Patent Grant
10907842
The disclosure relates to humidifier devices and more particularly pertains to a new humidifier device for capturing moisture from the furnace and releasing the moisture into an area wherein a high efficiency condensing gas furnace to be used without a drain present.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing that may be coupled to a furnace. An inlet is coupled to the housing. The inlet is coupled to a drain line on the furnace. Condensation from the furnace is directed into the housing. A filter is removably coupled to the housing. The filter captures the condensation from the furnace and converts the condensation into an evaporate. The evaporate is released into the furnace. An outlet is coupled to the housing. An overflow line is coupled to the outlet. A reservoir is coupled to the overflow line to capture excess condensation. A secondary reservoir is fluidly coupled to the reservoir. A heating element in the secondary reservoir generates steam delivered to discharge ductwork of the furnace.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
An inlet 24 is fluidly is coupled to a top side 26 of the exterior wall 14 of the housing 12. The inlet 24 is in fluid communication with an interior of the housing 12. The inlet 24 is fluidly coupled to a drain line 28 on the furnace 22. Condensation 30 from the furnace 22 is directed into the housing 12. The condensation 30 may be water. A first lateral side 34 of the exterior wall 14 of the housing 12 has a filter slot 36 extending therethrough. A filter 38 is removably insertable into the filter slot 36.
The filter 38 captures the condensation 30 from the furnace 22. Moreover, the filter 38 converts the condensation 30 into an evaporate 40. The filter 38 may be an evaporative filter of any conventional design. The filter 38 releases the evaporate 40 into the furnace 22. The evaporate humidifies the air distributed by the furnace 22.
An outlet 42 is fluidly coupled to a bottom side 44 of the exterior wall 14 of the housing 12. The outlet 42 is in fluid communication with the interior of the housing 12. An overflow line 45 is coupled to the outlet 42. The overflow line 45 is routed to a drain 47. The drain 47 may be a floor drain or the like. Excess condensation 30 is directed outwardly from the housing 12 into the drain 47.
A reservoir 46 is provided. The reservoir 46 has an outside wall 48 extending between an upper wall 50 and a lower wall 52 of the reservoir 46. The overflow line 45 is fluidly coupled to the upper wall 50 of the reservoir 46. The reservoir 46 captures excess condensation 30. A secondary reservoir 76 is positioned adjacent to the furnace 22 and is fluidly coupled to the reservoir 46 to receive the excess condensation 30 by way of a substantially horizontally oriented reservoir transfer pipe 78. The secondary reservoir 76 has a sidewall 80 and the excess condensation 30 received from the reservoir 46 through the reservoir transfer pipe 78 is received into the secondary reservoir 76 through the sidewall 80. A drain plug 102 is inserted into the sidewall 80 of the secondary reservoir 76 to allow for draining of the secondary reservoir 76 when desired. A heating element 82 is positioned in the secondary reservoir 76 adjacent to a bottom 84 of the secondary reservoir 76. The heating element 82 may be electrically powered. The secondary reservoir 76 has a topmost wall 82 coupled to the sidewall 80. A steam pipe 86 is coupled to extend between the topmost wall 92 and discharge ductwork 88 of the furnace 22. The heating element 82 converts the excess condensation 30 within the secondary reservoir 76 into steam 90 which rises through the steam pipe 86 to be delivered directly into the discharge ductwork 88 to humidify air in the discharge ductwork 88.
In use, a method 54 of capturing the condensation 30 from the furnace 22 and using the condensation 30 to humidify the area includes a step 56 of providing the housing 12 that has the inlet 24 and the outlet 42, the overflow line, the filter 38 and the reservoir 46. The method 54 further includes a step 58 of coupling the housing 12 to the furnace 22. Additionally, the method 54 includes a step 60 of fluidly coupling the drain line 28 on the furnace 22 to the inlet 24. The method 54 includes a step 62 of coupling the drain line 28 to the outlet 42. Continuing, the method 54 includes a step 64 of coupling the reservoir 46 to the drain line 28. The method 54 also includes a step 66 coupling the secondary reservoir 76 to the reservoir 46 and the steam pipe 86 to the discharge ductwork 88 of the furnace 22. Another step 68 is running the furnace 22 so the housing 12 captures the condensation 30 from the furnace 22. The filter 38 converts the condensation 30 to the evaporate 40 so the evaporate 40 is released into the area while excess condensation 30 is converted to steam 90 in the secondary reservoir 76 which is in turn delivered into the discharge ductwork 88.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3472496 | Coleman et al. | Oct 1969 | A |
| 4139762 | Pohrer | Feb 1979 | A |
| D261421 | Morrow | Oct 1981 | S |
| 4706884 | Brauer | Nov 1987 | A |
| 5570680 | Payne | Nov 1996 | A |
| 5758018 | Fowler, Jr. | May 1998 | A |
| 5765544 | Vigansky, Jr. | Jun 1998 | A |
| 6354572 | Menassa | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6394427 | Guetersloh et al. | May 2002 | B1 |
| D458356 | Redner et al. | Jun 2002 | S |
| 20020070465 | Harvel et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020070466 | Harvel | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20120152513 | Dempsey et al. | Jun 2012 | A1 |
| 20120247453 | Wen | Oct 2012 | A1 |
| 20160215991 | Nunes | Jul 2016 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20200080735 A1 | Mar 2020 | US |
