Automatic temperature and humidity regulation – Ventilator type – Electrically actuated
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-28
2001-03-06
McDermott, Corrine (Department: 3744)
Automatic temperature and humidity regulation
Ventilator type
Electrically actuated
C062S094000, C062S178000, C062S238300, C062S408000, C165S008000, C165S217000, C236S00100H
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196469
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the use of energy wheels to recycle thermal energy in air handling systems and more particularly to systems including an energy wheel heat recovery system in which the heat recovery energy wheel is selectively employed when heat is transferred, to or from exhaust air and/or inlet air, is desired to meet constant or variable volume requirements coincident with constant temperature requirements.
DISCUSSION OF THE RELATED ART
Wheels for transferring thermal energy are old and well known as independent thermal energy transfer systems. An example of a typical thermal energy wheel is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,435. In that patent, paper webs and corrugated aluminum are wound to form a wheel carrying salts such as ammonium sulfide and diammonium phosphate. The wheel is rotated between a supply air duct and an exhaust air duct to provide heat exchange functions between the two air flows.
Another example of a thermal energy wheel is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,860 which teaches the concept of utilizing a wheel fabricated from layers of absorbent material wound about a hub. In this system, an air supply blower forces an air stream through one section of the energy wheel and an exhaust blower directs a stream of exhaust air through another section and thermal energy is transferred between the two air flows.
A more recent development in thermal energy wheels is found in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,968 were a wheel formed from a fibrous support is charged with finely powdered desiccant material capable of absorbing sensible heat from a warm air stream and releasing it into a cool air stream.
Historically, thermal energy wheels have been employed in stand-alone systems. A few attempts have been made to integrate them into air handling systems, but the resultant designs have proven to be prohibitively large and far too expensive to meet the demands of environments such as hospitals where individual rooms may have different air handling requirements.
An example of such a system may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,970 for “Air Handling System” issued to R. Cunningham, Jr., et al, on Aug. 27, 1996. That system provides an air handling system including a heat recovery energy wheel and blowers and dampers for controlling air flow. The energy wheel is a desiccant wheel movable into and out of the air stream to selectively recover heat from exhaust air and transfer it to inflowing outside air. It is designed to meet standards requiring the addition of outside air but it fails to adequately provide a means for constant volume, constant temperature air handling as required in various environments such as hospitals.
In hospitals, the problem is more complex because individual rooms have individual air handling requirements specifying constant or variable volume and constant temperature. Historically this individual room requirement problem has been solved by combining hot water, steam or electrical reheaters and controllable vents to modify conditioned air provided by a central system. Constant-volume reheat units have been in use to modify conditioned air for selected rooms for approximately 40 years and variable-volume reheat units have been known for 25 years. The systems have met the needs of industry but at a prohibitive cost in wasted energy. Such systems expend large amounts of energy to cool the air and then spend additional energy to heat the conditioned air for selected rooms.
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a thermal energy wheel adapted to replace reheaters in constant-volume and variable-volume terminal units of an air handling system.
Another objective is to provide an energy wheel heat recovery system in which an energy wheel remains in the flow stream of the inlet and exhaust air and the heat recovery system is selectively operated by varying the angular velocity of the wheel.
Another object is to provide a heat recovery system employing an energy wheel in which the wheel is rotated through the inlet and exhaust air at an angular velocity dictated by the thermal requirements of a room serviced by a terminal unit of an air handling system.
Other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the drawings, specification and claims which follow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To overcome the energy extravagance of reheaters commonly employed in air handling systems serving a plurality of individual rooms having different temperature requirements with constant or variable volume specifications, the present invention provides a variable speed energy wheel to transfer thermal energy between the inlet and outlet air flows of a terminal unit and thereby control the temperature while maintaining constant or variable volume protocols.
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Gell Harold
McDermott Corrine
Norman Marc
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