Technical Field

The present invention relates to an air conditioning device for marine vessels.

Prior Art

In the state of the art, various technical problems and limitations are encountered in the development of air conditioning devices for marine vehicles of various sizes and volumes such as yachts, boats, tugboats, catamarans, sea ambulances, sea taxis. We can list some of them as follows.

Rusting and corrosion: Due to possible contact with water, the materials used must be resistant to rust, corrosion and moisture.

Efficient use of energy: Since there is no source of electrical energy taken from outside the marine vessel, it is obligatory to use the electric energy produced and stored in the vessel in an efficient manner.

Minimalist design: Due to the small size of the places, rooms to be air-conditioned, the device to be developed must be produced in accordance with minimalist design principles.

Durability of the parts: Due to the possibility of the marine vessel being away from land for days, weeks and even months, the parts inside the air conditioner must be durable and cause minimum failure.

Remote troubleshooting: In the event of a malfunction in the air conditioner in the marine vessel, since it may take a long time for the technical service personnel to reach the marine vessel, it is obligatory to access the device remotely by electronic means and to develop technologies for the elimination of the malfunction.

Minimizing device noise: Air-conditioning devices in marine vessels should be designed to create minimum noise due to the small size of the rooms.

Danger of fire and gas leakage: In the marine vessel, much higher fire and gas leakage precautions should be taken compared to normal land vehicles, because in case of complete destruction of the sea vessel, the space for the evacuation of the passengers is limited. Voice control with artificial intelligence: Comfort and convenience are important, especially in luxury watercraft such as yachts. In this respect, voice control of air conditioners through artificial intelligence systems that imitate natural human speech provides a high level of comfort.

With the air conditioning device for marine vessels according to the present invention, solutions have been provided to all the technical problems listed above and a new air conditioning device of very high quality has been provided.

Summary of The Invention

An air conditioning device for marine vessels, comprises an air vent unit consisting of an evaporator, which allows the refrigerant to take heat energy from the environment and pass into the gas phase, a fan that serves to give the conditioned air to the environment, a fan housing, an air outlet duct for the air coming from the fan, and an evaporator housing, a condenser that allows the refrigerant to evacuate the heat energy it receives and pass into the liquid phase, a remote control unit, a fixed control unit, a wifi control system, an artificial intelligence and voice command system, an energy control system that controls energy efficiency, a gas leak detection system that detects and prevents refrigerant gas leaks, a residual current fuse to prevent electrical leakage, a fire extinguishing system.

Description of Figures

Figure 1 is a top perspective view of the air conditioning device for marine vessels according to the present invention without the outer case,

Figure 2 is the top view of the evaporator of the air conditioning device according to the present invention,

Figure 3 is a top perspective view of the fan and the fan housing of the air conditioning device according to the present invention,

Figure 4 is the top perspective view of the condenser of the air conditioning device according to the present invention,

Figure 5 gives a schematic view of the fire extinguishing system of the air conditioning device according to the present invention,

Figure 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d respectively illustrate the outer case, the remote control unit, the fixed control unit and the gas leak detector, Figure 7 illustrates the arrangement of the air conditioning device according to the present invention as a multi-split air conditioner,

Figure 8 illustrates the integrated arrangement of the air conditioning device according to the present invention with various types of air vent units.

References

1 Air vent unit

2 Evaporator

3 Fan

4 Fan housing

5 Evaporator housing

6 Air outlet duct

7 Condenser

8 Compressor

9 Outer pipe

10 Inner pipe

11 Fin

12 Return piece

13 Air intake duct

14 Outer pipe

15 Inner pipe

16 Titanium corrugations

17 Water flow switch

18 Fluid cable

19 Four- way valve

20 Water pressure and temperature manometer

21 Low pressure manometer 22 High pressure manometer

23 Electrical panel

24 High pressure switch

25 Low pressure switch

26 Transmitter

27 Outer case

28 Remote control unit

29 Fixed control unit

30 Gas leak detector

31 Wall mounted air vent unit

32 Console type air vent unit

33 Floor mounted air vent unit

34 Ducted type air vent unit

35 Cassette type air vent unit

36 Fire extinguishing system

37 Discharge nozzle

38 Arm

39 Rupture disc

40 Control panel

41 FM-200 gas chamber

42 Gas cartridge actuator bl Outer width dl Pipe diameter hl Length of return piece tl Inner width DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With the present invention, a new air conditioning device is provided for marine vessels.

As seen in Figures 1 to 8, an air conditioning device for marine vessels according to the present invention, comprises:

- an air vent unit (1) consisting of an evaporator (2), which allows the refrigerant to take heat energy from the environment and pass into the gas phase, a fan (3) that serves to give the conditioned air to the environment, a fan housing (4), an air outlet duct (6) for the air coming from the fan (3), and an evaporator housing (5),

- a condenser (7) that allows the refrigerant to evacuate the heat energy it receives and pass into the liquid phase,

- a remote control unit (28),

- a fixed control unit (29),

- a wifi control system,

- an artificial intelligence and voice command system,

- an energy control system that controls energy efficiency

- a gas leak detection system that detects and prevents refrigerant gas leaks,

- a residual current fuse to prevent electrical leakage,

- a fire extinguishing system (36) and characterized in that

- said condenser (7) has an outer pipe (14) made of copper or stainless steel and an inner pipe (15), which is a bafon (CuNiFe) pipe with a finned outer surface or a stainless steel pipe which has helical titanium corrugations (16) on its outer surface for increasing heat transfer and has a smooth inner surface in a structure that will prevent the adhesion of bacteria from sea water, and said condenser (7) has a water flow switch (17),

- said evaporator (2) has a gold epoxy coating on the fins (11), and consists of an outer pipe (9), an inner pipe (10) with fins (11) on it, and U-shaped return pieces (12),

- said fan (3) is a plug fan that is resistant to acidic environment and corrosion, has engine protection, and has a low air noise level of approximately 19-20 decibels, and said fan (3) has an air intake duct (13) that gives air to the fan (3), an air outlet duct (6) and a fan housing (4),

- said remote control unit (28) is a remote control device that displays all faults in written form with all their details, allows resetting in case of partial faults, allows remote control and remote adjustment of the temperature,

- said wifi control system is a wifi control system that allows switching the system on, off, changing the modes in the form of cooling-heating-ventilation-dehumidification, operating the fan in slow, medium, fast, automatic mode, displaying of energy efficiency, air conditioning performance, and malfunctions on the system, resetting in simple faults, with the support of an application program to be downloaded from a mobile phone or computer with an IP address on the electronic card circuit,

- said artificial intelligence and voice command system is a system that allows the control of the air conditioner verbally as if talking to a human,

- said energy control system is a control system that continuously scans the entire room with the thermal sensors on the indoor units and increases or decreases the capacity according to the difference between the desired temperature and the indoor temperature,

- said gas leak detection system is a leak detection system that includes a gas leak detector (30) and upon detection of a refrigerant gas leak, first sounds a siren, sends a message to the telephone system, automatically traps the gas on the system and shuts down the air conditioner if the system continues to operate,

- said residual current fuse is an electronic protection mechanism that prevents short circuit formation in small electrical leakages, and prevents people from being harmed in possible electrical leakages due to the fact that the entire surface of the system and the materials used are metal,

- said fire extinguishing system (36) is a fire extinguishing system that discharges FM- 200 gas to the area by melting the solder wire in case of fire, against possible fire hazard in the area of the electrical panel (23) and compressor (8).

As seen in Figure 1, in a preferred embodiment of the air conditioning device according to the present invention, said air vent unit (1) consisting of an evaporator (2), which allows the refrigerant to take heat energy from the environment and pass into the gas phase, a fan (3) that serves to give the conditioned air to the environment, a fan housing (4), an air outlet duct (6) for the air coming from the fan (3), and an evaporator housing (5), is an integral part in the said air conditioning device to form a monoblock air conditioner.

As seen in Figure 7, in another preferred embodiment of the air conditioning device according to the present invention, said one or more air vent units (1) are positioned in different positions than said air conditioning device to form a multi-split air conditioner, in the case of air-conditioning more than one room in the marine vessel.

As can be seen in Figure 8, in yet another preferred embodiment of the air conditioning device according to the present invention, said air conditioning device can be integrated with the wall mounted air vent unit (31), console type air vent unit (32), floor mounted air vent unit (33), ducted type air vent unit (34), cassette type air vent unit (35).

The air conditioning device according to the present invention further comprises a compressor (8), fluid cable (18), four-way valve (19), water pressure and temperature manometer (20), low pressure manometer (21), high pressure manometer (22), electrical panel (23), high pressure switch (24), low pressure switch (25), transmitter (26) and an outer case (27).

The air conditioning device according to the present invention, in a preferred embodiment, comprises a heat recovery device that takes the heat from the exhausted air and transfers it to the incoming air while heating one room to a certain degree and cooling the other room to a certain degree, in the case of air-conditioning more than one room in the marine vessel.

In addition, said fire extinguishing system (36) of the air conditioning device according to the present invention comprises a discharge nozzle (37), arm (38), rupture disc (39), control panel (40), FM-200 gas chamber (41) and gas cartridge actuator (42).

The air conditioning device according to the present invention is used for cooling, heating, ventilation and dehumidification purposes in yachts, boats, tugboats and all other marine vessels. A preferred embodiment of said air conditioning device is used especially in small and light commercial boats such as single-cabin small boats, yachts, tugboats, sea ambulances, sea taxis. Another preferred embodiment of the air conditioning device is used in multi-cabin, large type yachts, catamarans, tugboats and large industrial type vessels. In case the said air conditioning device is used as a split air conditioner, the main unit will be installed outside the engine room or the area where the ventilation is done. If the main unit and the air vent unit (1) are close, the connection will be made with a flexible pipe, if it is far, the connection will be made with the ventilation duct. The refrigerant gas line between the main unit and the air vent unit (1) will be provided with a copper pipe. In the following, some parts of the air conditioning device according to the present invention will be described in comparison with the present technology.

Condenser (8): The condenser in existing air conditioners has generally an outer part which is a copper 22.22 mm (7/8 inch) diameter 1 mm thick pipe, an inner part, which is a bafon (CuNiFe) 15.87 mm (5/8 inch) diameter 1.2 mm thick pipe, returns which are 15.87 mm (5/8 inch) diameter 0.5 mm thick pipe, and length is 125 cm (9000 btu/h at smallest capacity).

In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, in the first type, the outer pipe (14) is a 28.67 mm (1 1/8 inch) diameter 1.2 mm thick copper pipe, and the inner pipe (15) is a bafon (CuNiFe) 19 mm diameter, 1.5 mm thick pipe with fins (11) on it to increase the thermal conduction surface. The turns are bafon pipes with a diameter of 19 mm. The inside of the pipes has a structure that prevents the bacteria from the sea from adhering. The total length is 170 cm at the smallest capacity, according to the seawater temperature variability and fluid friction calculation. In the second type, the outer pipe (14) is a 22.22 mm (7/8 inch) diameter, 1 mm thick 304 grade stainless steel pipe. The inner pipe (15), on the other hand, is a 15.87 mm (5/8 inch) diameter, 1 mm thick 316 ti stainless steel pipe with helical titanium corrugations. The inside of this pipe is also smooth in order to increase heat transfer and has a surface structure that will prevent bacteria from seawater from adhering. Its total length is preferably 212 cm.

Evaporator (2): In evaporators in existing air conditioners, the fins are hydrophilic coated with a thickness of 110 microns, and 0.60 mm thick galvanized sheet, 0.15-0.20 mm thick and 3/8 inch diameter copper pipe are used.

In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, fins (11) are 150 micron thick gold epoxy coated, and 0.80 mm thick stainless steel sheet, 0.40 mm thick and 3/8 inch diameter copper pipe are used. The pressure resistance of the pipes is 40 bar.

Some dimensions on the return piece (12) of the evaporator (2) are as follows, bl, outer width 63 mm, dl, pipe diameter 19 mm, hl, return piece length 60 mm, tl, inner width 25 mm. The diameter of the outer pipe (9) of the evaporator (2) is 28.67 mm (1 1/8 inch), the diameter of the inner pipe (10) is 19 mm (0.75 inch), and the fins (11) are 0.4 mm. Fan (3): The fans on the existing air conditioners are of snail type and are not resistant to corrosion, the propellers are of sheet metal, the engine has no protection. Fan pressure level is 50 Pa. The operating temperature is between -25 degrees and +60 degrees.

The first type of fan (3) we use in the air conditioning device according to the present invention is a plug fan and has a plastic body, resistant to acidic environment and corrosion, with engine protection. The fan pressure level is at 110 pa pressure level for the ventilation duct pressures to be used in the system to be installed. The operating temperature is between -40 degrees and +80 degrees. In the second fan type, in small capacity air conditioners (9000-12.000 btu/h), a fan (3) which is resistant to acidic environments and corrosion and a speed switch are used together. The duty of the speed switch is to give the necessary pressure to the flow to pass through the air duct of the fan (3) and thus prevent excessive decrease in the blowing flow rate depending on the capacity. In current technology, the average blowing level in the fan is 50 decibels and above. In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, the sound level of the fan (3) is around 19 decibels. A preferred fan (3) is the fan numbered K2E190-RA from EBM company. Said plug type fan (3) functions as a snail type fan thanks to the outer casing we have designed with the calculations, and it operates at a very low noise level of approximately 19 decibels, thanks to the soundproofing surfaces around it.

Fixed and remote control unit (29, 28): Existing air conditioners are operated with a wall-mounted wired control. The wired controller also does not give detailed information about the malfunction.

In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, all faults in the system can be seen in full detail on the fixed control unit (29) and there is a possibility to reset in case of partial faults. Air conditioning devices according to the present invention can also be controlled by a remote control unit 28. With the central control that can be used optionally, the temperatures of all rooms can be adjusted in detail.

Wifi control system: Air conditioners used in existing marine vessels do not have the features of "wifi control system", remotely turning on and off via mobile phone or computer, examining the operating performance of the system, observing malfunctions, and resetting possible simple faults via the system. In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, the following can be done with the support of the application program to be downloaded from the mobile phone or computer with the IP address on the electronic card circuit:

System on-off,

Cooling-heating-ventilation-dehumidification (all mode changes),

Adjusting the fan (3) speeds as slow, medium, fast, automatic,

System energy efficiency,

Air conditioning performance,

Seeing the faults on the system,

Resetting for possible simple faults on the system.

Artificial intelligence and voice command system: There is no artificial intelligence and voice command system in air conditioners for existing marine vessels. In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, the following commands can be given, for example, in a way that imitates human speech.

“Hey RES turn on the air conditioning system!”

“A/C cooling, turn on at 20 degrees at medium fan speed!” or “Heating, I want 30 degrees at high fan speed.”

“I'm cold, warm me!”

“Heat, 30 degrees, warm me up at medium fan speed!”

“It's too hot in here, cool it down!”

“I want cooling, 22 degrees, high fan speed.”

You can set the desired mode (Heating-Cooling-Dehumidification-Ventilation), the desired fan speed (Slow-Medium -Fast- Auto), the temperature range you want via voice command system and artificial intelligence.

The air conditioning device according to the present invention can also operate in automatic mode. The air conditioning device detects the indoor temperature, and turns on in cooling mode if the temperature is 25 degrees or more. The automatic fan (3) will cool the indoor temperature to 24 degrees. If the temperature is 25 degrees or below, it will turn on in heating mode. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it will be enough to give commands as if you are talking to a human with the air conditioning device according to the present invention.

Energy control system: In the current technology in the market, all indoor units in which the air conditioner operates have low levels of energy efficiency against parameters such as the number of people in the room to which they are connected and the room temperature.

In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, the thermal sensors on the indoor units continuously scan the entire room, depending on the difference between the desired temperature and the indoor temperature, the system increases the capacity in DC (inverter) or decreases the capacity. This maximizes the energy efficiency of the system.

For example, if the desired temperature is 24 degrees and the indoor temperature is 25 degrees, the air conditioner can reach the desired temperature by consuming very little energy. However, when the desired temperature is 24 degrees and the indoor temperature is 30 degrees, the air conditioner will consume energy at maximum capacity at 30 degrees, moderate energy at 28-27 degrees, very low energy at 26-25 degrees, thus ensuring energy efficiency.

Safety system:

Gas leak detection system: In case of a possible “refrigerant gas leak” on the existing system, the refrigerant gas on the system passes into the volume where the air conditioner is located and partial poisoning may occur. In the air conditioning device according to the present invention, in case of a refrigerant gas leakage, the gas leakage detector device containing the gas leak detector (30) on the system first sounds the siren and sends a message to the telephone system. If the air conditioner is working, the system automatically traps the gas on the system and the device turns itself off.

Residual current fuse: The “residual current fuse” in the electrical panel (23) on the air conditioning device according to the present invention is available to prevent short circuits in possible small electrical leakages, and to prevent harm to people in electrical leakages due to the fact that the entire surface of the system and the materials used are metal.

Fire extinguishing system (36): There is an FM-200 fire extinguishing system on the air conditioning device according to the present invention, depending on the need. There is a solder wire in the electrical panel (23) and compressor (8) area of the air conditioning device against possible fire hazard. When a fire breaks out, the solder wire melts. FM-200 gas chamber or tube discharges the gas inside that area.