WO2003073009A1

WO2003073009A1 - A fume extractor hood with built-in lighting device

Info

Publication number: WO2003073009A1
Application number: PCT/IB2003/000675
Authority: WO
Inventors: Vincenzo Balestra; Lorenzo Lispi; Francesco Magrini
Original assignee: Elica S.P.A.
Priority date: 2002-02-27
Filing date: 2003-02-24
Publication date: 2003-09-04
Also published as: ITRN20020006V0; AU2003212547A1; ITRN20020006U1

Abstract

A fume extractor hood (1) for domestic use, in particular for the kitchen, comprises a lighting device (2) used to illuminate the space under the extractor hood (1) and including a plurality of LEDs (3) as the lighting elements.

Description

A fume extractor hood with built-in lighting device

Technical field

The present invention relates to the manufacture of extractor hoods for kitchens and, in particular, discloses an extractor hood equipped with a highly efficient lighting system that is especially advantageous compared to conventional lighting systems .

Background art

In traditional extractor hoods for kitchens, the space under the hood is lit by a lighting unit consisting of an incandescent lamp or, more recently, a fluorescent lamp, powered by conventional voltage provided by the domestic mains supply.

The lighting units in the extractor hoods have to work in heavy-duty conditions, exposed not only to heat from cooking but also to the fumes sucked in by the extractor. These fumes, which consist essentially of steam carrying large quantities of suspended particles of greasy substances nebulized during the cooking process, tend to condense on the walls of the extractor hood and on the surface of the lamps . These working conditions lead to several problems. To maintain basic standards of hygiene, the lamps must be periodically cleaned to prevent unwanted substances from falling into the cooking pots below and/or to prevent the formation of unpleasant odours due to thermal degradation of the impurities on the surface of the lamps. Cleaning also reduces overheating of the lamps by facilitating heat dispersion, thus guaranteeing longer lamp life, and keeps the cooking area well lit.

Cleaning operations, however, can be dangerous, exposing the user to the risk of electric shock if the electric circuit is inadvertently left on, or to burning if the lamps are not given sufficient time to cool down. Despite the adoption of safety measures, the conditions in which the lamps work inevitably reduce the life of the lighting elements to some extent, which means that the elements must be periodically changed. The main aim of the present invention is to provide an extractor hood with a high level of intrinsic safety dispensing with the need for the user to risk coming into contact with live electrical parts and/or hot parts.

Another aim of the invention is to increase the reliability of the lighting device by increasing the working life of the lighting elements in such a way as to significantly reduce the number of maintenance operations required, that is, to extend the interval of time between two successive maintenance operations .

A further aim of the invention is to increase the number of typical functions of the lighting device in the extractor hood by extending the range of possible applications, allowing the hood to be used as a courtesy light, as a reading lamp or as a room light fixture making the use of television sets and/or computer screens that may be present in the same room more agreeable. Yet another aim of the invention is to be able to work in conjunction with emergency lighting devices associated with the extractor hood in order to increase its operating duration.

Other aims of the invention are lower power consumption and the possibility of using low-temperature lighting elements which reduce the likelihood of thermal degradation of the impurities on them.

Disclosure of the invention

These and other aims are achieved by a fume extractor hood for domestic use, in particular for the kitchen, comprising a device for lighting the space under the hood and characterised in that the lighting device includes LEDs as the lighting elements.

Description of the drawings The technical characteristics of the invention, with reference to the above aims, are clearly described in the claims below and its advantages are apparent from the detailed description which follows, with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention provided merely by way of example without restricting the scope of the inventive concept, and in which: - Figure 1 is a perspective assembly view of an extractor hood according to the invention;

- Figure 2 is a block diagram showing some of the possible functions of the extractor hood.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention

In the accompanying drawings, the numeral 1 denotes a fume extractor hood for domestic use, in particular for kitchens, comprising a device 2 for lighting the space under the hood 1 and, unobtrusively hidden in a flue 10, electric and/or electronic circuits including power supply means 4, preferably low- oltage, and means 5 for modulating the luminosity of the lighting device 2.

The lighting device 2 comprises a plurality of LEDs 3, acting as the lighting elements, built into a structure 11 of the hood 1.

The LEDs 3, positioned above the hob 9 under the hood 1, provide the cooking area with uniform lighting whose intensity can be finely adjusted according to the user's requirements using the modulation means 5. The low-voltage operation of the LEDs 3, on the one hand, confers a high level of intrinsic safety for a user who needs to operate on the lighting elements and, on the other, enables the lighting elements to achieve a high level of reliability and durability, making it practically unnecessary for them to be changed.

The lighting device 2 is designed to provide different degrees of room illumination, that is to say, the intensity of the light produced by the LEDs 3 can be set to the maximum level if food is being prepared and to the minimum level if the extractor hood is used as a low-consumption, energy-saving lighting point, with a wide range of intermediate light intensities between these two limits, for example, to provide the optimum level of illumination for watching television or working at a computer in the same room as that where the extractor hood is installed.

The LEDs 3 may also be differently coloured. The use of LEDs 3 designed to give off red, green and blue light in conjunction with suitable control means 8 designed to switch the LEDs 3 on and off and to vary their luminosity makes it possible to adapt room lighting according to the light required under the extractor hood 1, according to the different uses of the hood as mentioned above and according to the preferences of the persons using the kitchen where the hood is installed.

Further, if the extractor hood is equipped with an emergency lighting device 6 powered by a self-contained battery 7 and designed to come into operation in the event of a temporary power failure, the use of the LEDs 3 as lighting elements offers the additional advantage of significantly increasing battery duration or of being able to use lower power batteries .

Besides the utilitarian aspect, from the user's viewpoint, of spending less on batteries - whose duration, currently at around 20 minutes, may be extended to as much as 30 hours - increased battery duration and/or the use of lower power batteries also means that used batteries to be disposed of have a smaller impact on the environment. Moreover, the possibility of using smaller batteries means that batteries occupy less space in the extractor hood casing, which has the advantage of giving extractor hood manufacturers much more freedom to vary the constructional design of extractor hoods.

The use of differently coloured LEDs 3 also confers on the hoods 1 made according to the invention the possibility of providing a wider range of attractive effects for interior design purposes, which, together with the reduced size of the LEDs themselves, gives interior designers greater freedom of expression to define the decorative function of the extractor hood.

The invention therefore fully achieves the aims stated above and offers numerous other advantages which, besides those already mentioned, consist basically of the following:

- the total absence of problems of electromagnetic compatibility; - no limits on the distance between the power supply means 4 and the LEDs 3;

- no limits on the possibilities of using electronic control;

- no restrictions on the type of power supply used since, although it is true that the LEDs used are preferably of the non-

DC-AC polarized type that operate on low voltage, preferably 12V/24V/48V DC voltages, it is also true that the LEDs 3 can operate on 230V AC, or on other voltages, depending on requirements ,- - an electrical working life of more than 100,000 hours compared to the 1000 hours of a standard filament light bulb and the 2000 hours of a 12V halogen lamp;

- the possibility of achieving annual savings on energy costs in the order of 30%. It will be understood that the invention described may be useful in many industrial applications and may be modified and adapted in several ways without thereby departing from the scope of the inventive concept. Moreover, all the details of the invention may be substituted by technically equivalent elements.

Claims

1. A fume extractor hood for domestic use, in particular for the kitchen, comprising a device (2) for lighting the space under the extractor hood (1) and characterised in that the lighting device (2) includes LEDs (3) as the lighting elements.

2. The extractor hood according to claim 1, characterised in that it comprises power supply means (4) for the LEDs (3) operating at low voltage .

3. The extractor hood according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that it comprises means (5) for modulating the luminosity of the LEDs (3) .

4. The extractor hood according to any of the foregoing claims, comprising an emergency lighting device (6) powered by a self- contained battery (7) , characterised in that the LEDs (3) are associated with the emergency lighting device (6) .

5. The extractor hood according to any of the foregoing claims, characterised in that the LEDs (3) are differently coloured, there being means (8) for controlling the lighting device (2) that combine the functions of switching the LEDs (3) on and off and varying their luminosity to obtain different lighting effects in the space under the extractor hood (1) .

6. The extractor hood according to claim 1, characterised in that it comprises a lighting device (2) equipped with LEDs (3) as the lighting elements connected in a circuit with low-voltage power supply means (4) and means (5) for modulating the current flowing in the LEDs (3) .