Air conditioner

Abstract

To provide an air conditioner having an air cleaning function which does not impair basic ability of the air conditioner.SOLUTION: An air conditioner includes an indoor unit housing which has an air inlet port and an air outlet port and in which a heat exchanger and a blower are disposed in an air passage connecting the air inlet port with the air outlet port. An air cleaning unit which cleans indoor air is provided at the indoor unit housing. The air cleaning unit includes an air cleaning filter. The air cleaning filter is provided ranging from a front surface of the indoor unit housing to a top surface.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an air conditioner. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses an air conditioner that purifies air drawn in through an air intake port of the air conditioner. This air conditioner includes an air purifying filter and a mechanism for moving the position of the air purifying filter. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 7054814 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] The present disclosure provides an air conditioner that improves the air purification function without compromising the air blowing capacity that contributes to each of the basic functions of the air conditioner: cooling, heating, and dehumidification. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The air conditioner of the present disclosure is an air conditioner equipped with an indoor unit housing having an air inlet and an air outlet, with a heat exchanger and a blower disposed in an air passage connecting the air inlet and the air outlet, and the indoor unit housing is provided with an air purification unit that purifies the air within the room, and the air purification unit is equipped with an air purification filter, and the air purification filter is disposed from the front surface to the top surface of the indoor unit housing. Effect of the Invention

[0006] The air conditioner of the present disclosure can have an air purification function that does not deteriorate the air blowing capacity that contributes to each of the basic functions of the air conditioner, namely cooling, heating, and dehumidification. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an external front view of an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of an air purification unit according to a first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an air purifying unit in an air conditioner according to a first embodiment; [Diagram 5] FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an air purifying unit in an air conditioner according to a first embodiment; [Figure 6] A longitudinal sectional view of an indoor unit according to the prior art when air purification is stopped. [Figure 7] A longitudinal sectional view of an air purifying filter in an indoor unit according to the prior art [Figure 8] A longitudinal sectional view of an indoor unit in the prior art during air purification operation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0008] (The knowledge and other information that formed the basis of this disclosure) At the time when the inventors came up with the idea of ​​the present disclosure, the air purifier unit was placed inside the air conditioner on the downstream side of the air intake port and upstream of the heat exchanger.

[0009] An air purifier unit has ventilation resistance. The cooling, heating, and dehumidification capacities of an air conditioner are greatly affected by the amount of air passing through the heat exchanger.

[0010] For this reason, in this industry, when equipping an air conditioner with an air purification unit, it has been common practice to design the product to reduce ventilation resistance, in other words, to strike a balance between the cooling, heating, and dehumidification capabilities of the air conditioner and its air purification capabilities.

[0011] Also, the air purification function can be switched on and off, allowing the user to select whether to give priority to the cooling, heating, and dehumidification capabilities of the air conditioner or to the air purification capability.

[0012] Under such circumstances, the inventors came up with the idea of ​​providing separate air passages for each of the air conditioner's cooling, heating, and dehumidification capacities, while also constantly demonstrating its air purifying capacity.

[0013] The inventors then discovered that to realize this idea, there was a challenge in that it was necessary to make the air purification unit as compact as possible while maximizing the air purification function, and they came up with the subject matter of the present disclosure in order to solve this problem. Therefore, the present disclosure provides an air conditioner that includes an indoor unit casing having an air intake and an air outlet, with a heat exchanger and a blower disposed in an air passage connecting the air intake and the air outlet, and an air purification unit that purifies the air inside the room is provided in the indoor unit casing, and the air purification unit is equipped with an air purification filter. By arranging the air purification filter from the front surface to the top surface of the indoor unit casing, an air conditioner is provided with an air purification function that does not impair the basic capabilities of the air conditioner, such as cooling, heating and dehumidification.

[0014] Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, more detailed description than necessary may be omitted. For example, detailed description of already well-known matters or duplicate description of substantially the same configuration may be omitted.

[0015] It should be noted that the accompanying drawings and the following description are provided to enable those skilled in the art to fully understand the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the subject matter described in the claims.

[0016] (Embodiment 1) The following description will be given with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is an external front view of an indoor unit 1 of an air conditioner in embodiment 1. The air conditioner is a so-called separate-type wall-mounted air conditioner in which an indoor unit and an outdoor unit are connected to each other by refrigerant piping and control wiring, etc., and the indoor unit is attached to a wall surface inside a room. A heat pump is made up of a heat exchanger, a compressor, etc. connected to the refrigerant piping.

[0017] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of indoor unit 1 of the air conditioner according to the first embodiment. The indoor unit 1 is equipped with a front panel 2, an indoor heat exchanger 3, a pre-filter unit 4, an air outlet unit 5, and an air purifying unit 6.

[0018] As shown in the figure, the air purification unit 6 is provided near the left end of the indoor unit 1. The air purification unit 6 is placed next to and alongside the indoor heat exchanger 3 so as not to block the side of the indoor heat exchanger 3 that draws in air. That is, the indoor heat exchanger 3 and the air purification unit 6 are placed in positions where they do not interfere with each other.

[0019] FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the air purification unit according to the first embodiment. The air purification unit 6 is provided with an inlet 7 and an outlet 12, and air from the indoor side is sucked in through the inlet 7, purified, and then blown out from the outlet 12. An air purification unit prefilter 8 is provided on the most upstream side inside the air purification unit 6, and an air purification filter 9 is provided on the downstream side thereof, and purifies the indoor air sucked in from the suction port 7.

[0020] The pre-filter 8 for the air purifying unit on the most upstream side removes relatively large dust particles, and the air purifying filter 9 placed downstream removes smaller dust particles and odorous components. The air purifying filter 9 is, for example, a HEPA filter.

[0021] In addition, the air purifying unit pre-filter 8 and the air purifying filter 9 are arranged from the top surface to the front surface. By arranging in this way, the suction area can be effectively expanded, and the dust collection efficiency for capturing large and small dust particles can be improved.

[0022] In addition, in the air purification unit 6, an air purification unit fan 11 rotates around an air purification unit fan rotation shaft 10 by an air purification unit fan motor 14, generating an air flow from the intake port 7 to the exhaust port 12. The air purification unit fan 11 is, for example, a centrifugal fan or a sirocco fan.

[0023] When the above-mentioned air purifying unit 6 is in operation, the main functions of the air conditioner, such as cooling, heating, dehumidification, etc., can be operated without affecting each other. Therefore, even if both functions are operated, the air cleaning performance and the heating / cooling / dehumidifying performance are not adversely affected.

[0024] FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of the air purification unit in the air conditioner according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is an external perspective view of the air purification unit in the air conditioner according to the first embodiment, seen from a different angle.

[0025] As shown in Fig. 5, the fan motor 14 inside the air purification unit 6 is placed at the left end of the air purification unit 6. At this time, the tip of the support rail 13 abuts against the inner wall at the left end inside the air purification unit 6 or the inner wall at the left end of the indoor unit 1 of the air conditioner, and space for accommodating the fan motor is secured inside the air purification unit 6. This allows sufficient heat dissipation from the fan motor 14, and also ensures a sufficient distance between the fan motor 14 and the external wall surface, making it possible to suppress condensation on the fan motor 14.

[0026] As shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the rotation shafts 19 of the fans in the main functional section of the air conditioner and the functional section of the air purification unit are arranged perpendicular to the plane of the drawing. Although the air conditioner fan included in the main functional parts of the air conditioner is not shown, it is disposed inside indoor unit 1 of the air conditioner so that the rotation axis of the air conditioner fan is horizontal.

[0027] That is, the rotation axes of the fans in the main functional part of the air conditioner and the functional part of the air purification unit are arranged so as to be parallel. This configuration simplifies the layout inside the indoor unit of the air conditioner. Also, by sharing the rotation axis of both fans, they can be driven by a single fan motor, which makes it possible to make the housing more compact and reduce costs. [Industrial Applicability]

[0028] The present disclosure has an air purification function that does not impair the air flow capacity that contributes to the basic functions of air conditioners, namely cooling, heating, and dehumidification, and can be applied to devices other than air conditioners, such as dehumidifiers and humidifiers. [Explanation of symbols]

[0029] 1 Indoor unit 2 Front Panel 3 Indoor heat exchanger 4 Pre-filter unit 5 Air outlet unit 6 Air Purifier Unit 7 Intake port 8 Pre-filter for air purifier unit 9. Air Purifier Filter 10. Air purifier unit fan shaft 11 Air purifier unit fan 12 Air outlet 13 Support beam 14 Fan motor for air purifier unit

Claims

1. An air conditioner comprising an indoor unit housing having an air intake and an air outlet, with a heat exchanger and a blower disposed in an air passage connecting the air intake and the air outlet, wherein an air purification unit that purifies the air in the room is provided in the indoor unit housing, the air purification unit is equipped with an air purification filter, and the air purification filter is disposed from the front surface to the top surface of the indoor unit housing.

2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, characterized in that the air purification unit includes an air purification filter that is approximately L-shaped in cross section perpendicular to an axis parallel to the longitudinal direction of the air conditioner, a centrifugal fan, and a motor that drives the centrifugal fan, and an air outlet of the air purification unit is provided near a lower part of the indoor unit housing.

3. In the air conditioner, 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the air purifying unit is disposed on a side surface of the heat exchanger opposite to a piping portion extending from the heat exchanger to the outdoor side.

4. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein a motor for driving a fan of the air purification unit is disposed at a left end portion of the air purification unit.

5. 5. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein a rotation shaft of a motor that drives a fan of the air purification unit is arranged so as to be parallel to a rotation shaft of a blower of the indoor unit housing.

Images