US2269673A - Electric air conditioning apparatus for brooders - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 13, 1942. J. E. KRESKY 2,269,673

ELECTRIC AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS FOR BROODERS Filed March 4, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l 3)! INVENTOR.

64w gig/W.

ATTORNEY Jan. 13, 1942. J KREsKY 2,269,673

ELECTRIC AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS FOR BROODERS Filed March 4, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mmvm. w "14% n 81 4/ w. KW

ATTORNEY.

Patented Jan. 13, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELECTRIC AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS FOR BROODERS Jesse E. Kresky, Petaluma, Calif.

Application March 4, 1941, Serial No. 381,645

2 Claims.

This invention relates to an electrically controlled air-conditioning heating and ventilating device for use particularly with chicken brooders.

The use of hovers or enclosures in which young chicks may be raised, is well known in the art. However, due to improper and inadequate methods of heating and ventilation, mortality is higher than it should be among such chicks from variousdiseases, particularly of a pulmonary character.

In the brooders or hovers heretofore in use it has been found that a very rapid and uneven horizontal temperature gradient has existed between the. heating member and the outer portions of a brooder. Hence the chicks tended to huddle together in a mass around the heating unit, smothering some, and causing those in the center to sweat, take cold, and become prey to roup, bronchitis, tuberculosis, and similar complaintswhich have caused serious losses to poultrymen.

Especially is this so in those types or" brooders which permit entrance of cold air around the edges. Usually the heat is turned on and off at. intervals manually, and the chicks are subjected to alternate periods of excessive cold and heat. Under "such. conditions the droppings tend to accumulate, forming. a wet, soggy footing, and the atmosphere becomes foul and inimical to the health of the chicks.

By my invention filthy, insanitary, damp or wet unventilated conditions under the hover have been eliminated, and replaced by heolthful conditions with. a positive flow of dry, warm, automatically conditioned fresh air for ventilation. This fresh air is diffused from the center of the brooder and passed through the flock of chicks, flowing over the floor to give dry, sanitary conditions, and is finally exhausted under the brooder curtains. into the brooder room to be ventilated away. These advantages are obtained by providing suitable means whereby a continuous flow through the brooder is obtained of controllable amounts of fresh air, the incoming air being held closely to the optimum temperature desired which in my brooder is approximately 83 F. as against higher enervating temperatures heretofore commonly necessary; the air being distributed evenly to all parts of the enclosure under a positive pressure which prevents cold air from entering peripherally. This even distribution of warm air enables operation at a temperature from 5 to 8 F. lower than the previously permissible average and removes the cause of huddling, with its resultant sweatings, colds, and smotherings. The structure also en: sures rapid evaporation of the droppings and a dry footing for the chicks. My invention has been designed to achieve these results with a substantial saving in operation costs over the previously known types.

These result-s are obtained, in brief, by an automatically controlled heating unit which draws a column of fresh air into the brooder, warms it, directs it evenly throughout the hover, and expels it under positive pressure.

The objects of my invention thus include: providing a positive flow of fresh, warm air into and through a brooder, and drying and heating the air and thereby removing excess humidity; preventing the influx of cold, unheated air; eliminating excessive dampness; relieving unsanitary brooder conditions and reducing the bacterial count in the brooder air; preventing crowding and packing together of chicks; correcting conditions causing chicks to sweat, take cold, and become subject to other pulmonary complaints such as roup, bronchitis and tuberculosis; making it possible to raise chicks at an average temperature ranging from 5 to 8 F. below that necessary with other known types of brooders; providing a more economical device for housing chicks; and in general, reducing mortality and insuring better health and greater subsequent laying capacity in brooder-raised chicks or other fowls.

These and other objects which will occur to those skilled in the art are obtained by my invention, a preferred embodiment of which is illustrated in the appended drawings.

The structure shown is exemplary of my invention, but it will be understood that I may make variations in the details of construction within the scope of the claims. It will also be obvious that the invention is not limited to; chicken brookers, but may be used with all varieties of domestic fowls, or with any other small creatures requiring clean, dry quarters and a continuous supply of fresh, properly conditioned air.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation, partially in section, of a chicken brooder, showing my device installed therein;

Fig. 2 is a side view, partially in section, of my aid conditioning, heating, and ventilating unit;

Fig. 3 is a perspective of an air spreading or deflecting element, removed from the unit shown in Fig. 2;

I have described my air conditioning, heating and ventilating unit in connection with a preferred form of brooder or hover, but it will be seen from the description following that the form of the hover itself may be varied within wide limits, and the structure shown is exemplary only of the features necessary to successful use of my invention.

In Fig. 1, I have shown my invention, comprising the air conditioning, heating and ventilating device, which may be referred to hereafter briefly as the unit A, installed in a brooder or hover 2, usually housed in a suitable building. The hover may be of any conventional type and is here shown as comprising a top portion 4 with dependent curtains 6 coming to within an inch or so of the floor 1; the curtains being usually slitted as at 9 and notched as at H], to allow ready ingress and egress of the chicks and provided for ventilation.

My invention proper is concerned more especialiy withthe air conditioning, heating and ventilating unit A, which draws in fresh air from the space outside hover 2 through either an intake member II and a tunnel l2, or directly through a bottom opening 31' as shown in Fig. 6, or through both the tunnel and an opening as 3"! in Fig. 2, as will be more fully described later.

The incoming air is thus brought into proximity with the heating coil 84, heated, dried, conditioned and then distributed uniformly throughout the brooder enclosure by means of an air spreading member or deflector l5 and the force of the air currents generated in the apparatus.

The flow of current through coil [4 is controlled by a switch I! actuated by a thermostat generally represented at I9 situated in the hover a short distance from the heating coil l4, in response to the changes in temperature of the air circulating throughout the enclosed space. The cooled, used air sinks toward the floor 7 and is forced out of the hover by the positive pressure of the air current drawn into and rising through the heater or stove surrounding the coil [4. This air is at a temperature sufficient to dry the droppings, remove excess humidity and in sure a warm, dry floor through the hover, thus maintaining sanitary conditions for the chicks.

The entire unit A, apart from the thermostat l9 and the electrical components, is susceptible of economical construction from galvanized sheet steel, or any equivalent sheet material which is corrosion resistant, easily cleaned, and readily fabricated. The heater 2! is preferably an opentopped enclosure of suitable cross section in continuation of the air trunk or tunnel l2. The heater or stove enclosing the coil 14 comprises an outer housing or shell of suitable size and cross section, here shown as rectangular. The interior of shell 20 is divided by a vertical partition 21 into two vertical coaxial fines 2223. The bulk of the air that passes upward from the air chamber 24 comes into close contact with the heating coil 14 and passes out at the top through the upper open end of the circular partition 2| and the hole 25 in top cover plate 26. The outer air current passes upward through the duct or flue 23, acting as an air jacket and is warmed, and then directed radially inward by the top horizontal plate 26 to pass directly over the heating coil l4 to have its temperature suddenly raised and to be commingled with the hotter air current arising through flue 22. The conjoined air currents then escape through the opening 25; the heated air then being distributed horizontally into the brooder by the cowl member l5, Fig. 3.

The heating coil I4 is of well known construction, mounted in usual manner on a bracket 28 and connected to the leads 29-30; the thermostatic switch I 7 being interposed in lead 29. 3! is a transverse bafiie plate which has an opening 32 coincident with the open bottom of the vertical partition 2| so that the air has ready upward ingress to and through flue 22. Plate 3|, however, acts to close the entry of air to the outer duct 23 except for the cut-away corner opening 32 through which a limited amount of air from chamber 24 may pass to the air jacket duct 23.

The air tunnel I2 is a low, rectangular enclosure fixed to the heater housing 20, opening into air chamber 24 and having sufficient length to extend beyond the enclosure of hover 2 when the heater is located centrally therein. Tunnel I2 is also open on the bottom, with an inturned bottom edge 33, acting as a guide for movable bottom slide 34.

The slide 34 is somewhat longer than the combined lengths of tunnel l2 and heater 20. When the slide is pushed clear into place it forms the bottom of the air chamber 24 below the coil. Slide 34 is freely movable longitudinally of the tunnel l2, and since it is of greater length than the tunnel and the heating chamber, it may be easily manipulated from its exposed end 36. The object of this manipulation is to permit it to be opened or closed, damper fashion, to uncover or cover more or less an opening 37 in the bottom of the air chamber 24.

This bottom opening 31 to the air chamber allows control of the amount of outside air drawn into the hover, and permits re-circulation of a portion of the air therein. It also permits, as shown in Fig. 6, of doing away entirely with the air trunk l2 by cutting a hole 3'! in the floor and taking air directly from the outside through the floor and through the port 37' into the air chamber 24 below the coil.

Again, under certain conditions such as, forexample, when the brooder is first put into use on a cold day, it may be desirable to increase the rate at which it warms. To attain this end, the

outside fresh air inlet may be partially closed and the bottom aperture 3! opened to reduce the negative pressure at the inlet, and the air within the brooder circulated continuously through the heater until the desired temperature is obtained. In other cases, it may prove desirable to increase the amount of fresh air drawn in beyond the minimum amount, varying the suction by varying the width of bottom aperture 31. Any desired proportion of air through these points of entry may be secured by proper adjustment of the bottom slide 34.

The air duct 22 constitutes the main heating chamber while the outer air passage 23 acts as an insulating medium or air jacket interposing a cooler layer of air between the directly heated partition 2| and the surrounding shell or wall of the heater so that a high percentage of the heat is distributed by the convection currents of air, and a small percentage by direct radiation from the heating chamber. This air jacket safeguards against overheating and insures that the thgrmostat [9 shall respond only to the temperature of the circulating air, minimizing the effect thereon of direct radiation from heating coil l4.

As above stated, the two air currents, the one passing upward inside of partition 2| and the other outside thereof, are joined at the top of the heater, the outer cooler current through passageway 23 being swept inwardly by the top plate 26 and over the heating unit I4 to become heated and conditioned before the two air streams united into one, are released into the hover.

As the current descends, a portion of it impinges on the thermostat I9, which is set to maintain a desired temperature. I have found the commercially available Sylphon bellows, or expansible sealed diaphragm chambers of thin corrugated metal about three inches in diameter to be quite satisfactory for this use. While any sensitive thermostatic control might be used, the wide area of the Sylphon bellows makes them more responsive to average temperatures existing throughout the falling air current than a more concentrated device would be.

The thermostat I9 is supported by a bracket 5| extending from housing 20 and is a commercially obtainable device forming no part of the present invention. Briefly, it includes a V-shaped mounting frame 40, carrying on one arm an enclosed switch I1 and on the other arm Sylphon type bellows 4|. Switch I1 is normally closed,

and the bellows 4| are arranged to open it by pressure against a resiliently positioned, protruding ball 42. The bellows are attached to frame 40 by a threaded rod 43, engaging the upper mounting frame arm 44. The cut-off temperature is varied by turning a thumb nut 45 on rod 43 to change the spacing of the bellows 4! relative to ball 42.

Suitable leads connect coil 14 and switch 11 in series to a current source. As long as the current is provided and the temperature does not exceed the pre-set value, coil l4 will continue to glow. When the pre-set value of temperature is exceeded, the bellows 4| expand, pressing against the ball 42 and opening the switch ll. When the air cools the bellows contract, allowing the switch to close and repeating the cycle as long as current is supplied. As shown in Fig. 2, the trunk leads are led along the tunnel I2 to pass through an insulating bushing 41, preferably outside'the hover 2.

In Fig. 6 a conduit 48 houses and protects the leads to any suitable point of entry.

By this system the average temperature may be held at all times within a range of a single degree.

Another important feature of the invention is the fact that the pressure and volume of the air currents are automatically controlled by the arrangement of the heating unit and air ducts and air-distributing means.

Also, practice shows that when the heater is shut down there is no air circulation through the heater to cause cold drafts.

In summary, my structure, as shown by actual commercial practice, operates to sweep the brooder continuously free of all foul air; to dry the droppings; and to produce an outgoing force which passes under the hover curtains to stop any cold, damp air from entering under the curtains to chill the outside chicks, thereby causing, in turn, crowding and packing against the chicks nearer the center of the hover, causing them to sweat, with devitalizing results.

This invention permits the poultryman to keep his chicks in a sanitary conditioned atmosphere, with dry footing and a continuous supply of fresh air warmed to exactly the right temperature and distributed evenly throughout the hover. Chicks raised in this fashion are stronger, healthier, and less susceptible to pulmonary complaints, while mortality, due to crowding together in a mass for warmth, is eliminated.- Even temperature distribution permits a lowering of the average temperature substantially beneath that of previously known brooders, with an attendant increase in the hardiness of the chicks after leaving the brooder. These desirable results are achieved with substantial economies in heating costs, and, in general, afford a substantial contribution to the chicken raising industry.

What I claim is:

1. An air-conditioning unit for a brooder comprising a housing, an adjustable fresh air intake operated solely by thermal currents communicating with said housing, two vertical air ducts connected with the intake of said housing, a. heating element in one of said ducts, the other of said air ducts constituting an air jacket, an apertured baffle plate above the two ducts whereby the two air currents are united above the heating element and permitted to escape, and a temperature-responsive control means for maintaining a substantially uniform temperature.

2. A device for conditioning and circulating by thermal means only air in a brooder comprising an adjustable fresh air intake extending beyond said brooder, two vertically disposed chambers mounted about a common axis, an electric heater in the inner of said chambers, a peripherally apertured ballle plate extending across the bottom of said chambers to divide upward air currents between said chambers, a baffle arranged over said chambers to recombine said upward air currents, an insulated deflecting plate arranged to direct said recombined currents horizontally outward, and thermostatic switch means secured externally to said chambers to control current through said heater.

JESSE E. KRESKY.

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