Patent Issued for Systems for workstation-mounted radiant panels (USPTO 11680717): United Services Automobile Association

2023 JUL 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11680717, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Weems, John Andrew (San Antonio, TX, US).

This patent was filed on March 25, 2021 and was published online on June 20, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems for workstation-mounted radiant panels. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to employing radiant panels near a workstation to absorb radiant energy to maintain a target temperature at the workstation.

“Traditional heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems may condition a room having one or more workstations to be at a target temperature. However, the target temperature may not be individually adjustable on a workstation level, instead maintaining the entire room at a common temperature. The common temperature may cause some users to be warmer than desired, while causing other users to be cooler than desired, thus limiting a comfort and a working efficiency for the users in the room. For example, individual users may desire to cool down after being in a warm external environment, or individual users may feel that their workstation is cooler than desired.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“The present disclosure relates generally to a workstation cooling system that uses radiant panels near a workstation to absorb radiant energy from the workstation and other nearby energy sources, such as users, lights, equipment, and the like. As such, the workstation cooling system may enable users to maintain their individual workstation at a desired target temperature that suits their individual preferences. Further, the present embodiments of the workstation cooling system may reduce radiant energy from a lower portion of a room where the workstation is disposed, and may effectively operate in conjunction with displacement heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that supply conditioned air to the lower portion of the room.

“With the foregoing in mind, in certain embodiments, a workstation cooling system employs work-station mounted radiant panels to individually condition the air near each workstation. The radiant panels may be incorporated in or replace acoustic or privacy panels of the workstation. In some embodiments, the radiant panels may be embedded within a desk or work surface of the workstation. As such, the radiant panels may be located within a close proximity to the user of the workstation, and are therefore well-suited to remove radiant energy from the workstation and provide cooler temperatures near the user. In certain embodiments, one or more radiant panels may include a heat exchange coil extending within a housing. Thus, a controller of the workstation cooling system may instruct a control valve to open to provide cooling water through the heat exchange coil of the one or more radiant panels. The user may therefore provide input to the controller through a user device, such as a desk-mounted thermostat, to adjust a flowrate of the cooling water through the heat exchange coil of the one or more radiant panels disposed in the workstation. The radiant panels may also condition the air at the workstation via convection, thus further conditioning the workstation and the room. As such, by having one or more radiant panels at a workstation, the user may adjust the target temperature for his or her workstation to be suited to his or her individual preferences, while reducing a dependence on air-mixing HVAC systems that may spread contaminants between users in the room. Additional details regarding the workstation cooling system and various methods for operating the workstation cooling system will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1-5.

“By way of introduction, FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a workstation cooling system 10 for conditioning a workstation 12, in accordance with embodiments described herein. As illustrated, the workstation cooling system 10 includes a radiant cooling system 14 that enables the transfer of radiant energy 18 from the workstation 12 to the radiant cooling system 14. The radiant cooling system 14 may receive the radiant energy 18 from radiant energy sources near the workstation 12 when cooling of the workstation is requested. The radiant cooling system 14 may additionally or alternatively send the radiant energy 18 to any suitable radiant energy sinks when the workstation cooling system 10 is instead operated as a workstation heating system. The workstation cooling system 10 may include an HVAC system 20 that operates to provide conditioned air 22 to a room 24 in which the workstation 12 is disposed. The conditioned air 22 may be cooled, heated, dehumidified, and/or humidified based on a selected operating mode of the HVAC system 20. However, in some embodiments, the HVAC system 20 may be omitted from the workstation cooling system 10.

“In general, the workstation 12 is a desk or office space in which a user performs work. For example, the workstation 12 may be a desk, a cubicle, and the like. As such, the user may spend a significant amount of time at the workstation 12, releasing thermal and/or radiant energy and increasing a demand for cooling for the workstation 12. Additionally, in certain embodiments, multiple workstations 12 may be disposed within the room 24, and users respectively associated with the multiple workstations 12 may prefer their workstation 12 to be maintained at individualized target temperatures. As such, present embodiments of the workstation cooling system 10 enable individualized temperature settings for multiple workstations 12 in a room 24 by locating one or more radiant cooling system 14 near each of the workstations 12.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A workstation cooling system, comprising: a workstation disposed in a room and comprising a work surface and a thermostat, wherein the work surface comprises a radiant panel having a fluid return conduit, and wherein the thermostat is configured to receive user input indicating a target workstation temperature; a control valve coupled to the radiant panel, wherein the control valve is configured to adjust a fluid flow provided to the radiant panel to enable the radiant panel to maintain the target workstation temperature; a fluid bypass conduit coupled between the control valve and the fluid return conduit; and a controller configured to: operate a displacement heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system to maintain a target room temperature by adjusting air movement from a first portion of the room surrounding the workstation to a second portion of the room; and operate the control valve to maintain the target workstation temperature indicated by the user input and received by the thermostat by increasing the fluid flow to the radiant panel or enabling the fluid flow to bypass the radiant panel via the fluid bypass conduit.

“2. The workstation cooling system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to maintain the air movement to facilitate stratification of the air within the room and reduce recirculation of contaminants within the room.

“3. The workstation cooling system of claim 1, comprising the displacement HVAC system, wherein the displacement HVAC system comprises a delivery opening configured to supply conditioned air to a first portion of the room and a return grill configured to remove return air from an second portion of the room.

“4. The workstation cooling system of claim 3, wherein the displacement HVAC system is configured to mix outside air with the return air downstream of the return grill and upstream of the delivery opening.

“5. The workstation cooling system of claim 3, wherein the displacement HVAC system comprises: an air handler configured to receive the return air from the return grill; and a sterilization device disposed within the air handler and configured to clean the return air before the return air is conditioned and provided to the room via the delivery opening.

“6. The workstation cooling system of claim 5, wherein the sterilization device comprises a filter configured to remove contaminants from the return air.

“7. The workstation cooling system of claim 3, wherein the first portion of the room is defined below a horizontal midline of the room, and wherein the delivery opening is disposed below the horizontal midline of the room.

“8. The workstation cooling system of claim 1, wherein the controller comprises a memory storing a pre-programmed schedule, and wherein the controller is configured to operate the displacement HVAC system and the control valve according to the pre-programmed schedule.

“9. The workstation cooling system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to operate the control valve to maintain an additional target workstation temperature indicated by additional user input and received by the thermostat by decreasing the fluid flow to the radiant panel or enabling the fluid flow to avoid the fluid bypass conduit.

“10. A cooling system, comprising: a displacement heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system configured to supply conditioned air to a first portion of a room and remove return air from a second portion of the room; a radiant panel having a fluid return conduit and configured to be disposed in a workstation within the room, wherein the workstation comprises a thermostat configured to receive user input indicating a target workstation temperature; a control valve or pump coupled to the radiant panel, wherein the control valve is configured to manage fluid flow through the radiant panel to adjust transfer of radiant energy between the radiant panel and the workstation to maintain the target workstation temperature; a fluid bypass conduit coupled between the control valve and the fluid return conduit; and a controller configured to: operate the displacement HVAC system to maintain a target room temperature by adjusting air movement from the first portion of the room to the second portion of the room; and operate the control valve to maintain the target workstation temperature indicated by the user input and received by the thermostat by increasing the fluid flow to the radiant panel or enabling the fluid flow to bypass the radiant panel via the fluid bypass conduit.

“11. The cooling system of claim 10, wherein the displacement HVAC system comprises: a delivery opening configured to supply the conditioned air to the room; and a return grill configured to remove the return air from the room.

“12. The cooling system of claim 10, wherein the displacement HVAC system comprises a sterilization device configured to clean outside air before the outside air is conditioned into the conditioned air and supplied to the room.

“13. The cooling system of claim 10, comprising a temperature sensor disposed at the workstation, wherein the controller is configured to: receive sensor signals indicative of a current temperature of the workstation from the temperature sensor; and maintain the current temperature of the workstation within a threshold from the target workstation temperature.

“14. The cooling system of claim 10, comprising: a plurality of radiant panels that comprises the radiant panel; and a plurality of workstations that comprises the workstation, wherein the plurality of radiant panels are configured to be disposed in the plurality of workstations.

“15. The cooling system of claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to activate a compressor and a blower of the displacement HVAC system to supply the conditioned air to the first portion of the room in response to determining that a threshold quantity of the plurality of workstations is not within a predefined threshold from a respective target workstation temperature.

“16. The cooling system of claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to operate the control valve to maintain an additional target workstation temperature indicated by additional user input and received by the thermostat by decreasing the fluid flow to the radiant panel or enabling the fluid flow to avoid the fluid bypass conduit.

“17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions configured to, when executed, cause at least one processor to: provide first control signals to a displacement heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system configured to maintain a target room temperature by supplying conditioned air to a first portion of the room and remove return air from a second portion of the room; and provide second control signals to a control valve to cause a fluid flow to bypass a radiant panel disposed in a workstation via a fluid bypass conduit in response to user input received by a thermostat of the workstation to increase a target workstation temperature.

“18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause the at least one processor to provide the second control signals to the control valve to cause the fluid flow to avoid the fluid bypass conduit in response to additional user input received by the thermostat of the workstation to decrease the target workstation temperature.

“19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause the at least one processor to provide the first control signals to the displacement HVAC system to sterilize the return air via an air handler comprising one or more sterilization devices.

“20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause the at least one processor to provide the first control signals to the displacement HVAC system to supply the conditioned air to the first portion of the room at a velocity that is less than a predetermined threshold velocity.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Weems, John Andrew. Systems for workstation-mounted radiant panels. U.S. Patent Number 11680717, filed March 25, 2021, and published online on June 20, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11680717)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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