Flush Mounted Ceiling Air Cleaner

The flush mounted ceiling air cleaner of the present invention is an improvement of existing flush mounted ceiling air cleaners.

Flush mounted ceiling air cleaners are typically designed to fit inside the supporting bars of a suspended ceiling framework. The frame work consists of these supporting T bars that intersect in a uniform pattern every 24" in one direction, and every 24" or 48" in a direction perpendicular to the first. The resultant open space available between each bar to place a flush mounted ceiling air cleaner is either 233/4".times.233/4" or 233/4".times.473/4". Prior to the present invention, flush mounted ceiling air cleaners were limited to accepting dirty air, cleaning this air, and discharging this same air within the confines of either a 2 ft..times.2 ft. or 2 ft..times.4 ft. ceiling grid opening. This resulted in inadequate circulation of the cleaned air into the remote areas of the room in which it operated. The effect of this inadequate circulation was that clean air discharged by the air cleaner reentered the unit at the intake of the air cleaner creating a "short circuiting" effect of the clean air. This resulted in clean air becoming localized in the immediate vicinity of the air cleaner.

The present invention eliminates this problem by locating the supply of clean air at a location(s) remote to the location of the intake of dirty air. This is accomplished by the use of a flexible insulated hose which connects the remote clean air supply grill to the main cabinet which receives and cleans the dirty air. By the use of a remote supply grill(s), air patterns can be established in a room which will allow for optimum cleaning of the air within the room and increase the overall cleaning efficiency of the air cleaner by allowing a higher percentage of dirty air to enter the unit for cleaning.

By separating the supply grill(s) from the return grill with at least 12 ft. of flexible hose, air patterns can be established that meet the user's specific requirements. Filtered air can be introduced at any point in the room without having to locate the main body of the air cleaner at that point. By the use of multiple supply grills and hoses, several points in a given area can be directly supplied with filtered air simultaneously.

An additional advantage is gained by separating the supply grill from the return grill. The logarithmic addition of noise as measured in decibels is reduced. When the supply and return grills are located within the same T-bar ceiling grid, air noise generated by both grills combine to create a decibel level greater than that created by each separate grill. The result of separating the supply and return grills will reduce the total decibel level at any one location in the room.

By the use of flexible insulated hose, air noise generated by the blower wheel and motor is attenuated by the absorption of this noise by the insulated hose before it reaches the supply grill. Without the insulated flex hose, blower noise is transmitted directly into the room.

By the use of flexible insulated hose in combination with multiple supply grills, separate rooms may be supplied with filtered air without having to locate the main body of the air cleaner in each room. This reduces the number of separate air cleaners required to effectively clean a multi-room facility.

The present invention allows the user to remove and replace filters from the room below the unit. The primary filters are retained independently of the prefilter allowing frequent removal of the prefilter without having to remove the primary filters.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention showing the separation of the supply and return grills connected by insulated flex hose.

FIG. 1A is a cross section of a standard ceiling grid T of the type shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of conventional ceiling flush mounted air cleaners showing how clean air can re-enter the unit before adequate circulation is accomplished.

FIG. 3 is a detailed side view of the present invention showing hose and grill connection and details of filter retention and ability to remove filters from the room below the unit.

The flush mounted ceiling air cleaner of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 in the installed position with the return grill 1, filtering section 2, flexible insulated connecting hose 3, and supply grill 4 from which clean air is discharged into the room. The return grill 1 and filtering section 2 are enclosed within a cabinet or housing 2', and it will be appreciated that the return grill 1 is located at an outermost end of an inlet side of the cabinet or housing, and the flexible connecting hose 3 is connected to the cabinet or housing at the outlet side thereof. Thus, room air entering the return grill 1 flows through the filtering section 2, connecting hose 3 and is discharged back into the room through the supply grill 4 at a location remote from the return grill 1.

The flexible hose is connected to the return grill 1 and filtering section 2 to form an air tight seal. The supply grill 4 is at an outermost end of a plenum chamber 4a and is designed to fit into a ceiling grid 2'.times.2' section and rest in place without any support from above. The filtering section 2 is designed to hang from a support structure above the air cleaner. A hanging flange 5 is provided as shown in FIG. 3. Threaded rod, cable, or chain (not shown) is used to suspend the cabinet so that the return grill is positioned to fit into a ceiling grid 2".times.2' section. The return grill 1 is incorporated into a hinged filter access door 6 as shown in FIG. 3 (hinged at 6a), and is held in a closed position with a latching mechanism. Filters are removed by opening the filter access door 6 from the room below. The filtering section houses three filters which include an activated charcoal filter 7 for gaseous and odor removal, a particulate filter 8 for removal of smaller particles from the air, and a prefilter 9 for removal of larger particles from the air. The charcoal filter and particulate filter are held in position by the use of springs 10 which seal the filters against a sealing flange 11. The prefilter is held in position by the use of a separate retainer bar 12. This retainer bar is hinged at 12a to swing down for prefilter removal without having to remove the filters 7 and 8.

The blower 13 is mounted with rubber vibration isolators 14 to the cabinet walls. The motor 15 is mounted to the blower directly driving the blower wheel (not shown). Electrical wiring is terminated at the electrical junction box 16. The blower outlet is connected to the cabinet wall by the use of a vibration isolator 17. A supporting hose collar 18 is attached to the outside wall. The flexible hose 3 is attached to this hose collar and secured with a hose clamp. The flexible hose 3 is attached to the supply grill 4 in the same manner.

In use, the air cleaner system of this invention is preferably mounted in conjunction with a conventional suspended ceiling structure. In such an arrangement, a framework of inverted T-shaped members 20 are arranged to form a series of rectangular or square grids 22 which support ceiling tiles or the like 24. In this invention, and as shown in FIG. 1, the return air grill 1 is located above a second grid, remote from the first grid, but substantially co-planar therewith. This arrangement optimizes room air flow and the cleaning efficiency of the apparatus.

Thus there has been shown and described the flush mounted ceiling air cleaner which accomplishes at least all of the stated objectives.

While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.