Automatic temperature and humidity regulation – Hot-air furnace – Air and fire control
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-29
2002-08-27
Joyce, Harold (Department: 3749)
Automatic temperature and humidity regulation
Hot-air furnace
Air and fire control
C236S01500E, C454S343000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06439466
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This specification relates generally to climate control systems and, more particularly, to a climate control system capable of exhausting air ducts associated therewith prior to initiating heating, cooling, ventilating or other climate control operations
BACKGROUND
The advantages of evacuating air or otherwise ventilating the interior portions of buildings and other structures have been widely appreciated for a number of years. For example, during the summer months, the air in the attic or other above-ground uninsulated portion of a building can easily reach temperatures exceeding 130 degrees Fahrenheit. As the heated air penetrates the insulation separating the uninsulated portion of the building from an insulated portion of the building typically used as the living and/or working space thereof, the temperature in the insulated portion of the building begins to climb. The reverse occurs during winter when the colder air in the uninsulated portion of the building causes the temperature in the insulated portion of the building to drop as the colder air penetrates the insulation separating the uninsulated portion of the building from the insulated portion thereof.
For a number of years, buildings and other structures have been equipped with climate control systems designed to maintain the temperature within a portion of the building, typically, the aforementioned insulated portion used as the living and/or working space thereof, within a pre-selected temperature range, thereby preventing that portion of the building from reaching undesired temperature extremes. In various configurations thereof, such a climate control system may include a heating system which serves to warm the interior of the building during cold weather, a ventilating system for circulating air through the interior of the building, a cooling system which serves to cool the building during hot weather, and/or another type of climate control system. Typically, however, climate control systems are configured to include a heating unit such as a furnace, a cooling unit such as an air conditioner and a central unit which includes an air handler where air withdrawn from the interior of the building is treated by the selective heating or cooling thereof. As climate control systems also include one or more fans to draw air from the interior of the building into the air handler of the central unit for treatment and/or one or more blowers to force the treated air back into the interior of the building, by operating these fans and/or blowers without the use of the furnace or air conditioner to treat the air, a typical climate control system is also capable of performing certain ventilating operations.
Regardless of their particular configuration, an important component of all heating, ventilating and cooling systems, as well as any other interior climate control system which integrates one or more of the aforementioned heating, ventilation and/or cooling systems into an integrated climate control system, is the air distribution system—a network of one or more air ducts used to circulate air throughout the building. Typically, the air distribution system is comprised of inlet and outlet sides. The inlet side includes one or more air intake registers and a first duct system which extends from the air intake registers to an inlet side of a junction box, which, in turn, is coupled to the inlet side of the central unit. Air drawn into the air intake register is transferred via the first duct system and the inlet junction box to the central unit for treatment, typically, using a thermal transfer process by which the air is either heated or cooled. The treated air exits the outlet side of the central unit where it enters an outlet junction box coupled to the outlet side of the air distribution system. From the outlet junction box, the treated air is forced through a second duct system and out one or more air outlet registers.
In most buildings, the ducts which respectively form part of the inlet and outlet sides of the air distribution system are located in the attic, walls, crawl spaces and other uninsulated portions of the building. As a result, air residing within these ducts, for example, cooled or heated air which is left in the ducts after the air conditioner or furnace cycles off for an elongated period after successfully adjusting the temperature within the building to a desired temperature, may either cool or heat rapidly and then penetrate the interior living space of the building. Of even greater concern, when the air conditioner or furnace cycles back on, the cooled or heated air left in air ducts, particularly those forming part of the outlet side of the air distribution system, would be quickly pumped into the interior living space of the building. If the first air pumped into the interior living space has remained in the air ducts on the outlet side of the air distribution system for a period of time, the temperature differential between that air and the desired temperature for the interior living space could very possibly be greater than the temperature differential between the current and desired temperatures for the interior living space. Under such circumstances, since the climate control system would initiate a cycle, for example, a cooling cycle, by pumping in air hotter than the current temperature of the interior living space, the initial stage of the cooling cycle would tend to increase the total time needed to cool the interior space of the building to the desired temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,231 to Aniello discloses an air conditioning system in which, when a potentially harmful level of smoke is detected, supply fan motors associated with the duct work are reversed in direction so as to evacuate the smoke through registers in the rooms and into the duct work. The smoke is then exhausted away from the building through an outside ventilating unit. However, while Aniello does remove air from ducts located on the outlet side of an air conditioning system, Aniello is clearly directed to an smoke exhaustion system intended for operation under emergency conditions and nowhere contemplates incorporating the disclosed exhaustion techniques into a climate control system.
In recent years, a number of new products and/or techniques which enhance the insulative characteristics of buildings have been developed. While it is widely recognized that recently constructed buildings are better insulated against temperature changes resulting from temperature differentials between the insulated interior space of the building and the outside/uninsulated interior space of the building, such improvement products and/or techniques have also caused certain adverse effects. Specifically, while modern construction is better insulated to prevent heat transfers, the lack of fresh air being introduced into such buildings has caused a variety of physical ailments in those living and/or working at such buildings and/or structures. Thus, newly constructed buildings have a greater need for suitable ventilating systems than buildings constructed in years past. While a variety of ventilating systems have been disclosed, generally such ventilating systems are designed to draw air out of the interior space of a building directly and are not fully integrated with the climate control system of the building.
Finally, in my prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/399,389, I disclosed an air duct evacuation system capable of exhausting air from ducts located on the outlet side of an air handler. However, the disclosed air duct evacuation system lacked any provision for replenishing the air forcibly exhausted from the building. The absence of such an air replenishment system raises the concern that a pressure differential between the interior space of the building and the outside may develop over time, particularly in those modem buildings tightly sealed to prevent ventilation between the interior space of the building and the outside which naturally occurred in older structures. For example, if the interior space of a buildi
Boles Derek S.
Conley & Rose & Tayon P.C.
Joyce Harold
LandOfFree
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