Air conditioning system

Abstract

To provide an air conditioning system which enables effective dehumidification with a simple structure.SOLUTION: An air conditioning system (1) includes: an outdoor air intake passage (21) for taking outdoor air thereinto; an outdoor air processing air conditioner (30) which communicates with the outdoor air intake passage (21) and conditions outdoor air taken from the outdoor air intake passage (21); heat exchange means (40) which conducts heat exchange of air conditioned by the outdoor air processing air conditioner (30); and an air discharge passage (24) for sending air which has been subject to heat exchange by the heat exchange means (40) to an indoor space.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an air conditioning system, and more particularly to an air conditioning system using an outside air processing air conditioner. [Background technology]

[0002] Generally, during the rainy season when the outside air is low temperature and high humidity, high humidity air may be supplied to indoor spaces by ventilation. In such cases, the air conditioner does not cool the room due to the low temperature, and dehumidification is not performed, so the relative humidity of the indoor space may become high.

[0003] As a countermeasure for such a case, it is known to use an outdoor air conditioner with a reheat dehumidification function, an outdoor air processing air conditioner, a heat exchange type ventilator with a dehumidification function, etc. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-88635 (Patent Document 1) discloses a heat exchange type ventilator with a dehumidification function.

[0004] The heat exchange type ventilation system with dehumidification function of Patent Document 1 discloses that a dehumidifier that cools and dehumidifies outside air is located closer to the inlet than the heat exchanger, the dehumidified outside air is dried by heat exchange with exhaust air, and the dry air is supplied to the room. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-88635 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] The heat exchange type ventilation device with dehumidification function of Patent Document 1 exchanges heat between the dehumidified outside air and the exhaust air, which results in a complex duct path and reduces the dehumidification effect when the air temperature in the indoor space is low.

[0007] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioning system that is capable of effectively dehumidifying with a simple structure. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] An air conditioning system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises an outside air intake passage for taking in outside air, an outside air processing air conditioner connected to the outside air intake passage for conditioning the outside air taken in from the outside air intake passage, a heat exchange means for exchanging heat with the air conditioned by the outside air processing air conditioner, and an air supply passage for sending the air that has been heat exchanged by the heat exchange means into an indoor space.

[0009] Preferably, the heat exchange means is a double duct formed by two ducts.

[0010] Preferably, the double duct includes an inner duct through which outside air taken in from an outside air intake passage communicates, and an outer duct covering the inner duct and through which air that has been cooled and dehumidified by an outside air processing air conditioner communicates, and the air in the outer duct is warmed by the outside air in the inner duct.

[0011] Preferably, the outer duct is covered with insulation.

[0012] The inner duct may be provided with a plurality of heat pipes, which exchange heat between the air in the inner duct and the air in the outer duct. Effect of the Invention

[0013] According to the air conditioning system of the present invention, effective dehumidification can be achieved with a simple structure. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram showing a building in which an air conditioning system according to a first embodiment of the present invention is used. [Diagram 2]FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a double duct in a first embodiment of the present invention, where (A) is a perspective view, (B) is a plan view, (C) is a horizontal cross-sectional view, and (D) is a vertical cross-sectional view. [Diagram 3] FIG. 11 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a double duct in a second embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a building using a typical outdoor air processing air conditioner. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0015] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or corresponding parts are designated by the same reference characters and their description will not be repeated.

[0016] <Embodiment 1> (About the building) Prior to describing the air conditioning system according to the present embodiment, a building using a general outdoor air processing air conditioner will be described. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing a building provided with a general outdoor air processing air conditioner.

[0017] 4, a building 100 to which the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 is applied is, for example, a large facility such as an office building, a nursing home, a hotel, or a hospital, but may also be applied to a detached house, an apartment building, etc. An indoor space 11 is an area partitioned by an exterior wall or the like, and is provided with a room 12 where a person stays, and an attic space 13 located above the ceiling of the room 12.

[0018] The living room 12 is a space defined by an exterior wall portion 14, a ceiling portion 15, and a floor portion 16. The ceiling portion 15 is provided with an outlet of an indoor unit 51, which will be described later, and an exhaust port 25 of an outdoor air processing air conditioner 30, which will be described later.

[0019] The attic space 13 is a space partitioned by the exterior wall portion 14, the ceiling portion 15, and the roof portion 17, and is located above the living room 12. An indoor unit 51, an outdoor air processing air conditioner 30, and their flow paths 21, 124 are arranged in the attic space 13. An outdoor unit 52 of the air conditioner and an outdoor unit 31 of the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 are arranged on the roof portion 17. The air conditioner that conditions the air in the living room 12 is made up of a set of the indoor unit 51 and the outdoor unit 52. This air conditioner has functions such as cooling, heating, and ventilation, as well as a dehumidification function, and conditions the air in the living room 12.

[0020] The outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 is a device that cools and dehumidifies outdoor air when it is introduced into the living room 12. The outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 is located between the outdoor air intake flow path 21 that takes in outdoor air and the air discharge flow path 124 that discharges the conditioned air. The outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 takes in outdoor air from the outdoor air intake flow path 21, and cools and dehumidifies the taken-in outdoor air to condition it into low-humidity air. Furthermore, the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 discharges the low-humidity conditioned air to the air discharge flow path 124, and discharges it from the exhaust port 25 provided in the ceiling portion 15 to the living room 12. The outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 and the indoor unit 51 of the air conditioner keep the living room 12 at a low humidity and comfortable temperature.

[0021] However, because the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 is designed to dehumidify by cooling, the room temperature may drop excessively during, for example, the rainy season when the outdoor air is low temperature and humid. For this reason, it is possible to take individual measures such as raising the set temperature at the exhaust port 25, but raising the set temperature will result in cooling operation with reduced capacity, and therefore effective dehumidification may not be possible.

[0022] In contrast, in order to perform effective dehumidification, the air conditioning system 1 according to this embodiment using the outside air processing air conditioner 30 is configured as follows.

[0023] (About the air conditioning system) Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a building in which the air conditioning system of the present embodiment 1 is used, and Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a double duct, where (A) is a perspective view, (B) is a plan view, (C) is a horizontal cross-sectional view, and (D) is a vertical cross-sectional view. In Fig. 2(B), the left-right direction indicated by arrow A1 is called the longitudinal direction, the direction indicated by arrow A2 is called the vertical direction, and in Fig. 2(D), the direction indicated by arrow A3 is called the depth direction.

[0024] 1, an air conditioning system 1 of this embodiment includes a heat exchanger 40 in addition to an outside air processing air conditioner 30. Specifically, the air conditioning system 1 generally includes an outside air intake flow path 21, the outside air processing air conditioner 30, an air supply flow path 23, the heat exchanger 40, and an air exhaust flow path 24.

[0025] 2, the heat exchange means 40 of this embodiment is a double duct that exchanges heat between low-temperature air conditioned by the outside air processing air conditioner 30 and high-temperature unconditioned air (outside air). The double duct 40 includes an inner duct 41 through which the outside air communicates, and an outer duct 42 through which the air conditioned and dehumidified by the outside air processing air conditioner 30 communicates.

[0026] The inner duct 41 is a duct member extending in the longitudinal direction. In the present embodiment, the inner duct 41 is cylindrical, specifically, has a circular cross-sectional shape, but is not limited to this shape and may be, for example, a square tube having a rectangular cross-sectional shape.

[0027] The inner duct 41 is made of a material with high thermal conductivity, for example, a metal such as iron or steel. The inner duct 41 is connected to the outside air intake flow path 21 on the outdoor space 10 side, and is connected to the outside air processing air conditioner 30 on the opposite side via a connecting flow path 22. As shown in Fig. 2(C), outside air passes through the inner duct 41, but high-temperature and high-humidity air passes through during the rainy season, for example.

[0028] The outer duct 42 is a duct member extending in the longitudinal direction, similar to the inner duct 41. In the present embodiment, the outer duct 42 is cylindrical like the inner duct 41, specifically, circular in cross section, but the shape is not limited thereto and may be, for example, a square tube having a rectangular cross section. The shapes of the inner duct 41 and the outer duct 42 may be different.

[0029] The outer duct 42 includes a first cylindrical portion 43 that covers the outside of the inner duct 41, and second cylindrical portions 44, 45 that are connected to the first cylindrical portion 43 and extend in the vertical direction from the upper and lower ends of the first cylindrical portion 43. The second cylindrical portion 44 is connected to the air supply flow path 23 that is connected to the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30. The second cylindrical portion 44 is provided at one end in the longitudinal direction of the first cylindrical portion 43 (the right side on the paper). The second cylindrical portion 45 is connected to the exhaust port 25 provided in the ceiling portion 15 of the living room 12 via the air exhaust flow path 24. The second cylindrical portion 45 is provided at the other end in the longitudinal direction of the first cylindrical portion 43 (the left side on the paper). As a result, the second cylindrical portions 44, 45 are provided at positions asymmetric in the longitudinal direction. As shown in FIG. 2(D), low-temperature, low-humidity air that has been cooled and dehumidified by the outside air processing air conditioner 30 passes through the outside duct .

[0030] The outer duct 42 is preferably made of a material with low thermal conductivity. In order to prevent heat exchange with the attic space 13, the outer surface of the outer duct 42 is preferably covered with a heat insulating material 46 such as glass wool or rock wool.

[0031] 2(C) and 2(D), heat exchange takes place in the overlapping portion of the inner duct 41 and the outer duct 42. When the air passing through the inner duct 41 is hot and the air passing through the outer duct 42 is cold, the temperature of the air in the outer duct 42 discharged to the living room 12 becomes high, and the temperature of the air in the inner duct 41 supplied to the outside air processing air conditioner 30 becomes low. In order to improve the efficiency of heat exchange in the dual duct 40, it is preferable to increase the longitudinal length of the overlapping portion of the inner duct 41 and the outer duct 42.

[0032] (Air flow) The air flow in the air conditioning system 1 will now be described. The solid arrows in Figures 1, 2(C), and 2(D) indicate the flow of air and conditioned air. The dashed arrows in Figures 2(C) and 2(D) indicate heat exchange between the inner duct 41 and the outer duct 42.

[0033] As shown in Figures 1 and 2(C), air from an outdoor space is sent to the inner duct 41 of the double duct 40 via the outside air intake flow path 21. The air sent to the inner duct 41 is "high temperature, high humidity" air. The "high temperature, high humidity" air supplied to the inner duct 41 is supplied to the outside air processing air conditioner 30 via the connecting flow path 22. In the outside air processing air conditioner 30, the supplied outside air is cooled and dehumidified, becoming "low temperature, low humidity" air.

[0034] The "low temperature, low humidity" conditioned air conditioned by the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 is sent to the outer duct 42 of the double duct 40 via the air supply passage 23. The air in the inner duct 41 is "high temperature, high humidity" air, and the air in the outer duct 42 is "low temperature, low humidity" air. Therefore, as shown in Fig. 2(C) and Fig. 2(D), heat exchange occurs in the portion where the inner duct 41 is covered by the outer duct 42. Specifically, as shown in Fig. 2(C), the air introduced from the second cylindrical portion 44 of the outer duct 42 undergoes heat exchange at the stage where it travels toward the second cylindrical portion 45. The temperature of the air in the outer duct 42 discharged to the living room 12 becomes high, and the temperature of the air in the inner duct 41 supplied to the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 becomes low.

[0035] As a result, the air that has passed through the outer duct 42 becomes "suitably temperature and low humidity" air, and is exhausted to the living room 12 from the exhaust port 25 via the air exhaust flow path 24. In this way, suitable-temperature, low-humidity air is sent to the living room 12.

[0036] In this embodiment, the air conditioned by the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30 is heat exchanged using a heat exchanger such as the double duct 40, so dehumidification can be performed while suppressing the temperature drop in the room 12 during the rainy season and other times. This makes it possible for the air conditioning system 1 of this embodiment to effectively dehumidify with a simple configuration. In addition, since it is only necessary to use the double duct 40, there is no need to use electricity.

[0037] In addition, in the double duct 40, heat exchange takes place in the portion where the inner duct 41 is covered by the outer duct 42, and the temperature of the air in the outer duct 42 discharged to the living room 12 becomes higher and approaches the outside air temperature, making it difficult for the room temperature to drop and enabling long-term dehumidification operation. Furthermore, the temperature of the air in the inner duct 41 supplied to the outside air processing air conditioner 30 becomes lower, making it possible to reduce the sensible heat load of the outside air processing air conditioner 30. Furthermore, since the double duct 40 does not require electricity, etc., energy consumption can be reduced.

[0038] <Embodiment 2> Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a double duct in the embodiment 2. A double duct 40A according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3 corresponds to Fig. 2(D) of the embodiment 1, and the same parts as those in the embodiment 1 are given the same reference numerals and description thereof will not be repeated.

[0039] 3, the inner duct 41 is provided with a plurality of heat pipes 47A. The heat pipes 47A are rod-shaped members made of a material with high thermal conductivity, and serve to distribute heat. The heat pipes 47A penetrate the wall surface of the inner duct 41 and are located in the internal space of the inner duct 41 and the internal space of the outer duct 42. This improves the heat exchange efficiency, and therefore makes it possible to efficiently exchange heat between the air in the inner duct 41 and the air in the outer duct 42.

[0040] When using the double duct 40 of the first embodiment, a certain degree of duct length is necessary for efficient heat exchange, and may be subject to restrictions such as the space in the attic space 13 and the blowing capacity of the outdoor air processing air conditioner 30. In contrast, the double duct 40A of the present embodiment improves heat exchange efficiency and shortens the duct length by arranging a heat pipe 47A in the inner duct 41.

[0041] Furthermore, since heat pipes do not require power, they can promote heat exchange continuously without using energy.

[0042] In addition, the heat exchange means in this embodiment has been described as being double ducts 40, 40A, but it may be, for example, a heat exchanger capable of exchanging not only sensible heat but also latent heat, and is not limited to being double ducts.

[0043] In addition, the double duct 40 is described as including the inner duct 41 and the outer duct 42 covering the outside of the inner duct 41, but is not limited to this shape and may be formed of, for example, two ducts. For example, the double duct may be two ducts of the same shape extending parallel to each other in close proximity.

[0044] Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment. Various modifications and variations can be made to the illustrated embodiment within the same scope as the present invention or within an equivalent scope. [Explanation of symbols]

[0045] 1 air conditioning system, 21 outdoor air intake flow path, 23 air supply path, 24 air exhaust flow path, 30 outdoor air processing air conditioner, 40, 40A double duct (heat exchange means), 41 inner duct, 42 outer duct, 46 insulation material, 47A heat pipe.

Claims

1. An outside air intake flow path for taking in outside air; an outside air processing air conditioner that communicates with the outside air intake passage and conditions the outside air taken in through the outside air intake passage; a heat exchange means for exchanging heat with the air conditioned by the outside air processing air conditioner; and an air exhaust flow path that sends the air that has been heat exchanged by the heat exchange means into an indoor space.

2. 2. The air conditioning system according to claim 1, wherein the heat exchange means is a double duct formed by two ducts.

3. The double duct includes an inner duct through which outside air taken in from the outside air intake passage communicates, and an outer duct that covers the inner duct and through which air that has been cooled and dehumidified by the outside air processing air conditioner communicates, 3. The air conditioning system of claim 2, wherein the air in the outer duct is heated by outside air in the inner duct.

4. The air conditioning system of claim 3 , wherein the outer duct is covered with insulation.

5. The inner duct is provided with a plurality of heat pipes, The air conditioning system according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the plurality of heat pipes perform heat exchange between the air in the inner duct and the air in the outer duct.

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