signal. The converted bit code is input to the microcomputer 23 and taken out from the output side as information for controlling each load (heat pump, automatic on-off valve, electric heater, etc.). This information is converted into respective control signals by the output port 24 and applied to the relay circuit 25, and by operating the respective corresponding relays, a drive output for each load can be obtained from the output side. ing.

In the above embodiment, the heating means in the tank, that is, a heating layer using a heat pump and a high temperature heating layer using an electric heater are provided. This method is effective in that the heat pump can utilize a large amount of atmospheric heat during the day for automatic hot water supply during the day. However, in the present invention, the heating means is not limited to a heat pump. Further, although an electric heater is provided as a heat source for reheating the hot water in the tank to obtain a high temperature layer, this may be omitted.

In the above embodiment, hot water is supplied to a bathtub as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that hot water can be supplied to other hot water tanks, such as a commercial hot water tank. Furthermore, in addition to the controller shown in Figure 3, general controllers include:
Although the structure becomes large, a plurality of control circuits may be provided to drive respective loads for each sensor.

As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, whenever the temperature of the hot water stored in the tank is raised to the required temperature, the hot water is automatically supplied to the bathtub etc. via the mixing faucet. Because hot water is supplied, the tank capacity only needs to be large enough to accommodate the amount used in the bathroom, shower, kitchen, etc., and is about 1/3 compared to conventional systems, making it possible to downsize the tank. Become. Therefore, no space is required for installation on the balcony of an apartment, condominium, etc. Further, as shown in the embodiment, if a heat pump is used for heating, an energy saving effect can be obtained when there is a lot of atmospheric heat in the daytime.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the control procedure of the embodiment of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a controller. In the figure, 1 is a tank, 2 is a heat pump,
2a is a heat exchanger, 3 is a power supply, 4 is an electric heater, 5
is the lower sensor, 6 is the city water pipe, 7 is the pressure reducing check valve, 8
is the water level sensor in the tank, 9 is the upper sensor, 10
1 is a mixing faucet, 11 is an automatic on-off valve, 12 is a manual valve for reheating, 13 is a manual valve, 14 is a hot water inlet, 1
5 is a bathtub water level sensor, 16 is a heat insulating lid, 17 is a bathtub, 21 is an input port, 22 is an A/D converter, 2
3 is a microcomputer, 24 is an output port,
25 is a relay circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A water level sensor that is set in the upper part of the tank and detects whether the water in the tank is full; a heater that is set in the lower part of the tank and turns on when the water level sensor detects that the water is full; A lower sensor is set in the lower part of the tank and detects whether the temperature of the water heated by the heater reaches a predetermined first temperature; an upper sensor for detecting whether or not the water temperature of the tank exceeds the predetermined first temperature; a mixing faucet inserted in the middle of a pipe from the upper part of the tank to the hot water supply port; and a mixing faucet of the piping. and an automatic opening/closing valve inserted between the heater and the hot water supply port, and when the lower sensor detects that the water temperature heated by the heater reaches the predetermined first temperature, the heating At the same time as turning off the water heater, the automatic on-off valve is opened, and the water temperature is adjusted to a predetermined second temperature by mixing the high temperature water flowing into the mixing faucet with cold water supplied from another socket, and the water is then heated from the hot water inlet. Hot water is supplied, and during this hot water supply, cold water is replenished from the lower part of the tank, and when the lower sensor detects that the water temperature has fallen below the predetermined first temperature, the heater is turned on again. and then, when the upper sensor detects that the water temperature has fallen below the predetermined first temperature, the automatic opening/closing valve is closed.