Patent Application
20180313549
The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art nor material to the presently described or claimed inventions, nor that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
The present invention relates generally to the field of clothes dryers, and more specifically relates to accessories for a clothes dryer.
Homes frequently include a clothes dryer, and millions are manufactured each year. Clothes dryers are often reliable and affordable. In general, clothes dryers utilize hot air to dry clothes. The basic components of a clothes dryer include a rotating tumbler and a heater. The rotating tumbler holds the clothes and an electric or gas powered heater heats air that is drawn through the wet clothes as they tumble. The hot air passing through the clothes heats up the clothes and the water in them. Typical clothes dryers also include an exhaust vent that passes out of the dryer and out of the house, to permit the water to exit the dryer in the form of steam.
Typical clothes dryers are connected to an exhaust duct that is open to the outdoors through a duct hole in a wall of the home. Porting outside the home heat generated by the clothes dryer can be a waste of valuable heat. In the US, an electric dryer typically uses 220 volts of electricity to generate the heat required for the drying process. By way of comparison, electric baseboard heaters also utilize 220 volts of electricity to generate heat for the home. As a result, every time that an electric clothes dryer is run, the consumer is venting to the outside heat generated by the same voltage as that generated by an electric baseboard heater over the same period of time. A suitable solution is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,349 to Richard A. Brunner relates to a heat recovery system for clothes dryer. The described heat recovery system for clothes dryer includes heat recovery unit for a clothes dryer works towards meeting this need. The heat recovery unit may include a housing having a support box and a cover attached to the support box by a hinge. The cover may include an exhaust register and an indicator light cover through which a ‘clean filter now’ light, a ‘low flow’ light, and a ‘high temperature warning’ light may be viewed when lit. The heat recovery unit also may include a controls box positioned in the support box, where the controls box maintains electronic intelligence of the recovery unit. A recovery unit fan may be positioned in the support box to blow room temperature air up through a heat exchanger in the support box. An internal bypass channel may channel clothes dryer air around and outside of the heat exchanger during hot days. A filter in the support box on an inlet side of the heat exchanger may filter out lint and dust and a catch pan located in the support box may catch condensate from a drip pan located in the support box on an exhaust side of the heat exchanger to catch condensate.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known clothes dryer art, the present disclosure provides a novel dryer heat exchanger. The general purpose of the present disclosure, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a device for capturing the heat from a clothes dryer exhaust in order to recycle that heat, for example, back into a home to help warm that house.
A heat exchanger for a clothes dryer, the clothes dryer having an exhaust port configured to discharge a hot air from the clothes dryer is disclosed herein. The heat exchanger includes a dryer-exhaust interface configured to releasably couple with the exhaust port of the clothes dryer and to receive the hot air from the clothes dryer. The device also includes a heat exchanger including an exhaust-air duct pneumatically coupled to the dryer-exhaust interface, a heating-air inlet configured to receive an ambient air, and a heating-air duct pneumatically coupled to the heating-air inlet, the heat exchanger configured to transfer heat from the hot air received from the clothes dryer to the ambient air received via the heating-air inlet. The device further includes an exhaust outlet pneumatically coupled to the exhaust-air duct, a heating-air exhaust pneumatically coupled to the heating-air duct, and a discharge fan configured to assist the discharge of the heated air from the exhaust, where the exhaust outlet is configured to pneumatically couple to an external discharge port, and further configured to discharge the hot air from the heat exchanger via the external discharge port, and where the heating-air exhaust is configured to discharge a heated air from the heat exchanger to a user.
According to another embodiment, a method of recycling exhaust from the clothes dryer is also disclosed herein. The method of recycling exhaust from a clothes dryer includes the steps of: providing a heat exchanger as described above; providing a discharge fan configured to assist the discharge of the heated air from the exhaust, the discharge fan including a power supply and a controller, the power supply electrically coupled to the discharge fan and configured to power the discharge fan, and the controller electrically coupled to the discharge fan and configured to operate the discharge fan; coupling the dryer-exhaust interface of the heat exchanger to the exhaust port of the clothes dryer, and the exhaust outlet of the heat exchanger to the external discharge port; and setting a threshold temperature for operating the discharge fan.
For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.
The figures which accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments and methods of use for the present disclosure, a heat exchanger device, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the present disclosure.
The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.
As discussed above, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a drying system and more particularly to a heat exchanger device as used to provide a device for capturing the heat from a clothes dryer exhaust in order to recycle that heat back into a home to help warm that house.
Generally, the device of this disclosure may provide a heat exchanger that removes heat from the exhaust air of clothes dryer and directs the heat into the home. The device may include a fan that draws “cool” ambient air, for example, from the floor, and warms it as the air passes over the dryer exhaust duct. As designed, this may remove heat from the exhausting air in a dryer in order to conserve energy and supplement the home's heating system. The device may also offer a method of utilizing the dryer exhaust without impeding the movement of moist air and lint to the exterior of the building. The present invention may further include a micro switch that activates the fan when the dryer is turned on and deactivates the fan when the dryer stops.
The device may comprise a tubular channel having a fan assembly and separate ports for distributing heat exhaust claimed from the clothes dryer into a residence or building without including any of the lint or residual moisture. The fan assembly may include a micro switch and power adapter that turns the fan on and off when the dryer stops and starts. Additional fittings and accessories may be included for allowing the device to be retrofitted to a plurality of dryer units and room configurations. The exact specifications may vary.
Referring now more specifically to the drawings by numerals of reference, there is shown in
According to one embodiment, the heat exchanger 100 may be arranged as a kit 105. In particular, the heat exchanger 100 may further include a set of instructions 107. The instructions 107 may detail functional relationships in relation to the structure of the heat exchanger 100 such that the heat exchanger 100 can be used, maintained, or the like, in a preferred manner.
It should be noted that step 505 is an optional step and may not be implemented in all cases. Optional steps of method of use 500 are illustrated using dotted lines in
The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.
The present application is related to and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/492,101 filed Apr. 28, 2017, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62492101 | Apr 2017 | US |
