Electric heating – Heating devices – Combined with diverse-type art device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-27
2001-08-21
Walberg, Teresa (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Heating devices
Combined with diverse-type art device
C219S528000, C219S544000, C219S549000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278085
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a heating carpet device, more specifically to a removable electrical modular heating carpet for melting snow and ice on pathways, driveways, walkways, outdoor steps and the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many heating mat devices are being used to warm up driveways and the like to prevent the accumulation of snow or ice. These heating devices can be divided into two separate categories, the permanently installed ones and the removable ones.
The permanent heating devices, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,892 to Von Kohorn and U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,745 to Deschenes, are typically installed underneath the pavement of the pathway at relatively high cost, thereby requiring a huge amount of energy to ensure that some heat reaches the outside surface of the pathway. This causes a large amount of heat loss. Also, they are exposed to high risk of damages due to possible soil movement.
The removable heating devices are typically laid onto the pathway surface and therefore more energy efficient. They either use electrical heating elements, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,702 to Spencer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,580 to Carageorge and U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,365 to Shields, or fluid heated elements, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,818 to Ervin, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,157 to Hargrove and U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,502 to Pearce. The latter tends to be very complicated and expensive to manufacture even though they provide a more uniform heat distribution if connected to each other over the outdoor exposed surface.
The heating devices with electrical heating wires are much easier and fairly inexpensive to manufacture. On the other hand, they have the disadvantage of the fact that it is fairly tricky to distribute a proper amount of heat to the outdoor exposed surface by sizing the heating elements since the dissipated power is inversely proportional to the length of the heating elements. The bigger the heating mat device is, the more power is needed thus the shorter the heating wire should be, which is contradictory. This is why most of these electrical heating mats are usually available in only one or a few predetermined sizes that are not suited to fit all sizes and shapes of actual driveways, walkways and the like.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide a heating carpet device of the character described that obviates the above noted disadvantages.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a heating carpet device of the character described which includes a heating element that dissipates the same amount of heat per surface area irrespectively of its overall dimensions.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide heating carpet devices of the character described that are modular and have the property of connecting to each other without changing the resistance of the different heating elements.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a heating carpet device of the character described which can be sized in any shape as well as tailored in any length to fit and cover any geometrical surface.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a heating carpet device of the character described which further allows for adjacent connection to another heating device from anyone of its sides.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a heating carpet device of the character described that is very easy and inexpensive to manufacture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect, the present invention consists of a modular heating device for melting snow and ice on pathways, said device comprising:
a thick flat sheet having a length, a width, a first and a second length edges and a first and a second width edges;
two conducting wires embedded in said sheet, said conducting wires running along their respective length edge of said sheet, said conducting wires being connected at one of their extremities to a first respective connector device, said connector devices being embedded into said sheet and exposed at said first width edge of said sheet, said conducting wires further connected at their second extremity to a second respective connector device, both said second connector devices being embedded into said sheet and exposed at said second width edge of said sheet, both said second connector devices being maintained covered by removable insulating plugs, whereby said insulating plugs may be removed and further including coupler devices to replace said plugs and parallel connect two of said heating devices, all distances between each one of said connector devices and its respective closest length edge being equal to each other;
a plurality of heating elements parallel connected along said conducting wires, said heating elements being also embedded into said sheet;
a connection means adapted to mate with said first connector devices, said connection means being wire connected to an electrical power source, thereby providing power to said heating elements that uniformly dissipate heat over said sheet to melt said snow or ice present onto said heating device.
Preferably, both of said conducting wires are parallel to each other, said heating elements are adjacent and substantially parallel to each other and said sheet is of generally rectangular shape, whereby said sheet can be tailored along said length by cutting said sheet inbetween two of said heating elements.
The heating device may also have two crossover connecting wires embedded into said sheet and electrically insulated from said conducting wires and heating elements, both extremities of each of said crossover wires being connected to an additional connector device, each of said additional connector devices being embedded into said sheet and exposed at its respective length edge of said sheet and in close proximity to its respective width edge and to its respective first or second connector device, said additional connector devices located in proximity to said first width edge being connected to its close respective first connector device, all additional connector devices being maintained covered by removable insulating plugs, whereby said insulating plugs may be removed and further including coupler devices to replace said plugs and parallel connect two of said heating devices, all distances between each one of said additional connector devices and its respective close width edge being equal to said distance between each one of said connector devices and its respective close length edge; both of said connecting wires are parallel to each other, said heating elements are adjacent and substantially parallel to each other and said sheet is of generally rectangular shape, whereby said heating device being an intersection module allowing for electrical connection with an adjacent heating device from any of its width or length edges.
Preferably, each of said heating elements includes a plurality of electrical resistors parallel connected to two secondary conducting wires, each one of said secondary wires runs from its respective conducting wire of said sheet towards its opposite conducting wire without reaching the latter, each of said secondary wire being electrically connected to its respective conducting wire only.
Preferably, said first, second and additional connector devices are female single pin connectors, said coupler devices are double male single pin couplers and, said connection means are male single pin connectors, said couplers and connectors include a sealing means to protect electrical connections from humidity.
The heating device may also have a temperature control circuit series connected to said heating elements, said temperature control circuit includes a first switching means for controlling the application of said power source, said temperature control circuit further includes a temperature sensor also embedded into said sheet, said temperature control circuit closing said first switching means when the temperature read by said temperature sensor i
Dahbour Fadi H.
Walberg Teresa
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