Patent Grant
11274840
The present application relates generally to the field of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. More specifically, the present application relates to an improved vent for use in existing or new HVAC systems.
Building services systems are often employed in residential homes, office buildings, schools, manufacturing facilities, and the like, for controlling the internal environment of the building. Building services systems may be employed to control temperature, airflow, humidity, lighting, energy consumption, power, security, fluid flow, and other similar building systems. Some building services systems are specifically directed to heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (“HVAC”) systems. HVAC systems commonly seek to provide thermal comfort, acceptable air quality, ventilation, and controlled pressure relationships within buildings.
HVAC systems typically include an HVAC control system or station, one or more ventilation devices, and associated ductwork. The ventilation devices may include, for example, an air handling unit, which may include a blower, one or more heating and/or cooling elements, air filters, dampers, etc. Air handling units are typically connected to the ductwork which extends throughout the building or structure to provide an air distribution network. Ductwork typically terminates at a vent in a room. Most common blowers within HVAC systems operate at a single speed.
HVAC systems may also include a number of additional devices to supply controlled airflow to a building or building zone. A “zone” is typically a section of a building containing one or more rooms. In modern systems, an HVAC control system may provide a variety of inputs to and accept a variety of outputs from, for example, dampers, actuators, control circuits, environmental sensors including, for example, flow sensors, temperature sensors, occupancy sensors, etc. associated with various zones. Using these inputs and outputs, an HVAC control system may control the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning provided to specific building zones. For example, an HVAC control system may receive inputs from sensors related to an airflow rate and temperature of a building zone and use a damper and its accompanying actuator to appropriately position the damper such that a desired airflow rate is provided to the building zone.
Typical HVAC control systems use a plurality of sensors to monitor HVAC variables to be controlled, such as temperature, humidity, or airflow rate. An HVAC control system may typically regulate these controlled variables by considering a feedback signal generated by a sensor disposed to monitor the controlled variable. For example, an HVAC control system may allow or generate more airflow into a building zone based on a sensed temperature level. For example, if a sensed temperature level of a particular zone is at 85 degrees Fahrenheit, the HVAC control system may allow, generate, redistribute or supply more airflow into the zone to reach a desired lower temperature target or set point. If a temperature set point is 72 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, the HVAC control system may determine that airflow supply rate should be near maximum to rapidly make up the thirteen-degree difference. In a feedback-based system, the resulting changed temperature is periodically sensed and looped back into the HVAC control system via inputs from temperature sensors, and further adjustments may be made based on the changed data. This process may be looped or repeated in a near infinite manner whereby the HVAC control system may constantly be adjusting variables of operation based on feedback from various system sensors.
One problem commonly associated with HVAC systems is that most HVAC systems incorporate building zone-level control. As noted above, a zone may be a relatively large area or section of a building containing many rooms. In fact, in most residential buildings with centralized air conditioning, the entire building or home is maintained as a single zone. In other buildings, for example, the entire building may be divided into two zones. The first zone may be associated with a first level of a home or building encompassing all of the rooms on that level, while the second zone may be associated with a second level of the home or building encompassing all of the rooms on that level. Such systems are considerably inefficient because many portions of a section of a building or zone may be unoccupied at any given time. However, because of the building zone-level control, these unoccupied areas in a building zone are heated or cooled the same as occupied areas in the building zone.
One proposed solution to this known problem is the use of smart vents to divide a building zone dynamically into thermal profiled sub-zones so that the temperature in each sub-zone may be precisely controlled, resulting in greater efficiency and increased cost savings. For example, incorporation of smart vents may enable each room in a building zone to be independently controlled. As such, for example, in a residential building, bedrooms may be independently controlled as compared to a living space, kitchen, bathroom, etc. similarly located in the building zone depending on environmental factors, such as, for example, current temperature, time-of-day, ambient t, occupancy, etc.
Currently, known smart vents operate by using batteries to power a motor based actuator open and/or close the vents to regulate airflow. In addition, known smart vents incorporate wireless transceivers to wirelessly connect the smart vents with a home monitoring or home automation system. One problem with such systems is that the use of actuators, unnecessarily drains power from batteries used to power the motors and thus limits continuous airflow regulation. In addition, opening and closing of the vents exposes the system to excess dust and potentially mechanical tampering, thus requiring increased maintenance. Moreover, in order to properly comply with building codes, actuator based smart vents must prevent total closure of the vents when actuation power is missing (i.e., batteries are depleted), thus resulting in increased complexity.
As such, there is a need for an improved vent that overcomes the disadvantages associated with the known prior art. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments that fall within the scope of the claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the aforementioned needs.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Disclosed herein is a vent for use in a HVAC system. In one embodiment, the vent may include a housing having an inlet for receiving airflow, an outlet for passing air into an associated room, and a passageway between the inlet and outlet. The vent may further include an air turbine positioned within the passageway for selectively enabling and preventing airflow from the inlet to the outlet. The air turbine may be selectively operable between first and second states. In the first state, the air turbine may be freely rotatable with respect to the housing so that received airflow can move through the passageway and the outlet. In the second state, rotation of the air turbine may be controlled so that received airflow is restricted between the inlet and the outlet. In the second state, the air turbine may be prevented from rotating with respect to the housing so that received airflow is substantially prevented from moving through the passageway and the outlet. The air turbine may extend longitudinally across the outlet, and may have a size and shape that substantially corresponds to a size of the passageway.
The vent may also include a motor operably associated with the air turbine. In one embodiment, the air turbine may be mounted onto a longitudinally extending shaft. The motor may be located exterior of the housing with the shaft passing thru a surface of the housing. In use, in the first state, the motor may act so that rotation of the air turbine is used to charge a power storage unit (e.g., a supercapacitor). Alternatively, and/or in addition, in the second state, the motor may act to limit or control rotation of the air turbine.
The vent may further include or be associated with a microcontroller and a transceiver. In use, the microcontroller and the transceiver may be powered by the power storage unit. The vent may further include an active load circuit, electrically coupled to the microcontroller. The active load circuit controlling a load associated with the motor and used to modulate the speed of the turbine and consequently the airflow through the vent. The load may control a back electromotive force associated with the motor and the speed of the turbine.
The vent may further include or be associated one or more environmental sensors for monitoring one or more environmental parameters of the associated room. In addition, the vent may include or be associated with a control station. The control station receiving the one or more environmental parameters and transmitting instructions to the microcontroller to operate in either the first or second state based on the received environmental parameters. The one or more environmental sensors may include a temperature sensor for monitoring a temperature of the associated room.
In another embodiment, the vent may include a housing having an inlet for receiving airflow, an outlet for passing air into an associated room, and a passageway between the inlet and outlet. The vent may further include an air turbine positioned within the passageway for selectively enabling and preventing airflow from the inlet to the outlet, and a motor operably associated with the air turbine. The vent may be selectively operable between first and second states. In the first state, the air turbine may be rotatable with respect to the housing via the received airflow so that the received airflow can move through the passageway and the outlet, and the motor may be arranged and configured to convert at least a portion of the rotatable movement of the air turbine into stored energy. In the second state, rotation of the air turbine may be controlled so that the received airflow is regulated, and the motor may act to limit rotation of the air turbine. In the second state, the air turbine may be prevented from rotating with respect to the housing so that the received airflow is substantially prevented from moving through the passageway and the outlet.
An HVAC system is also disclosed. The HVAC system may include one or more environmental sensors for monitoring one or more environmental parameters of an associated room, a control station for receiving the one or more environmental parameters, and one or more vents. Each vent may include a housing including an inlet for receiving airflow, an outlet for passing air into the associated room, and a passageway between the inlet and outlet. Each vent may further include an air turbine positioned within the passageway for selectively enabling and preventing airflow from the inlet to the outlet. In use, based on the received environmental parameters, the control station may transmit instructions to the one or more vents to operate in either a first state or a second state. In the first state, the air turbine may be freely rotatable with respect to the housing so that received airflow can move through the passageway and the outlet. In the second state, rotation of the air turbine may be controlled so that received airflow is regulated. In the second state, the air turbine may be prevented from rotating with respect to the housing so that received airflow is substantially prevented from moving through the passageway and the outlet.
Each vent may further include a motor operably associated with the air turbine. In the first state, the motor may convert at least a portion of the rotation of the air turbine to stored electric energy for powering a microcontroller associated with the vent. In the second state, the motor may act to limit rotation of the air turbine. In addition, the vents may include an active load circuit, electrically coupled to the microcontroller. The active load circuit controlling a load associated with the motor and used to modulate the speed of the turbine and consequently the airflow through the vent.
By way of example, a specific embodiment of the disclosed device will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Before turning to the figures which illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure in detail, it should be understood that the application is not limited to the details or methodology set forth in the following description or illustrated in the figures. It should also be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description only and should not be regarded as limiting.
In general, and referring generally to the FIGURES, a vent according to the present disclosure may include an air turbine for selectively enabling and preventing airflow. In use, the vent may be installed in place of conventional air vents for use in a HVAC system. The HVAC system may include a furnace for supplying hot air, an air conditioner for supplying cold air, a blower for moving the hot or cold air, associated ductwork for distributing the hot or cold air throughout a building, one or more environmental sensors for sensing environmental parameters in one or more rooms of the building, and an HVAC control system or station (used interchangeably herein without the intent to limit) for controlling the HVAC system. The ductwork may terminate in a vent in each room. The vent may be positioned anywhere in the room, for example, in the ceiling, the walls, the floor, etc.
An exemplary building or home may include a living space, a dining space, a kitchen, one or more bedrooms, one or more bathrooms, an office space, closets, storage space, a laundry room, etc. The building may also house any number of people, lights, and other equipment. In use, some rooms may incorporate one or more windows, skylights, etc., while other rooms may be completely devoid of any natural lighting. The building may encompass a single floor. Alternatively, the building may include more than one floor. The building may include any number of rooms in any number of configurations.
It should also be noted that while the building is described as be a residential building, it may be a commercial building, an industrial building, an institutional building, a healthcare facility, a school, a manufacturing plant, an office building, or any other building that makes use of HVAC systems.
The building may include one or more HVAC zones. For purposes of illustration only, as is the case for most, single-level residential homes, the building will be described as containing a single HVAC zone. However, it should be understood that the building may contain multiple zones. As will be generally appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, certain rooms in a building are more likely to be occupied during daytime hours, for example, the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen, while other rooms, for example, the bedrooms, are more likely to be occupied during nighttime hours. In addition, some rooms may tend to run warmer than others. For example, rooms with exposure to natural lighting tend to be warmer during daylight hours. Moreover, in certain rooms, heating or cooling the room isn't as critical as compared to other rooms, for example, cooling the laundry room.
Yet, in existing systems, because the entire home is treated as a single zone, temperature is often set for the entire home without regard to occupancy, time of day, exposure to natural light, etc.
In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, an improved vent may be used to control, regulate or modulate an amount of airflow moving through the vent. Ideally, the vent controls the amount of airflow moving through the vent based on the sensed environmental conditions of each individual room in which the vent is located.
Referring to
The vent 200 may also include an air blocking mechanism 220 located in the passageway 216 between the inlet 212 and the outlet 214 for selectively enabling and preventing airflow. As best illustrated in
Referring to
In use, the air turbine 225 may be configured to be freely rotatable within the passageway 216 of the vent 200 so that as air is moved through the vent 200, the air is allowed to move past the air turbine 225 via rotation of the air turbine 225. That is, airflow through the passageway 216 of the vent 200 causes the air turbine 225 to rotate. As such, the vent 200 does not rely on any electrical energy or power to rotate the air turbine 225. In addition, during rotation of the air turbine 225, the motor 240 converts the rotation movement (e.g., kinetic energy) of the air turbine 225 into electrical power, which may be stored in a power storage device to power, for example, a microcontroller and/or environmental sensors, as will be described in greater detail below.
That is, in use, the air turbine 225 is selectively operable between first and second states. In the first state, the air turbine 225 is freely rotatable so that air from the blower of the HVAC system is able to freely pass from the ductwork through the inlet 212, past the air turbine 225, through the outlet 214 of the vent 200 and into the associated room. In the second state, the air turbine 225 is prevented from rotation so that air from the blower of the HVAC system is prevented or substantially inhibited from moving past the air turbine 225. In this manner, in the second state, the air turbine 225 acts to block or substantially prevent passage of the air from entering the associated room.
As best illustrated in
In addition, as will be described in greater detail below, in the first state, rotation of the air turbine 225 may be used to charge a power storage unit, such as, for example, a supercapacitor. In this manner, the air turbine 225 may act as an energy generator. As will be described in greater detail below, the supercapacitor may be used to power one or more electronic components associated with the vent 200. For example, in one embodiment, the supercapacitor may be used to store the required energy to supply a transmitter with peak current, and to transmit information such as, for example, status, data, etc., after the air turbine stops rotating. The power storage unit may be used to supply power to a microcontroller associated with the vent, a transceiver used for communicating with, for example, the HVAC control station, one or more environmental sensors, etc. In contrast to known prior art systems however, the energy stored in the power storage unit is not used to open or close a motorized vent. That is, in the vent 200 of the present disclosure, the air turbine 225 is moved by airflow, and as such, the vent 200 does not rely on any electrically actuated actuators to enable or prevent airflow distribution.
As previously mentioned, the motor 240 may act as an energy generator. In the first state, the motor 240 may use the kinetic movement or rotation of the air turbine 225 to charge the power storage unit. That is, in the first state, when the amount of energy required is minimal, for example, on the order of tens of microwatts (uW) to power the circuitry, the total current will be Ih (because ILoad=0) where Ih is the current required by the power conversion circuit. In return, this small current creates a small back electromotive force (“Back EMF”), which generates a small amount of braking which can be neglected (the rotation speed of the air turbine 225 will remain substantially constant). In any event, during the first state, the circuitry is being powered and the power storage unit is being charged. In the first state, during periods of peak energy, additional energy can be supplied via the power storage unit (e.g., supercapacitor).
Meanwhile, in the second state, the motor 240 may act as an energy generator and an active brake to regulate the airflow through the vent 200. For example, by using the motor 240 as a generator, the vent 200 can convert the mechanical energy from the rotating air turbine 225 back into electrical energy, which can be stored in the power storage unit. Meanwhile, in the second state, the motor 240 can also act as a braking system to prevent rotation of the air turbine 225 thereby effectively sealing most of the passageway 216 between the inlet 212 and the outlet 214. That is, in the second state, the motor 240 can prevent rotation of the air turbine 225 thus blocking or substantially inhibited the passage of air.
Referring to
Referring to
The microcontroller 250 may be communicatively coupled to a number of inputs and/or outputs 256. The inputs and/or outputs may be used to receive and/or transmit information, data, instructions, etc. from, for example, environmental sensors, HVAC control system, etc. As illustrated, the microcontroller 250 and the inputs and/or outputs 256 are electrically coupled to the power storage unit 254. In this manner, as will be described in greater detail below, the microcontroller 250 and/or sensors, transceivers, etc. coupled to the inputs and/or outputs 256 may be powered by the power storage unit 254. That is, the power stored in the power storage unit 254 may be used to power the microcontroller 250, which is used to regulate the amount of airflow through the vent 200 and to power the transceivers to enable communication with the sensors and/or control system.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, the vent 200 may include, be associate with, or operate in conjunction with, either directly or indirectly, a control system or station. In addition, the vent 200 may include, be associate with, or operate in conjunction with, either directly or indirectly, for example, through the control station, one or more environmental sensors. In this manner, the environmental sensors may be able to detect an environmental parameter, such as, for example, a temperature for each room and transmit that information to the control station. Thereafter, based on the information received from, inter alia, the environmental sensors, the control station can determine and instruct each vent 200 so as to achieve room-level temperature control in a centralized HVAC system to thereby conserve energy usage.
In one embodiment, the HVAC system may include a control system and a plurality of environmental sensors for monitoring environmental parameters in each room. The environmental sensors may be any sensor now known or hereafter developed including, for example, temperature sensors, flow sensors, occupancy sensors, humidity sensors, etc. Data from the environmental sensors may be used to provide increased energy optimization in commercial and residential buildings. The environmental sensors may be communicatively coupled in any manner. For example, the environmental sensors may be directly coupled to the vent, they may be coupled directly or indirectly to the control station, etc. Additionally, the system may communicate by any means now known or hereafter developed including, for example, wireless and wired communications. For example, each of the vents 200 may incorporate wireless transceivers to wirelessly connect the vents 200 with a HVAC control station, a home monitoring system, a home automation system, etc. The wireless communication may be any now known or hereafter developed wireless communication protocol including, for example, message queue telemetry transport (“MQTT”), Bluetooth, near-field communication, Wi-Fi, etc.
In use, the environmental sensors may determine the actual temperature in each room, whether the room is occupied, etc. This information may be transmitted to the control system. Based on all of the inputs received including, for example, from the environmental sensors associated with each room, room type, time of day, etc., the control system may monitor the temperature of each room and, in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure, the control system may determine a desired airflow rate for each room. The control system may then use the determined desired airflow rate to independently control the airflow rate within each vent associated with each room. In use, the control system may either increase or decrease the airflow through the air turbine and through the vent to provide room-level control, as necessary.
Referring to
Referring to
For example, during summer months, a user may set their thermostat in a building zone at 70 degrees. However, the user may not want every room in the house to be maintained at the same temperature at all times of the day. For example, in a first room, such as, a bedroom where occupancy is expected to be sparse throughout the daylight hours or an office in a commercial building during evening hours, the system could be programmed to maintain a higher constant temperature of, for example, 75 degrees. Meanwhile, for example, in a second room, such as, a room with lots of ambient light, a kitchen, or a living space with lots of occupancy, the temperature may be too hot, for example, 73 degrees. As a result, the control station may transmit instructions to the vent 200 located in the first room to turn off or prevent its air turbine 225 from rotating. This, in turn, will cause a decrease in the amount of, for example, cold air being supplied to the first room. In addition, the control station may transmit instructions to the vent 200 located in the second room to enable the air turbine 225 to rotate. This, in turn, will cause an increased amount of cold air being supplied to the second room.
Alternatively, the vent 200 may be associated with, for example, an occupancy sensor so that if the occupancy sensor detects the presence of one or more persons in the room, the temperature can be maintained at the desired set point. However, if the occupancy sensor does not detect the presence of an occupant, the vent may, for example, adjust the amount of airflow moving past the air turbine and through the vent so as to conserve energy. For example, the vent may decrease the amount of airflow to increase the temperature in the room by, for example, a predetermine value (e.g., 3, 5, etc. degrees)
As will be generally understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, the total pressure or airflow for the entire HVAC system is constant. Thus, by preventing the air turbine 225 in the vent 200 associated with the first room from rotating, this will increase the amount of airflow available for the vent 200 associated with the second room.
As will be appreciated, the process of monitoring the environmental sensors can be an iterative process with continuous feedback. When the temperature in the first room exceeds the increased set point (e.g., 75 degrees), the control station can instruct the vent 200 in the first room to enable the air turbine 225 to begin to rotate, thus increasing the amount of airflow moving past the air turbine and into the first room, thereby decreasing the temperature in the first room. Similarly, when the temperature in the second room decreases below the set point (e.g., 70 degrees), the control station can instruct the vent 200 in the second room to enable the air turbine 225 to slow down or cease rotating, thus decreasing the amount of airflow moving past the air turbine and into the second room, thereby increasing the temperature in the second room.
In this manner, by incorporating the vents 200 according to the present disclosure, a user is able to provide room-by-room control within a building even when the building or home is zoned as a single zone. That is, in accordance with principles of the present disclosure, the airflow may be regulated by the air turbine so based on the turbine load, which may equate to the energy harvesting portion plus the PWM modulated artificial load, the air turbine may oppose more or less of the load, which will increase or decrease the amount of airflow being outputted. In this way, the air can be differently distributed inside the various rooms based on, for example, temperature. In addition, contrary to known, prior art systems, the vents 200 do not require a motorized actuator based louver system to operate.
An additional advantage of the vents according to the present disclosure is its backward compatibility to work with existing building management systems.
As described herein, the various components including, for example, the vent, environmental sensors, control station, etc. can be a part of a stand-alone system used in a single residence or an office suite. Alternatively, the system and/or components, may be part of a building management system.
While certain embodiments of the disclosure have been described herein, it is not intended that the disclosure be limited thereto, as it is intended that the disclosure be as broad in scope as the art will allow and that the specification be read likewise. Therefore, the above description should not be construed as limiting, but merely as exemplifications of particular embodiments. Those skilled in the art will envision additional modifications, features, and advantages within the scope and spirit of the claims appended hereto.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 20190120511 A1 | Apr 2019 | US |
