ES2363293B1 - DEVICE FOR AIR HUMIDIFICATION INCLUDING PRIOR FILTER TREATMENT AND DISINFECTION OF CONTRIBUTION WATER, APPLICABLE TO REFRIGERATION EQUIPMENT CONDENSING WATER. - Google Patents

Abstract

Air humidification device including a pretreatment of water filtration and disinfection of contribution, applicable to refrigeration equipment that condenses water. The invention comprises a container in which the filtered by the filtering unit (26) and disinfection by means of the disinfection element (10) of the supply water to the humidification section (3) and in which an element is available of humidification composed of an atomization device by ultrasound (15) responsible for creating the pressures that vaporize the water and an outlet duct (20) of the vaporized water to the outside. In the preferred embodiment of the invention it is installed in parallel to an air cooling unit taking as water from provide the water from the condensation of the air when passing through The cooling unit's cold battery.

Description

Air humidification device including a pretreatment of water filtration and disinfection of contribution, applicable to condensing refrigeration equipment Water.

Technical sector

The present invention is within the technical sector of air treatment and air conditioning, more specifically within the air conditioning units by humidifying it.

Current state of the art

Increasingly, modern societies value the quality of life. From the point of view of air conditioning, We have two factors to consider: environmental comfort and Concern for preserving the environment. Both, in principle, they could be considered antagonists, that is, to have comfort they you need the use of energy and to produce it you have to "contaminate" in one way or another, therefore, the challenge is how to maintain this quality of life by altering as little as possible Our natural habitat. In regards to heating and refrigeration, we have to think of innovative systems that are able to achieve thermal well-being with the lowest consumption of possible energy.

In this sense, renewable energy generation options play a fundamental role, given their complete safety in the emission of greenhouse gases. Systems such as solar heating will become part of this point, in which the incidence of the sun is used to heat water, bioclimatic rooms , in which both the orientations and the materials used to reduce energy demands are studied , etc.

An energy efficient method is found in the air humidification systems, with which manages to reduce the air temperature by providing moisture to it, simultaneously managing the relative humidity level In the treated environment.

From WO 2009/037676 a known system to increase the performance of heat pumps by collection of condensate water from the cold battery, humidifying the air of a room that is being refrigerated or heated, or also sending the cold water to the hot spot of the heat pump

The principle of operation of Air humidifiers are based on the transfer of water vapor to the ambient air with the intention of increasing the concentration of water in it, that is, increase its relative humidity. Currently there are different methods for the transfer of steam from air water:

In the evaporation humidifiers, a stream of air is passed through a moisture-laden surface. Liquid water takes the energy necessary to vaporize from the air itself that is humidified (and cooled) by what is called adiabatic or constant energy humidification (although it is not a purely adiabatic process). As advantages of this type of equipment are its low cost, and its simplicity of operation, in addition to the fact that during its operation aerosols are not produced. Its main drawbacks are, on the one hand, in the difficulty to control the level of humidity at the exit, and on the other, in the need to carry out a very controlled maintenance, since fungi could occur on the exchange surfaces.

Atomization or ultrasonic humidifiers have their principle of operation in spraying water into particles as small as possible, generating aerosols, which are emitted into the atmosphere to be conditioned. As advantages of this type of equipment are its low cost, and its simplicity of operation, in addition to requiring very little energy to operate and that, having a larger contact area, increases the efficiency in operation. However, with this method aerosols are produced, so if the supply water has not been treated properly it may not be the most recommended method for sanitary reasons.

Finally, steam humidifiers use a heat source that evaporates water, getting it to reach the air to be treated. Although they turn out to be very expensive systems with great energy needs, they are highly accurate and clean.

As a common feature of all these types of air humidifiers we find the need to provide water periodically, either by manual replacement in the case of small equipment or, in the case of larger humidifiers, by a socket directly connected to the supply network. The high concentration of minerals dissolved in water such as calcium and Magnesium, as well as chlorine content, can cause major problems in the operation of the devices of conventional humidification. In this sense, the dragged chlorine in the water vapor that humidifies the environment it can sometimes cause disorders in the health of the person. Also, the minerals that are deposited in the bottom of the humidifier increase their concentration with each replenishment of water, which forces, to offset the mineral content to significantly increase the water consumption until the equipment is unusable.

The inconvenience of dissolved substances in the contribution water is aggravated in the case of territories with precarious water supplies, where it can drag pollutants highly harmful to people's health, as can be the case in areas with extreme poverty where access Drinking water sources are not usually viable.

An optimal humidifier solution arises in WO 2009/037676, which describes a system of humidification counting on the condensate water of a pump heat as input water. However, the need to filter and disinfect water in a state prior to air humidification, so they are still found inconvenience to the solution provided.

An object of the invention is to provide a humidifier that does not have the aforementioned drawbacks, whose water humidification device is light and that requires little space and that above all helps to save energy air conditioning systems. There are many advantages that may exist in the incorporation of a humidifier into a cooling or air conditioning system, but the most important is the use of condensation water as water supply to the humidifier. This way you get the power consumed in the condensation of the air that passes through the battery, and that is not useful to cool the room, return to the environment in the form of water vapor to humidify this and cool it In this way the total useful power is greater and the team efficiency too, which translates into savings of Energy.

In addition, the need for sanitize the supply water, so the incorporation is planned of a previous system of filtering and disinfection of water.

The humidifiers described in the Attached claims meet the aforementioned objects previously.

Description of the invention

The present invention describes a system of air humidification, of the types described in section previous, used for the air conditioning of premises.

The objectives and advantages of the invention are they will state in part in the following description and, in part, will be evident from the description or can be deduced from the setting in practice of the invention. The objectives and advantages of the invention they can be done and achieved through the points and combinations especially indicated in the claims attached.

The main objective of the invention is in providing a humidifier device to control the relative humidity of the premises.

The humidifying device of the invention it comprises a compartmentalized container, separating; first one filtering section, for water intake to the device of the invention and filtering thereof, then an intermediate section for disinfection of the water supply to the humidifier and by Last a humidification section.

The object of the invention is achieved by doing pass a stream of dry air that comes from the premises, through a mixing zone characterized by its high moisture load, It can be a wet surface, as is the case with evaporation humidifiers, or simply air with high load of humidity, as is the case with atomization humidifiers and steam. In the case of the present invention, it will be carried out preferably by atomization, any of The other methods. At the exit of the mixing zone the air has Taken part of the moisture.

Sometimes, depending on the origin of the water supply can contain pollutants and little Recommended for people's health. That is why it turns out it is necessary to include in the invention an initial filtering section, whose mission is to eliminate solid particles that can be dragged by the contribution water itself. Filtering can be done. perform by adsorption of activated carbon or by filtration microporous, preferably by adsorption of activated carbon, since it is achieved in addition to the aforementioned objective of remove solid particles, removing part of the minerals and water salts, which reduces the demands of maintenance of the invention and extends its useful life.

The filtration section comprises a container of accumulation of the contribution water, with a filtration element in its interior, through which water is forced to pass before Get to the following sections. This section is provided with a mechanism for changing filters, which may be fine in your upper part, in its lower part or in any of the sides of the container, preferably being its part higher.

Water disinfection is a very important section important when you want to vaporize it to moisten the air in the environment, since any microorganism that could exist in the supply water would reach the air once treated, which It is highly inadvisable for people's health. Is this is why between the filtering section and the section of humidification a disinfection section is available, thus completely sanitizing the supply water. The disinfection is performed in a container filled with a volume of water between 0.1% and 99%. The disinfection method of the invention can be by application of ozone to water, by application of chemical products, by rising water temperature or by exposure of this to ultraviolet light, being preferably by the flows that are treated in the invention and by the levels of cleaning of the water used in it, by exposure to light ultraviolet, so the interior walls of the section of disinfection of the invention are coated with a opaque material that reflects ultraviolet radiation. The times exposure are preferably between 10 seconds and 1 hour, although this is usually determined by the conditions of operation, so it may be different from the margins mentioned. The wavelength of ultraviolet light is found between 40 and 400 nm, the 280 nm being predominant.

Ultraviolet radiation can be emitted by fluorescence or by led's lamps, although for the flows that treated in the invention will preferably be with lamps led's, which have very low power consumption.

UV disinfection requires work with very clean water, so the filtering section prior to disinfection provides this second section with water with the necessary cleaning conditions.

Once filtered and disinfected, the water arrives to the humidification section, where the dry air of the room is moisture load and returns to increase the relative humidity of the local. The passage of air through the humidification section is performed through two openings available in said section one for the dry air inlet and another for humidified air outlet. The air flow is produced by forced ventilation, by the installation of a fan at the entrance, at the exit or at a point intermediate of the humidification section, or by ventilation natural, without the installation of fan or mechanical element, preferably in the invention being by natural ventilation, the which reduces the consumption of the device of the invention.

The passage of water between the different sections it is carried out by gravity or by forced pumping, being preferably by gravity. The location between the three sections can be in horizontal, vertical or any of the positions intermediate.

In a possible embodiment of the invention the disinfection and humidification sections can be installed sharing spaces, thus reducing the space occupied by the invention.

Brief statement of the figures

Fig. 1: Elevation view of the device of the invention installed in parallel to a refrigeration equipment and taken condensate water as input water.

Fig. 2: Section view of the device of the invention and its components.

Fig. 3: Section view of the device of the invention and its components in vertical arrangement, such and as stated in the second option of the preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4: Simplified representation on a psychrometric diagram of the operation of the invention together with a refrigeration equipment and taken the condensate water as water from input.

Description of the preferred embodiment

It is now when the invention is explained in detail of the hand of an embodiment example:

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, illustrated in the attached figures, this applies to the ultrasonic humidification from the water coming from the condensates of a refrigeration unit running in parallel to the invention. This situation, shown in Figure 1, describes a cold battery (30) of a refrigeration unit through which it passes a stream of air driven by the fan (31), whose direction Circulation is, as indicated by the arrow, from left to right. Due to the low temperature of the cold battery (30), part of the condensed air Condensate water runs from the base of the cold battery (30) through a tubular connection (32) to the front opening (18) of the humidification unit (6) object of the invention. The fixing means of the invention are not represented in the figure.

Figure 2 shows the device humidification (6) of the invention, which has a section of filtering (5), a disinfection section (4) and a section of ultrasonic humidification (3), where the position between sections is horizontal and the passage of water is produced by gravity, according to the principle of operation of vessels communicators In turn, the filtering section (5) is composed by a tank (1) with an opening (18) in its upper part left for the water supply, a filtering unit (26) with activated carbon filter, a filtered water intake (16) and a pipe (7) in its lower part through which filtered water runs to the disinfection section (4). In the left part of the filtering section (5) has a overflow opening (17) that avoids exceeding the level of water in the tank (1). The maintenance and change system of the filter unit (26) comprises an opening (28) in the part top of the filtering section (5), with a cover (2) covering the opening (28) during operation.

The disinfection section (4) consists of a tank (22), with an opaque inner lining (23) and Reflective to ultraviolet light, an opening (8) in its part above where the water coming from the section of filtered (5), a container (29) where the exposed water is deposited to the ultraviolet radiation emitted by the disinfection element (10) housed in its upper part. The disinfection element (10) It consists of a set of LED's conveniently fixed and with ultraviolet light emission with wavelengths included between 255 and 400 nm.

The humidification section (3) has a opening (27) in its initial part that communicates the section of humidification (3) and disinfection section (4), a container (21) where the water is once disinfected, an opening (19) air inlet on top, a device ultrasonic atomization (15) housed at the base of the section humidification (3) and responsible for creating the pressures that they vaporize the water, a duct (20) of the vaporized water outlet to the outside, where water vapor comes into contact with air environment, and an opening in its base (24) regulated by a valve (25) for emptying. To avoid overflow, the section of humidification has an opening (9) in one of the lateral.

The function control (11) of the element Disinfection (10) is conditioned by probe readings level (14) and operation control (12) of the device humidification (15). Readings provided by the probe level (14) and the external humidity probe (13) set the control of the operation (12) of the humidification device (15).

Figure 2 shows a second possible embodiment of the humidification device (6) of the invention, in which the humidification section (3) and the section of disinfection (4) share division and the filtering section (5) is find above these.

The representation of the operation of the invention on a psychrometric diagram, illustrated in Figure 4, shows the improvement of the efficiency of the system as a whole, where the A-B transformation is the one produced in the battery of cold refrigeration equipment, transformation A-C is the one produced by the device humidification object of the invention and transformation A-D, is what is achieved with the two systems working in parallel, with which the humidity of the environment while reducing its temperature. This way dryness in the environment is avoided when it is treated by a refrigeration team.

Claims (5)

1. An air humidification device applicable to refrigeration devices for the air conditioning of premises, characterized by comprising in combination:

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a filtering section (5) of condensed water from a cooling device, provided from a cold battery (30) of said refrigeration equipment;

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a disinfection section (4) of the condensed water supplied, filtered; Y

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a humidification section (3) by atomization of filtered water and disinfected that is supplied to the conditioned environment by said refrigeration system,

the filtering sections (5) being of disinfection (4) and humidification (3) communicated with each other to allow the passage of condensed water provided from one to another section. 2. The humidification device of claim 1, characterized in that the filtering section (5) comprises a reservoir (1) with an opening (18) for the supply of water from said cold battery (30), a filtering unit (26), a suction outlet of filtered water (16) and a pipe (7) in the lower part of said filtering unit (26) through which the filtered water passes to the disinfection section (4), an opening of overflow (17) and a system of maintenance and change of the filtering unit (26) that includes an opening (28) in the upper part of the filtering section (5), with a cover (2) covering the opening in moments of operation. 3. The humidification device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the disinfection section (4) comprises a reservoir (22), with an inner coating (23) opaque and reflecting in ultraviolet light, an opening (8) in its anterior part where the water from the filtering section (5) enters, a container (29) where the water exposed to ultraviolet radiation emitted by a disinfection element (10) housed in its upper part is deposited. The humidification device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the humidification section (3) comprises an opening (27) in an initial part that communicates with the disinfection section (4), a container (21 ) where the water is housed once disinfected, an air inlet opening (19) at the top, an ultrasonic atomization device (15) housed in the base of the humidification section (3), a duct (20 ) Outflow of vaporized water to the outside, an opening in its base (24) regulated by a valve (25) for emptying and an overflow opening (9). 5. The humidification device according to claim 3, characterized in that the disinfection element (10) comprises a set of LEDs conveniently fixed and with ultraviolet light emission with wavelengths between 255 and 400 nm.