Electronic vapor and analysis with HVAC integration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10215430-B2
Application number	US-201615180888-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2016
Priority date	Jun 15, 2015
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

A method is disclosed comprising drawing air into a robotic vapor device from an airstream of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, exposing the drawn air to a sensor to detect one or more constituents in the drawn air, determining measurement data for the one or more constituents of the drawn air via the sensor, determining one or more vaporizable materials to vaporize based on the measurement data, transmitting an instruction to the HVAC system to continue providing the airstream, and dispensing a vapor comprised of the one or more vaporizable materials into the airstream.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
an intake, configured to receive air from an airstream of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system;
a pump coupled to the intake, configured for drawing the air into the apparatus via the intake;
a sensor, coupled to the pump, configured for detecting one or more constituents in the drawn air;
a network access device configured for establishing a communication session with a computing device;
a processor, configured for,
generating measurement data based on the detected one or more constituents,
transmitting the measurement data via the network access device to the computing device,
receiving a determination of one or more vaporizable materials to vaporize based on the measurement data from computing device;

a vaporizer component, coupled to the processor, configured for vaporizing the one or more vaporizable materials to create a vapor, wherein the vaporizer component comprises,
a first container for storing a first vaporizable material;
a second container for storing a second vaporizable material; and
a mixing chamber coupled to the first container for receiving the first vaporizable material, the second container for receiving the second vaporizable material, configured for producing a mixed vaporizable material based on the first vaporizable material and the second vaporizable material; and

a vapor output, coupled to the vaporizer component, configured for expelling the vapor into the airstream of the HVAC system.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the pump comprises at least one of a variable stroke piston, variable stroke bellows, an intake fan, osmosis intake structure, or a gas pump.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a gas sensor circuit, a true/false test strip, a PH sensor, a frequency reading device, a temperature reading device, a magnetic sensor, an imaging sensor, a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, or a combination thereof.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the measurement data comprises a concentration of the detected one or more constituents in the airstream.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured for determining a vaporization ratio of the first vaporizable material and the second vaporizable material and for determining an amount of the first vaporizable material and an amount of the second vaporizable material to comprise the mixed vaporizable material.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the vaporizer component comprises a heating element for vaporizing the one or more vaporizable materials, a vibrating mesh for nebulizing the mixed vaporizable material into a mist, an atomizer for atomizing the mixed vaporizable material into an aerosol, or an ultrasonic nebulizer for nebulizing the mixed vaporizable material into a mist.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured for determining whether to engage a filtration component of the HVAC system based on the measurement data.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the filtration component comprises electrostatic plates, ultraviolet light, a HEPA filter, or combinations thereof.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a memory element configured for storing the data.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory element is configured for storing an air treatment protocol and wherein the processor is configured for comparing the measurement to an air treatment protocol to make the determination of the one or more vaporizable materials to vaporize.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the air treatment protocol comprises one or more of, a target concentration for the one or more one or more constituents, a minimum threshold concentration for the one or more one or more constituents, a maximum threshold concentration for the one or more one or more constituents.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the vaporizer component comprises a plurality of vaporizer components each providing a vapor to at least one of different parts of the HVAC system or different rooms of an enclosure served by the HVAC system.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to independently control each of the plurality of vaporizer components, whereby different ones of the plurality of vaporizer components can concurrently discharge different vapor.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is disposed in at least one of an air handler of the HVAC system or a duct of the HVAC system.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to communicate with the HVAC system to control the airstream.

16. A method comprising:
drawing air into a robotic vapor device from an airstream of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system;
exposing the drawn air to a sensor to detect one or more constituents in the drawn air;
determining measurement data for the one or more constituents of the drawn air via the sensor;
determining one or more vaporizable materials to vaporize based on the measurement data for a plurality of vaporizer components, wherein each vaporizer component is configured to provide vapor to at least one of different parts of the HVAC system or different rooms of an enclosure served by the HVAC system;
transmitting an instruction to the HVAC system to continue providing the airstream; and
dispensing a vapor comprised of the one or more vaporizable materials into the airstream from the plurality of vaporizing components.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein determining measurement data for the one or more constituents of the drawn air via the sensor comprises at least one of gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, electrochemical detecting, carbon nanotube detecting, infrared absorption, or semiconductor electrochemical sensing.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising transmitting an instruction to the HVAC system to engage a filtration component based on the measurement data.

Assignees

• Lunatech Llc

Inventors

• Blackley Jonathan Seamus

Classifications

• F24F2003/1689

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F24F2003/1614

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F24F11/30 Primary

  for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring · CPC title

• Y02B30/78

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F24F2110/50

  Air quality properties · CPC title