The present application generally relates to environmental friendly appliances. More specifically, the present application relates to energy efficient air conditioning systems.
A central air conditioning system distributes conditioned air (e.g., cool or warm) through a network of ducts. Current central air conditioning systems only have one or two control units (e.g., thermostats), where each control unit is responsible for controlling the temperature in multiple rooms in a house. These systems offer little flexibility and provide limited options for users to individually adjust the temperature in each room (e.g., bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and family room) based on their particular needs and preferences.
Also, because the current central air conditioning systems typically have only one air outlet extending from a main duct to each room for delivering cool or warm air from an outdoor condenser/compressor unit, each room may have a different temperature even though the control unit sets a temperature for all of the rooms. For example, the rooms farther away from the outdoor condenser/compressor unit may have a different temperature than the rooms closer to the outdoor condenser/compressor unit. Furthermore, adjusting the temperature in a particular room may require additional energy for delivering more cool or warm air to all of the rooms, which is not energy efficient.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an air conditioning system that can efficiently deliver conditioned air to individual rooms in a house based upon user demand and/or preference.
The present disclosure is directed to an energy efficient air conditioning system, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, and as set forth in the claims.
The following description contains specific information pertaining to implementations in the present disclosure. The drawings in the present application and their accompanying detailed description are directed to merely exemplary embodiments. However, the present application is not limited to merely these exemplary embodiments.
Other variations and embodiments of the present application will occur to those skilled in the art. Unless noted otherwise, like or corresponding elements among the figures may be indicated by like or corresponding reference numerals. Moreover, the drawings and illustrations in the present application are generally not to scale, and are not intended to correspond to actual relative dimensions.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the setting module 10 and the sensing module 40 each include computerized instructions in the form of one or more non-transitory computer-readable programs stored in the storage unit 60 (e.g., a computer-readable medium) and capable of being executed by the at least one microprocessor 50 to control the airflow to each of Rooms 1, 2, and 3 by adjusting the speed of each of the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C based upon user demands and/preferences. That is, the functions of the setting module 10 and the sensing module 40 are executed by the at least one microprocessor 50 to control the temperature in each of the rooms individually. In another exemplary embodiment, the setting module 10 and sensing module 40 may respectively provide user input and sensed information (e.g., temperature) to the at least one microprocessor 50, which may execute computerized instructions in the form of one or more non-transitory computer-readable programs stored in the storage device 60 (e.g., a computer-readable medium), to control the airflow to each of Rooms 1, 2, and 3 by adjusting the speed of each of the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C.
It should be noted that
The setting module 10 includes control units 10A, 10B, and 10C in Rooms 1, 2, and 3, respectively, to individually set a plurality of parameters for each room. In at least one exemplary embodiment, the plurality of parameters includes, but is not limited to, a temperature threshold, a turn-on time, and a turn-off time. For example, the temperature threshold may be a preferred temperature of the user. For example, the control units 10A, 10B, and 10C may be thermostats each having a graphic user interface that allows users to input the plurality of parameters. The control units 10A, 10B, and 10C are coupled to the at least one microprocessor 50 through wired or wireless connections. The at least one microprocessor 50 can execute instructions from the control units 10A, 10B, and 10C, and control the driving module 30 to deliver cool or warm air to each of Rooms 1, 2, and 3 according to different user demands and preferences. For example, the at least one microprocessor 50 may control the fan speed of each of the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C independently. The at least one microprocessor 50 may increase, decrease, or prevent airflow to any of Rooms 1, 2, and 3 by adjusting the fan speed of the corresponding fans 30A, 30B, and 30C, thereby adjusting the temperature of the corresponding Rooms 1, 2, and 3.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C of the driving module 30 are arranged near the air outlets 20A, 20B, and 20C, respectively. For example, the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C are controlled by the at least one microprocessor 50 to direct airflow in different directions and at different speeds, based upon the different user demands and preferences set or entered through the respective control units 10A, 10B, and 10C, and the sensed signals from the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C, respectively. For example, the fan 30A is configured to direct the airflow from the main duct 80 toward the air outlet 20A in Room 1. The fan 30B is configured to direct the airflow from the main duct 80 toward the air outlet 20B in Room 2. The fan 30C is configured to direct the airflow from the main duct 80 toward the air outlet 20C in Room 3. In another implementation, the air outlet in each room may have multiple fans coupled thereto, where the multiple fans are directed toward different areas of the corresponding room for heating and cooling. For example, in addition to the fan 30A, there are multiple fans coupled to the air outlet 20A in Room 1, where each of the fans is pointed to a different direction of Room 1 for heating and cooling.
Each of the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C of the sensing module 40 is positioned in a separate room for sensing temperature of that room. For example, the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C are positioned in Rooms 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C are coupled to the control units 10A, 10B, and 10C, respectively, for example, through wired or wireless connections, to receive the user preferred temperatures for the corresponding rooms. Also, the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C are each coupled to the at least one microprocessor 50 to provide sensed signals (e.g., sensed temperature) in their corresponding rooms, so that the at least one microprocessor 50 can adjust, among other things, the fan speed of each of the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C. In an exemplary embodiment, at least one of the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C may include a temperature sensor that can sense temperatures in different areas of the corresponding room.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C of the sensing module 40 can interface directly to the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C, respectively.
The sensed information from the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C may be directly provided to the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C, respectively, such that the speed of each of the fans may be adjusted based on the corresponding sensed information. In another exemplary embodiment, the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C of the sensing module 40 and the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C are coupled to the at least one microprocessor 50, where the at least one microprocessor 50 controls the speeds of the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C based on the sensed information from the sensors 40A, 40B, and 40C, respectively.
In one exemplary embodiment, the preferred temperature can be set for each room through either the control units 10A, 10B, and 10C, or remotely through an application 200 on an electronic device 300, as shown in
As shown in
In
In
The preferred temperature in each room can be set through either the corresponding control units 10A, 10B, and 10C or the application 200 in the electronic device 300 as shown in
In at least one exemplary embodiment, the sensing module 40 can recommend a temperature when there are a number of occupants in the room, which can be manually overridden by the occupants.
In operation, the plurality of fans directs the airflows at different directions and speeds. For example, when Room 3 needs more cool air, the fan 30C, controlled by the at least one microprocessor 50, spins faster to pull more cool air to Room 3 through the air outlet 20C. In at least one exemplary embodiment, the fans 30A, 30B, and 30C can be configured to pull air from the outdoor compressor/condenser unit 70, where each of the fans is independent of the other fans, to allow the users to direct and control the temperature of each room without wasting additional energy to cool the other rooms. The sensors 40A, 40B, 40C may include not only temperature sensors, but also identification sensors (e.g., facial and/or voice recognition sensing devices) to detect who is in the room and send signals to the at least one microprocessor 50 to apply the occupant's preferred temperature setting in the room. If there are multiple occupants in the room, the sensing module can recommend a temperature, which can be manually overridden by the occupants. The application 200 can also offer a predetermined hierarchy of occupants. For example, a preferred temperature of occupant A has a higher priority than a preferred temperature of occupant B, or an average preferred temperature of occupant A has a higher priority than a preferred temperature of occupant B.
The exemplary embodiments shown and described above are only examples.
Therefore, many such details are neither shown nor described. Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present technology have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the present disclosure, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in the detail, including in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of the parts within the principles of the present disclosure, up to and including the full extent established by the broad general meaning of the terms used in the claims. It will therefore be appreciated that the embodiments described above may be modified within the scope of the claims.
The present application claims the benefit of and priority to a provisional patent application entitled “AIR CONDITIONER,” Ser. No. 62/289,357, filed on Feb. 1, 2016. The disclosure in this provisional application is hereby incorporated fully by reference into the present application.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
62289357 | Feb 2016 | US |