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  System for improving both energy efficiency and indoor air quality in buildingsUSPTO Application #: 20080014857Title: System for improving both energy efficiency and indoor air quality in buildings Abstract: A portion or all of the exhaust air from the building is discharged into a greenhouse where the heat and humidity are recovered in the winter by heating the greenhouse and the air conditioning is recovered in the summer by cooling the greenhouse. Selected plants are used in the greenhouse to remove CO2 and pollutants from the building's exhaust air while enriching the air with oxygen and beneficial negatively charged ions. The oxygenated, improved quality air from the greenhouse is then used to supply all or a portion of the intake air to the building's HVAC system. A building's Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system is made more energy efficient and the indoor air quality (IAQ) of the building's circulating air is improved by incorporating a greenhouse as an integral part of the HVAC system and by utilizing a novel feed forward control strategy that maintains the proper levels of temperature, humidity and CO2 concentration in the building under varying conditions of day, time, use and occupancy. (end of abstract) Agent: Ronald M. Spadafora - Lagrangeville, NY, US Inventors: Paul F. Spadafora, Ronald M. Spadafora, Frank E. Spadafora USPTO Applicaton #: 20080014857 - Class: 454229 (USPTO) The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080014857. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
US PATENT DOCUMENTS TABLE-US-00001 [0001]5005787 Apr. 9, 1991 Cullingford 5433923 Jul. 18, 1995 Wolverton 5853460 Dec. 29, 1998 Alcordo 6415617 Jul. 9, 2002 Seem 6727091 Apr. 27, 2004 Darlington OTHER REFERENCES [0002]Final Report NASA/Alca "Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement" Wolverton Et al. 1989 [0003]Biofiltration of Air Pollution Control, J. S. Devinny et al. 1999 [0004]Biofiltration of Indoor Air. Llewellyn et, al. date unknown [0005]Development of Biofiltration system of ammonia and VOC. J. R. Kastner March 2003 FIELD OF INVENTION [0006]The present invention relates to HVAC systems and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in structures and buildings and more particularly it pertains to a system and method whereby a greenhouse and a unique control system is integrated into the HVAC system to improve energy conservation, reduce CO.sub.2 and pollutants and increase oxygen and beneficial negative ions in the circulating air of the building or structure. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0007]Because of the rising costs of energy, modern buildings are increasingly designed to be more airtight in order to retain the heat in the winter and to retain air conditioning in the summer. However, proper ventilation becomes more difficult as the building gets more airtight. In winter, when heating is required, reducing the amount of warm, moist exhaust air to the atmosphere and restricting the amount of cold, dry atmospheric makeup air aids energy conservation but leads to the increase in the concentration of CO.sub.2 and other pollutants in the circulating air resulting in unhealthy conditions. In the summer when air conditioning is required, reducing the amount of cold, dry exhaust air to the atmosphere and restricting the amount of hot, moist inlet makeup air from the atmosphere also saves energy but also leads to an increase in the concentration of CO.sub.2 and other pollutants in the building circulating air resulting in unhealthy conditions. [0008]Sensors are available to measure CO.sub.2, temperature and humidity and have been used to try to minimize the amount of exhaust air from the building to the atmosphere and also minimize the amount of inlet makeup air from the atmosphere into the building. The recommended allowable ranges of temperature, humidity and CO.sub.2 for various types of buildings for various uses are available from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). However, to maintain the desired ranges, exhaust air is normally discharged into the atmosphere and inlet air to the building HVAC system is normally drawn from the atmosphere. This atmospheric inlet air must be heated and humidified in the winter and must be cooled and dehumidified in the summer. Heat exchangers can be used to preheat or pre-cool the incoming air with the exhaust air, depending on the season. These heat exchange systems are relatively expensive to install and maintain, require a great deal of space and only a relatively small amount of heat or cooling is recovered. The heat exchangers are also subject to fouling, which reduces the heat transfer and require periodic cleaning adding to maintenance costs. [0009]U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,787 (Cullingford) describes a life support system for a spacecraft where a greenhouse is used as a integral part of the spaceship. This patent calls for a completely hermetically sealed greenhouse unit and states it is specifically for spacecraft. It requires complex support systems including ultraviolet radiation, a catalytic burner, an electrolyzer system for water and a fuel cell system. One of the main purposes for the greenhouse is to grow fresh vegetables for the space crew. Supplemental removal of carbon dioxide from the air by mechanical and chemical means is required. This patent also requires extensive processing of water and humidity and the reduction of water to hydrogen and oxygen. This patent clearly specifies it pertains to a spacecraft crew cabin and other spacecraft systems and does not pertain to or address normal ground based buildings and HVAC systems as does our invention. [0010]Studies by NASA also indicated that negative ions in the air are required for good health and well-being. The studies indicated synthetic building materials and furniture have positive static charges that remove large quantities of beneficial negative ions from the indoor environment. Therefore, the negative ion count in many buildings is often too low for the well being of the occupants. It was also found that plant leaves produce beneficial negative ions when they emit water vapor. [0011]Therefore, plants that emit water vapor at high rates tend to produce the most negative ions per unit. Studies by Wolverton have shown that houseplants in rooms can reduce human stress and increase productivity in an office environment. These beneficial effects have been credited to the increase in negative ion levels in the air. [0012]Wolverton Environmental Services has done work on the use of indoor plants to reduce the amount of toxins in the air inside buildings. These studies and U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,923 (Wolverton) all involve the use of houseplants inside the rooms of buildings. U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,091 (Darlington) describes a system of using hydroponic plants for cleansing the air in a room. This patent is for a relatively small vertical panel which can be as small as 50 centimeters height times 50 centimeters wide and 1.5 centimeters thick and can be configured as a wall unit or a free standing tower which contains fibrous inert material where hydroponic plants are grown to refresh stale air in a room. This method basically has the same effect as having houseplants in the room. The unit described in this patent has no relationship to the HVAC system of the building and has the disadvantage in that it can promote mold growth and release mold spores into the room. U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,460 (Alcordo) also describes a relatively small system of plants and potting medium in flower pots in a room to cleanse the air with no relationship to the HVAC system. [0013]Our patent teaches the use of a separate greenhouse as an integral part of the HVAC system of the building. This separate greenhouse recovers the heating or cooling energy from the exhaust air of the building and also has the advantage of providing much more plant growing area as well as an opportunity to filter out any mold spores that may be in the air. [0014]U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,617 (Seem) describes a method whereby a model in an HVAC control system is used to determine the minimum and maximum outdoor makeup air to be used in the HVAC system. This model determines the fraction of outdoor air that can be used to minimize the HVAC load. This patent also has the disadvantage in that it has to heat up and humidify the cold, dry ambient air in the winter and cool down and dehumidify the hot, moist ambient air in the summer. [0015]Our invention describes how a greenhouse and a novel control system can be used in conjunction with a normal building's HVAC system to improve energy efficiency while improving the quality of the circulating ventilation air in the building. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0016]This invention describes a system whereby a greenhouse is integrated into and is a functional part of a building's HVAC system. The greenhouse serves as a means to recover heat and humidity from the building's heated exhaust air in the winter and a means to recover the cooling from the building's air conditioned exhaust air in the summer. The greenhouse contains selected plants that have the ability to remove CO.sub.2 and other airborne pollution from the exhaust air and to emit oxygen and beneficial negatively charged ions into the air. The resultant oxygenated air containing the beneficial negatively charged ions is then used to supply all or a portion of the makeup air to the building's HVAC system. Energy consumption is further minimized and indoor air quality in the building is kept at a high level by using temperature, humidity and CO.sub.2 concentration sensors at strategic points in the HVAC system and greenhouse and using a computer controller containing algorithms that use a novel feed forward control strategy. This control strategy uses the rate of change in the slope of the temperature, humidity and CO.sub.2 level curves to modulate the control devices. The change in the magnitude of the slope prior to reaching the target levels of temperature, humidity and CO.sub.2 is used to predict the equilibrium control points and this information is used for feed forward control rather than waiting for feed back information from set points before taking action. This method prevents overshooting and cycling around the set points while maintaining good indoor air quality. By controlling building air circulation, air exhaust and inlet air makeup rates at the minimum required to maintain the target levels of temperature, humidity and CO.sub.2 concentration, energy consumption is kept at the lowest practical level. DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0017]FIG. 1 Side view schematic of a school building HVAC system with a greenhouse. [0018]FIG. 2 Front view schematic of a school building HVAC system with a greenhouse. Continue reading... Full patent description for System for improving both energy efficiency and indoor air quality in buildings Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this System for improving both energy efficiency and indoor air quality in buildings patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. 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