Ventilation – Having inlet airway – Including structure for mixing plural air streams together
Utility Patent
1999-10-29
2001-01-02
Joyce, Harold (Department: 3749)
Ventilation
Having inlet airway
Including structure for mixing plural air streams together
C055S467000, C055S471000, C454S292000, C454S302000, C454S303000
Utility Patent
active
06168517
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to air movement and circulation devices such as fans, mixers and blowers. More particularly it relates to such devices for mixing and direction of air from ventilation systems and within confined spaces such as rooms in homes or offices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most offices, stores, restaurants and similar buildings air ventilation is obtained through forced air ducts in the ceiling which carry high-volume air streams, with the air being heated or cooled according to the season of the year and the activity occurring in that ventilated portion of the building. The same type of system is used in many homes and apartments, but the volume of airflow is generally less.
As anyone knows who has had the misfortune to have been seated at a desk or table directly underneath a ventilating duct, being subjected to direct flow of heated or cooled air can be quite uncomfortable. While in some cases it may be possible to move away from the airflow (such as by asking for another table at a restaurant), there are many situations where people are unable to move to another location (such as when one's assigned desk in a office happens to be located underneath a ventilation duct). Similar problems were encountered where a ceiling vent was positioned above one side of a doorway.
In the past the only way to redirect ceiling discharge airflow was to cover the ventilation opening with a louvered grille, of which there have been many which allow for a least some adjustment of the angle of the louvers so that air could be at least partially directed away from the person sitting directly underneath the vent. Such grills have had some success, but often are not an effective solution, because they tend merely to redirect the airflow to a neighboring location. Thus as one office worker changes the angle of the louvers to direct the air away from him or her, all that often does is to direct the air toward the person sitting at the next desk.
In addition, many of the downwardly directed air vents have little effect in mixing the air in an office, restaurant or other similar large enclosure. Discharged air is forced rapidly toward the floor, while at the ceiling level a stagnant layer of air often exists. Merely redirecting the louvers often has no significant effect, since with most louvered grills the effect of changing the angle of the louvers very far away from directly downward is to largely block the air flow altogether.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
I have now developed a new type of air circulation and mixing device which solves both of these problems. This device, which is normally installed covering the outlet of a ceiling air ventilation duct, takes the air being discharged from the duct, draws in air from the layer at the room's ceiling, mixes the two, and redirects the mixed air so that it is discharged into the room or other enclosed space radially and parallel to the ceiling, rather than directly downwardly. Thus the stagnant layer of air at the ceiling is eliminated and at the same time the high-volume ventilation air coming from the ventilation duct is redirected to flow parallel to the ceiling and only gradually disperse downwardly into the room, in a manner which does not create a strong draft of air which is uncomfortable to persons working, dining or engaged in other activities in that room.
My device, which can be considered to be a fan designed to mix bodies of air and discharge them radially around the edge of the fan, is formed with an open frame which may be circular or polygonal (such as the octagonal shape shown in the Figures). This open frame has open sides which can be covered with removable air filtration media, so that the stagnant layer of ceiling air, when drawn in by the fan, must pass through these filter media and be cleaned of contaminants such as particulate material before being mixed with the ventilation air and re-distributed throughout the room. There is a hollow “primary” interior space formed by the side walls of the frame and a frame bottom plate with a central aperture. Mounted below the bottom plate and covering the central aperture is an annular open-sided grille, forming a “secondary” interior space within the grille annulus, with a circular second aperture defined by the lower edge of the grille. At the top of a frame is either a mounting plate or an “insertion plate” which has a protruding collar to allow the device to be inserted into the outlet end of a ventilation duct to insure that the ventilation air is all channeled into the device.
Suspended and mounted within the primary interior space is a motorized fan driven by an electric motor which rotates a motor shaft which extends from the motor. Also within the primary interior space is an annular radial plate, normally surrounding the fan motor housing and preferably attached to it. This plate extends outwardly a distance sufficient into the airflow path from the ventilation duct to block most of the downward flow of the air and force the air to flow outwardly around the edge of the plate, thus also insuring good mixing with the incoming ceiling air. A small portion of the downwardly flowing air from the duct vent can be allowed to flow past the fan housing to provide cooling to the fan motor.
The fan motor is disposed within the primary interior space such that the motor shaft projects vertically downwardly through the central aperture of the bottom plate of the frame and through the secondary interior space formed within the grille structure, to terminate at the lower aperture. Mounted on the motor shaft at the point where the shaft passes through the central aperture is a set of fan blades, which rotate within that central aperture. The fan blades are set at the appropriate angle such that they draw air from above the horizontally disposed blades and force it downwardly past the blades. Also mounted on the motor shaft, but at the end which is distal from the motor, is a solid thin circular plate which is positioned within the lower aperture and rotates with the fan blades and motor shaft. The air projected downwardly from the fan blades is redirected by this plate and projected radially outwardly through the openings in the side of the grille, such that the airflow becomes horizontal and parallel to the ceiling of the room. As the air rapidly moves outwardly parallel to the ceiling, the air flow slows and the air becomes disbursed throughout the entire room. However, that dispersion is gradual and does not create any strong air currents which would be uncomfortable to those people within the room.
This device therefore eliminates many problems which are commonly associated with forced air ventilation, in that it prevents strong down drafts, eliminates stagnant air pockets, encourages mixing of layers of air throughout the height of a room, and eliminates a source of complaints by people who are currently subjected to uncomfortable airflows from prior art air discharge systems.
It will be evident from the description herein that my device also functions quite effectively even when there is no air flow coming from the ventilation system, in that the device continues to draw in the ambient air at the ceiling and recirculate it out parallel to the ceiling but in the direction opposite the intake. This effectively mixes the ceiling layer and causes the recirculated air to disperse throughout the room. Thus operation of the device is contemplated as positioned over a vent, but where air flow in the ventilation system may cycle on and off, so that airflow through the vent will be intermittent, and also where the device is not positioned over a vent at all, but serves entirely to recirculate, mix and disperse ambient ceiling air. Applications of these operational embodiments can be, for instance, in a large room such as a big restaurant dining room, a large office or workspace, or the like, where one or more air vents discharge from the ceiling, but their spacing is greater than the optimum spacing of the prese
Brown Martin Haller & McClain LLP
Joyce Harold
LandOfFree
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