KR102271415B1 - Indoor air purifying device using green plants - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an indoor air purification device using plants, in which plants can be grown with balance and air efficiently flows in bed soil where the plants are planted to maximize air purification efficiency. According to the present invention, the indoor air purification device comprises: a housing (100) with an open front surface; a plurality of flowerpots (200) installed in multiple stages inside the housing; a water supply unit (300) for supplying water to the plurality of flowerpots; and a blowing unit (400) installed on the upper part of the housing and supplying the air purified through the flowerpots into a room. The flowerpot (200) includes an outer container (210), an inner container (220), and a cover (230). The inner container (220) is filled with bed soil (S) formed in a ball or pellet shape with a diameter of 1 to 5 mm by using one or more materials selected from a group including loess, decomposed granite soil, activated carbon, zeolite, perlite, and vermiculite, and thus the air can be efficiently circulated through pores (g) formed by the bed soil having the ball or pellet shape.

Description

Indoor air purifying device using green plants

The present invention is made to purify indoor air using plants, and in particular, it enables balanced growth of plants and facilitates air flow in the soil in which plants are planted, thereby maximizing air purification efficiency. it was made to

In the prior art, many ideas or practical techniques for a method or device for purifying indoor air using plants are known.

In particular, Patent Documents 1 to 4 can be cited as prior art related to the present invention. The 'indoor air purifier using plants' of Patent Document 1 improves plant growth conditions and is suitable for indoor greening while generating off-flavor. The water in the water tank is pumped and supplied to the uppermost outer case to perform the optimal air purification function by designing to suppress the airflow, and the excess water is delivered to the water inlet of the lower outer case through the water outlet, and the outer case The water supplied on the inner lower surface of the unit is supplied to the soil inside the inner case by capillary action through the absorber, so that the water is circulated only through the outer case, not directly to the roots or soil of the plant, so the contamination of the circulating water is prevented. As water is directly supplied to plants or soil, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of odors such as shapes that impede the growth of plants or rot due to contamination of circulating water.

The 'air purifier using plants' of Patent Document 2 has an open upper housing structure, a vegetation filter in which a base material for filtering foreign substances from harmful air is filled, and plants are planted through the base material; a duct having one end disposed under the vegetation filter and the other end disposed in a predetermined area, guiding air from which foreign substances are removed to be exhausted to the other end through one end; a frame for supporting the vegetation filter so that the vegetation filter is continuously disposed on the duct; and a sprinkler that supplies moisture to plants from the upper part of the vegetation filter, and is installed outside the building so that it flows into the room through the vegetation filter that flows into the air conditioner, or is installed in the indoor flow path to maintain the cleanliness of the air without ventilation In addition, temperature changes during heating or cooling are minimized, so that maintenance costs due to heating and cooling can be minimized.

The 'Wall Greening and Air Purification System' of Patent Document 3 is composed of a water tank, rear body, air vent, filter assembly, air inlet and dust filtration part. In the process of greening, polluted air from the outside is introduced into the interior to be purified, and the purified air is discharged back to the outside, so that the quality of the surrounding air can be improved. .

The 'air purifying device using plants' of Patent Document 4 includes an air guide tube having an air passage in the vertical direction and having a plurality of first ventilation units around it; Doedoe provided in the form of an open cylinder on one side, provided with a second ventilation portion communicating with the first ventilation portion, a plurality of which are arranged to form a double layer radially around the air guide tube so that the open surface faces outward in the radial direction of flowerpots; and a blower for providing a blowing force so that the surrounding air is forcibly circulated through the inside of the plurality of flowerpots and the air passage.

On the other hand, in the air purification method using plants, the air purification efficiency is higher at the root than at the leaves or stems of plants, and the roots of plants are planted in fine-grained soil or artificial topsoil, and fine-grained soil or artificial topsoil. There was a problem in that the air purification efficiency was lowered because the air flow was not smooth because there were few pores because it was in a state of holding water to supply moisture to the roots of plants.

In addition, in the conventional air purifier using plants, water had to be continuously supplied to the plants, which caused the pump to be operated frequently, causing frequent noise and dripping noise, as well as increased energy consumption.

In addition, in the conventional air purifier using a plant, it is possible to replace the plant, but it has a structure that cannot rotate at the location where the plant is placed, so that the stem of the plant grows biased in one direction only by gravity and sunlight. , there was also a problem in that the growth state of the plant was deformed and not good in appearance due to the passage of time because no method was proposed to solve this problem.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1724042 (Registered on March 31, 2017) Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2019-0021152 (published on March 5, 2019) Korean Patent Registration No. 10-2076358 (Registered on Feb. 5, 2020) Korean Patent No. 10-2053378 (Registered on Dec. 2, 2019)

The present invention has been devised to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is, first, to improve the air flow at the root that absorbs most of the pollutants in the air in purifying indoor air using plants. to maximize the air purification efficiency, secondly, by making the water supply cycle to plants as long as possible, it is possible to reduce power consumption as well as unnecessary noise generation, and thirdly, plants planted in the indoor air purification system By allowing balanced growth, indoor aesthetics or landscaping can be improved, and fourth, by enabling automatic and remote control of the indoor air purifier, the moisture of the soil in which plants grow is stably maintained and the indoor air condition is maintained at the same time. to make it possible

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an open front housing; a plurality of flowerpots installed in multiple stages inside the housing; a water supply unit for supplying water to the plurality of flowerpots; An indoor air purification device using plants comprising a; a blower installed on the upper part of the housing and supplying purified air to the room through the flowerpot; The flowerpot consists of an outer container, an inner container, and a cover, and in the inner container, one or more materials from the group including loess, masato, activated carbon, zeolite, perlite (pearlstone), vermiculite (vermiculite), and volcanic stone are 1 to 5 mm in diameter To provide an indoor air purification device using a plant, in which the top soil formed in the form of balls or pellets of the plant is filled so that air can be smoothly circulated through the pores formed by the top soil in the form of balls or pellets.

Preferably, the flowerpot consists of an outer container and an inner container, and the outer container has a rectangular body, a receiving part that is opened obliquely toward the front of the body to receive the inner container, and is located in front of the inside of the body and is on the floor. It consists of a front chamber in which an overhole is formed in two stages, and a rear chamber located at the rear of the inside of the body and penetrating up and down and partitioned by the front chamber and the partition wall, the upper part of the partition wall being able to communicate with each other.

More preferably, the receiving portion is formed in a circular or polygonal shape, and the inner airway is formed in a circular or polygonal shape and is rotatably inserted into the receiving portion of the external container to enable balanced growth of plants.

More preferably, the indoor air purification device of the present invention is provided with a plurality of sensors for measuring temperature, humidity and air pollution, and displays the signals measured by the sensors to the outside in real time and stores them in a memory, and performs wired and wireless communication. A control unit for transmitting to an external server and an administrator's smartphone through the device is further provided to enable automatic control and remote control of the device.

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, in purifying indoor air using plants, the top soil in which the roots (sources) of plants that absorb pollutants in the indoor air are planted are in the form of balls or pellets with a thickness of 1 to 5 mm. In addition, the ball or pellet-shaped top soil is made of a porous material, so it has excellent moisture control ability in the top soil as well as effective absorption of pollutants. The front chamber of the front chamber is formed with a two-stage overhole, so that the water level can be adjusted appropriately depending on the type of plant, and the inner container is rotatably inserted in the receiving part of the outer container, so the pot in which the plant is planted can be rotated as needed. Thus, it is possible to achieve balanced growth of plants, to maintain stable indoor air quality, and to have useful effects such as being able to monitor and control the indoor air purifier from a remote location.

1 is a perspective view of an indoor air purification device according to the present invention;
2 is a side cross-sectional view of the indoor air purification device shown in FIG. 1;
3 is a partially exploded state view of the indoor air purification device shown in FIG. 1;
4 is an exploded perspective view of the flowerpot;
5 is a cross-sectional view of the flowerpot shown in FIG. 4;
6 is a perspective view showing the top and bottom stacked state of the flowerpot;
7 is a side cross-sectional view showing the circulation of water and air in the purification apparatus in this embodiment.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments that do not limit the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 to 7 show an indoor air purifying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The indoor air purifying apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a housing 100 with an open front; a plurality of flowerpots 200 installed in multiple stages inside the housing 100; a water supply unit 300 for supplying water to the plurality of flowerpots 200; and a blower 400 that is installed on the housing 100 and supplies purified air to the room through a plurality of flowerpots 200 .

In this embodiment, the housing 100 is formed in the form of a kind of cabinet with an open front, and a flowerpot 200 in which plants are planted in multiple stages can be installed in a vertical state inside, and water supply is provided at the bottom. A water tank 310 constituting the part 300 is installed, and an exhaust grill 110 for supplying air purified by plants back to the room is provided on the upper portion of the housing 100, and the housing 100 One side of the control unit 500 is provided to be withdrawn and accommodated.

Although not shown in the drawing, the inside of the exhaust grill 110 includes a sensing board to which various types of sensors to be described later are attached, an AC/DC converter, a power supply, a relay for connecting lighting and a fan and a pump, and a communication An LTE router, etc. is built in and connected to the control unit 500 .

The housing 100 is a frame for growing several types of plants indoors, and can be placed in close contact with one wall of the room by minimizing the front and rear width so as to minimize the space occupancy of the room, and when the indoor space is wide It can also be used as a partition wall for dividing space and space, and it is of course also possible to arrange a plurality of housings 100 in close contact with each other on the left and right or in a double-sided type by attaching the housings 100 to the front and back.

The housing 100 is preferably made of a metal material such as aluminum alloy, which has high durability and is lightweight for easy transport and installation, but the present invention does not limit the material of the housing, and is not shown in the drawings. It is preferable to install casters and adjustment feet on the bottom of the housing 100 for convenience of movement.

In this embodiment, lights 600 in the form of LED bars are installed on the left and right sides of the housing 100 to illuminate the plants planted in the flowerpot 200, thereby providing sufficient photosynthesis even at dark night or indoors with low illumination. In addition to enabling the action, it serves to enable the plants planted inside the housing 100 to stand out more clearly.

The lighting 600 may be automatically turned on/off according to the illuminance of the room, or the blinking operation may be controlled by time setting by a timer.

In this embodiment, a holder 120 for mounting the flowerpot 200 is attached to the inner upper portion of the housing 100 , and a cover is placed on the water tank 310 forming the water supply unit 300 under the housing 100 . (312) is installed so that it can be lifted, so the water replenishment and exchange of the water tank 310 can be done by opening the cover 312 and replenishing it or cleaning the floor and wall inside the water tank 310 and then extracting it with a separate pump. Of course, in addition to this, the water tank 310 itself can be withdrawn to the outside to enable cleaner maintenance.

On the other hand, the water replenishment of the water tank 310 is performed manually. When a water level sensor (not shown) is installed inside the water tank 310 and the water level falls below a certain level, it is transmitted to the control unit 500 to replenish water. It is preferable to generate a signal for requesting , and the control unit 500 transmits such a signal to the manager's smartphone or a remote server so that it can be managed so that water replenishment can be made in a timely manner, and the water tank 310 ) In addition to the water level sensor, a sensor for detecting water quality is installed inside to obtain water quality information along with water level information so that water quality management can be performed.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the flowerpot 200 includes an outer container 210, an inner container 220, and a cover 230, and the inner container 220 includes loess, Masato, activated carbon, At least one material from the group including zeolite, perlite (pearlstone), vermiculite, and volcanic stone is formed in the form of balls or pellets with a diameter of 1 to 5 mm (S; see Fig. 7). The air can be smoothly circulated through the gap (g) formed by S).

On the other hand, the sensor for measuring the humidity of the top soil is installed in the inner container 220 of the pot 200, respectively, and an RFID chip is embedded in each inner container 220 to control the signal detected by the sensor as an RF signal. As well as transmitting to the 500 side, it is possible to track the type, history, and location of plants planted in each content group 220 .

In this embodiment, the outer container 210 includes a rectangular body 212 and a receiving part 214 that is opened obliquely upward to the front of the body 212 to accommodate the inner container 220, and the body ( 212) The front chamber 216, which is located in the front of the interior and has overholes h1 and h2 formed in two stages on the floor, is located in the rear of the inside of the body 212 and penetrates up and down, and the front chamber 216 and It is partitioned by the partition wall 217, and the upper part of the partition wall 217 is configured with a rear chamber 218 that enables mutual communication.

In the drawing, reference numeral 219 denotes a stopper for closing any one of the overholes h1 and h2. To keep the water level inside the front chamber 216 relatively high, the overhaul h2 is blocked, and the water level is kept relatively low. If you want to, just block the overhaul (h1).

In addition, reference numeral 217a is a vent hole formed in the partition wall 217 so that air from the front chamber 216 side can easily pass toward the rear chamber 218 , and the height of the partition wall 217 is also at the upper end of the front chamber. , The rear chambers 216 and 218 are formed low so that they can communicate.

Further, reference numeral 216a denotes a branch pipe seating groove formed in the left-right direction on the upper end side of the front chamber 216 .

In addition, reference numeral 232 denotes a vent hole formed in the cover 230, and reference numeral 234 denotes a planting hole formed in the middle portion of the cover 230 so that the stem of a plant can extend to the outside, the cover 230 As shown in the figure, it is made in a two-part form and is fitted and fixed in the fitting hole formed around the upper surface of the inner container 220 to prevent the upper soil from being exposed or leaking to the outside.

In this embodiment, the accommodating part 214 is made in a polygonal (octagonal) or circular shape as shown in the drawings, and the inner container 220 is also made in a circular or polygonal shape to accommodate the outer container 210. When it is rotatably inserted into the part 212 and grown in a tilted state, it is grown while rotating slightly at regular intervals to enable balanced growth of the plant despite the tendency of the plant stem to grow downward due to gravity. and the leaf portion is configured to grow evenly and radially as a whole.

On the other hand, the vent hole 215 is formed on the outer side of the receiving portion 214, and the vent hole 225 communicating with the vent hole 215 on the outer side of the receiving unit 214 also on the outer side of the inner container 220. is formed.

In addition, the outer container 210 has a stepped 211 formed on the lower outer periphery to enable vertical stacking in multiple stages and is inserted into the upper inner side, and has a stepped 211 on the lower outer periphery and a coupling protrusion 213 on the upper outer periphery and A coupling hole 215 is formed, and a hook 218a is formed on the rear surface of the outer container 210 to be hooked and fixed to the housing 100 .

In this embodiment, the water supply unit 300 includes a water tank 310 under the housing 100 , a submersible pump 320 and a water supply pipe 330 , and a branch pipe 340 for supplying water to the uppermost pot 200 . ), and after the water supply is made from the top to the bottom step by step through multi-stage pots arranged vertically from the top pot, excess water is recovered and circulated from the bottom pot 200 back to the water tank 310 consists of

In this embodiment, the submersible pump 320 of the water supply unit 300 is not continuously driven, but intermittently, that is, the moisture in the moisture sensor (not shown) installed in the flowerpot 200 is lower than the set lower limit value. It is made for a certain period of time, for example, 30 minutes only when it falls, and it is set to stop the operation when the moisture sensor reaches the upper limit set value, and the pot 200 is filled with porous but high porosity topsoil. After absorbing moisture from the soil in a saturated state, it is gradually supplied to the roots of plants, so the evaporation of moisture is very slow. The operation cycle of the submersible pump is related to the indoor humidity, but it is usually only about once every 10 to 15 days. will be done

In the present embodiment, the blower 400 is formed in the upper space of the housing 100 to collect the air introduced from the flowerpot 200 at the upper end of the hood 410 and the upper side of the hood 410 . It consists of an installed exhaust fan 420 , and the air purified by the plant is supplied back into the room through the exhaust grill 110 in the front upper part of the housing 100 through the exhaust fan 420 .

In this embodiment, although not shown in the drawings, the indoor air purifier is provided with a plurality of sensors for measuring the temperature, humidity, and air pollution level of the air flowing into or out of the purifier and the exhaust air. The sensor for measuring the pollution level consists of a TVOC sensor, a carbon dioxide sensor, a carbon monoxide sensor, an ozone sensor, a nitrogen dioxide sensor, a radon sensor, and a fine dust sensor. By separately measuring the air pollution level before entering the device and the air pollution level after passing through the purification device, the purification performance is compared in real time. You can also collect data and make it available for use.

In this embodiment, the control unit 500 transmits the air environment index and device information of the device, that is, whether the fan is driven, the water level of the water tank, whether the lighting and the pump are operating, to the outside in real time along with the signals measured by the sensors. It is displayed, stored in memory, and transmitted to an external server or manager's smartphone through wired/wireless communication, and the external server or manager remotely monitors whether each indoor air purification device is operating normally in real-time wirelessly. and control, the controller 500 compares the signal input from each sensor with the set signal to automatically control the fan and the pump so that the indoor air maintains a constant level of moisture in the soil. As described above, since the blinking operation is automatically controlled by a timer or an illuminance sensor, it is possible to conveniently maintain and manage the purification device.

As described above, in the indoor air purifier according to this embodiment, the polluted indoor air is purified while passing through the pores between the leaves and roots of plants planted in pots as well as the porous topsoil, so fine dust, odors and various types of air in the air are purified. It can effectively purify pollutants, and since the topsoil planted with plants is made of a porous material in the form of balls or pellets, it absorbs a large amount of moisture and releases it gradually, so the water supply cycle of plants is lengthened as much as possible to reduce power consumption. Of course, unnecessary noise generation can be reduced, and the plants planted in the inner container of the pot can grow while rotating at a certain angle in place, so that the leaves, stems, and roots can grow in a balanced way. In addition to the function of purifying the indoor air, the air purifier can improve the landscaping as well as the eco-friendly greening function of the indoor space.

100: housing
110: exhaust grill
200: flowerpot
210: external container
211: step
212: body
213: coupling protrusion
214: receptacle
215: coupling hole
216: anterior chamber
216a: branch pipe mounting groove
217: bulkhead
218: rear chamber
218a : hanger
219: stopper
220: content
225: vent hole
230: cover
232: vent hole
234: planter
300: water supply
310: water tank
320: submersible pump
330: water supply pipe
340: branch pipe
400: blower
410: hood
420: exhaust fan
500: control unit
S: top soil
g: voids

Claims (7)

housing with an open front; a plurality of flowerpots installed in multiple stages inside the housing; a water supply unit for supplying water to the plurality of flowerpots; An indoor air purification device using plants comprising a; a blower installed on the upper part of the housing and supplying purified air to the room through the flowerpot;
The flowerpot is composed of an outer container and an inner container, and in the inner container, one or more materials from the group including ocher, masato, activated carbon, zeolite, perlite (pearlite), vermiculite (vermiculite), volcanic stone are balls or The topsoil formed in the form of pellets is filled, and air is smoothly circulated through the pores formed by the topsoil in the form of balls or pellets,
The outer container has a rectangular body, a receiving part that is opened obliquely upward to the front of the body to accommodate the inner container, is located in front of the inside of the body and has two overholes on the floor, which are selectively closed by a stopper It consists of a front chamber whose water level is controlled by the A vent hole is formed, and a vent hole communicating with the vent hole of the outer periphery of the receiving unit is also formed on the outer side of the inner container, and the outer container has a step formed on the lower outer periphery so as to be vertically stacked in multiple stages and is inserted into the upper inner side. , An indoor air purification device using a plant, characterized in that the step of the lower periphery and the upper periphery are formed with a coupling protrusion and a coupling hole, and a hook for fixing by hanging on the housing is formed on the rear surface of the outer container. delete delete delete delete delete delete

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