Method and apparatus for conditioning air temperature and humidity

Claim 2

An air conditioning system comprising: duct means having an upstream portion and a downstream portion and adapted for carrying a stream of air therethrough; multi-section heat exchange means in said duct means mediate said upstream and downstream portions, said multi-section heat exchange means including a plurality of independently controllable sections arranged in parallel across said duct means to receive and treat respective portions of an air stream flowing in said duct means; a plurality of banks of spray nozzles for humidifying said air stream and disposed across said duct means upstream of said multi-section heat exchange means, each said bank being operatively associated with a different section of said heat exchange means; valve means operatively connected to said nozzles for independently controlling the operation thereof whereby humidification may occur in at least one of said banks independently of humidification in the other of said banks; by-pass means arranged in said duct means and in parallel with said multi-section heat exchange means for controllably conveying therein a portion of said air stream around said multi-section heat exchange means whereby said conveyed portion receives neither heat exchange treatment nor humidification; and all of the portions of said air stream being remixed at said downstream portion of said duct means to provide an air stream, the qualities of which vary in degree according to the amount of treatment and humidification afforded by said apparatus and the portions of said air stream flowing through and around said heat exchange means.

Claim 3

Apparatus as defined in claim 1 further including a damper control means in said by-pass means.

Claim 4

Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said by-pass means is mediate at least two sections of said multi-section heat exchange means and further includes mixing nozzle means at an outlet thereof.

Claim 5

Apparatus as defined in claim 1 further including a paint spray booth adapted to receive said air stream and having an exhaust portion, means for recovering thermal energy from air passing through said exhaust portion and means for controllably conveying recovered thermal energy to the sections of said multi-section heat exchange means.

Claim 6

An air conditioning apparatus for providing conditioning of an air flow to a predetermined dry bulb temperature and humidity level comprising: ducting means for receiving the air mass flow therethrough; multi-section heat exchanger means mounted in said ducting means to receive a portion of said air flow in said ducting means, said multi-section heat exchanger means including a plurality of sections disposed across said ducting means and each receiving a proportion of said air flowing through said ducting means; means for circulating heat transfer media through each section of said multi-section heat exchanger means; control means for individually controlling heat transfer media flow to each of said heat exchanger means sections; by-pass ducting means disposed in said ducting to receive the remaining portion of said air flow not received by said heat exchanger means sections; damper means for controlling air flow through said bypass ducting means; said ducting means including a section downstream of said heat exchanger means receiving both air flow from said heat exchanger means and said by-pass ducting means; whereby a mixture of said by-passed air and conditioned air flow is produced and increased by-pass flow through one or more of said heat exchanger means sections may be achieved upon operation of said control means controlling said flow of said heat transfer media to said respective heat exchanger means sections, said apparatus further including a plurality of spray nozzles mounted in said ducting means upstream of said multi-section heat exchanger means for adding humidification to said air mass.

Claim 7

An air conditioning apparatus for providing conditioning of an air flow to a predetermined dry bulb temperature and humidity level comprising: ducting means for receiving the air mass flow therethrough; multi-section heat exchanger means mounted in said ducting means to receive a portion of said air flow in said ducting means, said multi-section heat exchanger means including a plurality of sections disposed across said ducting means and each receiving a proportion of said air flowing through said ducting means; means for circulating heat transfer media through each section of said multi-section heat exchanger means; control means for individually controlling heat transfer media flow to each of said heat exchanger means sections; by-pass ducting means disposed in said ducting to receive the remaining portion of said air flow not received by said heat exchanger means sections; damper means for controlling air flow through said bypass ducting means; said ducting means including a section downstream of said heat exchanger means receiving both air flow from said heat exchanger means and said by-pass ducting means; whereby a mixture of said by-passed air and conditioned air flow is produced and increased by-pass flow through one or more of said heat exchanger means sections may be achieved upon operation of said control means controlling said flow of said heat transfer media to said respective heat exchanger means sections, said apparatus further including a plurality of spray nozzles mounted in said ducting means upstream of said multi-section heat exchanger means for adding humidification to said air mass.

Claim 8

Apparatus as defined in claim 5 further including valve means associated with said nozzles for individually controlling of liquid to said nozzles whereby the portions of said air mass flowing through respective sections of said multi-section heat exchanger may receive different degrees of humidification.