Patent ID: 9182134
Filing Date: 2015-11-10
Classification: F24F,H05B

Abstract:
1. An air conditioner, comprising: an indoor unit having an inlet and an outlet; an indoor heat exchanger arranged in the indoor unit; a blower duct connecting between the inlet and the outlet inside the indoor unit and forming a blower passage; a blower fan arranged in the blower passage; an outdoor unit having a housing; an outdoor heat exchanger arranged in the housing; an outdoor fan arranged in the housing; a compressor connected to the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers via refrigerant pipe; a power supply section; a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater which starts to be driven at a predetermined duty ratio; a heater control circuit for carrying out duty control on the PTC heater; and the air conditioner delivering air heated by the PTC heater to a room, to thereby perform heating operation, wherein the heater control circuit is configured to: acquire, at predetermined intervals, a current value of the PTC heater that has started being driven at the predetermined duty ratio; determine that a peak has appeared when the acquired current value currently is equal to or lower than the current value acquired during a previous interval; increase the duty ratio of the PTC heater by a predetermined amount when the heater control circuit has determined that a peak has appeared in the current value; and gradually increase the current value of the PTC heater by increasing the duty ratio repeatedly until the duty ratio of the PTC heater becomes 100%.