This invention relates to a vent. More particularly, this invention relates to a wind directional vent and skylight combination.
Wind directional vents have been described in which the vent comprises a throat rotatably mounted to a structure, such as the roof of a building, and a wind vane generally fixed to the top of the rotatable throat and oriented in a vertical plane. The vent aligns itself with the direction of the wind so that an exhaust mouth of the throat feeds into a pocket of air on the leeward side immediately adjacent the mouth having a negative pressure relative to the space from which the exhausted air comes.
Skylights have been described including a transparent or translucent cover material substantially flush or slightly raised above the roof line of a building and a shaft may be fitted having internally reflective lining material to permit the passage of light from the outside through to an internal living area.
The field of ventilation and light quality in working and living spaces is the subject of much research and development and improvements on the prior art are highly desirable and sought after.
The above description of the prior art is not intended to be, nor should it be interpreted as, an indication of the common general knowledge pertaining to the invention, but rather to assist the person skilled in the art in understanding the developmental process which led to the invention.
Accordingly, in one aspect the invention provides a wind directional vent and skylight combination including:
a) a throat rotatably mounted to a structure and in communication with a cavity to be exhausted;
b) wind directional means associated with the throat to cause the throat to rotate in response to changes in wind direction,
wherein the throat is made from material adapted to permit the passage of light therethrough.
The throat may be made from material which is translucent and/or transparent. The throat may be made from a variety of materials having a wide range of optical properties. The throat may be made from a combination of materials or component parts. The throat may comprise a combination of an opaque or translucent portion and a translucent or transparent portion. For example, the portion associated with the mouth of the throat may be made of a material which is translucent or transparent and the back of the throat may be made from a translucent or opaque material. Preferably, however, the throat is integrally formed from a single translucent or transparent material.
The throat may be formed in a number of ways according to conventional methods of which the person skilled in the art will be familiar. Where the throat includes metal material such as light gauge aluminium or galvanised iron, the material may be cast or formed from sheets and worked into shape according to standard practice in the venting industry. The translucent or transparent material may be formed from a number of moulding processes. For example, the translucent or transparent material may be blow moulded. The different components of the throat may be joined together by any suitable means. For example, the throat components may be joined by rivets, industrial strength adhesive or other fastening methods familiar to skilled persons.
Preferably, however, the throat is formed from a single translucent and/or transparent material. The translucent and/or transparent material may be formed from a moulding process.
The wind directional means may be a feature attached to the throat. Alternatively, the wind directional means may be a feature inherent in the shape and configuration of the throat effective to cause the throat to rotate in response to changes in wind direction. For example, the external surface of the throat may be contoured whereby to provide wind directional means in which greatest wind resistance is effected when the mouth is facing windward and causes least wind resistance when the mouth is facing leeward. For example, the mouth of the throat may present a larger cross-sectional area than the external surface corresponding to the back of the throat, whereby the throat may tend to rotate until the orientation of least wind resistance is found so that the mouth faces leeward.
The wind directional means may include a wind vane in the form of a discreet feature mounted to the throat. The wind vane may include a panel or combination of panels. The vane may also be made from material which is translucent or transparent to permit the passage of light therethrough. In practice, the person skilled in the art will appreciate that in daylight hours the ambient light, particularly directly from the sun, will pass through the throat and/or the vane and into the cavity, thereby providing the internal areas of the structure with natural light.
Where the structure is a building having a roof cavity, for example defined by a roof truss, or other attic space, the inventive arrangement may be further provided with a hollow shaft communicating the base of the throat with the cavity to permit the egress of exhausted air from the cavity through the shaft and out through the mouth of the throat to the external environment. The hollow shaft may include an internal light reflective surface to maximise the passage of natural light from the external environment through to the cavity. Preferably the shaft is fixed relative to the structure and the throat may be rotatably mounted directly on the upper most portion of the shaft. The shaft may include vents in its wall or walls to exhaust the space in the roof cavity
The rotatable throat may be mounted by a number of mounting means. For example, the throat may be mounted using an annular bearing. The annular bearing may include a teflon bush rotatably supporting the throat. Alternatively, the annular bearing may include a thrust bearing rotatably supporting the throat. In a separate embodiment, the throat may be mounted using a fixed shaft about which the throat rotates. The lower portion of the throat may be mounted to the shaft for rotation using a spider arrangement of which persons skilled in the art will be familiar.
The throat mounting means may include a bayonet arrangement. The bayonet may be attached or form part of either the base secured to the structure or to the throat, either directly or indirectly via, for example, a spider. A fixed shaft may be provided to form a bayonet stub receivable in a hollow body defining recess to which the spider is mounted for rotation. The throat may in turn be mounted to the spider. The recess may include releasable engagement means. The engagement means may include an interference screw or bolt, a rotatable cam adapted to frictionally bear on the bayonet or positive engagement means, such as a screw or nut and bolt in aperture arrangement. The recess may be adapted to snap on to the stub by deformation of resilient deflectable retainers.
To optimise the amount of natural light passed through the vent into the cavity, the throat may include a reflector. The reflector may be mounted in a location and orientation calculated to optimise the transmission of natural light into the cavity. For example, the reflector may be fixably mounted to the fixed shaft. The reflector may be spaced from the fixed shaft. The reflector may be located in a position facing a desired direction, based on performance required. For example, the reflector may be located to face in an easterly direction to capture the morning sun or a direction from which sunlight predominantly comes. For example, in the southern hemisphere, the reflector may face a generally northerly direction. In the northern hemisphere, the reflector may face a generally southerly direction whereby to optimise the amount of natural light reflected into the cavity. It will be appreciated that the reflector will remain in the same position irrespective of the rotated orientation of the throat. The reflector may be inclined to the vertical. The reflector may include a convex or concave surface to facilitate the transmission of natural light from a range of angles down the throat and into the cavity.
To optimise the low pressure of the pocket of air immediately adjacent to the mouth of the throat, the arrangement may include a drag inducer. The drag inducer may create turbulence immediately above the throat mouth to promote the exhaustion of air from the cavity into the throat and out to the immediate environment. The drag inducer may include an angled plate or a more solid feature with an inclined or curved surface. The drag inducer may be inclined away from the direction of the approaching wind. The drag inducer may be winged shaped to optimise the drag effect.
The drag inducer may be in the form of a cowl. The cowl may be a discreet feature attached to the throat such as a plate, panel, fin or the like. Alternatively, the cowl may be a feature inherent in the shape and/or configuration of the throat or a hood associated therewith. For example, the cowl may be formed integrally with the throat or hood. The cowl may be an inclined hood formed together with the throat during a moulding process, preferably a blow moulding process.
The throat may be in the form of a housing made of a variety of shapes or configurations. For example, the throat may be predominantly cylindrical. The mouth preferably faces the leeward direction, to reduce rain penetration and increase flow over exhaust suction. The throat may define a mouth with a range of different shapes. For example, the mouth may be circular, square, triangular or the like. The mouth may lie in a particular plane. The plane may be inclined to the vertical. The mouth may be inclined to the leeward or windward direction. The plane in which the mouth lies may be vertical and normal relative to the plane in which the vane generally lies. The mouth may be in the form of an extended portal, extending in the leeward direction.
The throat may include screening means to resist the ingress of pests, rain, dust, debris and the like. The screening means preferably is at least adapted to resist the entry into the cavity of nuisances such as birds, and mice and other vermin. Still more preferably, the screening means is adapted to resist the entry into the cavity of pests such as cockroaches, ants, bees, wasps and the like. The screening means may comprise a series of bars, slats, strips, parallel wires etc. adapted to resist entry by larger nuisances such as birds and pests such as mice. The screening means may include thin clear plastic slats or wire strands. The screening means may include fly mesh, such as plastic or metal mesh adapted to resist entry of smaller pests such as cockroaches, ants and other insects. However, it will be appreciated that use of insect screens may interfere with the draft achieved by the vent and may not be suitable in applications where only low draft is anticipated or high draft conditions are expected or necessary. The slats may be metal, plastic or wooden. The slats may be movable. The slats may be rotatable. The slats may be pivotable, either discreetly or in unison. Preferably, the slats are collectively pivotable about parallel axes in a single plane. The movement of the slats may be remotely controllable, such as by direct wire link or radio control to a servo-motor. For example, in high wind conditions where it is desirable to close the vent, it is a preferment that the screening means be adapted to substantially or effectively seal the throat when desirable. The screening means may be associated with the mouth of the throat and may extend across the mouth.
The screening means may comprise one or more flaps. Preferably, the one or more flaps is responsive to the draft flowing through the throat. The one or more flaps may be hinged to one side of the throat. The one or more flaps may be hinged whereby to pivot. Preferably, the screening means comprises a single flap adapted to rotate about an axis extending through a line intermediate the length of the flap. Preferably, the flap axis is off-centre, whereby the flap is adapted to return to a resting position under the action of gravity. Preferably, the resting position is a closed position. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the screening means is adapted to close the throat when a positive pressure is encountered immediately external to the mouth. Preferably the flap is adapted to open the throat when a negative pressure is encountered immediately outside the mouth whereby to permit draft flow through the throat to exhaust the cavity.
The throat may be formed from planar panels angled relative to one another to form the various components. For example, the throat may be rectangular or square box shaped. However, for optimum performance, it is preferred that the throat be cylindrical with its longitudinal axis aligned vertically. The roof of the throat is preferably curved to reduce turbulence within the throat and permit smooth egress of air therefrom. The diameter or lateral width of the throat may be varied. Generally, the larger the diameter or width, the greater the volume per unit time may be exhausted through the vent. In a preferred embodiment, the throat is cylindrical and the diameter thereof is 30 cm.
The invention may be better understood from the following non-limiting description of the preferred embodiments, in which:
In
The throat 2 includes a mouth 8 through which air is ultimately exhausted into the immediate external environment. The mouth 8 is defined by a pair of vertical planar walls 9, an inclined roof line 10 terminating in a horizontal edge which meets the corresponding edges of the walls 9 and a lower edge 11 forming part of the neck 6. The neck 6 includes a ring bearing 7 mounting the throat 2 to the structure. The ring bearing 7 can be either a thrust bearing or may be bush mounted.
As best seen in
The vent 1 of the first embodiment is predominantly made of flat perspex translucent or transparent panels which permit the transmission of light through the vane 3, inclined cowl 4 and throat 2 into the space below the neck 6. The panels predominantly making up the vane 3, cowl 4 and throat 2 may alternatively be made from clear or fogged glass. Preferably, the glass is shatter proof or otherwise reinforced for strength and durability.
In
Mounted on top of the roof 19 of the throat 16 is a drag inducer 23. The drag inducer 23 comprises a pair of flanges extending laterally either side of a vane 24 immediately above the mouth 25 of the throat 16. The vane 24 is located substantially leeward of the axis of the shaft 20 causing the throat 16 to rotate in response to changes in wind direction. It will be appreciated that as wind blows from a direction indicated by the letter W in
The third embodiment shown in
In
In
The sixth embodiment shown in
The seventh embodiment in the form of a vent 45 shown in
In
A ring bearing 7 is shown in
Another arrangement according to one embodiment of the invention involves the addition of an infra red heat absorbing collar or panel (not shown) mounted around the vent or inside the throat of the vent external to the roof surface. The collar or panel is located outside the structure such as the roof attic space to limit radiant heat flow into the structure and allow for dissipation of heat to the outside environment.
The purpose of this embodiment is to promote and supplement the natural ventilation flow rate in say, nil wind conditions, by creating a temperature/pressure differential between the cooler air in the cavity such as a internal room space and the air heated at the exhaust point of the vent by the heat absorbing collar or panel. This has the effect of creating draft exhaust via stack/buoyancy flow.
Although not shown in FIGS. 1 to 16, it will be appreciated that the neck 6 may be coaxially fitted to a hollow shaft extending through a roof cavity and terminating at a ceiling having a suitable vented cover/diffuser. To permit venting of the roof cavity, the hollow shaft may include vents in its walls to permit exhaustion of air, not only from the cavity in the form of the internal space of a building below the ceiling, but also from the roof cavity. To optimise the transmission of natural light via the transparent or translucent vent 1, 15, 45, 35, 50 advantageously the inner surface of the hollow shaft is made from a reflective material.
Referring to
In
In a tenth embodiment 71 shown in
Alternatively, the screening means may be in the form of parallel tensioned wire. In yet another alternative embodiment, the screening means may include flywire or mesh. The flywire or mesh may be adapted to prevent entry by a range of nuisances and pests such as birds, possums, squirrels, bees, wasps, cockroaches and ants. The flywire or mesh may be security grade or may be lighter gauge plastic or metal mesh primarily adapted to prevent the entry of insects.
Referring finally to
The flap 77, in combination with the cowl 67, is adapted to reduce the incidence of down drafts entering the vent from the immediate external environment. Accordingly, when a positive pressure exists immediately outside the mouth 68 in area 26, the flap 77 is urged to its vertical closed position whereby its lower portion 81 moves into abutting relationship with lower portions of the hood 60. The wind direction W interacts with the combined cowl 67 and hood 60 shape and configuration surrounding the mouth 68 and encounters high resistance when the hood is oriented in the direction whereby the cowl faces windward. The hood 60 is therefore urged to rotate such that the cowl 67 turns away from the wind and ends up facing the leeward direction. In this orientation, the cowl 67 and overall shape and configuration of the hood 60 causes least wind resistance and creates a negative pressure in the area 26. This causes a pressure differential between the cavity and the area 26 resulting in a draft D. The draft D urges the flap 77 to open by pivoting about pivot points 78 and, in its greatest open extent, the top portion 80 of the flap 77 rests on the stop means 79.
The drainage outlets 70 may more clearly be seen in
Throughout the specification the word “comprise” and its derivatives are intended to have an inclusive rather than exclusive meaning unless the context requires otherwise.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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PR 9549 | Dec 2001 | AU | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/AU02/01678 | 12/13/2002 | WO |