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US 12,613,040 B2Granted
Multiple fan HVAC system with optimized fan location
AssigneeGoodman Manufacturing Company, L.P.
InventorsMichael F Taras, Aniruddha S Joshi, Amr E Gado
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system that includes an outdoor heat exchanger (HX) and outdoor fans. The outdoor fans are arranged in either an in-line configuration or a staggered configuration to satisfy one or more requirements to optimize the airflow across the outdoor HXs.
Claims27
A heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system that circulates a refrigerant, comprising:
- an outdoor heat exchanger (HX) comprising a length and a projection, wherein the length is a straight line across the outdoor HX from one end to another end of the outdoor HX, the projection is of a distance between top and bottom ends of the outdoor HX in a horizontal plane, and the length and the projection are perpendicular to each other;
- outdoor fans, each outdoor fan comprising a center, a diameter, and a perimeter;
- and
- a compressor operable to circulate the refrigerant through a refrigerant circuit including the outdoor HX;
- wherein the outdoor fans are arranged in a staggered configuration relative to two planes parallel with the length of the outdoor HX with a different number of outdoor fans in one plane than the other and spaced by a separation distance to satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
- a ratio of a distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on one of the planes to a largest diameter of the outdoor fans is from 1.3 to 2.1, the ratio of the distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on one of the planes to the length of the outdoor HX is from 1.5 to 2.1, a ratio of the separation distance to the projection is between zero and 0.45, or a ratio of a distance between the center of any outdoor fan on one plane and the center of any outdoor fan on the other plane to the distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on the same plane is from 0.5 to 1 such that an airflow across, and thus the thermal energy exchange with, the outdoor heat exchanger is maximized for the satisfied conditions.
3 more elements
A method of operating a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, comprising:
- operating a compressor to circulate a refrigerant through refrigerant circuit including an outdoor heat exchanger (HX) comprising a length, a projection, and ends, wherein the length is a straight line across the outdoor HX between the ends, the projection is of a distance between top and bottom ends of the outdoor HX in a horizontal plane, and the length and the projection are perpendicular to each other;
- and
- moving air across the outdoor HX by operating outdoor fans, each outdoor fan comprising a center, a diameter, a radius, and a perimeter;
- wherein the outdoor fans are arranged in a staggered configuration relative to two planes parallel with the length of the outdoor HX with a different number of outdoor fans in one plane than the other and spaced by a separation distance to satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
- a ratio of a distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on one of the planes to a largest diameter of the outdoor fans is from 1.3 to 2.1, the ratio of the distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on one of the planes to the length of the outdoor HX is from 1.5 to 2.1, a ratio of the separation distance to the projection is between zero and 0.45, or a ratio of a distance between the center of any outdoor fan on one plane and the center of any outdoor fan on the other plane to the distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on the same plane is from 0.5 to 1 such that an airflow across, and thus the thermal energy exchange with, the outdoor heat exchanger is maximized for the satisfied conditions.
2 more elements
An outdoor unit for a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system that circulates a refrigerant, comprising:
- an outdoor heat exchanger (HX) comprising a length, a projection, and ends, wherein the length is a straight line across the outdoor HX between the ends, the projection is of a distance between top and bottom ends of the outdoor HX in a horizontal plane, and the length and the projection are perpendicular to each other;
- outdoor fans, each outdoor fan comprising a center, a diameter, a radius, and a perimeter;
- and
- a compressor operable to circulate the refrigerant through a refrigerant circuit including the outdoor HX;
- wherein the outdoor fans are arranged in a staggered configuration relative to two planes parallel with the length of the outdoor HX with a different number of outdoor fans in one plane than the other and spaced by a separation distance to satisfy at least one of the following conditions:
- a ratio of a distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on one of the planes to a largest diameter of the projection fans is from 1.3 to 2.1, the ratio of the distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on one of the planes to the length of the outdoor HX is from 1.5 to 2.1, a ratio of the separation distance to the projection is between zero and 0.45, or a ratio of a distance between the center of any outdoor fan on one plane and the center of any outdoor fan on the other plane to the distance between the centers of the outdoor fans on the same plane is from 0.5 to 1 such that an airflow across, and thus the thermal energy exchange with, the outdoor heat exchanger is maximized for the satisfied conditions.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.