EP2097681A2

EP2097681A2 - Heatable element

Info

Publication number: EP2097681A2
Application number: EP07845297A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Heinz Zorn
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-12-18
Filing date: 2007-12-18
Publication date: 2009-09-09
Also published as: AT504216B1; US20100012642A1; RU2496060C2; RU2009127811A; AT504216A4; CA2673167A1; WO2008074041A3; WO2008074041A2

Abstract

In an element (1) for producing an electrically heatable covering with connecting elements (16) for connection of adjacent elements (1), the element (1) is connected to a multilayer printed circuit board (3) whose electrically conductive surface (4) facing the element (1) can be connected to an electrical contact (15) of a connecting or feed element (16), and whose outer side facing away from the element (1) is fitted with resistors (8), which are each arranged at a distance from one another, between metallic surfaces in the form of conductor tracks (11), wherein at least two conductor tracks (11) which are bridged by resistors (8) can be connected to electrical contacts (15) of a connecting or feed element (16).

Description

Heatable element

The invention relates to an element for producing an electrically heatable floor, ceiling or wall covering with connecting elements for connecting adjacent elements.

Electrically heated floor coverings are usually designed so that mats are rolled out with resistance wires, whereupon such mats, and in particular usually after embedding such mats in the screed, the final flooring can be laid. In the context of wooden floors, such as parquet floors, care must be taken in such designs to prevent local overheating to obviate undesirable deformations. The temperature control of such floors extends but mostly over an entire mat, the corresponding tracks are chosen as large as possible in view of the expected installation costs for the electrical connections in order to minimize the number of electrical connections. In the known floor elements, the heating element is usually laid separately from the flooring to be applied in succession, with a corresponding Nivellieruήg and adjustment is required to ensure the desired surface contact between the heating element and the bottom element and thus the most uniform possible temperature dissipation. All this requires a relatively high installation costs. The known electric underfloor heaters use meandering arranged resistance wires which are embedded in a deformable matrix, or plate structures in which the electrical resistances of electrically conductive coatings, and in particular carbonaceous, embedded between contacts resistance masses are formed. The known configurations are therefore used for safety reasons only for low voltage, which in turn increases the cabling overhead. With correspondingly lower voltages, the same electrical power must be used electrical supply lines are used with a larger cross-section.

The invention now aims to provide a heatable element of the type mentioned, which without additional installation effort in the same manner as conventional floors, such as parquet, laminate or stone floors, or in vertical installation, for example, under plaster, wallpaper or a Color or paint layer can be laid and which is suitable immediately after installation for connection to the respective existing mains voltage, without this being a security risk. At the same time, the invention aims to avoid the electromagnetic fi elds occurring in meandering or arcuate laying of electrical conductors.

To achieve this object, the heatable element according to the invention substantially consists in that the element is connected to a multilayer printed circuit board, the element facing the electrically conductive surface with an electrical contact of a connection or feed element is connectable and the outer side facing away from the element between Conductors trained metallic surfaces each carries spaced-apart resistors, wherein at least two interconnects connected by resistors with electrical contacts of a connection or feed element can be connected. Characterized in that the heating element of the element is designed in the manner of a printed circuit, wherein the corresponding circuit boards have metal layers on both sides, it is possible to ground the element adjacent surface corresponding to or bring to zero potential, so that in the event of subsequent damage, for example by drilling with a drill, which, when piercing the metal layer located at zero potential and subsequent connection with a conductive layer, possibly resulting ground fault leads directly to the response of a residual current device (RCCB) and so that there is no danger. The fact that now the voltage-carrying electrical conductors have on the underside of the element in each case at a distance from each other discrete resistances, the possibility is created to arrange these resistors at predetermined intervals so that the heat is optimally distributed and derived via the metal traces accordingly, so that a uniform temperature dissipation takes place.

The individual interconnects or the gaps between the interconnects bridged by the resistors can run straight or also meander-shaped, corrugated, stepped or zigzag-shaped in order to achieve the most uniform possible distribution of the resistors across the surface to be heated. The conductor tracks of an element can in this case be produced jointly by punching out of a metal sheet.

The electrical cover of the bottom can in turn be done by a corresponding insulating profile, wherein the application of such an electrically insulating profile simultaneously creates the possibility that the electrical contacts for connection or feed elements are pluggable in a simple manner, so when laying on the in the Consequence still to be made electrical connection with the mains voltage no separate consideration must be taken. It suffices to simply plug together elements using fasteners and to lay them as usual, with feed elements still only having to be inserted at the edges of the finished or attached area as a result. Overall, the embodiment according to the invention with separate, spaced-apart resistors together with the use of printed circuit boards allows the required safety for the operation of such devices with mains voltage ensured so that the required electrical wiring can be kept particularly simple in the episode. In a particularly advantageous manner, the inventive construction is made such that the electrical contacts are designed as insertable into an end face of the plug contacts. Compared with known mats or other heatable elements thus accounts for the lead wires or cables, which are also in the course of laying excessively high mechanical load breakage or destructive. The plug contacts proposed according to the invention can each be designed such that they abut the electrically conductive surfaces of the strip conductors, for which it is sufficient, for example, to form the insulating cover profile on the side facing away from the heated space with a corresponding channel-shaped recess into which the connection or feed element can be inserted. Advantageously, the training is in this case made such that the plug contacts have a stop shoulder for limiting the insertion depth.

In order to reduce the risk of electrical ground faults due to increased humidity, the design is advantageously such that the stop shoulders are equipped with a sealing element, wherein in a particularly advantageous manner, the underside of the printed circuit board carrying the resistors is covered by an insulating plate whose end face to strip conductors have open grooves for the insertion of the connector. The insulating layer may in this case be glued to the base of the printed circuit board carrying the resistors, for example, so that a complete sealing of the underside is achieved. The underside of the PCB is thus protected against water ingress.

The discrete resistors mentioned above, such as those used in printed circuits, are usually referred to as "surface mounted devices" (SMDs) and are characterized by low overall height and low load capacity to drop in power without the resistance gets destroyed. In order to dissipate this power as well as possible on the metallic interconnects, a correspondingly small distance between adjacent interconnects is advantageous, so that the heat is not distributed selectively in the insulating region located between adjacent interconnects, but is actually distributed in a planar manner by heat conduction of the interconnects. Such a small distance, as it is desirable according to the invention, requires, however, when using mains voltage for safety considerations, measures that reduce the voltage between adjacent tracks accordingly. This is achieved according to the invention in that the resistors are formed by SMDs, wherein a plurality of resistors are connected in parallel and in each case at least two resistors or groups of resistors in series. By the series connection of resistors of the respective voltage drop between adjacent tracks is reduced accordingly, so that, for example, at intervals of 1 - 1.5 mm or less than 1 mm between the individual tracks at full line voltage to be feared strike-through can not be formed, because only a correspondingly lower voltage drops.

The use of small, inexpensive resistors such as SMDs allows the resistors to be mounted in a corresponding number on the underside of the circuit board. Preferred here is an arrangement of 400-500 resistors per m ² .

In a particularly advantageous manner, the contacting of adjacent elements takes place such that the grooves are designed to extend over the length of the elements and receive longitudinally displaceable rods whose ends are designed as bridge contacts for the electrical connection of adjacent elements when the rods are extended. In this training, thus corresponding elements in the form of sliding plug contacts are already carried in each element, so that, strictly speaking, only a single separate Feed element for a plurality of longitudinally interconnected elements must be connected to the edge of the laid surface. The training is in particular also suitable to cut the corresponding floor element to the desired length, without the function is impaired, since the laying in the sequence takes place in the same manner as in an uncut complete element. The displaceable rods may in this case be made outside the contact areas of non-conductive material, such as hard foam. The rods are preferably designed such that they completely fill the cross section of the grooves.

For the improved heat dissipation through the metallic interconnects training is advantageously made so that the distance between adjacent planar interconnects less than 1.5 mm, preferably less than 1 mm, is selected, preferably arranged in rows resistors in adjacent rows are arranged on the gap.

In compliance with the above-mentioned safety precautions and in particular using the corresponding series circuits succeeds according to the invention to make the training so that the operating voltage is equal to the power supply voltage selected.

Particularly advantageous in the context of the use of the heatable elements according to the invention is the fact that the individual elements can be secured separately against overtemperature and can also be switched separately with a correspondingly simple design. This is particularly interesting when, for example, furnishings are moved on such an electrically heated parquet floor in the episode and heating services, for example, should not be applied under a box or under a bed, but only in the other areas. Likewise, a separate control of the individual elements with advantage for Reduction of energy consumption and to increase the heating power in the starting operation after switching be used. Advantageously, the training for this purpose is such that each floor element contains at least one switch connected in series with the resistors, wherein preferably to avoid over-temperature of the (the) switch is designed as a bimetal switch (are). Such switches may of course be designed as a triac or thyristor and react together with a corresponding control logic either to temperature signals of a temperature sensor or control signals, the training is advantageously made so that the (the) switch is designed as a remote switch (are) and is connected to an evaluation logic for the evaluation of control signals (are).

The circuit breakers may preferably be incorporated in the connectors to minimize component cost and simplify manufacture. Such integration of the switch in the connector further ensures that the circuit breaker also works when parts of the element has been cut off or cut away.

The heatable elements according to the invention can preferably be arranged in a plurality of laterally adjacent parallel rows. In this case, a method for heating a room with a plurality of heatable floor or wall elements arranged in laterally adjacent parallel rows is characterized in that the elements of a first group of rows and the elements of a second group of rows each between the rows of first group of rows are arranged, each heated alternately. This means that in an arrangement of, for example, four rows, first the elements of the first and third rows are heated, and thereafter the elements of the second and fourth rows, this cycle being repeated. The cycle time is preferably 15-20 min. It has been found that with such a heating method the Power consumption can be halved, the heating power compared to a simultaneous heating of all elements only drops by about 20%. This effect is particularly noticeable in heating elements with a low inertia, and the heating method is therefore preferably carried out using SMDs as heating elements for the heated floor or wall elements. Preferably, elements according to one of claims 1 to 14 are used in the context of the heating process. The respective heated rows are also able to heat the unheated row arranged between the heated rows.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment schematically illustrated in the drawing. 2 shows a schematic representation of the electrical wiring of the heating elements, FIG. 3 shows a detailed view of an electrical connection of adjacent elements, FIG. 4 shows a detailed view of a connecting element 5 shows a perspective view of a feed element, FIG. 6 shows a cross section through the electrical connections in accordance with the section VI-VI of FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 shows a bottom view of the element according to FIG. 1 with the insulating cover removed.

In Fig.l 1 with a heatable element is shown schematically, the wear layer or covering layer is formed by a parquet 2. The type of coating is irrelevant for the heater according to the invention. The covering can equally well be formed by wall or ceiling elements and in particular by natural stone slabs, artificial stone slabs, ceramic slabs, laminate slabs or the like, or consist of glass, porcelain, fireproof papers such as wallpapers, plasterboards or other materials. With this external action, in particular the wear underlying or exposed covering a circuit board 3 is connected, which has a three-layer Structure has. The top side facing the lining consists of a metallically conductive material, and in particular copper, where it is important that it is a conductive metallic coating. This metallic layer 4 is through-contacted by a connection 5 to the likewise metallic layer 6 on the underside of the printed circuit board, so that at this point, as indicated schematically by 7, an electrical plug connection to a neutral or to earth can be made, so that the metallic layer 4 is at zero potential. The underside facing away from the lining of the circuit board 3 now carries the discrete electrical resistors 8, wherein the supply of mains voltage can be done in each case via schematically indicated with 9 connectors. The electrical circuit diagram can be seen here in Figure 2, wherein in this electrical circuit in each case the outer interconnects are connected to mains voltage, and on the series-connected resistors 8 per maximum of a quarter of the mains voltage drops, so that indicated by 10 gaps between adjacent interconnects 11 can be kept correspondingly small, without a rollover is to be feared. This correspondingly small distance has the consequence that the electrical resistors 8 extend over the entire width of the gap and partly also come into direct mechanical contact with adjacent conductor tracks 11, so that the heat is correspondingly better dissipated.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 2, furthermore, an electrical switch can be seen schematically, which is indicated schematically by 12. The electrical switch 12 may be provided per element in accordance with greater numbers, with the arrangement of each switch 12 near the end faces of such elements, even with a subsequent shortening of this element to adapt to the geometry of the room, the function is fully maintained, because the other switch 12th this function takes over. In the closed state of this switch 12 thus flows through the two conductors 9 and the series-connected resistors 8 according to current, which on the Resistances are transformed into heat. The low power of the individual resistors requires over the entire surface a correspondingly larger number of resistors.

The electrical contacting of adjacent floor elements is shown schematically in FIG. The electrical contacts 15 respectively inserted in grooves 13 of an electrically insulating cover or plate 14 can be seen in the plan view in FIG. 3, the corresponding grooves or channels of the electrically insulating cover being visible in cross-section in FIG. In this case, the contacts 15 are each connected to voltage or to the neutral conductor, in each case corresponding to the end-side feed, and this configuration applies in the following for all elements connected to one another in the longitudinal direction. An enlarged view of such a connecting element is shown in Figure 4, wherein the contacts are again denoted by 15 and have a stop 16 to limit the impact or insertion. This stop 16 can simultaneously be effective as a correspondingly deformable sealant, so that the front sides of adjacent floor elements can be effectively protected against ingress of water.

A corresponding feed or connection element 16 with a plurality of electrical plug contacts 15 is shown in FIG. These plug contacts 15 are inserted at the end adjacent a wall and passed over wires to a connector 17, in which after completion of the entire installation, the electrical conductors are inserted and connected in a simple manner. Up to the electrical connection, it is sufficient to check the operability of each interconnected in the longitudinal direction elements by simple short resistance measurement, in conclusion, as shown in Figure 6, only more electrical strands or wires 18, 19 and 20 corresponding to the neutral conductor of Earth and the phase uniformly connected to the feed element 16 for all elements by simply crimping become. The electrical installation effort is thus reduced to a minimum and it is sufficient to lay the breakage-prone electrical supply lines as loops near the wall-side conclusion, here due to the required thermal expansion joints and a corresponding space for the accommodation of these conductors in a mechanically protected manner available stands.

A monitoring of the resistance values can also be done during operation to detect malfunctions.

In FIG. 7 it can be seen that the resistors 8 arranged between adjacent interconnects 11 bridge the electrically insulating gap between the interconnects 11, so that a corresponding thermal conductivity to the respective planar interconnects 11 is ensured. In FIG. 7, adjacent resistances 8 arranged in adjacent rows and arranged in series with one another are arranged on a gap in order to favor and evenly equalize the heat propagation over the area indicated by the circles 21.

Bridging of the neutral conductor or of the ground in order to achieve the series connection shown schematically in FIG. 7 is naturally ensured by a corresponding switch, as can be seen in FIG. 2 and is not shown in FIG. 7 for the sake of clarity.

Claims

Claims:

1. Element for producing an electrically heatable covering with connecting elements for connecting adjacent elements, characterized in that the element (1) is connected to a multilayer printed circuit board (3) whose element (1) facing electrically conductive surface (4) with a electrical contact (15) of a connection or feed element (16) is connectable and whose outer element facing away from the element (1) between metallic surfaces formed as interconnects (11) each spaced apart resistors (8), wherein at least two by means of resistors (8) connected interconnects (11) with electrical contacts (15) of a connection or feed element (16) are connectable.

2. Element according to claim 1, characterized in that the electrical contacts (15) as in an end face of the element (1) insertable plug contacts are formed.

3. Element according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the plug contacts have a stop shoulder (16) for limiting the insertion depth.

4. Element according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the stop shoulders (16) are equipped with a sealing element.

5. Element according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the resistors (8) are formed by SMDs, wherein a plurality of resistors (8) in parallel and in each case at least two resistors (8) or groups of resistors (8). are connected in series.

6. Element according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the resistors (8) supporting underside the printed circuit board (3) is covered by an insulating plate (14) whose end face to strip conductors (11) have open slots (13) for inserting the plug connectors.

7. Floor element according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the grooves (13) over the length of the elements (1) are designed to extend and receive longitudinally displaceable rods whose ends as bridge contacts for the electrical connection of adjacent elements (1) are formed with extended rods.

8. Element according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the distance between adjacent planar conductor tracks (11) smaller than 1.5 mm, preferably less than 1 mm, is selected.

9. Element according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that arranged in rows resistors (8) are arranged in adjacent rows on the gap.

10. Element according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the operating voltage is equal to the supply voltage selected.

11. Element according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that each element includes at least one switch connected in series with the resistors (12).

12. Element according to claim 11, characterized in that the (the) switch (12) is designed as a bimetallic switch

(are) .

13. Element according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the (the) switch (12) is designed as a remote switch (are) and is connected to an evaluation logic for the evaluation of control signals (are).

14. Element according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that the resistors (8) are arranged in a density of more than 300 pieces, preferably 400-500 pieces, per m ² .

15. A method for heating a room having a plurality of laterally adjacent parallel rows of heated floor or wall elements, characterized in that the elements of a first group of rows and the elements of a second group of rows, each between the rows of first group of rows are arranged, each heated alternately.

16. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that the heating of the floor or wall elements is performed using SMDs.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that are used as heatable floor or wall elements elements according to one of claims 1 to 14.