With air conditioning control, as is shown in FIG. 12, individual air conditioners (for example, multiple air conditioners used for a building) are installed in each room. There are practical implementations of air conditioning systems that operate individual air conditioners according to judgments by occupants with the occupant using a remote control or other operating means (for example, see Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-148790 (“JP '790”)). In the example in FIG. 12, rooms 100-1, 100-2 are each provided with a heat exchange type individual air conditioner 101-1, 101-2. In FIG. 12, 102-1, 102-2 are lines returning air (return air) from the rooms 100-1, 100-2 to individual air conditioners 101-1, 101-2; 103-1, 103-2 are lines supplying air (supply air) cooled or heated by the individual air conditioners 101-1, 101-2 to the rooms 100-1, 100-2, and 104-1 and 104-2 are supply air outlets. With this air conditioning system, the occupants operate the individual air conditioners; therefore, many improvements and additional functions have been implemented for the means of operation and display methods for operations as disclosed in JP '790.
Progress is being made with the human-machine interfaces (HMI) for individual air conditioners, and implementations of individual air conditioning using air conditioning interfaces for central air conditioning have been proposed (see Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2008-101897).
Central air conditioning systems are constituted such that cooling (outside air cooling) is carried out using outside air in winter. In office buildings and the like, the occupants and computer equipment generate substantial heat indoors; therefore, air conditioning is necessary in the daytime even in winter. The energy for cooling air by air conditioners and the like may be saved by outdoor air cooling that cools by bringing in cold outside air. Therefore, outdoor air cooling is extremely effective from the standpoint of conserving energy.
Therefore, a constitution such that individual air conditioners and outside air coolers are used together as in FIG. 13 and the merits of each are used may be considered. In FIG. 13, 105 is an outdoor air cooler and introduces outdoor air into the rooms, 106 an outdoor air inlet, 107-1, 107-2 ducts for supplying outside air sent by an outdoor air cooler 105, 108-1, 108-2 outdoor air dampers for adjusting the amount of the outdoor air supplied, 109-1, 109-2 outdoor air outlets, 110-1, 110-2 room temperature sensors that measure the room temperature and 111 in outdoor air temperature sensor that measures the outdoor air temperature.
However, the HMI for the individual air conditioners is not an HMI for joint use with the outdoor air cooler. Therefore, even if the occupants make constructive efforts toward conserving energy using outdoor air cooling, they cannot determine the possibilities for the trade-offs in the state of cooling; therefore, there is outdoor air for the occupants.
The same can be said of the joint use of air handling units (AHU) and outdoor air coolers in central air conditioning systems. Since AHUs and individual air conditioners are involved with air heat exchange operations, they are distinguished from outdoor air coolers and are described as “heat exchange type air conditioners” herein.
The present invention solves the problems described above, and it is an object thereof to provide an air conditioning operating device and an air conditioning operating method such that an occupant may judge more easily than conventionally whether to switch to outdoor air cooling in an air conditioning system using both a heat exchange type air conditioner and an outdoor air cooler.