JPH0771994A - Used gas appliance identification device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] The gas appliances used should be discriminated based on the presence or absence of gas governor equipment so that gas leaks can be detected early. The CPU 30 sends a drive signal to the pressure fluctuation device 12 to actively fluctuate the supply pressure of the gas flowing to the gas meter 10 and obtain the gas flow rate in response to the detection result of the gas flow meter 15. In addition, the average value of the gas flow rate is calculated for each fixed time, and the gas governor (pressure regulator) is installed in the gas equipment being used according to the correlation between the fluctuation amount of this gas flow rate average value and the active pressure fluctuation amount. It is determined whether or not the gas appliance 20 has been operated, and the type of the gas appliance 20 is determined based on the result.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas appliance discriminating apparatus for discriminating the type of gas appliance in use in a gas supply system for supplying gas to a gas appliance via a gas meter, and more particularly to a gas governor. The present invention relates to a used gas appliance determination device that determines a used gas appliance based on the presence or absence of a (pressure regulator).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a gas meter, there are two typical methods for detecting the occurrence of gas leakage and shutting off gas, an abnormal gas flow rate inspection function and an instrument continuous use time excess inspection function. The former is the function to drive the gas shutoff valve to shut off the gas flow path when an abnormally large amount of gas flow is detected by the gas flow meter, while the latter has used the gas appliance for an abnormally long time. In this case, it also has a function of driving the gas shutoff valve to shut off the gas flow path.

As a conventional gas meter with such a safety function, there is a city gas meter equipped with a microcomputer. In this city gas meter,
As the abnormal gas flow rate inspection function, there are a case where the gas flow path is blocked when the total maximum flow rate is exceeded, and a case where the gas flow path is blocked when the individual maximum flow rate is exceeded. Specific values of the total maximum flow rate and the individual maximum flow rate differ depending on the number of the gas meter.

For example, meter numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 7
In the city gas meter of, the individual maximum flow rate (m ³ / h) is
"1.5", "2.8", "4.8", "5.6",
Each is set to "6.9" and the total maximum flow rate (m ³ / h)
Are "1.8", "3.7", "5.4", "8.
8 "and" 12.2 ", respectively.

On the other hand, the duration of the gas meter having the function of continuously examining the equipment overuse time is divided according to the amount of heat quantity, and the heat quantity classification (Kcal / h) is -500, -5.
Less than 000, less than -6000, less than -7000, -90
In the categories less than 00, less than -12000, and less than -14000, the duration (minutes) is "no limit" and "7", respectively.
20 "," 720 "," 720 "," 390 "," 39 "
It is set to "0" and "120".

[0006]

However, the gas meters having the above-mentioned safety function have the following problems. That is, in the case of a gas meter having an abnormal gas flow rate inspection function, when a very weak amount is flowing as a gas leak state, this cannot be detected. Therefore, there is a problem that the gas continues to flow without being cut off, resulting in a gas accident. On the other hand, when a gas appliance that uses high-calorie gas is used for a long time, there is a problem that this is judged as a gas leak and a malfunction occurs.

On the other hand, in the case of a gas meter having an instrument continuous usage time excess inspection function, a gas leak accident can be prevented in advance by changing the duration time according to the gas usage amount, but the gas usage amount is large. It's not as short-lived as a device. Therefore, there is a problem that malfunction is likely to occur.

In order to prevent the malfunction of gas leak detection in the gas meter having both the abnormal gas flow rate inspection function and the appliance continuous use time excess inspection function as described above, in order to prevent malfunction of gas leak detection, It is essential to distinguish the type. However, in the conventional gas meter, there is no method for effectively discriminating the type of gas appliance to be used.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to easily determine the gas appliance to be used by utilizing the relationship between the active fluctuation amount of the gas supply pressure and the gas flow rate. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a used gas appliance determination device capable of preventing malfunction of the safety function and enabling early detection of gas leakage.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a gas supply system for supplying gas to a gas instrument through a gas meter having a gas cutoff function. A pressure fluctuating means for actively fluctuating the gas, and a gas flow rate detecting means for detecting the flow rate of the gas whose supply pressure fluctuates by the pressure fluctuating means,
Average value calculating means for calculating an average value of the gas flow rate detected by the gas flow rate detecting means at constant time intervals, and whether or not the gas appliance used is equipped with a gas governor based on the calculation result of the average value calculating means. It is provided with a discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the type of gas appliance to be used is determined based on the result.

In this used gas appliance discriminating apparatus, the gas supply pressure in the gas meter is actively changed by the pressure changing means. This change in supply pressure changes the gas flow rate,
The gas flow rate is detected by the gas flow rate detection means, and the average value of the gas flow rate detected by the average value calculation means is calculated at regular time intervals. The gas appliance determining means determines whether or not the gas appliance used is equipped with a gas governor based on the calculation result of the average value calculating means, and determines the type of the gas appliance used based on the result.

The principle of determining the type of gas appliance used according to the present invention will now be described.

Generally, in a gas meter, when the gas supply pressure is actively changed, when the gas appliance used is equipped with a gas governor (pressure regulator) (for example, a gas grill), the gas supply pressure is changed. Since it is absorbed by the gas governor, it does not affect the gas flow rate. On the other hand, when there is nothing obstructing the flow of gas inside the gas appliance in use, that is, when the gas governor is not equipped (for example, a gas table), the fluctuation of the gas supply pressure directly affects the gas flow rate. Therefore, according to the present invention, the correlation between the fluctuation amount of the average value of the gas flow rate for each predetermined time and the active pressure fluctuation amount indicates whether or not the gas governor is equipped, that is, the gas appliance used is, for example, the gas grill or the gas. It is to determine which of the tables is the table.

In the gas appliance discriminating apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the average value is calculated by the average value calculating means after the pressure fluctuating means has been activated and the gas flow has been stabilized for a predetermined time. Is.

In this gas appliance discriminating apparatus used, since the data in the state where the gas flow is unstable immediately after the pressure varying means is activated is excluded, the type of gas appliance can be discriminated more accurately.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a gas supply system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. This gas supply system 1 includes a pipe 1 between a gas meter 10 and a gas appliance 20 including a gas grill or a gas table, for example.
The gas a is supplied through the connection by 7. The pipe 17 is provided with a gas plug 17a as an opening / closing means.

Inside the gas meter 10, a gas pipe 11 serving as a gas flow path is arranged. In this gas pipe 11,
A pressure fluctuation device 12 as a gas pressure fluctuation means, a gas cutoff valve 13 for blocking the gas flow path at the time of abnormality, a gas pressure sensor 14 for detecting a pressure fluctuation by the pressure fluctuation device 12, and a gas flow rate are measured. The gas flowmeters 15 are sequentially arranged.

The pressure fluctuation device 12 may be any device capable of actively causing a pressure fluctuation, and for example, a proportional valve is used. With this proportional valve, it is possible to suppress pressure fluctuations on the upstream side of the gas meter 10 and to generate pressure fluctuations in the same pattern.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the control unit 16 in the gas supply system 1 of this embodiment. This control unit 1
6 includes a CPU (central processing unit) 30. CPU
30 is connected to each part of the apparatus via a bus. Of these, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 31 stores a control program for discriminating the gas appliance 20 as shown in a flowchart (FIG. 3) described later.

RAM (random access memory) 3
2 stores data such as a predetermined gas flow rate serving as a gas shutoff standard, and also serves as a discrimination standard of the gas-using appliance 20, and the active pressure fluctuation amount by the pressure fluctuation device 12 and the gas flow rate at predetermined time intervals. The data representing the correlation with the fluctuation amount of the average value of is stored. The I / O (input / output) port 33 sends a drive signal from the CPU 30 to the pressure fluctuation device 1
2 is an interface for sending the output signals of the pressure fluctuation device 12, the gas pressure sensor 14, and the gas flow meter 15 to the CPU 30 as well as sending the output signal to the CPU 30.

The CPU 30 sends a drive signal to the pressure fluctuation device 12 to actively fluctuate the supply pressure of the gas a flowing to the gas meter 10, and receives the detection result of the gas pressure sensor 14 accompanying this pressure fluctuation. The amount of fluctuation is detected. Further, the CPU 30 receives the output of the gas flow meter 15 and calculates the average value of the gas flow rate that changes due to the pressure fluctuation at constant time intervals, and the correlation between the fluctuation of this gas flow rate average value and the active pressure fluctuation causes The presence or absence of the gas governor in the appliance 20 is determined, and the type of the gas appliance 20 is determined based on the result.

The gas flow is unstable immediately after the gas supply pressure is changed by the pressure changing device 12. Therefore, in this embodiment, by ignoring the data of the supply pressure and the gas flow rate at the unstable time point immediately after the fluctuation, and comparing the magnitudes of the gas flow rate average values of the data at the stable time point after that, the ignition It is determined whether or not the gas appliance 20 is equipped with a gas governor.

The CPU 30 also has the above-mentioned abnormal gas flow rate inspection function and instrument continuous use time excess inspection function, and determines whether or not the gas flow path should be blocked by these safety functions according to the type of the gas instrument 20. However, when it is determined that the valve should be shut off, a valve shutoff signal is output. I
The / O (input / output) port 34 is an interface for sending this valve cutoff signal to the drive circuit 35. CPU30
The drive circuit 35, which receives the valve cutoff signal sent from the device, closes the gas cutoff valve 13 to cut off the gas flow path 11.

Next, the operation of the gas supply system 1 of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

First, the CPU 30 sends a drive signal to the pressure fluctuation device 12, and the gas a flowing through the gas meter 10 is sent.
The supply pressure of is fluctuated actively, for example, in a constant cycle (step S300). Then, the gas supply pressure is detected in response to the detection result of the gas pressure sensor 14 (step S
301) and the amount of fluctuation is detected (step S
302). Further, the CPU 30 receives the output of the gas flow meter 15 to detect the gas flow rate (step S303), and after the gas flow becomes stable after a predetermined time (for example, 1 second) has elapsed from the start of the pressure fluctuation ( In step S304; Y), the gas flow rate average value is calculated at regular intervals (step S305). Next, the CPU 30 determines whether or not the gas appliance 20 is equipped with a gas governor by referring to the gas flow rate average value and the data representing the above-described correlation stored in the RAM 32 (step S306).
Then, based on the result, the type of the gas appliance 20 is discriminated, and in the present embodiment, it is discriminated whether it is a gas grill or a gas table.
That is, when it is determined that the gas governor is installed (step S306; Y), the gas grill is used, and when it is determined that the gas governor is not installed (step S306; N), the gas table is used.

After the type of the gas appliance 20 is determined,
Upon receiving this determination result, the CPU 30 further determines whether or not the gas flow path should be blocked by the abnormal gas flow rate inspection function or the appliance continuous use time excess inspection function. here,
If it is determined that the gas appliance 20 is equipped with a gas governor, that is, if the gas appliance 20 is a gas grill, there is clearly no possibility of a gas leak. On the other hand, if it is determined that the gas appliance 20 is not equipped with a gas governor, that is, if the gas appliance 20 is a gas table, there is a possibility of gas leakage.

As described above, in this embodiment, it is possible to easily determine the type of the gas appliance 20, and it is possible to determine whether or not there is a possibility of gas leakage according to this type, and hence the subsequent gas The leak can be detected early.

It should be noted that, after the type of the gas appliance 20 is discriminated, the presence or absence of gas leakage should be judged by the above-mentioned abnormal gas flow rate inspection function or the appliance continuous use time excess inspection function, and the gas flow path should be shut off. Gas cutoff valve 1 when judged
The operation of closing 3 is the same as the conventional one.

4 to 8 show a specific example of discrimination of the gas appliance 20 in this embodiment. FIG. 4 shows the pressure fluctuation state given by the pressure fluctuation device 12, FIG. 5 shows the flow rate change state in the gas grill when such pressure fluctuation is given, and FIG. 6 shows the flow rate change state in the gas table. Respectively. The number of pulses on the vertical axis in FIGS. 5 and 6 corresponds to the gas flow rate.

Further, the data for 1 second immediately after the gas pressure fluctuates is ignored, and the average of the data (gas flow rate) for the subsequent 1 second is shown in FIG. 7 (gas grill) and FIG. 8 (gas table). ). The data in FIG. 7 shows that the gas flow rate has little fluctuation, the gas governor is clearly installed, and the gas appliance 20 is a gas grill. On the other hand, in the data of FIG. 8, the fluctuation of the gas flow rate is large, and therefore the gas governor is not equipped,
Therefore, it can be seen that the gas appliance 20 is a gas table.

The present invention has been described with reference to the examples.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be variously modified without changing the gist thereof. For example, in the above embodiment, as the gas appliance to be discriminated,
Although the description has been made using the gas grill and the gas table, it goes without saying that the invention can be applied to the determination of other appliances such as a gas stove.

[0033]

As described above, according to the used gas appliance discriminating apparatus of the first aspect, the pressure fluctuation is actively generated, the fluctuation amount of the gas flow rate due to the pressure fluctuation is detected, and the detection result is obtained. Based on the above, it is determined whether or not the gas appliance used is equipped with a gas governor, and the type of the gas appliance used is determined based on the result, so that the determination can be performed easily. Therefore, it is possible to detect a gas leak at an early stage, prevent a gas accident in advance, and improve safety.

Further, according to the used gas appliance discriminating apparatus of the second aspect, the gas appliance used is discriminated after the gas flow is stabilized for a predetermined time after the pressure is changed. Therefore, it is possible to more accurately determine the gas appliance used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a partial cross-section of a gas supply system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control unit in the used gas appliance determination device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the used gas appliance determination device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of pressure fluctuation applied to a gas governor.

5 is a diagram showing a variation state of a gas flow rate in the gas grill when the pressure variation of FIG. 4 is applied.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a variation state of a gas flow rate in the gas table when the pressure variation of FIG. 5 is applied.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing average value data of the gas flow rate change shown in FIG. 5 per second.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing average value data of the gas flow rate change shown in FIG. 6 per second.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Gas Supply System 10 Gas Meter 12 Pressure Fluctuation Device 13 Gas Cutoff Valve 14 Gas Pressure Sensor 16 Controller 30 CPU (Central Processing Unit)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A gas supply system for supplying gas to a gas appliance via a gas meter having a gas cutoff function, wherein pressure fluctuation means for actively changing the gas supply pressure in the gas meter and supply by the pressure fluctuation means. Gas flow rate detecting means for detecting the flow rate of the gas whose pressure fluctuates, average value calculating means for calculating an average value of the gas flow rate detected by the gas flow rate detecting means at regular time intervals, and calculation by this average value calculating means A used gas appliance discriminating apparatus comprising: a discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the gas appliance is equipped with the gas governor based on the result and discriminating the type of the gas appliance used based on the result. 2. The average value calculation by the average value calculation means is performed after a predetermined time has elapsed after the pressure fluctuation means is activated and the gas flow is stabilized.
The described gas appliance determination device.