Fins For An Electric Cable In An Electric Radiant Heating System
A heat-transferring fin is attached to an electric cable or to a packaged double cable of an electric radiant heating system. The fins can be attached using twist clips. Each twist clip includes an upper gripping member, a lower gripping member connected to the upper member by an upright support member, and a handle portion looping downwardly from the lower gripping member to enable a user to hold the clip and to manually twist the clip to cause the upper and lower gripping members to rotate relative to the fin and cable such that the fin and cable are clipped together. This twist clip enables quick and easy attachment of fins to cables, which greatly reduces the time and effort required to install an electric radiant heating system. This technology can be used in electric radiant floor heating or electric radiant wall heating.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/673,023 filed Feb. 9, 2007, entitled Twist Clip for Attaching a Fin to a Conduit of a Hydronic Heating System, which published as United States Patent Application Publication 2008/0111034 which claims priority to Canadian Patent Application 2,568,181 which was filed on Nov. 15, 2006 entitled Twist Clip for Attaching a Fin to a Conduit of a Hydronic Heating System, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELDThe present invention relates generally to heating systems and, in particular, to electric radiant heating systems.
BACKGROUNDElectric radiant heating systems for heating floors (radiant floor heating) or walls (radiant wall heating) are well known in the art. In such a system, an electric current flows through a resistive wire inside a heating cable that is disposed in a circuit in the floor or ceiling. Heat is transferred from the electric cable to the adjacent floor or ceiling to thereby heat the floor or ceiling. Typically, a thermostat is provided to control the amount of current that flows through the wire of the heating cable and thus the amount of heat that is generated by the cable. The heating cable can be a single cable, a packaged double cable or a cable (a mesh of cables attached to typically a nylon mesh).
Although these radiant heating systems are known, improvements and refinements remains highly desirable, particularly in terms of ease of installation of efficiency of heat transfer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn general, the present invention provides an electric radiant heating system in which one or more heat-transferring fins are attached to an electric heating cable to promote heat transfer to an adjacent surface to be warmed, such as a floor. The present invention also provides, in general, a method of installing an electric radiant heating system which involves attaching these fins to the electric cable. In one embodiment, as will be elaborated below, this technology involves the use of specially designed twist clips that can be inserted through slots in the fins for quick and easy installation.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an electric radiant heating system has an electric cable spaced apart from a surface to be warmed, and a heat-transferring fin connected to the electric cable to transfer heat from the electric cable to the surface to be warmed. In one particular embodiment of this system, twist clips are used to affix the heat-transferring fins to the cable by inserting these twist clips through slots in the fins and twisting (rotating) each of the twist clips to clip the fins to the cable.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method of installing an electric radiant heating system involves steps of selecting a length of electric cable suitable for heating a surface, disposing the electric cable a distance apart from the surface to be warmed, and attaching at least one heat-transferring fin to the electric cable. In one particular embodiment of this method, the fins are attached to the cable using twist clips that are inserted through slots in the fins.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a radiant heating system has a length of electric cable for generating heat and first and second heat-transferring fins attached side by side to the cable by first and second twist clips. Each clip has an upper gripping member, a lower gripping member connected to the upper member by an upright support member, and a handle portion looping downwardly from the lower gripping member to enable a user to hold the clip and to manually twist the clip to cause the upper and lower gripping members to rotate relative to the fin and cable such that the fin and cable are clipped together.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a heat-transferring fin for attachment to an electric cable has an elongated trough for fitting over or under the outer surface of the cable and a substantially flat surface extending outwardly from the trough. The surface comprises a plurality of parallel elongated apertures and at least one elongated slot through which a twist clip can be inserted, the at least one slot being formed in the flat surface between the parallel elongated apertures and the trough. The at least one slot is arranged parallel to the trough and orthogonal to the parallel elongated apertures.
The new technology described herein provides a simple, efficient, and cost-effective system and method for delivering radiant heat to a surface to be warmed such as a floor or wall.
Further features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which:
It should be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals. The drawings are not necessarily to scale.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTSIn general, and as will be elaborated below, the present invention provides novel electric radiant heating system in which heat-transferring fins are attached to an electric heating cable to promote radiation heat transfer to a surface to be warmed, such as, for example, a floor or wall. Also provided herein is a method for installing these fins to the cable. As will be elaborated below, in one main embodiment of this heating system and its related installation method, the fins are attached to the cable using a special twist clip. The twist clip is designed for attaching one or more heat-transferring fins to a heating cable. The twist clip can be made by bending a metal wire so that it has an upper gripping member with a flared end for being urged over the top of the cable and a lower gripping member for being urged under the cable. The lower gripping member loops downwardly to form a handle portion that enables a user to twist the clip. Using this twist clip, fins can be quickly and easily connected to cables. The twist clip is inserted upwardly through a slot in the fin and then twisted approximately ninety degrees about a vertical axis so that the upper and lower members rotate over and under the cable, respectively, so as to secure the fins to the cable. The fins can be removed by reversing this two-step installation procedure, that is, by twisting the clip ninety degrees and then extracting it downwardly through the slot in the fin to thereby release the fin from the cable.
Embodiments of this invention will now be described in greater detail below, with reference to the accompanying figures.
The heating cable 16 of the electric radiant heating system 10 may optionally be disposed (e.g. suspended) parallel to the floor joists as depicted in
In any event, whether the cable is disposed generally longitudinally or generally transversely to the joists, the cable can be disposed in a generally serpentine circuit to provide coverage for the surface to be warmed (in this example, the floor 42). As shown, the cable 16 loops back to the thermostat 14 and power supply 12 to form a closed circuit (such as the one shown in
In an alternative embodiment, as shown in
A plurality of heat-transferring fins 50 (or fin assemblies having two or more fins or fin halves) which promote heat transfer from the cable 16, are connected to the cable 16 at intervals, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,603 (James MacDuff) entitled HYDRONIC HEATING SYSTEM, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Heat from the resistive wire(s) within the cable is conducted to the fins. The heat is then convected upwardly to the floor where it then radiates into the room above.
As shown in
Although
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As depicted in
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Although the fin 50 shown in
Furthermore, it should be understood that the size, dimensions, and shape of the fin and its apertures can be varied for specific applications or simply as a result of optimization. For example, the fins need not be rectangular, nor do the apertures have to be arranged transversely.
As further depicted in
As illustrated in
The upper gripping member 102, lower gripping member 104, upright support member 106 and handle portion 108 can be integrally formed from a single length of metal wire. The metal wire can be readily bent using known metal bending instruments to form the clip, thus providing a simple and inexpensive means of manufacturing the clip. In one embodiment, the metal wire has a diameter of about 2 mm (although this diameter can be varied for different applications).
In the embodiment of the twist clip shown in
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The present invention also provides a method of installing an electric radiant heating system having heat-transferring fins. This method can be performed by attaching the heat-transferring fins to a cable of an electric heating system using twist clips. This method will now be described with reference to
As shown in
In one embodiment of this method, the clip 100 is twisted or rotated until the upright support member 106 engages the semicircular notch 59 in the slot 58. As was mentioned above, the diameter of the notch 59 is equal to, or slightly larger than, the diameter of the upright support member 106 so that the upright support member 106 catches in the notch 59, thus locking the clip 100 in the operative position perpendicular to the cable 16.
This method can be applied for attaching a single clip, or preferably, for attaching two clips as shown in the accompanying figures. Therefore, when two clips are to attached, the method can be summarized as follows: (i) placing the curved trough of the first fin on the top of the cable so that the first fin extends outwardly from a first side of the cable; (ii) placing the curved trough of the second fin on the bottom of the cable so that the second fin extends outwardly from a second side of the cable; (iii) aligning and inserting the first twist clip with the slot in the first fin and then twisting the first clip to fix the first fin to the cable; and (iv) aligning and inserting the second twist clip with the slot in the second fin and then twisting the second clip to fix the second fin to the cable.
As mentioned above,
Various modifications of form, arrangement of components, steps, details and order of operations of the embodiments illustrated, as well as other embodiments of the invention, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to this description. It is therefore contemplated that the appended claims will cover such modifications and embodiments as fall within the true scope of the invention as set forth in the claims. In the specification including the claims, any numeric ranges are inclusive of the numbers defining the range. Citation of references herein shall not be construed as an admission that such references are prior art to the present invention. Accordingly, the embodiments of the invention described above are intended to be exemplary only. The scope of the invention is therefore intended to be limited solely by the appended claims.
Claims
1. An electric radiant heating system comprising:
- an electric cable spaced apart from a surface to be warmed; and
- a heat-transferring fin connected to the electric cable to transfer heat from the electric cable to the surface to be warmed.
2. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 1 comprising a pair of side-by-side detachably mounted fins that are attached to the electric cable by twist clips that are inserted through slots in the fins and then twisted to clip the fins to the electric cable.
3. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 2 wherein each fin has an elongated cylindrical trough for fitting over or under a curved outer surface of the electric cable to thereby conduct heat from the electric cable to the heat-transferring fins.
4. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 3 wherein one of the pair of side-by-side fins is attached over the cable while the other of the pair of side-by-side fins is attached under the cable to thereby encircle the cable for maximal heat conduction from the cable to the fins.
5. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the twist clip comprises:
- an upper gripping member;
- a lower gripping member connected to the upper member by an upright support member; and
- a handle portion looping downwardly from the lower gripping member to enable a user to hold the clip and to manually twist the clip to cause the upper and lower gripping members to rotate relative to the fin and cable such that the fin and cable are clipped together.
6. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 2 wherein each fin has an elongated trough with curved ends and a substantially flat middle portion for fitting over or under an oblong outer surface of a packaged double cable to thereby conduct heat from the double cable to the heat-transferring fins.
7. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 6 wherein one of the pair of side-by-side fins is attached over the packaged double cable while the other of the pair of side-by-side fins is attached under the double cable to thereby encircle the double cable for maximal heat conduction from the double cable to the fins.
8. The electric radiant heating system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the twist clip comprises:
- an upper gripping member;
- a lower gripping member connected to the upper member by an upright support member; and
- a handle portion looping downwardly from the lower gripping member to enable a user to hold the clip and to manually twist the clip to cause the upper and lower gripping members to rotate relative to the fin and packaged double cable such that the fin and packaged double cable are clipped together.
9. A method of installing an electric radiant heating system, the method comprising steps of:
- selecting a length of electric cable suitable for heating a surface;
- disposing the electric cable a distance apart from the surface to be warmed; and
- attaching at least one heat-transferring fin to the electric cable.
10. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the step of attaching at least one heat-transferring fin to the cable comprises steps of:
- aligning an upper gripping member of a twist clip with a slot in a fin, wherein the slot is substantially parallel to the electric cable;
- inserting the upper gripping member of the twist clip upwardly through the slot in the fin until a lower gripping member connected to the upper gripping member by an upright support member is approximately level with a bottom of the cable; and
- twisting the clip until the upper and lower gripping members are perpendicular to the cable to thereby urge the upper gripping member over a top of the cable and the lower gripping member under a bottom of the cable such that the fin and cable are clipped together.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the step of twisting the clip comprises rotating the clip until the upright support member engages a semicircular notch in the slot, the notch having a diameter equal to a diameter of the upright support member.
12. The method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising a prior step of manufacturing the twist clip by bending a single length of metal wire.
13. The method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising the steps of:
- placing a curved trough of a first fin on a top of the cable so that the first fin extends outwardly from a first side of the cable;
- placing a curved trough of a second fin on a bottom of the cable so that the second fin extends outwardly from a second side of the cable;
- aligning and inserting a first twist clip with a slot in the first fin and then twisting the first clip to fix the first fin to the cable; and
- aligning and inserting a second twist clip with a slot in the second fin and then twisting the second clip to fix the second fin to the cable.
14. A radiant heating system comprising:
- a length of electric cable for generating heat; and
- first and second heat-transferring fins attached side by side to the cable by first and second twist clips, each clip having:
- an upper gripping member;
- a lower gripping member connected to the upper member by an upright support member; and
- a handle portion looping downwardly from the lower gripping member to enable a user to hold the clip and to manually twist the clip to cause the upper and lower gripping members to rotate relative to the fin and cable such that the fin and cable are clipped together.
15. The heating system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the upper gripping member, lower gripping member, upright support member and handle portion are integrally formed from a single length of metal wire.
16. The heating system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the upper gripping member and the lower gripping member converge in a direction away from the upright support member, the upper gripping member having an outwardly flared end to facilitate placement of the clip onto the cable.
17. The heating system as claimed in claim 14 wherein a gap between the upper gripping member and the lower gripping member is less than an outer diameter of the cable.
18. The heating system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the handle portion loops from the lower gripping member back to into close proximity with a point where the lower gripping member connects to the upright support member.
19. The heating system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the first and second fins include curved troughs for engaging, respectively, a top and a bottom of the cable, such that:
- the upper gripping member fixes the curved trough of the first fin to the top of the cable; and
- the lower gripping member fixes the curved trough of the second fin to the bottom of the cable.
20. The heating system as claimed in claim 14 wherein each of the fins comprises a generally rectangular body having a plurality of parallel apertures, a curved trough disposed longitudinally along one side of the fin, the trough being sized and shaped to fit an outside surface of the cable, each fin further comprising at least one slot disposed between the trough and the parallel apertures for receiving a clip, the slot having a notch for restraining the clip when the clip is twisted into an operative position perpendicular to the cable.
21. A heat-transferring fin for attachment to an electric cable, the fin comprising:
- an elongated trough for fitting over or under the outer surface of the cable;
- a substantially flat surface extending outwardly from the trough, the surface comprising a plurality of parallel elongated apertures; and
- at least one elongated slot through which a twist clip can be inserted, the at least one slot being formed in the flat surface between the parallel elongated apertures and the trough, the at least one slot being parallel to the trough and orthogonal to the parallel elongated apertures.
22. The fin as claimed in claim 21 wherein the elongated trough is substantially cylindrical for fitting over or under a circular outer surface of a single cable.
23. The fin as claimed in claim 21 wherein the elongated trough comprises curved ends and a substantially flat middle portion for fitting over or under an oblong outer surface of a packaged double cable to thereby conduct heat from the double cable to the heat-transferring fins.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 23, 2008
Publication Date: Feb 26, 2009
Applicant: MacDuffco Manufacturing Inc. (Victoria)
Inventors: Malcolm MacDuff (Victoria), James MacDuff (Victoria)
Application Number: 12/178,494
International Classification: F24D 19/02 (20060101); F28F 1/14 (20060101);