Air conditioning controller

• US 7,757,504 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2007
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Takagi, Yasuo, Yonezawa, Kenzo, Iino, Yutaka, Nishimura, Nobutaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Norman; Marc E
• Application Number:
  US11/783,936
• Publication Number:
  US 20070240437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 621/766, 621/761, 236/44.C, 236/44.A
• US Class Current: 62/176.6
• 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 the room humidity that achieves energy saving, in every fixed cycle, from among the calculated combinations, the selected combination minimizing 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; and

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 the room humidity correspond respectively to the determined temperature setting value and the determined humidity setting value.

2. The air conditioning controller according to claim 1, wherein a Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) is used as the thermal comfort index.

3. The air conditioning controller according to claim 1, wherein the temperature-humidity setting value determination unit is further configured to determine the humidity setting value within an arbitrary limited range.