JP6231815B2 - Icicle prevention device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an icicle prevention device that prevents the occurrence of icicles on the outer bottom surface of a rain gutter.

  If icicles are formed at the eaves, the grown icicles fall and become dangerous. Therefore, many icicle prevention devices have been proposed.

  As these conventional icicle prevention devices, for example, the part from the roof to the rain gutter under the eaves is covered with a plate material and the snow melting water flowing from the roof flows down into the gutter without being cooled by the outside air (For example, refer to Patent Document 1). In this device, a heater is installed on the inner bottom surface of the gutter in order to warm the air in the space covered with the plate material.

JP 2008-169629 A (paragraph 0009, FIGS. 1 and 2)

  The above-mentioned conventional device is a device for preventing icicles from forming on the eaves of the roof where no rain gutter is installed. Therefore, when installing the above device, the entire device including the gutter is newly added. The cost is high because it must be installed. In addition, in a house where a gutter is already installed, it is necessary to install the device after removing the gutter, which further increases the cost. In addition, since the above-mentioned conventional apparatus is intended to prevent the water flowing from the roof to the gutter from freezing and becoming icicles, it is formed on the outer bottom surface of the gutter by the water flowing along the outer surface of the gutter. No consideration is given to icicles.

  In addition, in the above-mentioned conventional device, although the heater is installed inside the rain gutter, since this heater is intended to warm the air in the rain gutter, the rain gutter itself cannot be sufficiently heated, Therefore, even if the heater is energized, icicles formed on the outer bottom surface of the rain gutter cannot be effectively prevented.

  Then, this invention makes it a subject to provide the icicle prevention apparatus which can prevent the icicle formed in the outer bottom face of the existing rain gutter cheaply in view of said problem.

In order to solve the above problems, the icicle prevention device according to the present invention is a metal pipe-like casing in an icicle prevention device that prevents icicles from forming on the outer bottom surface of a rain gutter installed substantially horizontally under an eaves. provided with an electrical heater to warm the casing is accommodated in the casing, a part of the outside of the casing, which the legs in contact with the inner bottom surface of the gutter, and formed continuously along the longitudinal direction of the casing The electric heater is housed in the casing so as to be in contact with the casing from the inner surface at a portion where the leg portion is formed, and the electric heater is foamable and functions as a heat insulating material. It is characterized by being held so as to be pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the casing by a holding member occupying the space .

  Even if the heater stored in the casing is installed in the rain gutter as it is, it is difficult for the casing and the inner bottom surface of the rain gutter to come into contact with each other. However, since the leg portion is provided in the casing in the above configuration, heat can be transmitted from the casing to the shutter through the leg portion.

  In addition, when a cap-like lid member that is screwed into the end portion and closes the end portion is provided at at least one end portion of the casing, the cap contacts the inner bottom surface of the gutter. The other part of the casing floats from the inner bottom surface of the gutter and cannot transfer heat. Therefore, it is desirable that the leg portion is formed to have a leg length that does not contact the inner bottom surface of the gutter.

  Further, if the heater is housed in the casing so as to contact the casing from the inner surface at the portion where the leg portion is formed, the heat is conducted to the leg portion before being transferred to the entire casing and radiated. Therefore, the heat generated by the heater can be efficiently transmitted from the legs to the gutter.

  As apparent from the above description, the present invention can prevent the occurrence of icicles on the outer bottom surface of the rain gutter simply by installing the heater housed in the casing inside the existing gutter.

The figure which shows the structure of one embodiment of this invention Diagram showing details of heater section Sectional view showing the heater installed in the gutter Sectional view showing the heater installed on the square rain gutter

  Referring to FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a rain gutter to which the present invention is applied. This gutter is installed almost horizontally below the eaves of the roof R of the house, and receives rainwater that flows down along the upper surface of the roof R and leads it to the drain outlet below. In winter, snow accumulates on the roof R, and the accumulated snow slides downward and is received by the rain gutter 1. Then, the inside of the rain gutter 1 is blocked with snow, and the case where the melted water overflows from the gutter 1 without being guided downward. Then, the overflowing water flows along the outer peripheral surface of the rain gutter 1, and icicles may be formed on the outer bottom surface of the rain gutter 1.

  In order to prevent the formation of icicles on the outer bottom surface of the rain gutter 1, the heater portion 2, which is a main part of the icicle prevention device according to the present invention, is installed in the rain gutter 1.

  Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the heater portion 2 has a pair of heaters 4 inserted in a stainless steel pipe-like casing 3. Screw portions are formed at both ends of the casing 3, and a distal end cap 31 and a base end cap 32 are screwed to the screw portions. The tip cap 31 has a bag shape, and the tip of the casing 3 is closed in a watertight state by screwing the tip cap 31 into the tip of the casing 3. On the other hand, a cord 40 for supplying power is inserted through the proximal end cap 32 in a state where water tightness is ensured.

  The cord 40 is connected to a pair of heaters 4 inside, and the heater 4 is configured to generate heat by electric power supplied through the cord 40. However, between the cord 40 and the heater 4, a thermal fuse 42 that melts at 76 ° C. and a thermostat 43 that turns off at 10 ° C. were connected in series. Therefore, even if the cord 40 is always connected to the power source, when the outside air temperature rises to near 10 ° C., the thermostat 43 is automatically turned off and the power supply to the heater 4 is shut off. Even if the thermostat 43 breaks down, when the temperature of the heater 4 rises to 76 ° C., the temperature fuse 42 is blown and the power supply to the heater 4 is cut off. By setting the fusing temperature of the thermal fuse 42 to 76 ° C., if the heater unit 2 is installed in the rain gutter 1, the thermal fuse 42 is not intended depending on the hot summer temperature even if it is installed over the summer. It can prevent fusing without doing.

  The casing 3 is provided with a pair of leg portions 33. On the other hand, the heater 4 is foamed and is held so as to be pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the casing 3 by a holding member 41 that functions as a heat insulating material, but the held position is as shown in FIG. It is set to coincide with the position where the leg 33 is formed. For this reason, the heat generated by the heater 4 is mainly transmitted to the casing 3, but most of the transmitted heat is conducted to the legs 33.

  The end 34 of the leg 33 is curved inward along the inner peripheral surface of the rain gutter 1. By curving in this way, the end portion 34 of the leg portion 33 comes into contact with the inner bottom surface of the gutter 1 over a wide area, and as a result, heat is uniformly transferred from the end portion 34 to the gutter 1. . In addition, the leg length of the leg part 33 was set so that both the front end cap 31 and the base end cap 32 were lifted from the inner bottom surface of the rain gutter 1 in a state where the end portion 34 was in contact with the inner bottom surface of the rain gutter 1.

  Since the end portion 34 is bent inward, a space S surrounded by both leg portions 33 is formed. Since this space S is closed except for both ends with respect to the outside, it hardly flows out to the outside even if the air in the space S is warmed, so that the bottom of the rain gutter 1 is assisted. In addition, an effect of preventing dust such as fallen leaves from entering the space S can be expected.

  By the way, the holding metal fitting 5 is provided so that the heater portion 2 does not float from the inner bottom surface of the rain gutter 1 so that the end portion 34 of the leg portion 33 is in close contact with the rain gutter 1 over the entire longitudinal direction. When the presser fitting 5 is turned clockwise, the presser part 52 descends and pushes down the heater part 2, but a foam sheet 53 having heat retaining properties is sandwiched between the presser part 52 and the casing 3, and the casing 3 The upper surface was kept warm to prevent heat dissipation from the casing 3 into the air.

  The rain gutter 1 has a semicylindrical shape as shown in FIG. 3 and a square shape as shown in FIG. When the heater unit 2 is installed in such a square rain gutter 1, the heater unit 2 in which the end portion 34 of the leg 33 is formed flat so as to correspond to the square rain gutter 1 may be separately prepared. However, as shown in FIG. 4, a long adapter plate 6 may be attached to the leg portion 33 formed in accordance with the semicircular rain gutter 1. If the adapter plate 6 is used in this way, the heater part 2 may have only one shape, and the manufacturing cost of the heater part 2 can be reduced due to the mass production effect. In FIG. 4, the drawing of the pressing metal is omitted, but it is desirable to use the pressing metal as appropriate in the case shown in FIG. 4 as in the case shown in FIG. 3.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to an above-described form, You may add a various change in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rain gutter 2 Heater part 3 Casing 4 Heater 33 Leg part 34 End part 41 Holding member R Roof

Claims (1)

An icicle prevention device for preventing icicles from forming on the outer bottom surface of a rain gutter installed substantially horizontally under the eaves, comprising a metal pipe-shaped casing and an electric heater which is housed in the casing and warms the casing. A leg portion in contact with the inner bottom surface of the rain gutter is continuously formed along a longitudinal direction of the casing on a part of the outside of the casing, and the electric heater is formed with the leg portion. The electric heater is foamed and functions as a heat insulating material, and is pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the casing by a holding member that occupies the space in the casing. An icicle prevention device, characterized in that the icicle is held as is .

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