Air conditioner indoor unit

Abstract

To provide an indoor unit of an air conditioner which inhibits increase of the number of components of the indoor unit even if an air inlet can be selected in the indoor unit of the air conditioner.SOLUTION: An indoor unit of an air conditioner includes: a rectangular parallelepiped shape housing 10 having a bottom surface suction port 162 provided on a bottom surface and a side surface suction port 161 provided on a side surface; and an attachment panel 14 which closes at least one of the bottom surface suction port 162 and the side surface suction port 161. The attachment panel 14 is formed with a bending part for bending the attachment panel.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner, and more particularly to a technique that enables selection of the direction in which air is drawn into the indoor unit depending on the installation location. [Background technology]

[0002] One type of air conditioner indoor unit is a ceiling-mounted duct type that is installed above the ceiling of the room to be air-conditioned. Since ceiling-mounted duct indoor units are installed in the low-height space above the ceiling, they have a flat, rectangular casing. The interior of the casing is divided by a partition into a heat exchange chamber where the heat exchanger is located and a blower chamber where the blower is located.

[0003] An air intake port is provided on the blower chamber side to take in indoor air, and an air outlet port is provided on the heat exchange chamber side to blow out conditioned air that has been heat exchanged. An air intake duct is connected to the air intake port, and an air outlet duct is connected to the air outlet.

[0004] In many cases, the air outlet is located on the front side of the housing and the air intake is located on the rear (back) side of the housing, but there are cases where the space between the rear of the housing and the fixtures in the ceiling (e.g., walls or pillars) is narrow and it is not possible to connect an air intake duct to the air intake.

[0005] Taking this into consideration, some indoor units have two air intake ports on the blower compartment side: a rear intake port that draws air from the rear of the housing, and a bottom intake port that draws air from the bottom of the housing (the bottom of the blower compartment), allowing either port to be selected as the air intake port.

[0006] This indoor unit has a cover plate as an attachment panel. When the indoor unit draws air through the rear inlet (hereinafter also referred to as the rear inlet type), the cover plate closes the bottom inlet. On the other hand, when the indoor unit draws air through the bottom inlet (hereinafter also referred to as the bottom inlet type), the cover plate closes the rear inlet.

[0007] However, the opening areas (sizes) of the rear and bottom inlets may not be equal. In the invention described in Patent Document 1, the cover plate is composed of two plates: a large and a small. When covering an inlet with a large opening area, the large and small cover plates are placed side by side without overlapping. In contrast, when covering an inlet with a small opening area, the large and small cover plates are partially overlapped to match the size of the inlet. However, the conventional technology requires two cover plates, a large and a small one, which increases the number of components of the indoor unit. This increases the labor required to assemble the indoor unit and increases the cost of managing parts, which is undesirable from the perspective of simplifying the configuration. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0008] [Patent Document 1] JP 2015-68550 A (see Figs. 15, 16, etc.) Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0009] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an indoor unit for an air conditioner that does not increase the number of components of the indoor unit even when the air inlet is selectable. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an indoor unit for an air conditioner including a rectangular parallelepiped housing having a bottom air inlet provided on the bottom surface and a side air inlet provided on a side surface, and an attachment panel that closes either the bottom air inlet or the side air inlet, The interior of the housing is divided by a partition plate into a heat exchange chamber having a heat exchanger and a blower chamber having a blower, the bottom air inlet and the side air inlet are provided on the blower chamber side of the housing, and when the attachment panel closes the bottom air inlet, one end of the attachment panel is fixed to the partition plate, and a buffer material is provided on one end of the attachment panel. It is characterized by the following. [Effects of the Invention]

[0011] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an indoor unit for an air conditioner that does not increase the number of components of the indoor unit even when the air inlet is selectable. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a perspective view showing an indoor unit of an air conditioner according to the present invention, as viewed from above; [Figure 2] Cross section of line AA in Figure 1. [Figure 3] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an air intake section on the blower chamber side of the indoor unit. [Figure 4a] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the indoor unit of the front intake type with the intake grille open. [Figure 4b] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the indoor unit as a front intake type. [Figure 5] FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the indoor unit as a bottom intake type. [Figure 6] FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an attachment panel provided in the indoor unit. [Figure 7] 10 is a perspective view showing a procedure for closing the front surface of the indoor unit with the attachment panel. FIG. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is an enlarged view showing the circled portion of FIG. 7. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which one end of the attachment panel is fixed to a partition plate. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9, but the present invention is not limited to this.

[0014] First, in the description of this embodiment, with reference to Figures 1 and 2, the indoor unit 1 of an air conditioner is, for example, a ceiling-mounted duct type air conditioner indoor unit, and includes a housing 10 that is installed above the ceiling of a house. Because the space above the ceiling is low, the shape of the housing 10 installed above the ceiling is a flat rectangular parallelepiped. Hanging hooks 101 are provided at the four corners of the housing 10 for suspending the housing 10 from, for example, a structural slab above the ceiling using hanging bolts (not shown). Note that, in this embodiment, a ceiling-mounted duct type indoor unit will be used for explanation, but the air conditioner indoor unit of the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to various indoor units such as ceiling-suspended indoor units and duct type indoor units that are exposed to the indoor space.

[0015] Housing 10 includes a top panel 11, a left side panel 12L, and a right side panel 12R. Referring also to Figure 4, a bottom cover panel 13 and an attachment panel 14 are disposed on the bottom of housing 10. A front surface 16 and a rear surface 15 of housing 10 are open as air vents.

[0016] 2, the interior of the housing 10 is divided into left and right halves by a partition plate 20, with the rear surface 15 side being the heat exchange chamber 30 and the front surface 16 side being the blower chamber 40. The bottom of the heat exchange chamber 30 is closed by a bottom cover panel 13. Although not shown, a left side panel 12L is fixed to the left end of the partition plate 20, and a right side panel 12R is fixed to the right end of the partition plate 20.

[0017] A heat exchanger 31 and a drain pan 32 are provided in the heat exchange chamber 30. A fan 41 is provided in the fan chamber 40. A sirocco fan is used as the fan 41. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the number of fans 41 is two, but it may be one or three or more.

[0018] According to this embodiment, when the blower 41 is operated, indoor air is sucked in from the front surface 16 side of the housing 10, and the conditioned air that has exchanged heat with the refrigerant in the heat exchanger 31 is blown out from the rear surface 15 side of the housing 10.

[0019] Therefore, an air intake duct (not shown) is connected to the front surface 16 of the housing 10, and an air exhaust duct (not shown) is connected to the rear surface 15 of the housing 10, but if there is not enough space between the front surface 16 of the housing 10 and the fixtures in the ceiling (e.g., walls or pillars) to connect the air intake duct, it is not possible to connect the air intake duct to the front surface 16 of the housing 10.

[0020] Therefore, in the present invention, there are two air intake ports on the fan chamber 40 side, a front intake port 161 that draws air from the front surface 16 of the housing 10, and a bottom intake port 162 that draws air from the bottom surface of the housing 10 (the bottom surface of the fan chamber 40), so that either one can be selected. The air intake port can be selected by changing the mounting position of the attachment panel 14. The attachment panel 14 also serves as a service panel for maintenance.

[0021] 4a and 4b show a state in which the bottom air inlet 162 is blocked by the attachment panel 14, causing the housing 10 to adopt a front air inlet system in which indoor air is drawn in through the front air inlet 161. In contrast, FIG. 5 shows a state in which the front air inlet 161 is blocked by the attachment panel 14, causing the housing 10 to adopt a bottom air inlet system in which indoor air is drawn in through the bottom air inlet 162. In either case, an air inlet grill 17 having an air filter is provided at the air inlet. In this embodiment, the opening areas (sizes) of the front air inlet 161 and the bottom air inlet 162 are the same, so the air inlet grill 17 is used for both the front air inlet 161 and the bottom air inlet 162.

[0022] However, the front air inlet 161 and the bottom air inlet 162 have different screw fastening positions for fixing the attachment panel 14 that closes the air inlet (front air inlet 161 or bottom air inlet 162) around which the air inlet grill 17 is not used.

[0023] That is, as shown in Fig. 3, the locations where attachment panels 14 that cover front air inlet 161 and bottom air inlet 162 are attached have the same horizontal width (the width along the space between left side panel 12l and right side panel 12R) WA, but with regard to vertical width (width WB1 along the up-down direction at front air inlet 161, and width WB2 along the front-to-back direction at bottom air inlet 162), width WB2 on the bottom air inlet 162 side is longer than width WB1 on the front air inlet 161 side. Because the screw fastening portion for fastening attachment panel 14 is located at the lower end of partition plate 20 of bottom cover panel 13, attachment panel 14 is formed with a length that is the sum of the width along the front-to-back direction of bottom air inlet 162 and the width along the front-to-back direction of one end 131 of bottom cover panel 13. That is, as shown in Fig. 6, attachment panel 14 is made of a single sheet metal material having horizontal width WA and vertical width WB2.

[0024] Therefore, as shown in Figure 7, when using the bottom suction method, if one side 14a of the attachment panel 14 in the vertical width WB2 direction (the bottom side in Figure 6) is aligned with the corner 10a (see Figure 3) where the bottom surface and rear surface of the housing 10 intersect and the attachment panel 14 blocks the rear suction port 161, a portion of the attachment panel 14 will protrude from the top surface of the housing 10.

[0025] For ease of explanation, in attachment panel 14, the portion of the size corresponding to rear air inlet 161 is referred to as panel main body 141, and the portion protruding from the upper surface of housing 10 is referred to as protruding portion 142.

[0026] In the present invention, the protruding portion 142 can be bent so as to overlap the upper panel 11, and the attachment panel 14 has a bending portion 143 for bending the protruding portion 142, as shown in Fig. 6. The bending portion 143 extends along the boundary line between the panel main body 141 and the protruding portion 142. In order to make the bending portion 143 easier to bend, a fragile portion 143a is formed in the bending portion 143, the mechanical strength of which is weaker than that of other portions of the attachment panel 14.

[0027] In this embodiment, the fragile portion 143a is made up of a plurality of elongated holes (slits) 143b formed in a line at predetermined intervals along the boundary line between the panel main body 141 and the protruding portion 142, as shown in FIG.

[0028] According to this, in the attic where the indoor unit 1 is installed, if the space between the rear surface 16 of the housing 10 and the fixtures in the attic (for example, a wall or pillar) is narrow and there is not enough space between the rear surface 16 of the housing 10 and the fixtures in the attic to connect an air intake duct, and therefore it is not possible to connect an air intake duct to the rear intake port 161 of the housing 10, when using the indoor unit 1 as a bottom intake type, it is sufficient to block the rear intake port 161 of the housing 10 with the attachment panel 14 and fold the protruding portion 142 so that it overlaps with the top panel 11, and a single attachment panel 14 can accommodate a selection of intake types.

[0029] When the indoor unit is shipped, the attachment panel 14 is screwed to the bottom of the housing 10 so as to close the bottom air inlet 162. At that time, in order to increase the mechanical strength of the bottom side of the housing 10 so as to withstand shocks during transport of the product, the attachment panel 14 has a protruding portion 142 on one end side thereof screwed to the partition plate 20 together with one end 131 of the bottom cover panel 13 that covers the bottom surface of the heat exchange chamber 30.

[0030] Fig. 9 is an enlarged view of portion X in Fig. 2. Referring to Fig. 9, the partition plate 20 has legs 21 to which one end 131 of the bottom cover panel 13 and a protruding portion 142, which is one end of the attachment panel 14, are screwed. The legs 21 are preferably bent in an L-shape toward the machine chamber 40 so as not to interfere with the drain pan 32 in the heat exchange chamber 30.

[0031] One end 131 of the bottom cover panel 13 is positioned along the underside of the leg 21 of the partition plate 20, and similarly, one end of the attachment panel 14, which is the protruding portion 142, is also positioned along the underside of the leg 21 of the partition plate 20.

[0032] One end 131 of the bottom cover panel 13 and the protruding portion 142 of the attachment panel 14 are screwed to the leg portion 21 of the partition plate 20 while overlapping each other, thereby increasing the mechanical strength of the bottom side of the housing 10. In addition, the bent portion 143 overlaps with the bottom cover panel 13, thereby closing the long hole (slit) 143b.

[0033] 6, the protruding portion 142 of the attachment panel 14 is provided with a cushioning material 144 made of, for example, FPE (formed polyethylene). For this reason, it is preferable to arrange one end 131 of the bottom cover panel 13 on top and the protruding portion 142 of the attachment panel 14 underneath, and then screw them to the legs 21 of the partition plate 20, whereby the cushioning material 144 can ensure airtightness of the screwed portion. Furthermore, even if vibrations are applied to the housing 10 when, for example, the indoor unit 1 is transported to an installation location, the attachment panel 14 can be firmly held by the partition plate 20.

[0034] Although the present invention has been described above using the embodiments, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the description of the above embodiments. Modifications or improvements made to the above embodiments by those skilled in the art are also included in the technical scope of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0035] 10. Cabinet 10a, 10b Corner of the housing 101 Hanging hook 11 Top panel 12L, 12R side panels 13 Bottom cover panel 131 One end of bottom cover panel 14 Attachment Panel 141 Panel body 142 protruding part 143 Bending section 144 Cushioning material 15 Front of the enclosure 16 Rear of the housing 161 Rear intake port 162 Bottom suction port 17 Intake grill 20 Divider 21 Legs 30 Heat exchange room 31 Heat exchanger 32 Drain pan 40 Blower room 41 Blower

Claims

1. An indoor unit of an air conditioner including a rectangular parallelepiped housing having a bottom suction port provided on the bottom surface and a side suction port provided on a side surface, and an attachment panel that closes either the bottom suction port or the side suction port, The interior of the housing is divided by a partition plate into a heat exchange chamber having a heat exchanger and a blower chamber having a blower, the bottom intake port and the side intake port are provided on the blower chamber side of the housing, and when the attachment panel blocks the bottom intake port, one end of the attachment panel is fixed to the partition plate, and a cushioning material is provided on one end of the attachment panel.

2. 2. The indoor unit of an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the partition plate has a leg at its lower end, and one end of the attachment panel is fixed to the underside of the leg.

3. 3. The indoor unit of an air conditioner according to claim 2, wherein the legs are bent such that the lower end of the partition plate is bent toward the fan chamber.

4. An air conditioner comprising the indoor unit according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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