Indoor unit of air conditioner

Abstract

This indoor unit (3) of an air conditioner (1) comprises a housing (25) in which a ventilation passage (28) is formed between an intake port (26) and a blow-out port (27), a wind direction plate (29) that opens and closes the blow-out port (27), a cross-flow fan (12) that channels air from the intake port (26) to the blow-out port (27) by rotating forward, a heat exchanger (11) disposed in the ventilation passage (28), a drain pan (33) disposed below the heat exchanger (11), a drain discharge port (34) via which condensed water that has accumulated in the drain pan (33) is discharged outside of a room, a refrigerant detection means (16) disposed within the housing (25), and a control unit (18). The control unit (18) assesses whether a flammable refrigerant is leaking into the housing (25) on the basis of the detection value of the refrigerant detection means (16), and, when the refrigerant is leaking, drives the wind direction plate (29) so as to close the blow-out port (27) and reversely rotates the cross-flow fan (12) so as to increase the static pressure around the drain pan (33).

Claims

1. An indoor unit of an air conditioner in which a flammable refrigerant circulates in a refrigerant circuit constituting a refrigeration cycle, comprising: a housing having an intake port and an outlet port, with a ventilation passage formed between the intake port and the outlet port; a wind deflector that opens and closes the outlet port; a cross-flow fan positioned in the ventilation passage within the housing and capable of forward and reverse rotation, which in forward rotation directs air taken in from the intake port to the outlet port; a heat exchanger positioned between the intake port and the cross-flow fan in the ventilation passage; a drain pan positioned below the heat exchanger within the housing; a drain outlet formed in a part of the drain pan, to which a drain hose for discharging condensed water to the outside is connected; a refrigerant detection means positioned in the housing for detecting leakage of the flammable refrigerant; and a control unit that controls the driving of the wind deflector and the cross-flow fan. The control unit determines whether or not the flammable refrigerant is leaking inside the housing based on the value detected by the refrigerant detection means, and when the refrigerant is leaking, it drives the air deflector to close the air outlet and reverses the rotation of the cross-flow fan so that the static pressure around the drain pan inside the housing increases, in the indoor unit of an air conditioner.

2. The indoor unit of the air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger has a pipe connection section formed therein where pipes constituting the flow path of the flammable refrigerant are connected to each other, and the refrigerant detection means is arranged near the pipe connection section.

3. An indoor unit of an air conditioner in which a flammable refrigerant circulates in a refrigerant circuit constituting a refrigeration cycle, comprising: a housing having an intake port and an outlet port, with a ventilation passage formed between the intake port and the outlet port; a wind deflector that opens and closes the outlet port; a cross-flow fan positioned in the ventilation passage within the housing and capable of forward and reverse rotation, which in forward rotation directs air taken in from the intake port to the outlet port; a heat exchanger positioned between the intake port and the cross-flow fan in the ventilation passage; a drain pan positioned below the heat exchanger within the housing; a drain outlet formed in a part of the drain pan to which a drain hose extending to the outside is connected; and a control unit that controls the driving of the wind deflector and the cross-flow fan, wherein the control unit drives the wind deflector to close the outlet port when the operation of the air conditioner is stopped, and reverses the rotation of the cross-flow fan so that the static pressure around the drain pan within the housing increases.

4. The indoor unit of the air conditioner according to claim 1, characterized in that the control unit controls the rotation speed of the cross-flow fan to be 500 rpm or more when it rotates in reverse.

5. The indoor unit of the air conditioner according to claim 1, characterized in that the inner diameter of the drain outlet is set to 5 mm or more.

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