JPH0217791B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an ice block manufacturing device mainly used in a cooling system.

Conventional building cooling systems generally use heat pumps to repeatedly condense and expand refrigerant gas to achieve cooling, but the power required to drive the heat pumps is extremely large, and most oil is imported. For our country, which relies on air conditioning, reducing the amount of electricity used for air conditioning is a major social need. For this reason, various energy-saving systems have been proposed that use solar heat or temperature differences between day and night as a secondary source, but all of them do not change in principle in that they use heat pumps, and therefore the energy saving reduction rate is 20%. There was nothing that could surpass it.

In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ice block manufacturing apparatus for use in a cooling system that utilizes the latent heat of ice blocks made and stored during the winter.

The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings.

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the ice block manufacturing apparatus according to the second invention, in which FIG. 1 shows an overall view, and FIG. 2 shows a sectional view taken along the line A-A' in FIG. 1.

This embodiment consists of a water storage tank 1 and an ice block manufacturing device main body 2 placed above the water storage tank 1.The water storage tank 1 has an opening 3 only in the direct fire part of the main body 2, and the rest is surrounded by a heat insulating material 4. . In addition, a pipe 40 floating on the water surface is arranged along the entire circumference of the water in the water storage tank 1, and a large number of small holes 41 are bored in the lower surface of the pipe 40 along the entire circumference, and air is blown into the pipe 40 by a blower 42. As a result, air bubbles are generated around the pipe 40 and the water surface is disturbed to prevent freezing around the water's edge and to prevent ice on the surface of the water tank 1 from adhering to the inner wall.

The apparatus body 2 includes a cylindrical rotating drum 5, a dripping mechanism 6 that drops water droplets onto the surface of the rotating drum 5, a fan 7 that applies cold air to the inner surface of the rotating drum 5, and a device that removes frozen ice droplets from the rotating drum surface 5. It is composed of a scraper 8 for scraping off.

The rotating drum 5 has both side surfaces 5a open to allow cold air to blow through, and has a circumferential surface 5b surrounded by a copper or aluminum plate with good thermal conductivity, and a rotating shaft 9 disposed on the center line. One side thereof is extended and rotatably supported by a bearing 10, and
Gear 11 and chain 12 attached to one end
The rotary drum 5 is connected to the electric motor 13 by
is configured to be rotatable at low speed in the direction of the arrow. A large number of cooling pieces 14 are arranged radially inside the rotating drum circumferential surface 5b along the direction of the rotating shaft 9 to facilitate cooling of the rotating drum 5.

A fan 7 is disposed on the side of the rotating drum 5 opposite to the bearing 10, and a duct 3 is provided around the fan 7.
3 is enclosed so that the cool air sucked in from the fan 7 can effectively blow through along the circumferential inner surface of the rotating drum 5.

Further, above the rotating drum 5, there is a cylindrical dripping mechanism 6.
are arranged in the direction of the rotation axis 9. The dripping mechanism 6 has a large number of small holes formed in a row on the lower surface of the drum, and the drum circumferential surface 5b.
A conduit 15 configured so that an appropriate amount of water drops is dripped along its entire length, and connected upwardly to the water storage tank 1.
Install. The conduit 15 has a pump 16 interposed therebetween and has its tip opened near the bottom of the water tank 1. 17 is a filter. Incidentally, it is preferable to insert a heat wire 18 around the outer periphery of the dripping mechanism 6 and the conduit 15 to avoid internal condensation.

The scraper 8 is arranged so that its tip is in contact with or very close to the entire length of the outer peripheral surface below the rotating drum 5, and is configured to scrape off ice attached to the rotating drum 5 and fall into the water storage tank 1. . In such a device, a temperature switch (not shown) such as a thermostat is attached to the power supply so that it is activated when the outside air temperature drops below 0°C.

Incidentally, in order to scrape off the ice stuck to the rotating drum 5, the scraper 8 needs to be configured to be securely fixed and movable. FIG. 3 shows its configuration, in which a scraper edge 22 is extended diagonally above a cylindrical body 21 rotatably supported by a shaft 20 supported by a bracket 19 toward the surface of the rotating drum 5, and the cylindrical body 21 is A support part 23 is suspended below the bracket mounting base 24, and the support part 23 is inserted into a recess 25a of a concave metal fitting 25 fixed to the bracket mounting base 24, and a pair of bolts 26 are screwed symmetrically on both sides of the metal fitting 25. Fixed by Then, by moving the bolt 26 in the left and right direction, the scraper edge 22 is deflected, and the cutting edge of the edge 22 is locked and fixed at a position where it contacts or is very close to the rotating drum circumferential surface 5b.

Next, to explain the operation of this configuration, this device is used with the water storage tank 1 buried underground and the device main body 2 exposed on the ground surface.When the outside air drops below 0℃, the temperature switch is turned on. Tsute pump 16,
The electric motor 13 and the fan 7 rotate, and the water tank 1 is first
The water inside is sent to the dripping mechanism 6 through the conduit 15, and an appropriate amount of water droplets are dripped onto the rotating drum circumferential surface 5b. Incidentally, the circumferential surface 5b is formed of a copper plate or an aluminum plate with good thermal conductivity, and a cooling piece 14 is attached to the inner surface of the circumferential surface 5b, so that the water droplets freeze on the rotating drum circumferential surface 5b, and the rotation As the drum 5 rotates, the water droplets 27 are scraped off by the scraper 8 and fall into the water tank 1. And the outside air is 0℃
If the temperature exceeds the limit, the operation will be stopped, but since the water tank 1 is surrounded by a heat insulating material, the ice floating or deposited in the water tank 1 will hardly melt. Also, since air bubbles are generated around the water edge of the inner wall of water tank 1,
It is possible to prevent the ice on the surface of the water tank 1 from freezing on the inner wall surface and forming bridges, and it is possible to smoothly accumulate ice and form ice blocks. In other words, if such a device is not installed, if the outside air drops and a large amount of water particles mix with the outside air, the surface and walls of the tank will freeze, and the water will be sucked out from the bottom and fall as ice particles. However, even if the ice is frozen in the initial stage, it just rides on the ice surface, forming a bridge and not forming a large ice block.

By repeating this process over several days and nights, ice is accumulated in the water tank 1 one after another and solidified by its own weight (pressure), forming and filling the water tank 1 with ice blocks. Since ice has a lower specific gravity than water, it is deposited sequentially from the surface layer, but since the conduit 15 is opened near the bottom, water can be smoothly supplied to the dripping mechanism 6 without being hindered by ice accumulation. will be carried out. Moreover, even if ice accumulates near the bottom, there is no problem because it is screened by the filter 17.

In addition, a heat wire 18 is connected to the conduit 15 and the dripping mechanism 6.
By wrapping it, it will not burst due to freezing or the small holes of the dripping mechanism 6 will not become visible due to freezing. Furthermore, even if the outside air drops significantly below 0° C., the scraper edge 22 is structured to be securely fixed, so it will not be difficult to remove the water droplets 27.

FIG. 4 shows a cooling system using the ice block manufacturing device.

This cooling system is used in areas where the temperature drops below 0℃ in the winter, and to explain its principle briefly, it uses the outside air below 0℃ in the winter to form a large block of ice in the water tank 1, which is then used in the summer. The cooling system uses the latent heat of these blocks of ice to perform heat exchange during the summer.

This embodiment shows a cooling system for a building, where 1' is a water storage tank buried underground in a building 34, with only the part where water droplets fall opened, and the entire periphery is surrounded by a heat insulating material of concrete 4a and styrofoam 4b. It has been done. Reference numeral 2' denotes the main body of the ice block manufacturing apparatus installed on the roof, and is installed outdoors or in a place where outside air is absorbed above the opening 3' of the water tank 1'. 30
32 is a heat exchanger placed in the basement of the building, which performs heat exchange using the cold water introduced from the main pipe 30, and is circulated through a duct 33. This is a device that blows cold air to each floor.

To explain the operation of the cooling system with such a configuration, in winter, when the outside air drops below 0°C, the ice block production device main body 2' is activated and deposits water droplets in the water storage tank 1' through the opening 1'a. By repeating this intermittently over several days and nights, the water tank 1'
A large ice block will form inside. After the ice block is formed, the water tank opening 1a is sealed with a lid (not shown) made of a heat insulating material, and the ice block is stored until the summer. At this time, the water storage tank 1' has insulation materials 4a, 4
The amount of ice that melts by summer is extremely small because it is covered by ice.

In the summer, by operating the pump 31 of the main pipe 30, the water in the water tank 1' is supplied to the heat exchanger 32 via the main pipe 30, and after cooling the air drawn in from the fan 32a, it becomes hot water through heat exchange. The cold water returns to the water storage tank 1' and is cooled again by the latent heat of melting of the ice block, and this process is repeated thereafter.

The size of the water tank 1' is determined by the total amount of energy used for summer cooling. Furthermore, in cold regions, efficiency can be further increased by using salt water, etc.

As is clear from the above description, according to the cooling system according to the present invention, only the pump, electric motor, and fan of the ice block production device are operated in the winter season without using a heat pump that consumes a large amount of power; Since the system only operates the pump that circulates cold water and the heat exchanger, it is possible to significantly reduce power consumption by 80 to 90% compared to cooling systems that use conventional heat pumps. Furthermore, in the winter, the cost reduction is even greater because late-night power is generally used.

Furthermore, since the present invention utilizes the latent heat of melting of ice blocks (0°C), it is possible to obtain higher cooling efficiency than similar systems that use underground water (15 to 20°C) or the like.

In addition, since the ice block production apparatus according to the present invention can easily and reliably produce ice blocks, the cooling system can operate smoothly, and the structure is simple, so there are fewer breakdowns and maintenance is easy. be.

In addition, in the present invention, since air bubbles are generated around the inner wall surface of the water tank, ice on the surface of the water tank can be prevented from freezing on the inner wall, and large ice blocks can be smoothly formed.

It has various effects such as

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 3 are examples of the ice block production apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an overall view, and FIG. 2 is an A of FIG. 1.
- A sectional view, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of main parts showing the structure of the scraper. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a cooling system according to the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A water tank configured to generate air bubbles around the water edge of the inner wall surface, a rotating drum disposed above the water tank and having a circumferential portion made of a material with good thermal conductivity; A dripping mechanism configured to suck water in a water storage tank and drip it onto the outer circumferential surface of the rotating drum, a fan arranged on the side of the rotating drum and configured to blow outside air onto the inner circumferential surface of the drum, and a cutting edge portion. A scraper that is placed in contact with or close to the outer circumferential surface of the rotating drum and is configured to scrape off ice droplets that have frozen on the outer circumferential surface of the rotating drum as the drum rotates, and a scraper that is configured to operate only when the outside air drops to 0 degrees Celsius or below. An ice block production device consisting of a temperature switch. 2. The ice block manufacturing apparatus according to item 1, wherein cooling fins are arranged radially on the inner peripheral surface of the rotating drum along the air supply direction of the fan. 3. The ice block manufacturing apparatus according to item 1 or 2, wherein a heat wire is inserted into the dripping mechanism. 4 Rotatably support the base of the scraper edge extending toward the outer peripheral surface of the rotating drum,
Item 1: A scraper having a support suspended below the support, a pair of bolts screwed oppositely on both sides of the support, and configured to use the bolts to deflect and fix the scraper edge. , or the ice block manufacturing apparatus according to the second and third paragraphs.