Central control system of air conditioners and method for operating the same

• US 20040255601A1
• Filed: 05/18/2004
• Published: 12/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Jun Tae, Jeon, Duck Gu, Jung, Jae Sik, Yoon, Young Soo, Youn, Sang Chul, Kwon, Jae Hwan
• Granted Patent: US 7,287,393 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 62/157
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/46 Improving electric energy efficiency or saving
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/54 using one central controller connected to several sub-controllers
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/65 for selecting an operating mode
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2140/60 Energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: F25B 2700/15 Power, e.g. by voltage or current
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2823 Reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network device-related reporting H04L43/065; arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators

Abstract

A central control system controls peak power of multiple air conditioners that includes indoor units installed in rooms of a building and an outdoor unit for controlling refrigerant circulation. A central controller is connected to the multiple air conditioners via a network to perform central control or monitoring of operations of the air conditioners. The central controller performs peak power control if current power consumption of the air conditioners, calculated based on operating states thereof, exceeds a previously input reference management power value. A signal converter is connected between the multiple air conditioners and the central controller to perform mutual conversion of different protocol signals communicated between the multiple air conditioners and the central controller. This decreases excessive electricity costs due to excessive power consumption while approximately maintaining cooling/heating efficiencies, and also prevents the entire power of the building from being cut off.

Claims

1. A central control system of air conditioners, comprising:

a multi-type air conditioning system including a plurality of indoor units for air conditioning installed in rooms of a building and an outdoor unit for controlling circulation of refrigerant, said plurality of indoor units sharing the outdoor unit;

a central control unit connected to the multi-type air conditioning system via a network, said central control unit performing central control of operations of the multi-type air conditioning system or performing monitoring of states thereof, said central control unit performing peak power control if a current power consumption of the multi-type air conditioning system, calculated based on operating states of the multi-type air conditioning system, exceeds a previously input reference management power value; and

a signal converter connected between the multi-type air conditioning system and the central control unit, said signal converter performing mutual conversion of different protocol signals communicated between the multi-type air conditioning system and the central control unit.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the multi-type air conditioning system includes one of a cooling only air conditioner in which refrigerant is circulated in one direction and an air conditioner for both cooling and heating in which refrigerant is circulated in two directions.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the multi-type air conditioning system is connected to the signal converter via an RS-485 communication line.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the central control unit is connected to the signal converter via an Ethernet communication line.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the central control unit includes:

a data transmitter/receiver for data transmission and reception to and from the multi-type air conditioning system via a network;

a database for storing equipment information of power consumption and a pipe length of each of the indoor and outdoor units of the multi-type air conditioning system;

a peak power processor for calculating a total power consumption of indoor and outdoor units in operation based on the power consumption of each of the indoor and outdoor units stored in the database; and

an air conditioner controller for performing peak power control to change operating modes of the indoor and outdoor units according to a forcible operation algorithm if the total power consumption calculated by the peak power processor exceeds the reference management power value.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the forcible operation algorithm is implemented to change the operating modes of the indoor and outdoor units to one of a cooling/heating mode and a blowing mode if the total power consumption of the indoor and outdoor units in operation exceeds the reference management power value.

7. The system according to claim 5, wherein the forcible operation algorithm is implemented to automatically enable locking of individual control of the indoor and outdoor units during the peak power control, making the individual control impossible.

8. The system according to claim 5, wherein the central control unit further includes an Internet modem for transmitting and receiving signals to allow remote control via the Internet.

9. The system according to claim 5, wherein the central control unit further includes:

a data input unit for inputting the equipment information of each of the indoor and outdoor units, a control command, and a reference management power value for management of power of the multi-type air conditioning system; and

a display unit for displaying information of states of the multi-type air conditioning system, said information being monitored in real time, said information of states including at least one of a current power consumption of the multi-type air conditioning system and a current operating rate thereof.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data input unit includes a touch screen into which the display unit is integrated, allowing data input by touching the touch screen.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein the data input unit receives a desired operating mode change period, at intervals of which the operating modes of the indoor and outdoor units are changed, and a desired operating rate of the multi-type air conditioning system, and transfers the received operating mode change period and operating rate to the air conditioner controller.

12. A method for operating a central control system of air conditioners, said central control system including a central control unit connected with a multi-type air conditioning system via a network, said multi-type air conditioning system including an outdoor unit connected to the central control unit and a plurality of indoor units connected to the outdoor unit, said central control unit performing central control of operations of the indoor and outdoor units, said method comprising the steps of:

a) calculating a current total power consumption of the multi-type air conditioning system in operation based on equipment information of the multi-type air conditioning system previously stored in a database of the central control unit;

b) comparing the total power consumption with a previously input reference management power value; and

c) performing peak power control to change operating modes of the indoor and outdoor units if the compared result at said step b) is that the total power consumption exceeds the reference management power value.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said step c) includes the step of allowing at least one selected indoor unit currently in operation to operate in a cooling or heating mode and allowing at least one remaining indoor unit in operation, other than the selected indoor unit, to operate in a blowing mode, so as to decrease the total power consumption.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein said step c) includes the step of automatically enabling locking of individual control of the indoor and outdoor units during the peak power control, making the individual control impossible.