Method and Device for Controlling Integrated Air Conditioner, Intergrated Air Conditioner, Medium and Product

The present application is based upon and claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202410437572.X, filed on Apr. 11, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present disclosure relates to the field of air conditioner technologies, and in particular to a method and device for controlling an integrated air conditioner, an integrated air conditioner, a medium and a product.

Air conditioners can include split air conditioners and integrated air conditioners. In the split air conditioner, indoor and outdoor units are separated, and inner and outer fan blades are driven by separate motors, respectively. In a case of defrosting, inner and outer motors can be driven and controlled separately, and an evaporator and a condenser of the split air conditioner are installed indoors and outdoors, respectively. The integrated air conditioner controls inner and outer fan blades by a single motor, and an evaporator and a condenser are both installed on a main body of the air conditioner. Whether it is the split air conditioner or the integrated air conditioner, in a heating mode, the condenser will frost after a period of use.

The present disclosure provides a method and device for controlling an integrated air conditioner, an integrated air conditioner, a medium and a product.

According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for controlling an integrated air conditioner, the integrated air conditioner including a compressor, an evaporator, and a first damper corresponding to the evaporator, wherein the method includes:

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an integrated air conditioner, including:

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, implement steps of the method for controlling the integrated air conditioner provided in the first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure.

According to a fourth aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product including a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements steps of the method for controlling the integrated air conditioner provided in the first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that the above general description and the following detailed description are merely exemplary and explanatory and should not be construed as limiting of the disclosure.

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The following description refers to the accompanying drawings in which the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise represented. Implementations set forth in the following description of the embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with the present disclosure. Instead, they are merely examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects related to the present disclosure as recited in the appended claims.

It should be noted that all actions of obtaining signals, information or data in the present disclosure are carried out in compliance with relevant data protection laws and policies of the country where the corresponding device is located and with the authorization given by an owner of the device.

In order to prevent an integrated air conditioner from blowing cold air in a heating mode to affect the user experience, the present disclosure provides a method and device for controlling an integrated air conditioner, an integrated air conditioner, a medium and a product. When a duration of a compressor being in operation in a heating mode reaches a first preset duration, and/or a piping temperature of an evaporator is greater than a first preset temperature, an opening of a first damper is increased from a third target opening to a first target opening to prevent the opening of the first damper from being too large when the piping temperature of the evaporator is low or the duration of the compressor being in operation in the heating mode is short to cause the integrated air conditioner to blow the cold air and affect the user experience.

In the present disclosure, a method for controlling an air conditioner can be applied to an integrated air conditioner, for example, applied to a processor or a controller in the integrated air conditioner, etc. The integrated air conditioner may be a cabinet air conditioner or a mobile air conditioner.

First, a structure of the integrated air conditioner will be described.

The integrated air conditioner includes a fan blade motor, a first fan blade, a second fan blade, a first damper, a second damper, an evaporator and a condenser. The condenser and the second damper corresponding to the condenser are located on the lower side of an air conditioner housing, and the evaporator and the first damper corresponding to the evaporator are located on the upper side of the air conditioner housing. The second damper corresponding to the condenser refers to the damper on the condenser side, and the first damper corresponding to the evaporator refers to the damper on the evaporator side. The fan blade motor controls the first fan blade and the second fan blade, respectively. For example, the fan blade motor includes two shafts, which are respectively connected to the first fan blade and the second fan blade. The first fan blade is the fan blade on the evaporator side, the second fan blade is the fan blade on the condenser side, and the first fan blade and the second fan blade include but are not limited to centrifugal fan blades.

For example,shows a left side view of an integrated air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown inrepresents a housing of the integrated air conditioner,represents a first damper,represents a first damper motor for controlling a position of the first damper,represents a connection rod for the first damper motor to drive the first damper to open and close,represents an evaporator, andrepresents a first fan blade.

shows a right side view of an integrated air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown inrepresents a housing of the integrated air conditioner,represents a condenser,represents a second damper,represents a second damper motor for controlling a position of the second damper,represents a connection rod for the second damper motor to drive the second damper to open and close, andrepresents a second fan blade.

In addition, the integrated air conditioner may further include a compressor, an expansion valve, and a four-way valve, which are not shown in.

shows a flowchart of a method for controlling an integrated air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The integrated air conditioner includes a compressor, an evaporator, and a first damper corresponding to the evaporator. As shown in, the method may include steps Sand S.

In the step S, when the integrated air conditioner is in operation in a heating mode, a piping temperature of the evaporator and/or a duration for which the compressor is in operation in the heating mode are obtained.

In the step S, when the duration for which the compressor is in operation in the heating mode reaches a first preset duration, and/or the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than a first preset temperature, an opening of the first damper is increased from a third target opening to a first target opening.

In the present disclosure, the piping temperature of the evaporator and/or the duration of the compressor operating in the heating mode will affect an airflow temperature of the integrated air conditioner, and the opening of the first damper will affect an airflow volume of the integrated air conditioner. Therefore, in the present disclosure, the opening of the first damper can be adjusted according to the piping temperature of the evaporator and/or the duration of the compressor operating in the heating mode.

If the piping temperature of the evaporator is low or the duration of the compressor operating in the heating mode is short, the airflow temperature of the integrated air conditioner is low. In this case, if the opening of the first damper is large, the airflow volume is large, which will cause a large amount of cold air to enter the environment of the integrated air conditioner, seriously affecting the user experience. Therefore, in the present disclosure, when the duration of the compressor operating in the heating mode reaches the first preset duration, and/or the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than the first preset temperature, the opening of the first damper is increased from the third target opening to the first target opening. The third target opening may be an opening of the first damper at the start of the heating mode or at the end of the defrosting.

In an embodiment, adjusting the opening of the damper refers to adjusting an opening position of the damper, and different opening positions of the damper correspond to different airflow volumes. For example, the opening position of the damper may be divided in advance. For example, as shown in, the opening position of the damper is divided into position 0 to position 10. When the opening position of the damper is at position 0, it represents that the damper is completely closed, and the airflow volume is the smallest and close to 0, and when the opening position of the damper is position 10, it represents that the damper is completely open, and the airflow volume is the largest. The opening position of the damper shown inis position 0. In this embodiment, the opening position of the damper can be adjusted between position 0 and position 10, that is, the opening of the damper is controlled to be any opening among an opening corresponding to position 0 through an opening corresponding to position 10. The opening of the damper can be controlled by using a damper motor corresponding to the damper. For example, the third target opening can be the opening corresponding to position 0.

For example, the first preset temperature is 35° C., and the first preset duration is 120 s, that is, when the compressor runs for 120 s in the heating mode and/or the piping temperature of the evaporator when the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode is greater than 35° C., the opening of the first damper is increased from the third target opening to the first target opening. The first target opening can be any opening among an opening corresponding to position 1 through an opening corresponding to position 9. For example, the first target opening may be an opening corresponding to position 3.

By adopting the above technical solutions, when the piping temperature of the evaporator is low, the opening of the first damper is controlled to be small to prevent cold air from entering the environment where the integrated air conditioner is located. When the compressor operates in the heating mode for the first preset duration, and/or the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than the first preset temperature, the opening of the first damper is increased from the third target opening to the first target opening. In this way, increasing the opening of the first damper can effectively transfer the heat in the evaporator to the environment, improve the heating efficiency, and thus achieve the purpose of heating while preventing the cold air.

In an embodiment, when the duration of the heating mode is long and/or the piping temperature of the evaporator increases, the opening of the first damper can be further increased to further improve the heating efficiency and the efficiency of heating while preventing the cold air.

In an embodiment, the method may further include:

For example, it is determined whether a preset condition is met according to the duration of the opening of the first damper at the first target opening and/or the piping temperature of the evaporator. If the preset condition is met, the opening of the first damper is increased from the first target opening to the second target opening. The preset condition includes that the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than a second preset temperature and the duration of the opening of the first damper at the first target opening reaches a second preset duration, the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than a third preset temperature, and the duration of the opening of the first damper at the first target opening reaches a third preset duration greater than the second preset duration.

For example, the second preset temperature is 40° C., the second preset duration is 30 s, the third preset temperature is 42° C., and the third preset duration is 300 s, that is, when the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than 40° C. and the opening of the first damper is the opening corresponding to position 3 for a duration greater than 30 s, and/or, when the piping temperature of the evaporator is greater than 42° C. when the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode, and/or, when the opening of the first damper is the opening corresponding to position 3 for a duration greater than 300 s, the opening of the first damper is adjusted from the opening corresponding to position 3 to the opening corresponding to position 10, that is, the first damper is controlled to be completely open.

By adopting the above technical solutions, the opening of the first damper is further increased, thereby further improving the heating efficiency and the efficiency of heating while preventing the cold air.

In addition, when the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode, an opening of the second damper is controlled to be maintained at the second target opening. For example, the opening of the second damper corresponding to the condenser is controlled to be maintained at the opening corresponding to position 10.

By adopting the above technical solutions, when the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode, the opening of the second damper is controlled to remain at the second target opening. On the one hand, the temperature of the condenser can be increased and the probability of condenser frosting can be reduced. On the other hand, a heating rate of the evaporator piping can be increased, thereby further improving the heating efficiency.

In an embodiment, the integrated air conditioner further includes a fan blade motor. When the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode, the fan blade motor may also be controlled to operate at a first speed, and the speed of the fan blade motor can be increased after the opening of the first damper increases to the first target opening.

In this embodiment, when the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode, the fan blade motor is first controlled to run at a first speed, where the first speed may be a low airflow setting speed, whose value range may be 450 RPM to 600 RPM. Afterwards, after the opening of the first damper increases to the first target opening, in order to further improve the heating efficiency, the speed of the fan blade motor may be increased.

In the present disclosure, the method further includes determining whether the integrated air conditioner meets a preset defrosting condition; and in response to determining that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, switching an operation mode of the integrated air conditioner to a cooling mode, and the integrated air conditioner is capable of defrosting the condenser in a case of operating in the cooling mode.

The condenser is defrosted on the basis that dew or frost has formed on a surface of the condenser. For example, when the integrated air conditioner meets at least one of the following conditions, it is considered that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition: the integrated air conditioner operates in the heating mode for the preset duration, a difference between the piping temperature of the evaporator and an ambient temperature of the integrated air conditioner is within a preset range, a cumulative operation duration of the compressor of the integrated air conditioner reaches a certain duration, or the piping temperature of the evaporator reaches a temperature threshold.

When the integrated air conditioner operates in the cooling mode, it can control the refrigerant circulation through the work of the compressor and/or provide heat to the condenser through the ambient temperature of the integrated air conditioner, so that the temperature on the condenser side increases, thereby achieving defrosting of the condenser.

By adopting the above technical solutions, when the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, the condenser is defrosted by switching the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner to the cooling mode. In this way, the method for defrosting the condenser in the cooling mode is proposed, which is not limited to defrosting in the heating mode, thereby improving the flexibility of defrosting and thus improving the user experience.

Defrosting the condenser may include a defrosting preparation stage and a defrosting stage. The defrosting preparation stage refers to a stage in which the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner is switched to the cooling mode. In the present disclosure, an application scenario of the method for controlling the integrated air conditioner may be that the integrated air conditioner is initially in any operation mode that can cause frost on the condenser.

As described above, under normal circumstances, when the air conditioner operates in the heating mode, condenser frost may occur after a period of use. Therefore, in an embodiment, the application scenario of the method for controlling the integrated air conditioner provided by the present disclosure can be that the integrated air conditioner is initially in the heating mode. For example, in response to determining that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner is switched from the heating mode to the cooling mode.

In an embodiment, the integrated air conditioner may further include a four-way valve, and in response to determining that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, switching the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner to the cooling mode may include: in response to determining that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, controlling the compressor to stop operating and controlling the four-way valve to be powered off; and in a case where a duration for which the compressor stops operating reaches a fourth preset duration and the four-way valve is in a powered-off state, controlling the compressor to operate to switch the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner to the cooling mode.

When the integrated air conditioner is switched between cooling and heating modes, the four-way valve needs to be switched, and the four-way valve needs to be switched when a heat exchange system is under pressure balance. Therefore, in this embodiment, if it is determined that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, the compressor is controlled to stop operating, so that a heat exchange system is in a pressure balance state.

The compressor stops operating for the fourth preset duration to ensure that the four-way valve can complete the power-off or switching operation within the fourth preset duration. For example, the fourth preset duration may be 50 s.

In addition, in an implementation of this embodiment, when it is determined that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, the four-way valve can be directly controlled to be powered off. However, since the simultaneous controlling of the four-way valve to be powered off and the operation of the compressor to stop is performed, there may exist a situation where the four-way valve may be controlled to be powered off before the heat exchange system is in the pressure balance state, resulting in the failure of the switching of the four-way valve.

In order to ensure that the four-way valve is successfully switched when the heat exchange system is in the pressure balance state, in another implementation of this embodiment, the four-way valve is controlled to be powered off after the compressor stops operating for a period of time. For example, in response to the integrated air conditioner meeting the preset defrosting condition, controlling the four-way valve to be powered off may include: in response to the integrated air conditioner meeting the preset defrosting condition, controlling the four-way valve to be powered off after a fifth preset duration, and the fifth preset duration is less than the fourth preset duration.

For example, the fifth preset duration is 40 s and the fourth preset duration is 50 s. When it is determined that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, the compressor is controlled to stop operating, and the four-way valve is controlled to be powered off after a delay of 40 s. Thereafter, when the compressor stops operating for 50 s and the four-way valve is in the powered-off state, the compressor is started, thereby switching the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner from the heating mode to the cooling mode.

In addition, the integrated air conditioner further includes an expansion valve, and in response to determining that the integrated air conditioner meets the preset defrosting condition, switching the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner to the cooling mode may further include: in response to the integrated air conditioner meeting the preset defrosting condition, controlling the expansion valve to operate with a preset maximum valve opening.

In the defrosting preparation stage, in order to ensure that the heat exchange system is in the pressure balance state, the expansion valve may also be controlled to operate at the preset maximum valve opening. For example, the maximum valve opening may be 480. In this case, the expansion valve operates at the maximum valve opening, which can further balance the pressure of the heat exchange system. In addition, during the defrosting stage, when the integrated air conditioner operates in the cooling mode, the expansion valve may also be controlled to operate at a first preset valve opening, which is less than the maximum valve opening.

In this embodiment, when the operation mode of the integrated air conditioner has been switched to the cooling mode, it is not necessary to maintain the pressure balance of the heat exchange system. In this case, the expansion valve may be controlled to operate at the first preset valve opening to achieve the purpose of throttling to establish a pressure difference to provide heat to the condenser. The first preset valve opening is less than the maximum valve opening, for example, a value range of the first preset valve opening is [100, 400].