Desk mounted personal environment system

Refrigeration – Using electrical or magnetic effect – Thermoelectric; e.g. – peltier effect

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Details

62 32, 236 46R, F25B 2102

Patent

active

054995043

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to environmental systems, and more particularly to an air distribution unit for use in such systems.
There is increasing concern over the comfort of personnel in the work environment, both in terms of air quality on the one hand and temperature and humidity levels on the other. With the trend toward open plan designs and sealed buildings, it becomes more difficult to ensure the comfort of individual workers. Most large buildings have centralized air conditioning units that control humidity and temperature levels and also filter out undesirable contaminants. Due to the volume of air to be processed, it takes a considerable time to condition the air in the entire building, and furthermore workers often have different individual comfort levels. Not all occupants of a building have the same comfort requirements, and however good the building design differences in temperature levels can arise between different parts of a room.
Smoking is often a problem. In many instances this is banned altogether due to its undesirable impact on non-smokers. However, such a ban can detrimentally effect the efficiency of habitual smokers.
Japanese patent publication no. J2037231 discloses a reversible Peltier effect heating and cooling device adapted to be installed in the partition wall of a room to be heated or cooled according to the preference of the occupants of the room. This device is a primary source of heat or cooling in which the discharge air is directed outside the room. The device in effect acts as a conventional heat pump arrangement and it does not cater to the personal preferences of individual room occupants. Furthermore, any heat discharged outside the room is effect wasted. No provision is made for its reuse.
An object of the invention is to alleviate the aforementioned disadvantages by allowing the individual to exercise some degree of control over his or her personal environment.
According to the present invention there is provided a environmental control system comprising a housing having an air inlet, an air outlet incorporating a diffuser, and an air flow channel between said air inlet and said air outlet; a channel for a thermal fluid for supplying or carrying away heat; blower means for causing air to flow through said air channel; a heat exchanger between said air flow channel and said thermal fluid channel and including a thermoelectric heat pump to effect transfer of heat between air flowing through said air flow channel-and said thermal fluid channel; and user-controlled means for setting the amount of heating or cooling applied by said heat pump to air flowing through said air channel, characterized in that said environmental control system is a personal environment system for creating a user-definable local environment for an individual user within a localized zone in a common space having an ambient temperature that may be different from that in said localized zone, said housing is in the form of a personal module mountable in said localized zone, said diffuser is arranged to distribute conditioned air directly into said localized zone, and said thermal fluid returns excess heat to or withdraws required heat from said common space outside said localized zone, whereby an individual user can control the air temperature within said localized zone according to personal comfort requirements independently of the general air temperature of the common space.
The housing may be in the form of a desk mountable unit that can draw air either from the room or from an air source located in a under-floor plenum, for example. This arrangement gives the user nearly complete control over the local temperature in his or her zone, which may be warmer or colder than the ambient temperature in the room. This is particular useful for large open plan offices where many workers often have different needs.
The heat pump is preferably in the form of a semiconductor Peltier-effect device thermoelectric device electrically controlled by the individual.
The thermal fluid can either be air, which is dis

REFERENCES:
patent: 3252504 (1966-05-01), Newton
patent: 5165465 (1992-11-01), Kenet

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