Low Profile, High Efficiency Blower Assembly

Abstract

An air distribution blower housing for a low profile air handler such as a residential furnace is designed with a volute-shaped outer wall that has an exponentially increasing expansion angle in the direction of air flow through the blower housing for at least a portion of the volute-shaped outer wall length. This results in the blower housing having an enlarged air outlet opening that slows down and spreads out the air flow from the blower housing over a greater area of the furnace heat exchanger. The blower housing thereby enables less air pressure drop through the heat exchanger, which increases the efficiency of the blower motor operation. The design of the blower housing also efficiently turns the velocity head of the air flow through the housing to usable static air pressure at the housing air outlet.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the InventionThe present invention pertains to a low profile furnace that comprises a compact enclosure for residential use and an air distribution blower housing that is designed with an outer wall having an exponentially increasing expansion angle and an enlarged air outlet opening. The enlarged outlet opening slows down and spreads out the air flow from the blower housing over a greater area of the heat exchanger of a low profile furnace. Thus, the blower housing enables less air pressure drop through the heat exchangers, which increases the efficiency of the blower operation. The design of the blower housing also efficiently turns the velocity head of the air flow to usable static pressure at the housing air outlet. The enlarged air outlet opening of the blower housing is achieved without increasing the exterior dimensions of the blower housing whereby the blower housing is used in a compact enclosure for residential use. This is accomplish...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention overcomes the efficiency problems associated with the constructions of prior art 90+ furnace blowers by providing a blower with a unique housing design that spreads out the distribution air flow over the secondary heat exchanger to a larger extent than the existing blowers of the prior art. This enables the blower to operate with less of a pressure drop through the heat exchangers than that of prior art blowers. The scroll design of the blower housing also efficiently turns the velocity head of the air flow through the housing to usable static air pressure. In addition, it has been found through testing that the blower housing design of the invention applied to a low profile 80+ furnace blower has a similar or superior static efficiency to that of a regular profile blower. In a similar manner to the 90+ furnace, in an 80+ furnace where the primary heat exchanger is located close to the blower housing air outlet opening, the enlarged air outlet opening of the blower housing of the invention directs air over a larger area of the primary heat exchanger than blower housings of the prior art, and thereby creates energy savings. This enables the design of the blower housing to be employed in low profile 80+ furnaces to provide an efficiency gain, even though there is no secondary heat exchanger in the low profile furnace. The improved efficiency of the blower housing enables a reduction in the exterior dimensions of the furnace enclosure in which the blower housing is used.

In the typical construction of an air distribution blower, the pressure loss is proportional to the air flow velocity squared through a given restriction of the blower housing. Just a 15 percent increase in a two dimensional rectangular plane that represents the effective flow area across the secondary heat exchanger of the furnace can potentially create a (1.15×1.15=1.3225), (1 / 1.3225=0.756) 25% increase in efficiency due to air pressure loss at the secondary heat exchanger.

The blower housing of the present invention employs a fan wheel with forward curved impeller blades for low noise and for reducing the size of the fan wheel. Fan wheels with forward curved impeller blades are known to create large amounts of pressure and air flow for a relatively small size of fan wheel.

Problems solved by technology

Fan wheels with forward curved impeller blades are known to create large amounts of pressure and air flow for a relatively small size of fan wheel.

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