WO2008010208A2

WO2008010208A2 - Thin profile ceiling mounted air conditioning system for suite of rooms

Info

Publication number: WO2008010208A2
Application number: PCT/IL2007/000883
Authority: WO
Inventors: Moshe Cohen
Original assignee: Moshe Cohen
Priority date: 2006-07-16
Filing date: 2007-07-15
Publication date: 2008-01-24
Also published as: WO2008010208A3; IL176881A0

Abstract

A ceiling mountable inner unit for an air-conditioning system for conditioning air within a plurality of rooms; The ceiling mountable inner unit for mounting on ceiling and for coupling to external unit comprising: air inlets supplied with heat-exchange grids for conditioning air; pumping system for pumping air into ceiling mountable inner unit and plurality of air outlets having conduits attachable thereto for piping conditioned air to the rooms; Such that for cooling air within rooms, heat is extracted from heat-exchange grids, pumped to external air-conditioning unit and dissipated to surroundings; for heating air within rooms, heat-exchange grids are heated by extracting heat from surroundings and pumping heat to ceiling mountable inner unit; wherein air pumping means comprises plurality of small radius fans, each associated with separate outlet from said plurality of outlets; the air-conditioning comprises heating / cooling air pumped through the ceiling mountable inner unit.

Description

Thin profile ceiling mounted air conditioning system for suite of rooms Field of the Invention

The present invention is directed to providing an air conditioning system for conditioning air in a suite of rooms. Background

Air conditioning systems are widely used to provide heat or cool air within buildings. For conditioning single rooms, through the wall units are used that are mounted in an aperture in an external wall, often a window opening. For conditioning large buildings such as schools, hospitals and the like, a central unit is provided that pumps conditioned air through a system of conduits into the individual rooms.

One type of system commonly used in small office suites and apartments, having a small number of rooms, typically 3 to 8, is the ceiling mounted, mini-central type of air conditioning system that pipes conditioned air through a plurality of air conduits to the different rooms. Such systems are often mounted above a false ceiling. The system includes an external unit that is typically mounted outside of the building, often on the roof. The external unit is coupled to a ceiling mounted unit within the building.

When the system is used for cooling an apartment or office suite, the ceiling mounted unit sucks heat from the air passing therethrough and the external unit dissipates heat to the outside. When used for heating the apartment or office suite, heat is extracted from the outside air and is used to heat air passing through the ceiling mounted unit.

Unconditioned air is pumped into the ceiling mounted unit and conditioned air is pumped out of the unit, down conduits to the different rooms by a large fan. The conduits may be thinner, but the fan of the ceiling mounted unit generally results in the ceiling mounted unit to be approximately 60 cm deep. This causes mounting problems unless the floor to ceiling height is appropriately large to accommodate the unit.

The present invention addresses this issue, and provides a slim, central, ceiling mounted air conditioning unit that, despite its thin profile, can, nevertheless, pump air down long conduits to the outlets in the various rooms of the apartment / office. Summary of the Invention

It is one aim of the present invention to provide a ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system having a shallow profile of approximately the diameter of the conditioned air conduits attached thereto. It is a further aim of preferred air conditioning systems, that the amount of air pumped along each conduit of the air conditioning system, is individually controllable.

In a first aspect, a ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system for conditioning air within a plurality of rooms is described. The ceiling mountable inner unit is for mounting on a ceiling and comprises air inlets supplied with heat exchange grids for conditioning the air; a pumping system for pumping air into the ceiling mountable inner unit and a plurality of air outlets having air conduits attachable thereto for piping conditioned air to the plurality of rooms; the ceiling mountable inner unit is couplable to an external unit, such that for cooling air within the plurality of rooms heat is extracted from the heat exchange grids and pumped to the external air conditioning unit and dissipated to its surroundings, and for heating the air within the plurality of rooms, the heat exchange grids are heated by extracting heat from the surroundings of the external air conditioning unit and pumping the heat to the ceiling mountable inner unit; wherein the air pumping means is a plurality of small radius fans and each small radius fan is associated with a separate air outlet from said plurality of air outlets and air conditioning comprises heating or cooling air pumped through the ceiling mountable inner unit.

Preferably, each small radius fan can be separately activated.

Preferably each small radius fan is separately activated by a switch in a room to which the conduit from the outlet where the small radius fan is situated conducts conditioned air.

Preferably each small radius fan includes a one way valve allowing air to be pumped therethrough in one direction only.

Preferably each small radius fan may be selectively operated at any of a plurality of preset speeds. Each small radius fan is optionally mountable at any location along the conduit.

Preferably, the ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system further comprises a humidifier and the air conditioning further comprises humidifying the air.

Preferably, the ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system further comprises a filter and the air conditioning further comprises filtering the air.

Optionally, the plurality of air conduits comprises at least two conduits having different diameters. Typically the plurality of rooms is an apartment or a small office suite.

Brief Description of the Figures

For a better understanding of the invention and to show how it may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, purely by way of example, to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the preferred embodiments of the present invention only, and are presented in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the invention. In this regard, no attempt is made to show structural details of the invention in more detail than is necessary for a fundamental understanding of the invention; the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the invention may be embodied in practice. In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a schematic isometric projection of a ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system having a plurality of air outlets on a side thereof, each air outlet having a dedicated fan associated therewith.

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system showing how air is sucked thereinto;

Fig. 3 is a schematic isometric projection of a ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system in accordance with a second embodiment having a triangular manifold appended to a side of the ceiling mountable inner unit, for enabling a larger number of conduits to be coupled thereonto;

Fig. 4 shows the ceiling mountable inner unit and triangular manifold of the second embodiment shown in Fig. 3, with a plurality of conduits attached thereonto; each conduit being attached to a separate air outlet and having a dedicated fan associated therewith at a junction therealong, and

Fig. 5 is an isometric projection of an apartment having an air conditioning system of one embodiment of the invention, and showing the external unit, the ceiling mountable inner unit and conduits with position of dedicated fans shown. Description of the Preferred Embodiments

With reference now to Fig. 5, an air conditioning system for conditioning the air within an appartment 26 comprising a plurality of rooms 28, 30, 32 is shown. The air conditioning system comprises an external unit 36 situated outside of the plurality of rooms 28, 30, 32 and a ceiling mountable inner unit 2 for mounting on a ceiling. Thus far, such air conditioning systems are commonly used for conditioning the air in small office or appartments. The conduits 22 run under the ceiling (not shown), often above a false ceiling. It will be noted that typically the various rooms of an office suite or appartment block have different dimensions, different volumes and different conditioning requiremements. For example room 32 is larger than room 28, which is larger than room 30.

As shown in Fig. 1 and in exploded view in Fig. 2 where lid 16 is removed showing the inside of the ceiling mountable inner unit 2, the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 has air inlets 12 supplied with heat exchange grids for conditioning the air pumped therethrough and a plurality of air outlets 4A, 4B, 4C through which are is pumped.

The heat exchange grids are coupled via refrigerant gas inlet and outlet pipes 8, 10 (Fig.l) to the external unit 36. For cooling air within the appartment 26, heat is extracted from the heat exchange grids and pumped to the external air conditioning unit by forcing refrigerant fluid through inlet and outlet pipes 8, 10 and through connecting circuit 34 between ceiling mountable inner unit 2 and external unit 36 as known. For heating the air within the appartment 26, the heat exchange grids are heated by extracting heat from the surroundings of the external air conditioning unit 36 and pumping the heat to the ceiling mountable inner unit 2. The ceiling mountable inner unit 2 is sometimes referrred to as an evaporator, and the external unit 36 is commonly referred to as a compressor. These terms relate to the typical action on the refrigerant gas as it is pumped between the inner 2 and external units 36.

The ceiling mountable inner unit 2 further comprises a pumping system for pumping the conditioned air into a series of conduits 22. Prior art ceiling mountable inner units of this type are typically fairly bulky. In the standard solution of the prior art, a single fan is used to pump the conditioned air from the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 down a plurality of air outlets 4A, 4B, 4C (Fig.2) down conduits 22 to the various rooms 28, 30, 32 of the appartment 26. This single fan prior art solution is cheap, reliable and low maintenance. It has the dissadvantage however in that the depth of the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 is, in consequence, rather large. Indeed, the ceiling mountable inner unit of prior art systems is typically up to 60 cm deep in consequence.

In contradistinction to prior art air conditioning units the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 of the present invention has a slim profile. In the embodiments of the present invention the pumping system for pumping air from the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 to the rooms 28, 30, 32 of the appartment 26 comprises a plurality of small radius fans 6 (Fig.2), each such small radius fan 6 being associated with a separate air outlet 4 from the ceiling mountable inner unit 2.

Conduits 22 connect onto the outlet connectors 4A, 4B, 4C after the small radius fans 6, enabling the small radius fans 6 to suck air through the heat exchange grills 12, into the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 and out through the conduits 22. Small radius fans 6 include one way valves, preventing air being sucked back therethrough, and preferably can be operated at a plurality of speeds, typically low, medium and high.

Referring to Fig. 3, in a second embodiment, allowing a larger number of outlet connectors to be fixed to one side of the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 than can be geometrically fixed thereonto, a triangular manifold 18 may be used, providing two sides along which outlet connectors may be fixed. Thus, as shown, four outlet connectors 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G may be fixed, two on each side of the triangular manifold 18, enabling four outlet connectors 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G to be appended to a side of the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 that is only long enough for three such outlet connectors 4A, 4B, 4C (Fig.2), were they to be fixed directly thereonto. In other embodiments, other numbers of outlet connectors are affixable to the sides fo the manifold, which may have three or four sides with outlet connectors thereon.

As shown in Fig. 4, the part of the air conditioning system 24 of the second embodiment that is provided within the apartment / office suite to be conditioned, consists of a ceiling mountable inner unit 2 and a triangular manifold 18 having four outlet connectors 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G instead of the three outlet connectors allowed by the system 26 shown in Fig. 5. To each outlet connectors 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G, conduits 22 are coupled. The variable speed, one way pumping small radius fans 6 may be mounted at any location along the conduits 22. In Fig. 5, the small radius fans 6 are coupled straight to the outlet connectors 4A, 4B, 4C upstream of the conduits 22. In Fig. 4 however, the small radius fans 6 are coupled at joints in the conduit 22 some distance from the outlet connectors 4D, 4E, 4F, 4G. Alternatively, the small radius fans may be appended at the exits from conduits 22 into the room 28 to be conditioned. Such an arrangement is only really suitable for short conduits however.

It is a feature of the invention that by virtue of this arrangment of a plurality of small radius fans 6 associated with the individual conduits 22, the overall depth of the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 can be minimized, and need not be thicker than the conduits, which are typically 20 cm thick, or thereabouts. This allows the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 of the air conditioning system 24 / 26 to have a slimmer profile than would otherwise be possible, and to be used where there isn't the clearance allowing usage of a standard type, deep ceiling mountable inner unit of the prior art. Preferably each small radius fan 6 can be separately activated to drive an appropriate amount of conditioned air at an appropriate speed down the conduit, for appropriately conditioning the room into which the conduit feeds, depending on usage, temperature or fan speed desired by occupant of the room, and particularly on volume of the room to be conditioned. Thus with reference to Fig. 5, the small radius fan 6c would probably be set to pump at a mediums speed when room 28 is occupied, whereas the fan 6a on conduit 22a to smaller room 30 might be operated at low speed, since less conditioned air would be needed by smaller room 30. The large space of room 32 would typically require a lot of air conidtioning, and small radius fan 6b would typically pump at high speed to pump more air through conduit 22b. Optionally and preferably each of small radius fans 6a, 6b, 6c may be separately activated by switches typically positioned in the room 28, 30, 32. Such switches may be manually activated by occupants within room or thermostatically controlled, or may be programmable, perhaps to condition a bedroom prior to occupant going to bed, or to cool down an office at the start of the day. The technology for such switches is well known.

Although typically the outlet conduits will be standard pipes having standard diameters, this need not be the case and one conduit 22a may be 4 inch duct and a second conduit 22b may be a six inch duct. Indeed, they may be other, less standard diameters as well. The workings of the the ceiling mountable inner unit 2 and of the external unit 36 are not detailed. They may be any standard unit as known. Typically, the inner unit includes a humidifier and filters the air conditioning not only heats or cools the air but filters and humidifies it. Thus the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and includes both combinations and sub combinations of the various features described hereinabove as well as variations and modifications thereof, which would occur to persons skilled in the art upon reading the foregoing description.

In the claims, the word "comprise", and variations thereof such as "comprises", "comprising" and the like indicate that the components listed are included, but not generally to the exclusion of other components.

Claims

1. A ceiling mountable inner unit for an air conditioning system for conditioning air within a plurality of rooms;

The ceiling mountable inner unit for mounting on a ceiling and comprising: air inlets supplied with heat exchange grids for conditioning the air; a pumping system for pumping air into the ceiling mountable inner unit, and a plurality of air outlets having air conduits attachable thereto for piping conditioned air to the plurality of rooms; the ceiling mountable inner unit for coupling to an external unit, such that for cooling air within the plurality of rooms, heat is extracted from the heat exchange grids and pumped to the external air conditioning unit and dissipated to its surroundings; for heating the air within the plurality of rooms, the heat exchange grids are heated by extracting heat from surroundings of the external air-conditioning unit and pumping the heat to the ceiling mountable inner unit; wherein the air pumping means comprises a plurality of small radius fans, each associated with a separate air outlet from said plurality of air outlets and said air conditioning comprises heating or cooling air pumped through the ceiling mountable inner unit.

2. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 1, wherein each small radius fan is separately activatable.

3. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 2, wherein each small radius fan is separately activatable by a switch in a room to which conduit from the outlet where the small radius fan is situated conducts conditioned air.

4. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 1, wherein each small radius fan is associated with a conduit and includes a one way valve allowing air to be pumped through associated conduit in one direction only.

5. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 1, wherein each small radius fan may be selectively operated at any of a plurality of preset speeds.

6. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 1, wherein each small radius fan is mountable at any location along the conduit.

7. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 1, wherein the inner unit further comprises a humidifier and the air conditioning further comprises humidifying the air.

8. The ceiling mountable inner unit of claim 1, wherein said plurality of air conduits comprises at least two conduits having different diameters.