Refrigeration – Structural installation – Geographic – e.g. – subterranean feature
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-16
2001-09-25
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Structural installation
Geographic, e.g., subterranean feature
C165S045000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293120
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a building air conditioning system using geothermal energy capable of applying to a building such as a detached dwelling house, a multiple dwelling house and a building.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, an air-conditioning system using geothermal energy has been proposed. For example, it have been disclosed a cooling apparatus or the like coupling a fixture under a floor of a dwelling house and a fixture on the ground of the outdoors by a pipe formed in the ground and adapted to transmit geothermal energy to air from the outdoors in the ground during the process that air is passing through the pipe from the outdoor and to supply the heat-exchanged air into the dwelling house in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 60149 of 1982.
In the cooling apparatus or the like described above, since air heat-exchanging with geothermal energy is merely performed during the process of moving air through the inside of the pipe, effect of heat conduction using geothermal energy is limited extremely and it has been extremely insufficient as utilization of geothermal energy to air conditioning. Moreover, in the cooling apparatus described above, merely air from the outdoors is heat-exchanged with geothermal energy, and humidity control and air cleaning for air from outdoors cannot be considered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide a building air conditioning system which is designed not only to perform air temperature control but also to perform air humidity control and air cleaning for the air from the outdoors by high-efficient heat-exchange with geothermal energy for air from the outdoors and to supply this air which has been temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled and cleaned into the building.
This invention includes an underground pipe formed to extend about 1 m to 10 m (that is to say, the length of the underground pipe is from about 1 m to about 10 m), and being buried underground in the direction of gravity, and for introducing air from the outdoors into the inside of this underground pipe and to heat-exchange said introduced air with geothermal energy from the underground (to transmit geothermal energy from the underground to said introduced air); a cobble stone layer constituted by filling numerous cobble stones in a space under the floor of a building, said cobble stone layer having a height within the range of from approximately 250 mm to approximately 1,000 mm (preferably, a height from approximately 300 mm to approximately 500 mm), said cobble stone layer storing geothermal energy in said numerous cobble stones and air layers existing in minute clearances between said numerous cobble stones, said cobble stone layer introducing said air to transmitted geothermal energy in said underground pipe into the inside thereof (said air is more cooled than the outdoors in the summer months, and more warmed than the outdoors in the winter months), said cobble stone layer heat-exchanging said introduced air with geothermal energy stored in said numerous cobble stones and said air layers, controlling humidity of said air by attaching water vapor contained in said air onto the surface of said numerous cobble stones when much-moisturized air moves in said cobble stone layer and by supplying moisture deposited on the surface of said numerous cobble stones to said air when dry air moves in said cobble stone layer, and cleaning said air by attaching minute impurities such as dust contained in said air onto moisture deposited on the surface of said numerous cobble stones when said air moves in said cobble stone layer; and air supply means for supplying air from said cobble stone layer under the floor into the inside of rooms of the building.
In this invention, said air heat-exchanged with geothermal energy in said underground pipes is designed to supply to the cobble stone layer formed in the space under the floor in order to supply and store geothermal energy to the whole of the cobble stone layer, whereby the whole of the floor of the building has come to be warmed by transmission of geothermal energy from said cobble stone layer under the floor in the winter months, and the whole of the floor of the building has come to be cooled by transmission of geothermal energy from said cobble stone layer under the floor in the summer months.
Moreover, in the invention, said underground pipe may be buried underground in the outside the building or may be buried underground in the inside the building.
Moreover, in the invention, a perforated pipe made by a wall in which a number of holes are formed is provided to said cobble stone layer under the floor, for example, in the approximately center portion of said cobble stone layer under the floor, said perforated pipe being for introducing air from said underground pipe to feed the introduced air to said cobble stone layer under the floor through said number of holes.
Moreover, in the invention, a hollow section is provided in a location (for example, four corners of said cobble stone layer under the floor) of a part of said cobble stone layer under the floor in order to form the passage for supplying said air from said cobble stone layer into the building, said hollow section having a substance for adding a preferable odor to air from said cobble stone layer under the floor and a substance for controlling humidity of said air and cleaning said air.
Moreover, in the invention, said underground pipe is constituted by an outer pipe and an inner pipe. Said outer pipe which upper surface and bottom surface are closed is designed to perform to heat-exchange air from the outdoors with geothermal energy while moving said air from the outdoors flowed from a hole formed on the upper portion of side wall of this outer pipe in the inside of this outer pipe downwardly. And said inner pipe which is shorter in diameter than said outer pipe and which is provided in the inside of said outer pipe and which bottom surface are opened is designed to perform to move said air from the bottom of the outer pipe upward in the inside of this inner pipe and to feed said air to said cobble stone layer.
Moreover, in the invention, said outer pipe is formed into a corrugated form in a cross section. Namely, in the invention, said outer pipe is formed by a side wall on which asperities are formed or which is formed corrugated.
Moreover, the building air conditioning system using geothermal energy according to the invention further is provided with an emergency stopping device for stopping a fan constituting said air supply means for introducing air from said cobble stone layer into the inside of the building when harmful gas (toxic gas) due to a fire, a smoke or gas leak is generated, and this emergency stopping device is provided with detecting means for detecting generation of the harmful gas due to a fire, a smoke or gas leak, and control means for stopping said fan based on a signal from this detecting means. Moreover, said fan may be performed to move said air from the outdoors into said underground pipe and also to move said air from the underground pipe into said cobble stone layer.
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Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Doerrler William
Kabushiki Kaisha Toko Kogyo
Shulman Mark S.
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