Water-heating dehumidifier

Patent · Tue Apr 18 04:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:1007911

Tomlinson, John J ^[1]

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1. Knoxville, TN

A water-heating dehumidifier includes a refrigerant loop including a compressor, at least one condenser, an expansion device and an evaporator including an evaporator fan. The condenser includes a water inlet and a water outlet for flowing water therethrough or proximate thereto, or is affixed to the tank or immersed into the tank to effect water heating without flowing water. The immersed condenser design includes a self-insulated capillary tube expansion device for simplicity and high efficiency. In a water heating mode air is drawn by the evaporator fan across the evaporator to produce cooled and dehumidified air and heat taken from the air is absorbed by the refrigerant at the evaporator and is pumped to the condenser, where water is heated. When the tank of water heater is full of hot water or a humidistat set point is reached, the water-heating dehumidifier can switch to run as a dehumidifier.

• Research Organization: UT-Batelle, LLC (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• Assignee: UT-Batelle, LLC (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Patent Number(s): 7,028,490
• Application Number: 10/856,521
• OSTI ID: 1007911
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English