Water cooler abstract
The present invention discloses a solar water cooler, which includes
a water tank, a condensing panel, and an auxiliary refrigerating
devices, wherein the water tank has an insulating panel transversely
embedded into the water tank for separating the water tank into
an upper cooling chamber and a lower chilling chamber, a pair of
inner conduits for respectively communicating the cooling chamber
to the chilling chamber, each of the cooling chamber and the chilling
chamber has a water inlet port and a water outlet port, a plurality
of conduits for respectively communicating the water tank to the
condensing panel and the auxiliary refrigerating devices, wherein
the auxiliary refrigerating device electrically powered by solar
cells and by thermocells.
Water cooler claims
What is claimed is:
1. A solar water cooler, comprising: a water tank for reserving
a predetermined volume of water; an insulating panel transversely
embedded into said water tank for separating said water tank into
an upper cooling chamber and a lower chilling chamber; a pair of
inner conduits for respectively communicating a lower portion and
a upper portion of said cooling chamber to a counterpart lower portion
and a counterpart upper portion of said chilling chamber, wherein
each of said cooling chamber and said chilling chamber has a water
inlet port defined on an upper side wall and a water outlet port
defined on a lower said wall; a condensing panel disposed above
said cooling chamber and is mounted against an outer wall of a building
to be integrally formed with said building, wherein said condensing
panel comprises a radiating manifold and a plurality of radiating
fins provided thereon, and an exposing opening defined on said radiating
manifold for communicating said radiating manifold to outside; a
pair of condensing conduit for correspondingly communicating a upper
portion and a lower portion of said condensing panel to respective
upper portion and lower portion of said cooling chamber; and an
auxiliary refrigerating device disposed above said chilling chamber,
wherein said auxiliary refrigerating device comprises a thermopile
refrigerating unit and a temperature monitor unit, said thermopile
refrigerating unit has a chilled water conduit respectively for
communicating said upper portion and said lower portion of said
chilling chamber.
2. The solar water cooler, as recited in claim 1 wherein said
water tank is made of building material, or prepared in such a manner
that the water tank comprises an inner flask made of stainless steel,
an insulating layer made of foam plastic, and an outer casing made
of aluminum plate;
3. The solar water cooler, as recited in claim 1 wherein a reflux
pump coupled to said chilling chamber water inlet port for ensuring
a chilled water be circularly serviced;
4. The solar water cooler, as recited in claim 1 wherein said
auxiliary refrigerating unit is electrically powered by solar cells
or by thermocells.
Water cooler description
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to refrigeration system, and
more particularly, relates to a refrigerating system directly or
indirectly utilizing solar energy to achieve an efficient performance.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Arts
[0004] Energy is an unavoidable topic in the new century. It is
witnessed that sciences and technologies related to the energy industry
had been significantly concerned all over the world. Especially,
the solar energy, widely considered as an unexhausted energy source,
had been employed in a variety of applications, such as refrigeration
industry. Nowadays, the solar energy refrigeration is exclusively
focused on the air-conditioning refrigeration, in which a plurality
of refrigerating modes had been unveiled, such as, solar absorption
refrigeration, solar adsorption refrigeration, solar mechanic compression
refrigeration, solar dehumidification refrigeration, solar injection
refrigeration, and so on. However, the above mentioned solar air-conditioning
devices are so complicated and costly, which in turn, restricting
its prevailed applications in practices. As a result, it is rarely
seen such solar refrigerating means had been used for household
purposes. What is more, such solar refrigerating means are supposedly
operated under sealed or closed chambers, the ventilation is out
of reach thus resulting the air quality really unserviceable. To
a worse extent, CFC had been sometimes employed in some occasions.
The damage to the environment of the CFC was terrible. The solar
cold water air-conditioner had been introduced in 1980s, wherein
the solar energy is converted into heat for producing cold water.
A very common method for producing cold water is the heat absorption
process, wherein the water is utilized as refrigerating medium,
and the lithium bromide is employed as absorbing agent. Unfortunately,
the dehumidification process would be a bottleneck and low temperature
chilled water ranging from 7-9.degree. C. had to be prepared for
ensuring such dehumidification. It is noted that whenever a single
centigrade dropped of such chilled water temperature, the refrigerating
efficiency of such refrigerating process would be decreased by 3%.
This is undesirable for most users. In short, such solar absorption
refrigeration is still costly, complicated, and bulky in occupied
area.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
[0005] A primary object of the present invention is to provide
a solar dual-temperature water cooler, which is capable of lowering
the water temperature to the lowest temperature of surrounding environment
by radiating means so as to obtain low-temperature cooling water,
which in turn could be directed into the refrigerating device for
enhancing the overall efficiency of the refrigerating device. Furthermore,
such cooling water could be prepared to generate chilled water which
is capable of absorbing heat along the conduit in the refrigerating
process.
[0006] Accordingly, to achieve above object, the present invention
provides a solar dual-temperature water cooler, comprising:
[0007] a water tank for reserving a predetermined volume of water,
wherein the water tank is made of building material, or prepared
in such a manner that the water tank comprises an inner flask made
of stainless steel, an insulating layer made of foam plastic, and
an outer casing made of aluminum plate;
[0008] an insulating panel transversely embedded into the water
tank for separating the water tank into an upper cooling chamber
and a lower chilling chamber;
[0009] a pair of inner conduit for respectively communicating a
lower portion and a upper portion of cooling chamber to a counterpart
lower portion and a counterpart upper portion of the chilling chamber,
wherein each of cooling chamber and the chilling chamber has a water
inlet port defined on a upper wall and a water outlet port defined
on a lower wall, and a reflux pump is coupled to the chilling chamber
water inlet port for ensuring a chilled water be circularly serviced;
[0010] a condensing panel disposed above the cooling chamber and
is mounted against an outer wall of a building to be integrally
formed with the building, wherein the condensing panel comprises
a radiating manifold and a plurality of radiating fins provided
thereon for radiating a heat of the condensing panel, a pair of
condensing conduit for correspondingly communicating a upper portion
and a lower portion of the condensing panel to respective upper
portion and lower portion of the cooling chamber;
[0011] an auxiliary refrigerating device disposed above the chilling
chamber, wherein the auxiliary refrigerating device comprises a
thermopile refrigerating unit and a temperature monitor unit, the
thermopile refrigerating unit has a chilled water conduit respectively
for communicating the upper portion and lower portion of the chilling
chamber, so that water of the upper portion of the cooling chamber,
having a higher temperature, will be flowed to the condensing panel
to be naturally radiated, and then flowed back to the lower portion
of the cooling chamber with a circular manner so as to ensure the
water reserved within the cooling chamber reach a lowest temperature
of the environment generating the cooling water, wherein the cooling
water is capable of being directed to the refrigerating device to
refrigerate the condenser of the refrigerating device for enhancing
the refrigerating efficiency, and being refluxed to the upper portion
of the cooling chamber;
[0012] since the inner conduits are provided for correspondingly
communicating the mating portions of the cooling chamber and the
chilling chamber, the water reserved within the chilling chamber
will be cooled down to the environmental temperature; furthermore,
in case the chilled water temperature is now low enough, the temperature
monitor unit would initiate the thermopile unit to lower the temperature
of the water reserved within the chilling chamber, wherein the chilled
water could be directed into the chilling conduit to absorb the
heat under a refrigerating circumstance, afterwards, the heat absorbed
chilled water would be refluxed into the upper portion of the chilling
chamber, if the chilled water temperature is higher than the temperature
of the cooling water, the water of the upper portion of the chilling
chamber would be flowed into the upper portion of the cooling chamber
via the inner conduit, at the same time, the water of the lower
portion of the cooling chamber would be flowed into the lower portion
of the chilling chamber.
[0013] Finally, it is noted that the auxiliary refrigerating device
of the present invention is electrically powered by solar cells
or by thermocell. The solar energy dual-temperature water coolers
according to the present invention is of solid cost saving, simple
and convenient operation, and free of pollution, and more importantly,
available to most household applications.
[0014] These and other objectives, features, and advantages of
the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed
description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the solar energy dual-temperature
water cooler according to the preferred embodiment of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0016] Referring to FIG. 1 the solar water cooler according to
the preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated.
The water tank 1 has an insulating panel 13 transversely imbedded
thereon for separating the water tank 1 into an upper cooling chamber
12 and a lower chilling chamber 17 wherein two inner conduits 2
15 are disposed penetrating the insulating panel 13 for respectively
communicating upper portions of the cooling chamber 12 to the upper
portion of the chilling chamber 17 freezing tank, and for communicating
lower portion of the cooling chamber 12 to the corresponding lower
portion of the chilling chamber 17. Furthermore, a pair of water
inlet ports 3 19 is respectively provided at the upper side wall
of the cooling chamber 12 and the chilling chamber 17. On the other
hand, a pair of water outlet ports 14 16 is provided at the lower
side wall of the cooling chamber 12 and the chilling chamber 17
respectively. A reflux pump 18 is disposed within the chilling chamber
17 to couple with the water inlet port 19 for recycling the chilled
water; a condensing panel 7 is provided at a position above the
cooling chamber 12 wherein the condensing panel 7 is mounted biasing
against an outer wall of a building and integrally formed with the
building. Furthermore, the condensing panel 7 further comprises
a radiator manifold 8 and a plurality of radiator fins 9 mounted
on the condensing panel 7 thereon, so as to ensure the condensing
panel 7 having a great radiating effect. It is noted that there
is an exposing opening defined at the water inlet of the radiator
manifold 8 for communicating the radiator manifold 8 to outside.
There is a first condensing conduit 6 provided for communicating
the condensing panel 7 with the upper portion of the cooling chamber
12 correspondingly, there is a second condensing conduit 10 for
communicating the water outlet of the condensing panel 7 to the
lower portion of the cooling chamber 12; There is an auxiliary refrigerating
device 5 provided at a position above the chilling chamber 17 wherein
the auxiliary refrigerating device 5 comprises a first chilled water
conduit 4 for communicating the upper portion of the auxiliary refrigerating
device 5 to the upper portion of the chilling chamber 17 and a
second chilled water conduit 11 for correspondingly communicating
the lower portion of the auxiliary refrigerating device 5 to the
lower portion of the chilling chamber 17. since the weight ratio
of the hot water is relatively lighter than that of the cold water,
so that the water in the upper portion of the cooling chamber 12
having a relatively higher temperature, would be flowed into the
condensing panel 7 to be naturally radiated, afterwards, the cooled
water would be refluxed to the lower portion of the cooling chamber
12 in a circular manner, as a result, the water reserved within
the cooling chamber 12 would be gradually cooled down until the
water temperature reach the environmental temperature. Subsequently,
the water reserved in the cooling chamber 12 could be leaded out
via the water outlet 14 to be applied onto the refrigerated devices
so as to cool down the condensing means of the refrigerated appliances
for enhancing the cooling efficiency. Moreover, the water applied
to the refrigerated appliances would be refluxed to the upper portion
of the cooling chamber 12; since the upper portion and lower portion
of the cooling chamber 12 are correspondingly communicated to the
respective counterpart portions of the chilling chamber tank 17
via the inner conduits 2 15 and the water temperature reserved
within the chilling chamber 15 would be lowered to reach the ambient
temperature. In case the water temperature of the chilling chamber
13 was not qualified to meet a lower work temperature, the temperature
monitor unit of the auxiliary refrigerating device 5 would initiate
the thermopile unit to further lower the temperature of the water
reserved in the chilling chamber 17 to obtain the desirable chilled
water. The chilled water is directed out via the water outlet 16
to the refrigerating environment to absorb heat, afterwards, the
heat-absorbed chilled water would be refluxed into the upper portion
of the chilling chamber 17 via the water outlet 19 or pumped back
into the upper portion of the chilling chamber 17. If the temperature
of such chilled water is higher than the cooling water temperature,
the water of the upper portion of the chilling chamber 17 would
be flow into the cooling chamber 12 via the inner conduit 2 and
at the same time, water of the lower portion of the cooling chamber
12 would be flowing into the lower portion of the chilling chamber
17 via the other inner conduit 15. Finally, it is worth to mention
that the water tank of the present invention is made of building
materials, or prepared with such a structure wherein the inner flask
is made of stainless steel, the insulating layer is made of foamed
plastic and the outer casing is made of aluminum plate. According
to the present invention, the auxiliary refrigerated device is powered
by solar cells or thermoelectric cells.
[0017] One skilled in the art will understand that the embodiment
of the present invention as shown in the drawings and described
above is exemplary only and not intended to be limiting.
[0018] It will thus be seen that the objects of the present invention
have been fully and effectively accomplished. Its embodiments have
been shown and described for the purposes of illustrating the functional
and structural principles of the present invention and is subject
to change without departure form such principles. Therefore, this
invention includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit
and scope of the following claims. |