AIR CONDITIONER SYSTEM AND METHOD WITH ADAPTIVE AIRFLOW
An conditioner system includes a housing having an upper opening and a lower opening, and a sealed refrigeration system supported by the housing for providing cold air in a cooling mode. Additionally, a heater is disposed in the housing for providing warm air in a warming mode. An adaptive airflow control unit is disposed in the housing and is configured to discharge the cold air from the upper opening in order to transmit the cold air upward and high in an environment of the air conditioner system in the cooling mode and to discharge the warm air from the lower opening in order to transmit the warm air downward and low in the environment in the warming mode.
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to air conditioners that heat and cool spaces. More particularly, the disclosed subject matter relates to air conditioners that utilize the natural convective properties of warm and cool air.
Air conditioning appliances are generally employed in both warm and cold climates to control the temperature of the air within an environment (e.g., a building, a house, etc). As is known in the art, air temperature and humidity can be stabilized utilizing a sealed refrigeration system that includes a compressor, a condenser, a expansion device and an evaporator for comfort cooling in buildings and motor vehicles. Room air conditioners, for example, generally include an air inlet and an air outlet located at a front side of the air conditioner, which faces the interior of a room. Such an air conditioner is positioned in a window opening or in a sleeved gap formed through the wall of the room. Also, as known in the art, the air can be pulled through one set of louvers, and discharged though another set of louvers.
In prior art air conditioner appliances, the air outlet can be a single opening positioned either along a top edge or a bottom edge of the front panel or may be a single opening positioned at one side or the other of the front panel. Disadvantages of this approach include the airflow direction, which is the same regardless of whether the unit is in a warming mode or cooling mode. In this regard, the heated or cooled air must be delivered against the natural convection forces due to the change in the weight of the air as it is heated or cooled. Moreover, the airflow throughout such a system may not be evenly distributed as the individual units shed their respective loads. Currently, there exists a need for a room air conditioner that is capable of maintaining temperatures more evenly across a room.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONAs described herein, the preferred embodiments of the present invention overcome one or more of the above or other disadvantages known in the art.
One aspect of the present invention relates to an conditioner system that includes a housing having an upper opening and a lower opening, and a sealed refrigeration system supported by the housing for providing cold air in a cooling mode. Additionally, a heater is disposed in the housing for providing warm air in a warming mode. An adaptive airflow control unit is disposed in the housing and is configured to discharge the cold air from the upper opening in order to transmit the cold air upward and high in an environment of the air conditioner system in the cooling mode and to discharge the warm air from the lower opening in order to transmit the warm air downward and low in the environment in the warming mode.
These and other aspects and advantages of the preferred embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. Moreover, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the present invention and, together with the detailed description of the invention, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one of the disclosed embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope thereof.
The air conditioner system 100 depicted in
By way of a non-limiting example, the air conditioner system 100 is indicated in
The air conditioner system 100 generally includes a housing 101 that includes a top portion 110 and a bottom portion 120. The housing 101 further includes an upper opening 161 and a lower opening 131. A set of top end louvers 160 can be disposed and maintained within the upper opening 161. Similarly, a set of bottom end louvers 130 can be disposed and maintained within the lower opening 131. The sealed refrigeration system 175 is supported by the housing 101 and provides cold air in a cooling mode 185. The sealed refrigeration system 175 includes an evaporator in the form of an indoor coil 140 shown in
A bulkhead portion 170 of the housing generally extends completely across the width of the air conditioner system 100. In
As best seen in
The configuration depicted in
The air conditioner system 500 shown in
The fan 510 passes air through the electrical heater 410 to heat the unconditioned air in the conditioner system 500. The electrical heater 410 can include one or more heating elements, such as, for example, electric coils, warm water coils, gas-fired elements, heat pumps, or any other heating device known to one skilled in the art. Preferably, the electrical heater 410 can include a series of heating elements or other staged means to achieve two or more stages of heating. Each of the series of heating elements or stages is individually controllable, or the heating capacity of the electrical heater 410 is otherwise varied, so that one or more of the heating elements may be operated at a given time to control the amount of heat provided to the air.
The air conditioner system 600 shown in
The configurations depicted in
Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps, which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results, are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
Claims
1. An air conditioner system comprising:
- a housing having an upper opening and a lower opening;
- a sealed refrigeration system supported by the housing for providing cold air in a cooling mode;
- a heater disposed in the housing for providing warm air in a warming mode; and
- an adaptive airflow control unit disposed in the housing and configured to discharge the cold air from the upper opening in order to transmit the cold air upward and high in an environment of the air conditioner system in the cooling mode and to discharge the warm air from the lower opening in order to transmit the warm air downward and low in the environment in the warming mode.
2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a control unit for operating the adaptive airflow control unit in the cooling mode and the warming mode.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the upper opening is a louvered opening.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the lower opening is a louvered opening.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the adaptive airflow control unit comprises a fan and a rotatable fan shroud having an output opening, the fan shroud being rotatable between a first position where the output opening is oriented generally toward the upper opening and a second position where the output opening is oriented generally toward the lower opening.
6. The system of claim 5, wherein the fan is a side inlet tangential fan.
7. The system of claim 5, wherein the heater is disposed between the adaptive airflow control unit and the lower opening.
8. The system of claim 5, wherein the housing further has a main air intake opening, the sealed refrigeration system comprising an evaporator disposed in or adjacent to the main air intake opening.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the main air intake opening is disposed between the upper opening and the lower opening.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein the adaptive airflow control unit comprises a reversible motor supported by the housing, and a fan drivingly connected to the motor, wherein in the cooling mode, the motor rotates in a first direction and the fan moves the cold air toward the upper opening, and wherein in the warming mode, the motor rotates in a second direction opposite to the first direction and the fan moves the warm air toward the lower opening.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein the heater is disposed between the adaptive airflow control unit and the lower opening.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein the adaptive airflow control unit comprises a first fan unit configured to move the cold air toward the upper opening in the cooling mode and a second fan unit configured to move the warm air toward the lower opening in the warming mode.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the heater is disposed between the second fan unit and the lower opening.
14. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first fan unit and the second fan unit comprises a tangential fan.
15. The system of claim 12, wherein the housing further has a main air intake opening, the sealed refrigeration system comprising an evaporator disposed in or adjacent to the main air intake opening.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the main air intake opening is disposed between the upper opening and the lower opening.
17. The system of claim 1,
- wherein the housing further has: a second upper opening, a second lower opening, a first flow conduit extending inward from the upper opening, a second flow conduit extending inward from the second upper opening, a third flow conduit extending inward from the lower opening, and a fourth flow conduit extending inward from the second lower opening, and wherein the adaptive airflow control unit comprises: a rotatable air diverter supported by the housing, a reversible motor supported by the housing, and a fan drivingly connected to the motor and disposed in the rotatable diverter, wherein the rotatable air diverter is rotatable between a first position where the diverter connects the first flow conduit with the fourth flow conduit and a second position where the diverter connects the second flow conduit with the third flow conduit.
18. The system of claim 17, wherein the sealed refrigeration system comprises an evaporator disposed in the rotatable diverter.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the heater is disposed in the air diverter.
20. The system of claim 17, wherein in the cooling mode, the motor rotates in a first direction and the fan moves the cold air toward the upper opening through the first flow conduit, and wherein in the warming mode, the motor rotates in a second direction opposite to the first direction and the fan moves the warm air toward the second lower opening through the fourth flow conduit.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 18, 2010
Publication Date: Dec 22, 2011
Inventor: Robert Lafleur (Louisville, KY)
Application Number: 12/818,552
International Classification: F25D 17/06 (20060101); F24F 7/007 (20060101); F25D 17/04 (20060101);