US2873097A - Additional air supply for radiators - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 10, 1959 o. H. BRANDI 2,873,097

ADDITIONAL AIR SUPPLY FOR RADIATORS Filed June 12, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

0m 5. Brandi Feb. 10, 1959 Filed June 12, 1956 o. H. BIRANDI ADDITIONAL AIR SUPPLY FOR RADIATORS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 0M0 HT Dramzz' O. H. BRANDI ADDITIONAL AIR SUPPLY FOR RADIATORS Feb. 10, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet 55 Filed June 12, 1956 INVENTOR. I 0 360 H Brandz ATT'YS.

Feb. 10, 1959 o. H. BRAND] 2,873,097

ADDITIONAL AIR SUPPLY FOR RADIATORS Filed June 12, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. Otto H Bran dl' ATTYS.

United States Patent ADDlTiDNAL SUPPLY FOR RADIATORS Utto Heinz Brandi, Koln, Germany Application June 12, 1956, Serial No. 590,858

Claims priority, application Germany June 14,195

13 Claims. (Cl. 257-137) In air heating plants known as high pressure systems, supplemental air is supplied with a relatively high initial pressure through a system of relatively narrow channels to the radiators generally arranged below every window where this supplemental air is mixed with the air from the room and is then discharged into the room. Such a system causes relatively high manufacturing and operating costs. The narrow channels are rapidly contaminated and cleaning of the radiators is very difficult. It the plant is used for cooling purposes, draining off of the condensate is very complicated. I

The primary object of the present invention is to improve an air heating plant of the foregoing character and its essential feature consists in supplying supplemental air to an air chamber before being discharged into a room, with the wall of the air chamber directed towards the room being conditioned by radiators. The radiators used are preferably of the fiat type and are arranged in the room in a vertically inclined position whereby hot air may be discharged upwardly. The chamber is closed by means of a removable cover. The supplemental air may be supplied to the air chamber at a high velocity through channels having small cross-sections. In the chamber there is produced a small overpressure by means of which the hot air is dischargedinto the room. The supplied supplemental air may be introduced without noise at a low velocity from a high velocity by means of a dilfuser. In this manner, to 80% of dynamic energy may be recovered in the case of high pressure or middle pressure distribution.

it is a further object of the invention to completely utilize the heating capacity of the radiator by connccting the same to the channel supplying the supplemental air in such a way that this supplemental air is utilized by passing across the rear side of the radiators.

The wall of the air chamber supplied with the current of supplemental air is directed towards the room and it is further proposed to form this wall by means of several radiators which are preferably arranged in staggered relation so that the air may discharge from the chamber through several slot-shaped nozzles. The radiators, which are preferably of the fiat type, may be arranged parallel to one another or with increasing or decreasing inclination towards the horizontal, the slots facilitating distribution of air. The slots may be arranged below, between or above the flat radiators and may have equal or variable size.

The formation of the air chamber wall by several radiators directed towards the room offers many advantages structurally and technically. The depth of the air chamber may be reduced while the inclined position of the radiators may however be maintained. The varia tion of the inclination of the radiators towards the horizontal offers dififerent possibilities for controlling the radiation effect of the radiators. The multi-part radiator ofiers a considerable advantage in cooling since the cool: ing air is circulated thereby merely in the staying zone as the air movement starting from the slots is more powerful than the natural drift of the air, and for this reason there results a cooling air current in a horizontal direction or more ascending into the room. The distribution of the air current through a plurality of slot-like nozzles offers the further advantage that the whole flat radiator surface directed towards the room is completely swept over, whereby a relatively high difference of temperature between cooling surface and air as well as a high velocity is attained. The heat transmission reaches its maximum value even at small difference in temperature. Aside from this, there remains the cooling ellect by radiation, which has its greatest effect at the floor surface near a window, for example.

According to a further feature of the invention, the supply of supplemental air is effected by nozzles which are arranged in the lower part of the air chamber and the discharge openings are directed towards the radiators with two or more radiators preferably arranged in series.

in the drawings several embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example.

Figs. 1 and 2 are vertical cross-sectional views of two different embodiments of an air chamber and radiator according to the invention,

Figs. 3. to 5 are vertical cross-sectional views of various embodiments of an air chamber with a multi-section radiator according to the invention which is arranged below a window,

Figs. 6 and 7 are vertical cross-sectional views of two other embodiments of an air chamber utilizing fans,

Figs. 8 to 10 are vertical cross-sectional views of three further embodiments of the air chamber showing a supply of supplemental air directed from below the radiators,

Fig. 11 is a vertical cross-section of another form of the invention, showing a corrugated radiator,

Fig. 12 is a horizontal sectional view taken on line XlIXll of Fig. 11,

Fig. 13 is a cross-sectional view showing the radiator at a side wall adjacent a ceiling,

Fig. 14 is a cross-sectional view showing a radiator depending from a ceiling, and

Fig. 15 is a sectional perspective view of another design of the radiators arranged in staggered relation with respect to the air chamber.

In substantially all embodiments, supplemental air to be supplied to the room is received from a channel 1 passing into an air chamber 2. which is arranged below a window sill as in Figs. 1 to 12 and 15 with the air chamber closed at the room side 3 by a radiator 4. This radiator may be automatically or manually controlled by means of a conventional regulating valve, not shown. For the purpose of cleaning the air chamber, there is provided a removable cover 5 which tightly seals the chamber at the upper edge. The air discharges upwardly in front of a window 6 through an opening 7 provided in the cover'a'. This opening may be controlled by hand or automatically by means of a slide. Due to the inclined arrangement of the radiator, heat radiates in a downward direction towards the floor 8 near the window. For cocling purposes, there is provided below the radiator a collecting groove 9 which collects condensate which may collect at the lower part of the radiator. The condensate accumulating in the air chamber may flow of]? into the collecting groove 9 through an opening It). Due to the slight overpressure in the air chamber 2, air also flows through this opening into the collecting groove which discharges below the radiator at 11 into the room 3. In order to avoid any overpressure in the collecting groove 9 which might prevent flowing oil of the condensate, the clearance It) near the radiator towards the collecting groove 9 is made substantially narrower than opening 11 for discharge into room 3. By means of guide surface 18,

3 at opening 11, the air is also directed towards the front or room side of the radiator 4.

The air chamber 2 is provided at the wall and lower side with an insulating layer 12 providing heat insulation as well as sound absorption and to increase sound absorption, the wall 13 of the air chamber is suitably perforated. Thus high velocity air noises in the chamber may be reduced in a simple manner below the normal noise of the room and this sound absorption permits the admission of supplemental air into the channel system at a very high initial pressure.

In order to utilize the heat emitted at the backside of the radiator, an air conduit is provided in the air chamber in such a manner that all supplemental air is directed to blow against the radiator. This is effected by one or more sheet-metal guides or battles 14 (Fig. 2) which provide a separate compartment 15 along the inner surface of the radiator 4. By providing a regulating slide 16 at the entrance of compartment 15, supplemental air may enter and be heated at the backside of the radiator for discharge upwardly through opening 7 in the cover into the room in front of the window 6.

In order to increase heat transmission, ribbed heating convector surfaces 17 may be provided intermediate the radiator and the guides 14. These convector surfaces 17 which may extend over the whole length or part of the length of compartment may be separate from or connected to the radiator.

During the hot season the radiator may be used as a cooling element, the hot air in the room being cooled in an inversed operation between the cooling element and the chamber from which it is discharged upwardly through the opening 7. Below the cooling element there is pro vided a collecting groove 19 (Fig. 2) from which the condensate is directed through a U-shaped conduit 20 into the collecting groove 9 of chamber 2 and may be subsequcntly drained off. The conduit 20 may be closed by means of a plug 20'.

The radiator 4 may be divided by several plates 4a, 4b, 4c (Figs. 3 to 7). The single plates may be connected with one another in such a manner that the heating or cooling liquid flows through them successively from top to bottom or alternately from bottom to top. The single plates may also be connected in parallel. In order to attain effective heating or circulation in a room, for instance, if the floor has already room temperature, the plates in-4c may be adjusted with increasing inclination towards the horizontal (Fig. 4). In this case, the air jets discharging from the slots 21 between the plates diverge from one another so that the air circulation in the room is increased only to a small degree. If, on the other hand, it is desired that the heat radiating adjacent the floor be intensified, the plates may be arranged with a decreasing inclination toward the horizontal (Fig. 5). The air jets will then converge and unite into a combined jet which has only small depth at the height of the window sill. At:

the upper and lower edge of the heating or cooling plates there are provided air slots 22, 23 from which discharge the air of the chamber which will sweep over the plates so that convective heat transmission is improved. If it is necessary to effect a stronger movement of the air from the room on the floor to increase the temperature at the surface of the fioor, the lowermost slot 23 may be made larger than the others for increasing the projection of the air layers in the room. On the other hand, an enlargement will also have to be made at the ends on the sides, particularly at the uppermost slot 22, to intensify the air current towards and at the ends in a narrow chamber extending only over a part of the window so that the stronger side currents draw in the air of the window laterally from the chamber and thereby prevent flowing of the air of the window into this room laterally above the chamber.

In order to increase heat emitted, the air from the chamber flows with high velocity along the backside of the window (Fig. 6).

4 guiding surface 14 (Fig. 3) and this guiding surface may be removed for cleaning purposes. A further increase of heat emission is made possible by the provision of ribs 17 in view of the guiding surface and these ribs may easily cleaned upon removal of the cover.

Figs. 6 and 7 show embodiments provided with air fans 24 which immediately draw in outside air through an opening in the outer wall and urge it through a filter 25 into the air chamber 2. As the outside air enters the chamber without preheating, the whole heating or cooling capacity, respectively, has to be furnished by the heating surfaces of the chamber. In the same manner, as in the central supply of supplemental air, there are provided for this purpose guiding surfaces 14 or ribs at the flat radiators. There may also be provided a convector 17, preferably at the uppermost fiat radiator. This convector is connected together with the uppermost fiat radiator 4a with the feed pipe of the heating system. The convector may be arranged in series or in parallel with the flat radiator. In the latter case, the convector is separately connected to the return pipe of the heating system. This appears to be suitable it tho convector has to eifect a higher temperature of the supplemental air so that the water flowing through the return pipe would become too cool and would impair the heat emission of the other flat radiators.

The intake of the air fans 24 is controlled by louvers 26 of known construction and automatically closing dampers 27. The latter may also be replaced by hand or automatically controlled regulating slides, particularly if supplemental air has to be drawn in by the fan from the room. In this case, the regulating slides controlling the outer and supplemental air are connected with one another. The control may be limited to the regulating slides for supplemental air so the fan draws in the missing air through automatically opening slides from out of doors. This oflfers the advantage that cold outdoor air cannot enter into the device and then into the room if the device is out of service. It is of no particular importance where the slides for the circulating air are arranged, they may be disposed immediately before the fan or mounted at or within the screen for the circulating air and may for example consist of adjustable dampers on this screen.

The filter 25 should be arranged vertically or nearly vertically and is supported at the top by a device which preferably consists of a U-shaped hinged bar 28 so that the filter may be lifted up after removal of the cover 5. The motor of the fan may then be controlled without difficulty. To make the whole interior of the chamber readily accessible for cleaning purposes in spite of the mounting of the filter, the lower edge thereof can be likewise supported by means of a hinged 'bar 29 which may be turned upwards. The lateral mountings of the filter will not hinder cleaning and may therefore be rigid.

Instead of drawing in circulating air adjacent the floor (Fig. 7), the air may be drawn from in front of the In this case, a space near the window is formed by a vertical pane 30 of moderate height forming a cold air pocket so that the cold air is drawn over the whole width of the window. The air drawn in at the window is guided to the suction side 32 of the fan and may be adjusted at will by a regulating slide, for instance, at the top of the screen, or by a slot. Also in this case, the fan draws in air from the outside it the supply of air from the window is not sufiicient.

In the embodiments illustrated in Figs. 8 to 10, the supply channel 1 is arranged in such a manner so that the supplemental air discharging from the nozzles will positively flow in the direction of the radiators. For this purpose, the nozzles are disposed in the lower part of air chamber 2 so that the supplemental air after being heated may sweep over the radiators in the direction of the natural upward movement of the air. In order to increase heat emitted, the radiators may be staggered seesaw in several rows one behind the other (Fig. 8). The

If several rows of radiators 4 are not sufficient, convectors 17a and 1712 may be provided at the backside of the radiators. In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 9 there is provided a guiding surface 14a so that the flow of supplemental air completely sweeps over the convectors. The lower end of guiding surface 14a is pivotally mounted at 14b and is linked to the tiltable cover 5 by means of a linkage 5a. When the cover 5 is raised upwardly into the position indicated by broken lines, the guiding surface 14a will be moved rearwardly into the interior of chamber 2 and the convectors 17a, 17b may easily be cleaned. The air resistance of the convectors 17a is greater than that of flat plates 4-, and thus as supplemental air is discharged from the slot-like nozzle lot it will have sutficient velocity so that part of it flows immediately through the lower convector 17b While the remainder reaches the upper convector 17a along the guiding surface 14a to be discharged into the room through slots 21 between radiators 4a and 4!) or above the radiator 41:, respectively. The guiding surface 14a is shaped so that the air current is guided but the sound waves are absorbed so that the sound absorbing effect of the lining 12, 13 of the chamber is not diminished. For this purpose, the perforated guiding surface has to be provided in any suitable manner with a covering layer consisting of an elastic foil.

If cooling is temporarily required, the heating surface of the radiators 4 directed towards the chamber may be used for heat emission. For this purpose an air inlet 21c is provided below the radiator 4 (Fig. 10) through which air from the room enters into chamber 2 where it is heated and by means of thermic lift discharges into the room through slots 21a and 21b. The air from the room is heated in the chamber to'such a degree that the thermic lift effects a rapid circulation and thereby a rapid heating of the air from the room. If the supplemental air flows into chamber 2 through slot-like nozzle la, it draws in the air from the room by suction through inlet 21c and this air mixture is discharged into the room through slots 21a and 21b.

Figs. 11 and 12 show a further advantageous combination of heating by means of radiators and supplemental air. The supply channel 1 of supplemental air is arranged in such a manner that the discharge nozzles open also on the side of the radiator directed towards the room. If a radiator 4d of corrugated form is used, the discharge nozzles 11) may open on both sides of the radiator directed towards the room and the chamber as shown in Fig. 12. These discharge nozzles may be aligned on each side of the corrugated radiator. If a flat straight radiator is used, the discharge nozzles may alternatively open on the side directed towards the room and the chamber.

In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 13, the air chamher 2 is arranged adjacent the side wall 33 and beneath the ceiling 34. The wall of the chamber directed towards the room is formed by several flat radiators 4a-4c which may be parallel to each other or may also have different inclination. correspondingly, the slots 21 between the radiators shall give the air jets different inclination so that in this case, the direction of the discharging supplemental air may be varied between the vertical and the horizontal. In this manner, the necessary quantity of supplemental air may be supplied to each part of the room. If the radiators are used for cooling purposes, they must be arranged at the proper 6 inclination to permit drainage of condensate for collection in a groove below the radiators and drained off by means of a pipe 35.

According to the same principle, air outlets may also be provided in the middle of the ceiling or beneath the ceiling construction (Fig. 14-). The shape of the outlet is of no importance and may be circular, square, rectangular or elongated cross-sections allowing extensive adaptation to the inner architecture in accordance with building air conditioning technics. The supplemental air-may be supplied from above or from the side.

The supplemental air may be discharged at both sides of an outlet 36 for the used air which is drawn in from below and carried away upwardly or to the side. The heat radiation is then equally distributed over the room and the air jets are given such an inclination that a short circuit with the outlet of used air is prevented.

In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 15, the radiators consist of tubes 37 carrying the heating agent. The tubesare provided with fin blades 38 and 39 extending in diametrically opposite directions. These radiators are preferably arranged in staggered relation with one another in such a manner that the edge of tin blade 38a lies at the height of the tube 37 of the adjacent radiator. Between the edge of the fin blade and the tube, there is provided a restricted passage which promotes the flow of the air in natural lift and also upon supply of supplemental air.

This restricted passage is suitably provided with a cover" 46 in the form of a perforated sheet metal strip. The perforations or outlets act like nozzles and this action may be assisted by giving the outlets the shape of real nozzles or by nozzle inserts. The supplied primary air reaches the space between the fin blades arranged in staggered relation. With the discharge of the air in the direction of arrows 43 there is carried forward air from the room in the direction of arrow 44, as secondary air and put into circulation. i

What is claimed as new is:

i. In an air conditioning system, a room including a vertical wall, a chamber including a back wall integral with said vertical wall, end and bottom walls integral with said back wall projecting into said room, a cover member overlying said back and end walls and projecting into said room, said cover member, end and bottom walls defining an opening in said chamber, radiator means extending across said opening between said end walls and in laterally spaced relationship from said back wall, said radiator means being disposed angularly relative to said back wall and diverging upwardly from said bottom wall toward said cover member, said chamber including air egress portions adjacent upper and lower portions of said radiator means, and means communicating pressurized air into said chamber for forcing conditioned air out of said chamber across inner and outer surfaces of said radiator means.

2. In an air conditioning unit, a chamber including a back wall, end and bottom walls integral with said back wall, a cover member overlying said back and end walls, said cover member, end and bottom walls defining an opening in said chamber, radiator means extending across said opening between said end walls and in laterally spaced relationship from said back wall, said radiator means being disposed angularly relative to said back wall and diverging upwardly from said bottom wall toward said cover member, said chamber including air-egress portions adjacent upper and lower portions of said radiator means, and means communicating pressurized air into said chamber for forcing conditioned air out of said cham ber across inner and outer surfaces of said radiator means.

3. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 2 in which the back Wall of said chamber includes insulating and sound dampening means for aiding in maintaining a uniform temperature in said chamber and reducing the noise of pressurized air entering the same.

4. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 1- in which said vertical wall of said room includes a window extending above said cover member, the air-egress portion adjacent the upper portion of said radiator means directing pressurized conditioned air across the inner surface of said radiator means and vertically across the inner surface of said window.

5. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 2 in which said bottom wall comprises an upwardly opening trough extending from said back wall and beneath said radiator means, said trough terminating at an inner edge in transverse spaced relation from the lower portion of said radiator means and defining an elongated slot portion adjacent said lower edge of said radiator means.

, 6. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 5 in which said inner edge of said trough comprises a transverse fiange extending angularly in spaced relation from the outer surface of said radiator means insuring the movement of conditioned air across the inner surface of said radiator means. 7

7. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 2 in which said radiator means comprises a hollow plate-like body member including convector plate means extending vertically on the inner surface thereof for providing increased contact surfaces for contacting the pressurized conditioned air-emitted from the upper air-egress portion.

. 8. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 7 including a transverse plate extending across said convector plates and defining a passage terminating below said upper air-egress portion for directing an increased velocity of conditioned air through said upper air-egress portion.

9. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 8 including regulating means extending across said passage for controlling the movement of pressurized conditioned air through said passage.

10. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 2 in which said radiator means comprises a plurality of vertically staggered plate elements disposed in spaced relation, adjacent edge portions of a pair of said plate elements defining intermediate air-egress slots for directing conditioned air across the outer surface of the uppermost plate element of said pair.

ll. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 1 in which said means communicating pressurized air into said chamber comprises a conduit disposed transversely of said chamber adjacent said bottom well, said conduit including at least one elongated discharge nozzle for directingair across the inner surface of said plate elements and drawing air from said room into said chamber beneath said radiator means, said discharge nozzle directing air through said intermediate air-egress slots.

12. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 1 in which said means communicating pressurized air into said chamber comprises a power driven fan assembly for drawing air into said chamber, said fan assembly communicating through said vertical wall and beneath said chamber whereby air is drawn from the room and ex teriorly of said room, and filter means interposed between said fan assembly and said radiator means for filtering conditioned air passing from said chamber.

13. An air conditioning unit as set forth in claim 2 in which said radiator means comprises a transversely corrugated plate element, said means for communicating pressurized air into said chamber comprising a transverse conduit disposed along the bottom wall of said chamber, said conduit including a plurality of transversely spaced and vertically directed tubular nozzles extending into the corrugations of said plate elements at the bottom thereof.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,633,032 Nordling June 21, 1927 1,638,605 Thorson et al. Aug. 9, 1927 1,758,266 Smith May 13, 1930 1,941,425 Young Dec. 26, 1933 2,022,332 Woolley Nov. 26, 1935 2,267,425 Rowe et al. Dec. 23, 1941 2,287,267 Palmer June 23, 1942 2,355,629 Carrier Aug. 15, 1944 2,566,929 Lopker Sept. 4, 1951 2,697,428 Norman et al Dec. 21, 1954 2,774,574 Patterson Dec. 18, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 12,087 Great Britain Oct. 24, 1914 225,952 Switzerland June 1, 1943

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