All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentation or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The present invention is related directly to situations in which heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC) systems must be tested and serviced by technicians. These systems typically comprise evaporator coils and other equipment contained within a building structure and condenser coils and associated compressor located external to the building structure. These systems are typically controlled via a thermostat or other temperature sensor located within the building structure. The present invention provides a system and method of testing and servicing these units without need for entry into the building or physical access to the control thermostat. This elimination of building entry as a prerequisite to HVAC servicing permits regular service calls to the HVAC system without the need for intervention by the homeowner or other building structure occupant, resulting in higher system efficiencies and resulting energy savings.
The prior art with respect to the present invention is generally illustrated in
A typical schematic of a heat pump system is illustrated in
While the wiring of each individual HVAC system may vary considerably, there does exist a set of widely applicable wiring designations and color code standards as applied to the thermostatic control interface.
One skilled in the art will recognize that tables typically illustrated in
A typical schematic of a HVAC system including controls is illustrated in
A serious drawback with the existing prior art as illustrated in
During a typical service call, the service technician will activate the air conditioner by forcing the thermostat to trigger the compressor unit. Once the compressor is activated, the service technician will inspect the operation of the air conditioning compressor as well as check refrigerant levels and their associated operating pressures. Other operations may also be performed, as in verifying the operation of a heat pump and A/C systems or by activating the heating unit (furnace) associated with the HVAC system.
In any of these scenarios, access to the thermostat is required to permit the HVAC service technician to force operation of the compressor located external to the building structure. The requirement of access to the thermostat presents a significant scheduling problem with most homeowners, who must leave work to be present during the service call. Given that a given service technician may be delayed due to traffic or unforeseen problems at a given customer site, the accurate simultaneous scheduling of both the customer and the service technician is a recurring and unresolved problem in the HVAC service industry.
As a result of the scheduling problems associated with servicing the prior art, many homeowners do not regularly schedule preventative maintenance for their home HVAC systems. As a result, these systems often operate at less than peak efficiency. This condition often results in significantly lower energy efficiency for the HVAC, and as a result the prior art consumes more energy than an optimally maintained configuration.
Accordingly, the objectives of the present invention are (among others) to circumvent the deficiencies in the prior art and affect the following objectives:
While these objectives should not be understood to limit the teachings of the present invention, in general these objectives are achieved in part or in whole by the disclosed invention that is discussed in the following sections. One skilled in the art will no doubt be able to select aspects of the present invention as disclosed to affect any combination of the objectives described above.
The present invention as generally illustrated in
By permitting override of the HVAC thermostat by HVAC service personnel external to the building structure, the present invention permits maintenance functions to be performed without the need for on-site presence of the customer. This configuration permits more frequent HVAC service calls and results in an overall improvement in system efficiency and uptime.
For a fuller understanding of the advantages provided by the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description together with the accompanying drawings wherein:
While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detailed preferred embodiment of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the broad aspect of the invention to the embodiment illustrated.
The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will be described with particular reference to the presently preferred embodiment, wherein these innovative teachings are advantageously applied to the particular problems of a HVAC DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM AND METHOD. However, it should be understood that this embodiment is only one example of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings herein. In general, statements made in the specification of the present application do not necessarily limit any of the various claimed inventions. Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventive features but not to others.
As generally illustrated in
The strength of the improvement as illustrated in
As generally illustrated in
The remote control/monitor unit (0640) takes as its input a variety of sensors associated with the evaporator/furnace/fan assembly (0630) and the compressor/condenser/fan assembly (0620). Some illustrative examples of these sensor inputs include voltage (0642) and current (0643) monitors of the HVAC system as well as intake air temperature (0644) and output air temperature (0645) across the evaporator coil (0631) contained within the evaporator/furnace/fan assembly (0630). One skilled in the art will recognize that any sensor or switch associated with the operation of the HVAC system could be an input (0646) to the remote control/monitor unit (0640), and this list is not limited to the exemplary embodiment shown in
Additionally, the remote control/monitor unit (0640) may operate to override the HVAC thermostat(s) located inside the customer building via the use of a variety of control interfaces (0647) associated with either the evaporator/furnace/fan assembly (0630) or the compressor/condenser/fan assembly (0620). One skilled in the art will recognize that any control or switch associated with the operation of the HVAC thermostatic control system could be an output (0647) from the remote control/monitor unit (0640), and this list is not limited to the exemplary embodiment shown in
The preferred exemplary embodiment illustrated in
To prevent unauthorized wireless access to the remote control monitor unit (0640), the remote control monitor unit (0640) may be equipped with an electronic serial number unique to this unit. One exemplary implementation of this feature might include the use of a model DS2411 Silicon Serial Number available from Dallas Semiconductor/MAXIM Corporation (Dallas Semiconductor Corp., 4401 South Beltwood Parkway, Dallas, Tex. 75244 USA, tel 972-371-4000, fax 972-371-3715, www.maxim-ic.com). One skilled in the art will recognize that there are a wide variety of methods available to achieve this functionality. The customer can provide this serial number to the service technician (0612) for entry into the remote handheld transceiver (0610) to permit authorized access to the monitoring and control functions available with the remote control/monitor unit (0640).
While a wide variety of methods are available to implant the temperature sensor functionality (0645, 0646) generally illustrated in
While a wide variety of methods are available to implement the wireless transceiver communication functionality associated with the remote handheld transceiver (0610) and the remote control/monitor unit (0640), many preferred embodiments might include the use of QWIKRADIO® RF transceiver components available from MICREL Semiconductor (2180 Fortune Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95131 USA, tel (408) 944-0800, fax (408) 944-0970, www.micrel.com). These components may permit both a small form factor and low cost implementation of the features described in the invention teachings illustrated herein.
It is envisioned that many preferred embodiments of the present invention may be implemented using one or more microprocessors and/or microcontrollers. While a wide variety of microprocessors/microcontrollers are available that may be suitable for this purpose, PICMICRO® devices manufactured by MicroChip Technology Inc. (2355 West Chandler Blvd., Chandler, Ariz., USA 85224-6199, tel (480) 792-7200, www.microchip.com) may be preferred in many embodiments, as these devices may integrate sensors and other controls useful in implementing a given embodiment.
As generally illustrated in
The configuration in
Secondly, the present invention as illustrated in
Thirdly, the system as illustrated in
The configuration illustrated in
The present invention anticipates a wide variety of variations in the basic theme of construction. The examples presented previously do not represent the entire scope of possible usages. They are meant to cite a few of the almost limitless possibilities.
The present invention teaches a generalized HVAC diagnostic method which is generally illustrated in
One skilled in the art will recognize that these steps may in some circumstances be rearranged with no loss of function with respect to application in the field of HVAC diagnostic techniques.
The present invention permits a significant conservation in energy associated with residential HVAC systems by permitting more frequent and thorough HVAC system servicing than is currently possible in the art.
The U.S. Department of Energy in their report on E
Issues including user discomfort, improper ventilation, and poor indoor air quality are linked to HVAC system design and operation and can be corrected by improved mechanical and ventilation systems. As with lighting systems, the productivity gains from a well designed and implemented HVAC system can result in savings that are many times the energy savings alone.
In this context, “HVAC maintenance” is defined by the U.S. Department of Energy
Thus, even small improvements in energy conservation associated with proper maintenance of residential and commercial HVAC systems can result in drastic energy conservation measures being realized on a nationwide basis. Much of the current routine maintenance is performed when HVAC system components rather than on a preventative basis. A primary reason for this delay in applying proper maintenance principles is the fact that it is not possible for the HVAC service technician to access the HVAC system controls without the on-site presence of the homeowner. The present invention eliminates this requirement and thus permits a higher level of system maintenance, reducing overall system energy consumption by increasing HVAC system efficiencies.
A HVAC diagnostic system and method has been disclosed which incorporates a system and method for bypassing the normal operation of a thermostat or other control by HVAC service personnel when located outside a building or structure, typically permitting the HVAC service personnel control over thermostat functionality while servicing the condenser coils and/or compressor located external to customer building.
The present invention is extremely useful in situations where HVAC service calls must be scheduled at customer premises such as homes, apartments, etc., during normal business hours where the occupants are not typically available to permit access to the control thermostat within the building structure. By permitting override of the customer thermostat at the compressor/condenser unit, the present invention permits servicing of this unit without any assistance of the customer. As such, HVAC service can be completed on a more regular schedule, saving energy and providing improved customer environmental comfort. The present invention discloses a variety of preferred embodiments, including external wired thermostat overrides as well as fully wireless embodiments that incorporate additional environmental monitoring capabilities.
Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing Detailed Description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.
Applicants claim benefit pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119 and hereby incorporates by reference Provisional Patent Application for “HVAC DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM AND METHOD”, Ser. No. 60/676,876, docket KRG-2005-001, filed May 2, 2005, and submitted to the USPTO with Express Mail on May 2, 2005 with tracking number ER618468081US.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
60676876 | May 2005 | US |