Air conditioning controller

• US 20070240437A1
• Filed: 04/13/2007
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Takagi, Yasuo, Nishimura, Nobutaka, Yonezawa, Kenzo, Iino, Yutaka
• Granted Patent: US 7,757,504 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 62/176.100
• 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 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/74 for controlling air flow rate or air velocity
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/00 Control inputs relating to air properties

Abstract

An air conditioning controller is provided with a room temperature-humidity combination calculation unit, a temperature-humidity setting value determination unit and a temperature-humidity control unit. The room temperature-humidity combination calculation unit is configured to calculate combinations of room temperature and room humidity corresponding to a target value of a thermal comfort index PMV. The temperature-humidity setting value determination unit is configured to select and determine a combination of the room temperature and humidity that achieves energy saving among the calculated combinations of the room temperature and humidity. The temperature-humidity control unit is configured to separately control the room temperature and humidity so that the room temperature and humidity would measure up respectively to the determined temperature and humidity values.

Claims

1. An air conditioning controller using thermal sensation of a human as a thermal comfort index, the air conditioning controller comprising:

a room temperature-humidity combination calculation unit configured to calculate combinations of room temperature and room humidity corresponding to a target value of the thermal comfort index;

a temperature-humidity setting value determination unit configured to select a combination of the room temperature and humidity that achieves energy saving, in every fixed cycle, among the combinations of the room temperature and humidity calculated by the room temperature-humidity combination calculation unit, and to determine a temperature setting value and a humidity setting value; and

a temperature-humidity control unit configured to separately control the room temperature and the room humidity so that the room temperature and humidity would measure up respectively to the temperature setting value and the humidity setting value determined by the temperature-humidity setting value determination unit.

3. The air conditioning controller according to any one of claims 1 and 2, wherein a PMV is used as the thermal comfort index.

4. The air conditioning controller according to any one of claims 1 and 2, wherein the temperature-humidity setting value determination unit is configured to select a combination of the room temperature and humidity that minimizes a difference between a room air enthalpy calculated from the room temperature and the room humidity, and an outdoor air enthalpy calculated from an outdoor temperature and an outdoor humidity.

5. The air conditioning controller according to any one of claims 1 and 2, wherein the temperature-humidity setting value determination unit is configured to determine the humidity setting value within an arbitrary limited range.

2. An air conditioning controller using thermal sensation of a human as a thermal comfort index, the air conditioning controller comprising:

a room temperature-humidity combination calculation unit configured to calculate combinations of room temperature and room humidity corresponding to a target value of the thermal comfort index;

a temperature-humidity setting value determination unit configured to select a combination of the room temperature and humidity that achieves energy saving, in every fixed cycle, among the combinations of the room temperature and humidity calculated by the room temperature-humidity combination calculation unit, and to determine a temperature setting value and a humidity setting value;

a current thermal comfort index calculation unit configured to figure out a current value of the thermal comfort index from a clothing amount setting value, an activity amount setting value, a temperature measured value and a humidity measured value;

a temperature setting value correction unit configured to figure out a temperature setting value so that the current value of the thermal comfort index would be equal to the target value of the thermal comfort index, by correcting the temperature setting value determined by the temperature-humidity setting value determination unit, when the current value of the thermal comfort index calculated by the current thermal comfort index calculation unit is different from the target value of the thermal comfort index; and

a temperature-humidity control unit configured to separately control room temperature and room humidity so that the room temperature and humidity would measure up respectively to the temperature setting value and the humidity setting value that the temperature-humidity setting value determination unit determines according to the temperature setting value figured out by the temperature setting value correction unit.