Air-conditioning control unit

• US 5,762,265 A
• Filed: 10/04/1996
• Issued: 06/09/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Shintani, Yasuyuki, Kitamura, Tomoko, Matsubayashi, Shigeaki, Kodama, Hisashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tanner, Harry B.
• Application Number:
  US08/720,958
• Time in Patent Office: 613 Days
• Field of Search: 236/51, 236/94, 236/91 R, 236/91 F, 236/91 E, 165/203, 165/205, 165/208, 165/209, 62/161, 62/163, 62/164, 62/203, 62/208, 62/209, 62/125, 62/126
• US Class Current: 236/51
• 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 2120/20 Feedback from users
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1917 using digital means

Abstract

Complaint rate calculation means for calculating complaint rates in consideration of thermal feeling entered from vote value input means, a data storage unit for storing complaint rates together with indoor thermal conditions, updating means for calculating a function representing the relationship between thermal conditions and complaint rates in accordance with stored data, and predicted thermal condition calculation means for calculating thermal setting values by substituting entered control information into the function representing the relationship between thermal conditions and complaint rates, can convert a complaint vote of each inhabitant to a characteristic thermal feeling of a group so as to directly reflect the feeling on air-conditioning control.

Claims

1. An air-conditioning control unit comprising:

vote value input means used for an inhabitant to exercise a vote on thermal feeling, such as hot or cold,

complaint rate calculation means for calculating complaint rates of inhabitants who complain about thermal feeling, with such-categories of warmth-caused complaints and cold-caused complaints, in consideration of a plurality of vote values obtained from said vote value input means,

indoor thermal condition calculation means for calculating thermal environment evaluation indexes on the basis of thermal conditions, such as room temperature and humidity, in an air-conditioned space,

a data storage unit for storing the complaint rates delivered from said complaint rate calculation means and thermal conditions calculated by said indoor thermal condition calculation means,

updating means for renewing a function representing a relationship between complaint rates and thermal conditions in accordance with the complaint rates and thermal conditions stored in said data storage unit when new data is stored in said data storage unit,

control information input means for inputting control information, namely a complaint rate used as a control target,

predicted thermal condition calculation means for calculating the thermal conditions in an air-conditioned space on the basis of the function calculated by said updating means and the control information entered from said control information input means, and

a controller for controlling air conditioning so as to attain thermal conditions delivered from said predicted thermal condition calculation means.

2. An air-conditioning control unit according to claim 1, comprising:

operation mode judgment means for judging whether an air conditioner unit is cooling operation, heating operation or air circulation operation on the basis of the thermal conditions calculated by said predicted thermal condition calculation means and the thermal conditions of the air-conditioned space calculated by said indoor thermal condition calculation means, and

environment setting value calculation means for calculating environment setting conditions from the thermal conditions calculated by said predicted thermal condition calculation means on the basis of the operation mode judged by said operation mode judgment means,

wherein said controller performs air-conditioning control on the basis of the environment setting values delivered from said operation mode judgment means and said environment setting value calculation means.

3. An air-conditioning control unit according to claim 1 or 2, being characterized in that:

said updating means comprises an updating judgment unit, a regression unit and a function storage unit for storing the function,

said updating judgment unit judges whether it is necessary to renew the function stored in said function storage unit when a new complaint rate and thermal condition are input to said data storage unit,

said data storage unit delivers storage data to said regression unit only when said updating judgment unit judges that it is necessary to renew the function, and

said regression unit performs regression by using a logistic function having an upper limit of 100% on the basis of the storage data so as to renew the function of said function storage unit.

4. An air-conditioning control unit according to claim 1 or 2, being characterized in that:

said updating means comprises an updating judgment unit, a regression unit, a function storage unit for storing the function, an initial value storage unit for storing initial data and a default function storage unit for storing a default function,

said updating judgment unit judges whether it is necessary to renew the function stored in said function storage unit when a new complaint rate and thermal condition are input to said data storage unit,

said data storage unit delivers storage data to said regression unit only when said updating judgment unit judges that it is necessary to renew the function,

said default function storage unit stores an approximate function based on the thermal conditions specified in ISO 7730 and complaint rate data, and

said initial value storage unit calculates initial data of thermal conditions and complaint rate from the function stored in said default function storage unit when no data is stored in said data storage unit or the data stored in said data storage unit is reset so that the obtained data can be used for the calculation by said regression unit.

5. An air-conditioning control unit according to claim 3, wherein said updating means comprises function change means for transmitting a command for changing the function stored in said regression unit to said regression unit in accordance with detected or predictable information on the thermal conditions in said air-conditioned space.

8. Media having stored programs for implementing the operation functions of said means of an air-conditioning control unit according to any one of claims 1, 2, 6 or 7.

6. An air-conditioning control unit comprising input means used by inhabitants to exercise their votes on requests for their air-conditioned environment, communication means for transmitting signals entered from said input means, request estimation means for estimating requests for the air-conditioned environment of all the inhabitants on the basis of the signals transmitted by said communication means, index calculation means for calculating the index indicating the relationship between the request calculated by said request estimation means and the thermal conditions in the air-conditioned environment, control amount calculation means for calculating the amount of control in the air-conditioned environment on the basis of the index calculated by said index calculation means, and air-conditioning control means for controlling an air conditioner unit in accordance with the amount of control calculated by said control amount calculation means.

7. An air-conditioning control unit according to claim 6, wherein said request estimation means estimates a request for the air-conditioned environment of all inhabitants in consideration of a time zone when a vote on a request for the air-conditioned environment is exercised by an inhabitant.