Automatic temperature and humidity regulation – Humidity control
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-14
2001-07-03
Wayner, William (Department: 3744)
Automatic temperature and humidity regulation
Humidity control
C073S431000, C126S113000, C374S146000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254008
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLLCATIONS
Not Applicable.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
REFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the field of humidity control devices, and more specifically to humidistat controllers having a humidity sensor mounted into a furnace duct.
In the past, a common approach to humidity control within residential and commercial buildings has been to install a humidistat to sense and control the ambient humidity within an enclosed space. These humidistats were commonly designed to sense the temperature and/or relative humidity within the enclosed space and then provide control to a usually remote device, which would operate to humidify or dehumidify the room air. Traditionally, these humidistats were mounted either on a wall in a common living area, or on a furnace duct or plenum.
Although a conventional wall mounted humidistat is readily accessible to the occupants for proper adjustment of the humidity level, it often results in significant installation problems due to the type of wall construction. Additionally, since the humidistat is commonly configured to monitor temperature and relative humidity, there may be instances where the sensed humidity may not be an accurate representation of the humidity throughout the building. This may then result in an improper adjustment of the humidity level.
Placement of the humidistat on the duct or plenum of a furnace has the initial advantage of allowing the humidity-sensing element to be in contact with the return air from the building. This allows humidity or temperature sensing elements within the humidistat to obtain an average relative humidity and temperature of the entire living space. Likewise, placement near the furnace typically involves shorter cable runs to any associated humidity controlling equipment, saving additional installation costs.
Prior commercial humidistats have generally included at least a relative humidity sensing element adapted to be partially enclosed within a housing, the housing including a wall or furnace-mountable base and front cover attached to the base. The bases of the prior commercial devices were generally planar and required a large rectangular cutout in the furnace duct to expose the sensing element to the return air. The humidity sensing element was often mounted to the front face of the housing, and a cover was attachable to the base via forwardly extending spring clips on the base ends, which latched over projections formed on the cover ends. One example of this type of humidistat may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,217.
Humidistats which are designed to place the humidity-sensing element within the return air furnace duct, unfortunately have a significant drawback. Due to the size and nature of the humidity control, large rectangular holes were required to be cut into the furnace duct or plenum to allow exposure of the humidity-sensing element to the duct airflow. These holes ranged in size, but were often two inches by four inches, which required the cutting to be performed with common sheet metal cutting tools. In a typical installation, the installer would create a hole in the ductwork (usually by means of a drill), and then further expand the hole to the correct size with sheet metal cutting snips. Furthermore, due to the large hole placed into the duct or plenum, building inspectors often require leaks around these rectangular cutouts to be sealed by caulking.
The Applicant's invention now described provides an improved humidistat mounting method and apparatus which allows sensor placement within a furnace duct with minimal damage to the duct.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a method and apparatus for protecting humidity sensing equipment within an enclosure that can be mounted in the return airflow of a furnace duct. In the method, a printed wiring board is first separated into two sections, which are and electrically connected via a flexible jumper. The flexible jumper is then bent so as to position the sections in distinct planes, one of the sections being inserted into a protective housing. The other of the sections carries a sensor, which is operable to sense one or more conditions and relay this information to associated controlling equipment located on the second printed wiring board.
Once the flexible jumpers are bent, the printed wiring boards may be inserted into a humidistat housing, and the sensing equipment extends though an opening in a mounting base. The sensing equipment is protected during installation by a protective shield, which is secured to the mounting base surrounding the sensing equipment. A cover may then be attached to the mounting base and the device may be secured to a furnace duct or plenum. Once secured, the sensing equipment extends into an opening cut into the furnace duct and is operable to obtain information regarding the air within the duct.
The apparatus of Applicant's invention follows closely the method described above.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1418913 (1922-06-01), Gold
patent: 3523217 (1970-08-01), Stiles
patent: 4198279 (1980-04-01), Brown et al.
patent: 4706808 (1987-11-01), Guetersloh
patent: 5252260 (1993-10-01), Schuman
patent: 5351035 (1994-09-01), Chrisco
patent: 5396796 (1995-03-01), Kotani et al.
Aprilaire Auto-Trac™ Control System, Model #56, Operating Instructions, Research Products Corporation (1996).
Erickson James E.
Tinucci Thomas C.
Honeywell International , Inc.
Rubow Charles L.
Wayner William
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