Air conditioner with selective filtering for air purification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10514174-B2
Application number	US-201715691448-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2017
Priority date	Jun 10, 2014
Publication date	Dec 24, 2019
Grant date	Dec 24, 2019

Abstract

A split air conditioner has a cabinet with a fan and evaporator for mounting within a structure. The cabinet includes one or more movable dampers or movable filters positioned in the flow path between the air inlet and the outlet for selectively filtering contaminants from the air to provide a greater or lesser degree of filtration of the air. The movable filters include sliding and/or pivot mounting structure which may accommodate stacking multiple filters with different filtering characteristics. The system may operate in a filtering only mode with no cooling, a cooling only mode with no filtering, or a combination of cooling and selective filtering.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A split air conditioner system including an indoor mounted unit, the indoor unit comprising:
a cabinet comprising cabinet sidewalls;
an evaporator positioned within the cabinet;
a fan positioned in the cabinet for moving air through the evaporator;
an air inlet for admitting untreated air into the cabinet to allow the fan to move air from the air inlet through the evaporator;
an outlet for discharging air from the cabinet; and
a filter for filtering air movably mounted to the cabinet in an airflow path between the air inlet and the outlet, the filter movable to be selectively positioned at different positions in the airflow path wherein the different positions provide variably adjustable amounts of filtering of air.

2. The split air conditioner system of claim 1 further including an actuator coupled to the filter for moving the filter.

3. The split air conditioner system of claim 2 further including a control circuit coupled to the actuator, the control circuit including one of an operator input and a sensor.

4. The split air conditioner system of 3 , wherein the control circuit includes a remote control having at least one of a particulate matter sensor or a hydrocarbon sensor.

5. The split air conditioner system of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises at least one pair of filter panels, each mounted to the cabinet to move toward each other to an operative filtering position and away from each other to a non-filtering position.

6. The split air conditioner system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one pair of filter panels are pivotally mounted to the cabinet.

7. The split air conditioner system of claim 1 , wherein the filter is a first filter and the air conditioner system further includes a second filter movably mounted to the cabinet to be selectively in the airflow path, the first filter and the second filter movable such that air moving through the cabinet is filtered by one of the first filter, the second filter, or by both the first and second filters.

8. The split air conditioner system of claim 7 , wherein the first filter and the second filter have different filtering characteristics.

9. The split air conditioner system of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises at least one segmented filter panel mounted to the cabinet to move to an operative filtering position and to a non-filtering position and further including first tracks mounted to the cabinet for guidably and movably receiving at least one filter panel, the tracks extending in front of the air inlet and extending along the cabinet sidewalls.

10. The split air conditioner system of claim 9 , wherein the filter is a first filter and further includes a second segmented filter movably mounted to the second tracks overlying the first filter.

11. The split air conditioner system of claim 10 further including a third segmented filter movably mounted to third tracks overlying the first and second filters.

12. The split air conditioner system of claim 11 , wherein each of the first, second and third filters are independently movable between a non-filtering position and a selectively filtering position.

13. The split air conditioner system of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises at least one pair of filter panels, each mounted to the cabinet to move toward each other to an operative selectively filtering position and away from each other to a different filtering position or a non-filtering position and further including tracks mounted to the cabinet for guidably and movably receiving the filter panels, the tracks including first tracks extending in front of the air inlet and second tracks coupled to the first tracks and extending away from the cabinet.

14. The split air conditioner system of claim 13 further including a second pair of filters movably mounted to the first and second tracks and overlying the at least one pair of filter panels.

15. The split air conditioner system of claim 14 , wherein the first and second tracks each include pairs of vertically aligned and spaced H-shaped tracks with opposed guide channels.

16. The split air conditioner system of claim 15 , wherein the first and second pairs of filters include U-shaped connector pins with ends that extend into the guide channels and space the first and second pairs of filters apart from one another.

17. The split air conditioner system of claim 16 further including a motorized drive individually coupled to each filter of the first and second pairs of filters for independently moving the first and second pairs of filters between a non-filtering position in the second tracks and a filtering position in the first tracks.

18. A split air conditioner system including an indoor mounted unit, the indoor unit comprising:
a cabinet for mounting to a wall of a structure near a ceiling, the cabinet including an air inlet at the top and an air outlet at the bottom;
an evaporator positioned within the cabinet;
a fan positioned in the cabinet for admitting untreated air into the cabinet through the air inlet and discharging conditioned air from the outlet of the cabinet; and
a filter positioned on the cabinet at the air inlet for filtering air, wherein the filter is selectively moveable between different positions that provide variably adjustable amounts of filtering of air.

19. The split air conditioner system of claim 18 , wherein the filter is movably mounted to the cabinet for movement between the different positions that provide variably adjustable amounts of filtering of air.

20. A split air conditioner system including an indoor mounted unit, the indoor unit comprising:
a cabinet;
an evaporator positioned within the cabinet;
a fan positioned in the cabinet;
an air inlet formed in the cabinet for drawing untreated air into the cabinet to allow the fan to move air in an airflow path from the air inlet through the evaporator and out of the cabinet;
one of a filter or a stacked filter movably positioned in the cabinet in the airflow path between the air inlet and an outlet at different positions in the airflow path and wherein the different positions provide variably adjustable amounts of filtering of air; and
at least one movable damper positioned in the cabinet for selectively changing the airflow path to selectively bypass the filter.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Cur Nihat O
• Guarino James C L
• Kendall James W
• Kuehl Steven J

Classifications

• Y10T29/49361

  Tube inside tube · CPC title

• F24F2110/64

  Airborne particle content · CPC title

• F24F13/28 Primary

  Arrangement or mounting of filters · CPC title

• F24F2110/72

  Carbon monoxide · CPC title

• F24F2110/70

  Carbon dioxide · CPC title