US3448590A

US3448590A - Room air conditioner

Info

Publication number: US3448590A
Application number: US616574A
Authority: US
Inventors: Arthur H Eberhart
Original assignee: Westinghouse Electric Corp
Current assignee: CBS Corp
Priority date: 1967-02-16
Filing date: 1967-02-16
Publication date: 1969-06-10
Anticipated expiration: 1986-06-10
Also published as: JPS4424272Y1

Description

June 10, 1969 O A. H. EBERHART 3,448,590

ROOM AIR CONDITIONER Filed Feb. 16, 1967 Sheet of 2 FIG. I. FIG. 2.

WITNESSES: I INVENTOR fin! 7%W A thur H. Eberhurt Y kfflmfyg ATTORNEY A. H. EBERHART 3,448,590

ROOM AIR CONDITIONER June 10, 1969 Filed Feb. 16, 1967 Sheet 2 of 2 J GIL I...

fi 52 L i L /2e r a C a 28 1 gs I E e4 38 i W 3 I I 68-; muryunnh a W r i 54 FIG. 3.

United States Patent 3,448,590 ROOM AIR CONDITIONER Arthur H. Eberhart, Hilliard, Ohio, assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 16, 1967, Ser. No. 616,574 Int. Cl. F24b 1/02; E06b 7/02 US. Cl. 62-262 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Background of the invention and description of the prior art In the eiforts to improve room air conditioners of the so-called window-mount type, substantial attention has been devoted to reducing and isolating the noise generated by the unit, and to reducing the obstruction of the window presented by the air conditioner. Variously shaped room air conditioners have accordingly been devised. For example, some units have had a generally saddle shape in which the exterior and interior sections of the unit are isolated from each other by the intermediate building wall below the window. Other units have been provided with an inverted saddle shape in which the lower sash of a window drops down into a trough between the inner and outer sections. Still other designs have attempted to remove substantially all of the unit from the inside of the room by using an inverted L-shape in which the long leg of the L depends outside of the building from the short horizontal leg clamped below the lower edge of the bottom window sash. Each arrangement possesses both advantages and disadvantages with respect to noise isolation, window obstruction, ease of mounting, and other factors. However, each has the disadvantage of discharging the conditioned air into the room from a relatively low level rather than a relatively high level.

A unit providing a relatively high level discharge is disclosed in my US. Patent 2,519,086. However, the arrangement there shown also possessed several disadvantages such as having all of the noise generating parts in the window opening or in the room, substantially obstructing the window opening, and providing interference with the mouting of drapes or curtains.

Summary of the invention Briefly, an air conditioner according to the invention includes a cabinet having the general shape of an inverted saddle which seats upwardly against a window head jamb with the inner and outer sections above the window and on opposite sides of the wall. Additionally, the lower face of the inner section main portion is located above the head jamb height so that with a relatively shallow vertical extension portion from the inner section close to the inside face of the wall, drapery rods or curtain rods may be accommodated at the usual height.

The extension portions joining the outer and inner sections fit telescopically and the refrigerent conducting lines which pass through the extension portion accommodate extension and retraction of this extension portion so that the unit may be used with building walls of different thicknesses.

The means for supporting the unit at the top of the Window will normally vary in accordance with the nature of the building structure. In some cases, the unit may be supported through exertion of a clamping force between sections accompanied by the supporting eifect of the upper sash of the window. In other instances it will be desirable to provide vertical support [from the lower horizontal portion of the window frame.

Drawing description FIGURE 1 is a front elevation view of the improved unit mounted in a double-hung, vertically-sliding sash Window;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view corresponding to one taken along the line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partly-broken view of the unit; and

FIG. 4 is a partly-broken view of the unit.

Description of preferred embodiment Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a typical exterior wall 10 below a roof having an overhanging ea've 12 is provided with a window opening 14 containing a conventional double-hung window having a vertically movable upper sash 16 and a vertically movable lower sash 18. The bottom and top of the window are generally defined by the sill 20 and head jamb 22, respectively.

The air conditioner unit housing has a relatively wide, deep, upwardly-open, transverse trough generally designated 24. The trough accommodates the exterior wall portion above the window with the outer section 26 and the inner section 28 of the housing being located on opposite sides of the wall. Both the outer and inner sections include extension portions which telescopically connect the sections to provide a conduit through which the necessary refrigerant conducting lines and the electrical power lines run from one section to the other. These extension sections are preferably co-extensive in width with the inner and outer sections.

The extension section 30 of the outer section comprises an inwardly-projecting portion at the level of the lower edge of the outer section, while the extension portion for the inner section comprises a depending, relatively shallow portion 32 at the rear of the main portion and then an outwardly-projecting portion 34 which telescopically receives the open inner end of the outer extension 30. The

horizontal portions

30 and 34 of the extension sections are located closely up against the head jamb 22 to occupy a negligible area of the window opening when the unit is installed.

While the housing may be supported in various ways in its installed position, the currently prefered way illustrated is to clamp the housing about the wall in the fashion of a C-clamp. Hence, a series of horizontallyextending ridges 36 are provided on the face of the outer section 26 which abuts the exterior wall face to increase the frictional engagement. With the connection between the extension sections secured to prevent relative linear and rotational movement between the sections, the outer section is drawn toward the building wall by means of adjustable screw members 38 turned into contact with the inner face of the building wall 10. Additionally, for some installations, a pair of posts or stanchions 40 may be used as supporting columns for the underside of the housing with their bottom ends supported by the sill 20.

The general arrangement of the interior components as related to the structure of the various sections of the housing is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. It will be understood that the showings are not complete in the sense of illustrating all details of structure, since many of the details are of little consequence to the invention.

The outer section 26 contains a refrigerant compressor 44, condenser fan 46 driven by motor 48, and a diagonally-disposed condenser 50. The air flow through the section may be from side to side as shown by the arrows of FIG. 4.

The main parts of the refrigeration system and room air moving assembly found in the main portion of the inner section, which main portion is of substantial depth in a front-to-rear direction, include the refrigerant evaporator 52 connected by a pair of refrigerant lines 54 to the compressor and condenser in the outer section, and a pair of room air fans 56 driven by motor 58. Room air is drawn into the inner section through an inlet grille 60 and air filter 62 at the bottom face of the inner section. The room air then passes up through the fans 56 and is forced out through the evaporator at the room face and outlet grille 64. The directional arrows of FIG. 3 indicate the air fiow path through the inner section.

A drip pan assembly 66 underlies the evaporator 52 to collect condensate which is passed through conduit 68 extending down through the vertical extension 32 of the inner section, and then out through the

horizontal telescoping sections

30 and 34 to the outer section 26. The condensate is there either picked up through known means and flung against the condenser, or is simply allowed to drain out of the outer section.

It will be noted that the refrigerant lines 54 (only one shown) have a generally hairpin shape in the

extension sections

30 and 34. This shape serves as an extensible portion to accommodate moving the inner and outer sections relative to each other without damaging the refrigerant lines.

Each of the extension sections is of generally rectangular cross-section with the outwardly projecting horizontal extension 34 of greater cross-sectional area so as to accommodate the slightly smaller area extension section 30 of the outer section. Accordingly, these telescopically related sections will accommodate moving the inner and outer sections relative to each other for the particular wall thickness involved. The relatively narrow side walls of these telescopic sections may be provided with holes 70 at intervals therealong so that pins 72 may be inserted to maintain the spacing between the inner and outer sections at the approximately correct distance. It will be appreciated that the telescoping sections should be suificiently rigid that the turning moment imposed by both the inner and outer sections does not tend to widen the spacing between these sections at the top.

A number of advantages are available from the mounting disposition of the unit as shown. The inner section receives and discharges air from an elevated location in the room in accordance with preferred practice for air conditioners. The configuration of the inner section with its elevated inner section and thin depending section 32 accommodates the use of draperies without serious interference from the housing since the lower face of the main portion exposes enough of the head casing for securing the draperies. The extension sections take up little of the window space and accordingly provide only slight obstruction to vision. The location of the ouside section up under the eaves shelters it somewhat from weather and in some instances makes it less obtrusive. The mounting does not necessarily interfere with opening of the lower sash 18. The exterior screen for the window may be modified only slightly in its top portion and be used while the air conditioner is in place. Where the overhanging cave is available, the outer section is also shaded to a substantial degree for better performance of the unit. By using the relatively massive outside wall as a sound barrier between the noise generated in the outer section and the inside of the room, the noise level of the unit as a whole is reduced to a greater extent than where the outside section is separated from the inside of the room only by a window sash, which sometimes operates as a sounding board.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a building structure having an exterior wall provided with a window opening therein and a vertical wall portion above said window opening, a unit air conditioner including:

a housing having an outer section, and an inner section, adapted to be disposed on the outside and inside, respectively, of said wall portion above said window, each of said sections including lower, horizontally-disposed telescopic sleeve portions adapted to mate with each other at the top of said window opening,

said inner section including a main portion of substantial depth in a front-to-rear direction having its lower face above said top of said window opening so that drapery fixtures can be accommodated below said lower face at a head casing height of said window, said inner section including a relatively shallow extension portion depending at its rear closely along the interior face of said wall to join said outwardlyprojecting horizontal sleeve portion.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein:

means carried by said inner section adjustably movable into engagement with the interior face of said building wall for clamping said air conditioner to said wall.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein:

said main portion of said inner section includes room air inlet means in said lower face and conditioned air outlet means in its front face.

4. The combination of claim 1 including:

a refrigeration compressor and condenser in said outer section;

a refrigeration evaporator in said inner section; and

refrigerant conducting lines extending through said depending extension portion and said sleeve portions, said conducting lines including an extensible portion in said sleeve portions space to accommodate a range of spacing between said inner and outer sections.

5. The combination of claim 2 wherein:

said outer section includes means on its face abutting said exterior wall for augmenting the frictional engagement between said outer section and said wall.

6. A unit air conditioner for mounting at the top edge of a window opening in a building structure, including:

a housing having an outer section, and an inner section,

said outer section including a lower edge, inwardlyprojecting extension, said inside section including a rear, depending and then outwardly-projecting extension telescopically mating with said outer extension, whereby the main portion of said inner section has a lower face substantially above the lower face of said outer section, said sections as assembled defining an upwardly-open trough therebetween to '5 accommodate said building structure wall above said window opening:

a refrigeration compressor and refrigerant condensing means in said outer section;

a refrigerant evaporator, and fan means for inducing a flow of room air through said evaporator, in said inner section;

refrigerant conducting lines extending through said extension sections to join the refrigeration producing components in said inner and outer sections, said conducting lines being adapted to accommodate a range of spacing between said inner and said outer sections; and

means for securing said inner and outer sections to said wall structure above said Window.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Kramer 62-285 Hull 62-262 Eberhart 62-262 Knight 62-262 Bauman 62-262 Copp.

US. Cl. X.R.