Fan assisted floor ventilation diffuser

Abstract

A fan assisted floor ventilation diffuser includes an enclosed diffuser housing with an air inlet opening and an air outlet opening. A diffuser grille covers the air outlet opening and an inlet fan is mounted at the air inlet opening. The inlet fan pulls air from the underfloor plenum into the floor ventilation diffuser housing and discharges the air through the diffuser grille into the occupied space. A thermostat in each room of the occupied space above the floor controls the operation of the inlet fan for each floor ventilation diffuser in the room and thereby controls the amount of air passing through the floor ventilation diffuser and into an individual room in the occupied space.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY HIM OR HER [0001] This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 864,224, filed on Nov. 3, 2006, which is incorporated herein in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a floor ventilation diffuser with an inlet fan. The floor ventilation diffuser is used in an underfloor plenum air conditioning system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] In an underfloor plenum air conditioning system, warm or cool air is supplied to the plenum below the floor of an occupied space that is to be heated or cooled. In order to heat or cool the occupied space above the floor, floor ventilation diffusers are mounted in the floor at predetermined locations to allow the warm or cool air in the plenum to flow into the occupied space above the floor. The floor ventilation diffusers are located and oriented to accommodate the configuration of the occupied space to be heated or cooled. [0004] Prior art floor ventilat...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] A thermostat in each room of the occupied space above the floor controls the operation of the inlet fan for each floor ventilation diffuser in the room. Consequently, the thermostat controls the amount of air passing through the floor ventilation diffuser and into an individual room in the occupied space. That individual control improves the comfort in each individual room of the occupied space.

[0007] Because the floor ventilation diffuser of the present invention is a variable air volume device, the diffuser will increase and decrease the amount of air delivered to the occupied space depending on the input signal to the inlet fan from the thermostat. This operation makes the floor ventilation diffuser of the present invention more energy efficient than a floor diffuser that has a constant volume based on the pressure in the underfloor plenum.

[0008] The inlet fan is a 24 volt direct current (VDC) variable speed fan that consumes a small amount of energy during use when compared to a floor ventilation diffuser with a movable damper for the same task. The inlet fan, the housing, and the diffuser grille of the floor ventilation diffuser generate a low amount of noise. An integrated noise silencer is provide to dampen fan noise.

Problems solved by technology

If the floor ventilation diffuser was located a great distance from the fan column providing the conditioned air to the underfloor plenum, the floor ventilation diffuser might be starved for air even with the damper fully open.

Consequently, balancing such a system to provide consistent heating and cooling in the occupied space was sometimes difficult.

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