AU2020104098A4

AU2020104098A4 - An improved air treatment apparatus

Info

Publication number: AU2020104098A4
Application number: AU2020104098A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Gary North
Original assignee: Techfresh Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Techfresh Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2019-12-16
Filing date: 2020-12-15
Publication date: 2021-02-25
Anticipated expiration: 2028-12-15

Abstract

An air treatment apparatus including at least a first air treatment chamber defined by a plurality of side walls; a fluid carrying coil or array disposed within said air treatment chamber dividing said chamber into an inlet chamber and an outlet chamber; air being able to communicate from said inlet chamber to said outlet chamber through and around said coil or array to effect a change to the temperature of the air; at least one air inlet disposed in a wall of said air treatment chamber to feed into said inlet chamber; at least one air outlet disposed in a wall of said air treatment chamber to feed from said outlet chamber; and said at least one air inlet and said at least one air outlet being disposed on different side walls of said air treatment chamber. 3/3 100 135 133 130 136 137 132 131 134 139 138 Figure 3

Description

3/3

100 135 133 130

136 137 132

131 134 139 138

Figure 3

AN IMPROVED AIR TREATMENT APPARATUS TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention generally relates to an improved air treatment apparatus and, in particular although not necessarily solely, one intended for domestic or business premises having more than a single room requiring environmental control.

BACKGROUND

[0002] The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not, be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the prior art forms part of the common general knowledge.

[0003] A wide variety of different arrangements for air handling units to provide environmental control in a premises have been disclosed previously. One particular unit of interest because of advantages in form factor and arrangement is disclosed in International Patent Publication WO 2019/006518.

[0004] The apparatus described in WO 2019/006518 may have advantages in particular contexts over prior arrangements however the general performance of such units is significantly lower than conventional units in the arrangement described.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an air treatment apparatus including: at least a first air treatment chamber defined by a plurality of side walls; a fluid carrying coil or array disposed within said air treatment chamber dividing said chamber into an inlet chamber and an outlet chamber; air being able to communicate from said inlet chamber to said outlet chamber through and around said coil or array to effect a change to the temperature of the air; at least one air inlet disposed in a wall of said air treatment chamber to feed into said inlet chamber; at least one air outlet disposed in a wall of said air treatment chamber to feed from said outlet chamber; and said at least one air inlet and said at least one air outlet being disposed on different side walls of said air treatment chamber.

[0006] Preferably said at least one air inlet and said one air outlet are positioned on substantially orthogonal side walls of said air treatment chamber.

[0007] Preferably said inlet and outlet chambers are further subdivided by at least one dividing wall in each chamber to form two independent inlet and outlet chambers.

[0008] Preferably each of the inlet and outlet chambers have an independent air inlet and air outlet and, within each pair, the inlet and outlets are disposed on different walls of the air treatment chamber.

[0009] Preferably the fluid carrying coil or array is positioned such that the air inlet chamber and air outlet chamber are not of substantially equal size.

[00010] Preferably the air inlet chamber is substantially larger in volume than the air outlet chamber.

[00011] According to a yet further aspect of the invention, there is provided an air treatment apparatus wherein a fluid that draws heat from passing air is provided within a closed cycle in the apparatus and is directed to a further heat exchanger to provide heat to a water heating apparatus and provide energy recovery form the air treatment apparatus.

[00012] Any of the features described herein can be combined in any combination with any one or more of the other features described herein within the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[00013] Preferred features, embodiments and variations of the invention may be discerned from the following Detailed Description which provides sufficient information for those skilled in the art to perform the invention. The Detailed Description is not to be regarded as limiting the scope of the preceding Summary of the Invention in any way. The Detailed Description will make reference to a number of drawings as follows:

[00014] Figure 1 is a side sectional view of an air treatment apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

[00015] Figure 2 is an isometric view of the air treatment apparatus of the embodiment of Figure 1; and

[00016] Figure 3 is a schematic view of an energy recovery system in accordance with a further embodiment of the apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[00017] The present invention relates to an air treatment or environmental control apparatus or system.

[00018] Specifically, the apparatus relates to an improvement to the general apparatus described in International Publication WO 2019/006518. The contents of the description of that patent specification may be read into this document to provide context to the arrangement of this apparatus.

[00019] While the arrangement of the apparatus in WO 2019/006518 is useful by providing an upright separate air treatment unit that may be contained in a cabinet or walled enclosure and vented to different portions of the dwelling.

[00020] In the present invention, an apparatus similar to that in WO 2019/006518 is provided as an air treatment apparatus 100. The apparatus as an air treatment chamber 101 defined by walls 102,103, 104 and 105 as indicated on the drawings. Additionally, the top wall 120 and a base 121 are considered as walls of the chamber to define the enclosed space. It should be noted that as shown in the preferred embodiment, the chamber is defined as a rectangular prism although other shapes for such chambers are possible to define an enclosed volume.

[00021] The air treatment chamber 101 contains a fluid carrying coil or array 106 that carries a cooling fluid. This coil 106 separates the chamber 101 into an inlet chamber 108 and an outlet chamber 109. The coil is provided to carry a cooled fluid to cool the air passing over and through the coil 106 and provide environmental control to a room or rooms.

[00022] The inlet and outlet chambers are themselves provided with an air inlet 111 and an air outlet 110 respectively to supply air to be treated and return treated air to the room or rooms.

[00023] The present invention provides an air treatment apparatus 100 in which the air inlet and air outlets are placed on different walls of the air treatment chamber 101.

[00024] In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, the air inlet 111 is shown entering the sidewall 105 of the chamber 101. In contrast, the outlet 110 is place in the top of the chamber 120 to exit the treated air.

[00025] In alternative arrangements, the inlet 111 and outlet 110 may be placed on other walls of the chamber for ease of connection to conduits (not shown) to the rooms. However, it is preferred that as shown in this arrangement, the inlet 111 and outlet 110 are arranged substantially orthogonal to each other. This arrangement inhibits and direct flow of air from the inlet 111 to the outlet 110 that may only utilise a small portion of the total available surface area of the cooling coil 106. Other arrangements such as the inlet and outlet being arranged on the top and base walls are also possible however the preferred configuration places the control systems below the air treatment chamber in the unit making the base less accessible.

[00026] The preferred embodiment as shown in Figures 1 and 2 also provides the coil 106 offset from a centerline in the chamber. Hence the inlet and outlet chambers are not equal in size. In particular, in this arrangement, the inlet chamber 108 is substantially greater in volume than the outlet chamber 109. This expanded inlet chamber 108, extending beyond the footprint of the support structure 107, is provided to increase the dwell time of air in the chamber. This may provide increased efficiency.

[00027] In a preferred embodiment, the air treatment chamber may have a wall 112 transverse to the coil 106 to effectively further divide the inlet, outlet or both sub chambers into two. When provided to divide both the inlet and outlet chambers, individual inlets and outlets for each chamber may be provided to accommodate independent environmental control to different rooms in a dwelling or building.

[00028] In a further preferred embodiment, the air treatment apparatus 100 may also be provided with a further energy recovery cycle as shown in Figure 3.

[00029] The air treatment apparatus 100 may direct the cooling fluid from the coil 106 (now heated from the transfer with the air) to a further heat exchanger 132 via a conduit 130. Following passage through the heat exchanger 131 the fluid may return to the unit 100 via a conduit 131.

[00030] The heat exchanger 132 may have a further cycle of fluid such as water coming in from a fresh or saltwater source 138, through any desired pre-treatment such as desalination or filters 139 and through conduit 134 to the heat exchange unit 132.

[00031] The heat exchange unit may use the energy within the heated fluid from the air treatment apparatus 100 to heat the water and pass this through conduit 133 to a hot water tank 135. Ultimately the hot water from tank 135 may be directed out through at least one conduit 136 to and end sue alliance or tap 137.

[00032] This heat exchanger allows heat generated in the process of cooling air in the air treatment apparatus to be used to pre-heat hot water in a hot water tank and reduce the need for additional heating of the fluid in the tank.

[00033] It will be apparent that such a heat exchanger can be used to heat other fluids and for purposes other than purely a hot water cylinder 135. This is an example of such a use only.

[00034] In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect.

[00035] Reference throughout this specification to 'one embodiment' or'an embodiment' means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases 'in one embodiment' or'in an embodiment' in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more combinations.

Claims

The claims defining the invention are as follows:

1. An air treatment apparatus including:

at least a first air treatment chamber defined by a plurality of side walls;

a fluid carrying coil or array disposed within said air treatment chamber dividing said chamber into an inlet chamber and an outlet chamber;

air being able to communicate from said inlet chamber to said outlet chamber through and around said coil or array to effect a change to the temperature of the air;

at least one air inlet disposed in a wall of said air treatment chamber to feed into said inlet chamber;

at least one air outlet disposed in a wall of said air treatment chamber to feed from said outlet chamber; and

said at least one air inlet and said at least one air outlet being disposed on different side walls of said air treatment chamber.

2. The air treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said at least one air inlet and said one air outlet are positioned on substantially orthogonal side walls of said air treatment chamber.

3. The air treatment apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said inlet and outlet chambers are further subdivided by at least one dividing wall in each chamber to form two independent inlet and outlet chambers; and wherein each of the inlet and outlet chambers have an independent air inlet and air outlet and, within each pair, the inlet and outlets are disposed on different walls of the air treatment chamber.

4. The air treatment apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fluid carrying coil or array is positioned such that the air inlet chamber and air outlet chamber are not of substantially equal size, wherein the air inlet chamber is substantially larger in volume than the air outlet chamber.

5. An air treatment apparatus wherein a fluid that draws heat from passing air is provided within a closed cycle in the apparatus and is directed to a further heat exchanger to provide heat to a water heating apparatus and provide energy recovery form the air treatment apparatus.