System and methods for controlling laboratory fume hood minimum airflow
AssigneeMeasured Air Performance, LLC
InventorEric Desrochers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods, systems, and apparatus are described which can safely reduce a laboratory fume hood's minimum airflow and energy consumption when it is determined that the fume hood is not in active use, based on a condition monitoring approach. The condition monitoring approach may incorporate a combination of setback criteria to reliably determine if the fume hood is or is not in use. When a determination has been made that a fume hood is not in use, energy reduction is achieved via automatic methods of hood minimum airflow setback. Fume hood minimum flow reductions are automatically disabled when it is determined that the hood is in active use.
Claims20
A method of providing minimum flow setback to a VAV fume hood, comprising:
- determining whether to enable or disable the minimum flow setback of the fume hood based upon a plurality of setback criteria, which includes:
- a fume hood equipment status based on detection of an object presence within an equipment free zone and object motion within a motion detection zone;
- a fume hood sash status based on a setback sash threshold;
- a fume hood electrical status corresponding to whether electrical equipment within the fume hood is operational, and
- a fume hood flushing time;
- and
- providing one or more minimum flow setback signals to hood controls of the fume hood, the one or more minimum flow setback signals being responsive to results of the determination of whether to enable or disable the minimum flow setback of the fume hood.
A system for providing minimum flow setback to a VAV fume hood, comprising systems configured to:
- determine whether to enable or disable the minimum flow setback of the fume hood based upon a plurality of setback criteria, which includes:
- a fume hood equipment status based on the detection of object presence within an equipment free zone and object motion within a motion detection zone;
- a fume hood sash status based on a setback sash threshold;
- a fume hood electrical status used to determine if electrical equipment within the fume hood is in operation or not;
- and
- a fume hood flushing time;
- provide one or more minimum flow setback signals to hood controls of the fume hood, the one or more minimum flow setback signals being responsive to results of the determination of whether to enable or disable the minimum flow setback of the fume hood.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.