Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Gas forcing means – e.g. – cooler unit
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-12
2001-11-20
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Gas forcing means, e.g., cooler unit
C062S419000, C454S306000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318113
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention at hand relates to either heating or cooling the ambient air, hereinafter referred to as air conditioning. The invention is directed primarily to the personal comfort of a person working at a particular workstation or desk by directing conditioned air to the immediate vicinity of those persons present, particularly their upper body portion, at those workstations and by giving those persons control over the flow and direction of the conditioned air.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the field of heating and air conditioning, there are known problems causing discomfort to the occupants, inefficiencies in the system resulting in excessive operating costs in operating a building, and problems in the operation and control of the present systems.
For example, a central building control of temperature, air flow, humidity, and the like, or even individual rooms and workstations leaves many persons in the building or within a room or in the vicinity of a workstation uncomfortable or dissatisfied with the condition of their particular work environment. Different people have different metabolisms and therefore differing comfort needs. Also different locations in a building, or even in a single room or closer yet in the vicinity of a workstation, are not satisfactorily heated or cooled, that is air conditioned, giving rise to complaints about discomfort and illness, resulting in absenteeism, sickness and, of course, loss of productivity.
Further, conventional air conditioning systems generally require expensive duct work and installations, usually in floors or ceilings or both which cause unnecessary heating or cooling of unused space, particularly the spaces that surround the duct work and spaces above the head level of the occupants. For example, the upper four feet of space in a room having a twelve foot ceiling is an unoccupied space and the air in that space need not be be controlled. The above mentioned duct work also imposes a substantial energy demand for the movement of air through the ducts and additionally presents difficulties in cleaning the ducts.
Prior and known systems with fixed floor or wall mounted air outlet grilles limited the location of furniture and equipment in a manner which would block the flow of air. Such prior systems also created areas of complaints and discomfort caused by high or low air velocity and/or high or low temperature depending upon the location and the proximity of the air outlet grilles. Also, air conditioning outlet grilles and ducts frequently need to be moved to accommodate changes in air conditioning load or the rearrangement of the work space or the individual workstations in an open space office layout, for example.
In today's world of large office buildings, not only in height but also in the expanse of the floors, it has become a design objective to provide individual work spaces and individual workstations in generally wide open rooms. That is, instead of providing each occupant with his or her own permanent, generally enclosed room or office, a number of workstations or cubicles are provided with each having partitions or room dividers which partially enclose the space to create a separate work space, which partitions or dividers do not extend to the ceiling of the room. Often, these workstations include two, three or more partitions for the purpose of providing the worker with a feeling of privacy.
While such workstations may be economically beneficial with regard to the amount of floor space being used, the partitions create an impediment to flow of the conditioned air throughout the room. That is, conditioned air flows freely in the area above and around the workstations, but within the workstations or between the room dividers there is no means for providing the workstation occupant with an acceptable flow of conditioned air. Therefore, the workers often become uncomfortable, or even ill, which in turn decreases productivity and/or causes absenteeism.
Consequently, in the field of heating or cooling air, there exists a need for providing a flow of conditioned air directly to or near a person seated at a workstation as well as to occupants of the surrounding area. More particularly there exists a need for a workstation to be so equipped wherein the occupant can individually control and obtain the amount of conditioned air supplied within the workstation for maximizing the comfort, well being, health and level of productivity of each worker, while maintaining a desirable flow of conditioned air to the surrounding area.
Conventional room dividers for workstations may supply conditioned air to workstations, which conditioned air flows through an air flow grille at about the height where the workers is seated but the worker has very little control over the flow of the air or its direction. Such room dividers consist of a hollow space being created by panels spaced from each other by a predetermined distance to define an air flow there between. The hollow room divider or partition is placed on an opening in the floor which floor is spaced above the slab of the building floor to thereby form a large or major air plenum having conditioned air contained therein having a pressure at or near the atmospheric pressure. Applicants' prior Pat. Nos. 4,646,966; 4,860,642; 5,135,436; 5,238,452 are directed to this type of installation and to the control of the environment in an open office space. Applicants' present inventive concept is directed to an under the desk air terminal. There are other attempts in the prior art to bring conditioned air as close to a person or worker as is possible and to give this person or worker some semblance of control of the conditioned air.
U.S. Pat. No. 374,424 discloses a device for supplying fresh air to the environment of an auditorium and where the air blows directly to the chair of the occupant without any mechanical intervention.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,194,527 shows the ventilation of a class room wherein the outside air under pressure enters the class room through a ventilated floor panel and is further distributed into the desk where the pupil is sitting. The pupil may have some control over the amount of flow to or through the desk. In both of the previously cited patents the air flow is not conditioned or modified as to heat or cold.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,140,829 describes an air conditioning system wherein there is a cooling of high ceiling rooms by providing a stratum of cooled and dehumidified air in the lower levels of the room up to a height of the occupants without undertaking the relatively great cost and complication of treating all the air in the room.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,341,125 illustrates a way of ventilating a desk as a workstation by simply mounting a fan within a rear of the desk and by blowing air at the person and by given the person working at the desk somewhat of a control of the fan by positioning the same or by controlling the speed of the air flow.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,507,643 teaches the ventilation of restaurant equipment by supplying air to and from restaurant table and chair equipment. The person or persons seated at the equipment have no control over the flow and direction of the flow of air.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,572,120 shows a ventilated table having a fan mounted in a horizontal position which is emitting air in a horizontal direction and air flows out of he lateral sides of the table.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,616,617 illustrates a ventilated table similarly constructed as the table in the immediately cited patent above.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,734,990 discloses a desk as a workstation having a combination fan and heater mounted therein. The fan blows conditioned air (heat) directly at the person sitting at the desk. The direction of the air flow is adjustable by tilting the fan in one direction or the other and the level of heat is adjustable by way of a rheostat.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,186 discloses an air conditioning system wherein there are upstanding air emission columns receiving conditioned air through ducts in the floor of the system. It is considered to be a local
Betz Peter G.
Levy Hans F.
Doerrler William
Shulman Mark S.
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