Indoor unit and air conditioner

Abstract

An indoor unit is equipped with a housing having an inlet opening and an outlet opening, a propeller fan disposed in an air passage interconnecting the inlet opening and the outlet opening, a heat exchanger disposed downstream from the propeller fan, and a lateral airflow direction changing plate that is disposed downstream from the heat exchanger and that changes an airflow direction laterally. The heat exchanger is a fin-and-tube type heat exchanger equipped with a plurality of fins and a plurality of heat transfer tubes passing through the fins. The lateral airflow direction plate has slits in an airflow downstream region that is downstream from the heat transfer tubes.

1 . An indoor unit comprising:
 an air blower disposed in an air passage;   a heat exchanger disposed downstream from the air blower and including a plurality of fins and a heat transfer tube passing through the fins; and   an airflow direction changing plate to change an airflow direction, the airflow direction changing plate being disposed downstream from the heat exchanger and having an opening portion in an airflow downstream region that is downstream from the heat transfer tube;   wherein an opening fraction of the opening portion gradually decreases from an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream.   
     
     
         2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . An indoor unit comprising:
 an air blower disposed in an air passage;   a heat exchanger disposed downstream from the air blower and including a plurality of fins and a heat transfer tube passing through the fins; and   an airflow direction changing plate to change airflow direction, the airflow direction changing plate being disposed downstream from the heat exchanger and having an opening portion in an airflow downstream region that is downstream from the heat transfer tube;   wherein   the opening portion includes a slit extending from   an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream of the airflow direction changing plate, and   an airflow upstream side of the slit has an opened notch shape.   
     
     
         4 . (canceled) 
     
     
         5 . The indoor unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the opening portion includes a plurality of through holes, each through hole having a diameter that gradually decreases from an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream of the airflow direction changing plate. 
     
     
         6 . The indoor unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the opening portion is disposed in an entire region of the airflow direction changing plate and includes a plurality of through holes with an opening density that gradually decreases from an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream of the airflow direction changing plate. 
     
     
         7 . (canceled) 
     
     
         8 . The indoor unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the air blower includes a propeller fan. 
     
     
         9 . An air conditioner comprising the indoor unit according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         10 . The indoor unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the opening portion includes a slit having a width that gradually decreases from an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream of the airflow direction changing plate. 
     
     
         11 . The indoor unit according to  claim 1 , wherein the opening portion includes a plurality of through holes for which a distribution count gradually decreases from an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream of the airflow direction changing plate. 
     
     
         12 . The indoor unit according to  claim 5 , wherein the opening portion includes a plurality of through holes for which a distribution count gradually decreases from an airflow upstream to an airflow downstream of the airflow direction changing plate.