Abstract:
The present invention relates to an electrothermal system which comprises at least one electrothermal equipment used to emit infrared radiation, a control unit used to control the operation of the electrothermal equipments. By using the control unit, some specified electrothermal equipments can be enabled to heat up some specified regions while the other electrothermal equipments will not operate. The present invention can reduce power consumption for only heating up demanded local regions and improving efficiency of electricity utilization.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to an electrothermal system, and more particularly to an electrothermal system using infrared radiation as the major heating source, which can be used to heat up local regions as demanded. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Heaters or air conditioners are indispensable in many middle and high latitude countries. Even in a subtropical country like Taiwan, people still need a heater or an air conditioner to warm up the temperature in the room in the winter time, and which is very important to the children and seniorities who are relatively weak in health. For many families, a space heater, such as ceramic heater or thermal-tube heater, is an ideal option for use. However, these types of heaters are placed in a fixed location, so that the space being heated is very limited. In many cases, people are moving in the room and, sometimes, the space of a room is pretty large, such heater is not practical as expected. Therefore, for a big space in a restaurant, hotel, office building or hospital, a large scale air conditioner system is used often to control the temperature in the room. However, the temperature in a large scale air conditioner system is controlled centrally, and can not be individually adjusted to meet personal demand. It is often to see that one person feels cold while another feels warm when both of them are in the same area with same space temperature, and changing the temperature will not satisfy any of them. In other case, when many people are in the same space, such as in a department store or a big office, a centralized air condition system is an ideal option, however, when only a few people in such big space, the system is not operating economically and wasting energy. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    In order to cure the disadvantages described above, such as using in a fixed location, operating not economically and wasting energy, the present invention discloses an electrothermal system which comprises at least one electrothermal equipment, which is in the shape of board and is the major source of heat, to emit infrared radiation when being connected electrically; a control unit used to control the operation of each electrothermal equipment. The present invention can be installed in big range in an interior space, and can be integrated with interior design, such as installed in the ceiling or mounted directly on the wall. When in operation, the present invention is able to control each electrothermal equipment of the system with the control unit depending on personal demand. 
         [0004]    The control unit of the present invention is connected with a user interface for a user to send instructions to the control unit for operation such as turn on or off a specified electrothermal equipment of the electrothermal system, or adjusting the infrared radiation intensity of the specified energized electrothermal equipment. The user interface can be connected to the control unit of the present invention via physical circuit or wireless access. 
         [0005]    More, the electrothermal system of the present invention further comprises a sensor for detecting the location of the user, receiving operating instructions from the user or sending instructions to the control unit for operating the system. The sensor can be an infrared sensor which uses an infrared transmitter for emitting infrared allover the room and uses an infrared receiver for receiving the infrared reflecting from the user to detect the location of the user. It is noticed that the infrared wavelength of the infrared transmitter and receiver is different from that of radiation emitting from the electrothermal equipment. 
         [0006]    Further more, the sensor can be an image sensor which uses a camera for receiving an image to determine the location of the user and transmits signals to the control unit for operating the system. According to the user&#39;s gestures detected by the image sensor, the sensor can transmit signals to the control unit for operating the electrothermal equipment, such as turning on or off a specified electrothermal equipment of the system, or adjusting the infrared radiation intensity of the specific energized electrothermal equipment. 
         [0007]    The sensor can be an audio sensor which can detect the voice or some specific oral instructions from the user and send instructions to the control unit for operating the electrothermal equipment, such as turning on or off a specified electrothermal equipment of the system, or adjusting the infrared radiation intensity of the specified energized electrothermal equipment in the system. 
         [0008]    Further, the electrothermal system of the present invention also comprises a thermometer for detecting the temperature of the user&#39;s body or the environment and sends instructions to the control unit for operating the electrothermal equipment subject to the temperature. 
         [0009]    The electrothermal system of the present invention has many advantages as follows. 
         [0010]    (1) The electrothermal equipment of the electrothermal system is in the shape of board which can be installed in the ceiling or mounted directly on the wall and occupy very limited space. 
         [0011]    (2) The control unit of the electrothermal system is able to control each electrothermal equipment respectively. Only those electrothermal equipments located in the regions having people or in the regions demanding more heat will be in operation, otherwise, the electrothermal equipment will not be in operation in order to save energy. 
         [0012]    (3) The electrothermal equipment of the present invention can be installed in many regions in a room, and the sensors are used to detect the location of the people and send instructions to the control unit for operating the electrothermal equipment to increase the temperature around the regions having people. Therefore, the people in different regions will obtain the heat according to their locations. 
         [0013]    (4) The infrared radiation is the major heating approach of the electrothermal system of the present invention. The electrothermal equipment has the features of high infrared emissivity and warming rapidness. So that it is able to rapidly respond to the various situations of localized demand for heating. 
         [0014]    (5) The electrothermal equipment of the present invention can be a modular design for easily mounted to the present suspended ceiling frame like T-bar ceiling lights or air conditioning ceiling vents. So the present invention is helpful to save the installation cost. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view showing the structure of the electrothermal system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is another schematic view showing the structure of the electrothermal system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  is another schematic view showing the structure of the electrothermal system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  is another schematic view showing the structure of the electrothermal system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0019]    In order to further illustrate the purposes, technical means, and effects of the present invention, the details are described in the following preferred embodiments. 
         [0020]    Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which is the schematic structure of the first embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG. 1 , a plurality of electrothermal equipments  10  are installed face down in the ceiling, and a control unit  20  installed in the top side of the ceiling is connected to the electrothermal equipments  10  by electrical wires. When heat is demanded by the user in a room, the user can use a user interface  30  to send operating instructions to enable the electrothermal equipment  10  in a specified location to operate, and to adjust the infrared radiation intensity of the energized electrothermal equipment depending on the temperature demand. The location of the control unit  20  is not limited in the top side of the ceiling; it can be mounted on the wall or any place in the room. The user interface  30  can be installed on the wall or on the top of desk in the office and is connected to the control unit  20  with circuit. More, the user interface  30  can be a portable device, such as a remote controller or a portable communication device, so that the user is able to use the control unit  20  in any place. The electrothermal system can further comprise a thermometer  40 , and the thermometer  40  can be an infrared thermometer. The thermometer  40  is used to detect the temperature of user&#39;s body or that of environment and send instructions to the control unit  20  in order to control the electrothermal equipments  10 . With the design of the present invention, the user is able to turn on a specified electrothermal equipment to increase the space temperature to the specified level on the demand, not like a centralized air condition system increasing space temperature overall, so as to save energy. For the users in different locations demanding different levels of temperature, the user is able to only turn on the electrothermal equipments  10  around her/him-self and adjust the infrared radiation intensity to maintain the temperature on a certain level. 
         [0021]    Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is the schematic structure of the second embodiment of the present invention. In  FIG. 2 , a plurality of electrothermal equipments  10  are installed in the ceiling, and a control unit  20  installed in the top side of the ceiling is connected to the electrothermal equipments  10  by electrical wires. In  FIG. 2 , the electrothermal system also comprises an infrared sensor  50  which can be installed in the ceiling. The infrared sensor  50  can be a reflective type infrared sensor, which comprises an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver. The infrared transmitter emits infrared to a specified area in a room, and when an object passing the area, the infrared receiver receives the infrared reflecting from the object and transmits signals to the control unit to control the operation of the electrothermal equipments  10  corresponding to the infrared sensor  50 . When a user in a room changes his location, the control unit  20  can use the signal transmitting from the infrared sensor  50  to determine the leave of the user and so as to turn off the electrothermal equipments  10  around the original location of the user to save energy, and to turn on the electrothermal equipments  10  around the new location of the user to utilize energy efficiently. 
         [0022]    Please refer to  FIG. 3 , which is the schematic structure of the third embodiment of the present invention. The third embodiment of the present invention is similar to the second embodiment of the present invention, while the sensor is an image sensor  51 . The image sensor  51  can be installed in the ceiling, on the wall or any other place in a room. The image sensor  51  will take image and transmits the image to the control unit  20 . The control unit  20  determines the location of the user based on the image and turn on the electrothermal equipment  10  around the location. Further, basing on the motion of the user&#39;s body or the user&#39;s gestures, the control unit  20  determines the operation of the electrothermal equipment, such as, turning on the electrothermal equipment  10  when the user sitting down and turning off the electrothermal equipment  10  when the user standing up, or increasing the infrared radiation intensity when the user stretching his hand(s) up or waving his hand(s) right and left, or decreasing the infrared radiation intensity when the user stretching his hand(s) forward or waving his hand(s) up and down. Further more, the control unit  20  can identify the user by the features of the user&#39;s face, body, motion style, and with the pre-determined set up, to adjust the corresponding operation of the electrothermal equipment  10 , such as, when the current temperature is set up to 25° C. but the preference of the temperature of user A is 27° C., the control unit  20  will control the system to adjust the temperature to 27° C. when the image sensor  51  detects the user is user A. With the present invention, the system adjusts the temperature not only depending on the location of the user, but also by the motion or gestures of the user, so the user does not need to operate the system with the user interface. The electrothermal system of the present invention is also able to adjust the temperature based on the user&#39;s habits to satisfy the user&#39;s personal demand of the temperature so as to utilize energy more efficiently and save the cost extremely. 
         [0023]    Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is the schematic structure of the forth embodiment of the present invention. The forth embodiment of the present invention is similar to the second embodiment of the present invention, while the sensor is an audio sensor  52 . As the same, the audio sensor  52  can be installed in the ceiling, on the wall or any other place in a room. The audio sensor  52  is able to collect audio signals and convert it into digital signals and transmit the digital signals to the control unit  20 . The control unit  20  will operate some specific electrothermal equipments based on the signals from the audio sensor  52 , such as, the specific electrothermal equipments will start to operate when the audio sensor  52  detects the user is applauding one time or stop the operation when the audio sensor  52  detects the user is applauding twice. The user also can control the system with oral instructions, such as with the sound of [turn on] or [turn off] to operate electrothermal equipments  10 , or to operate electrothermal equipments  10  in some specified locations or with specific numbers. Further more, the control unit  20  can identify the user by the features of the user&#39;s voice, and with the pre-determined set up of the user, to adjust the corresponding operation of the electrothermal equipment  10 , such as, when the current temperature is set up to 25° C. but the preference of the temperature of user A is 27° C., the control unit  20  will control the system to adjust the temperature to 27° C. when the audio sensor  52  detects the user is user A. With the present invention, the system adjusts the temperature depending on the voice or the oral instructions of the user, so the user does not need to operate the system with the user interface. The electrothermal system of the present invention is also able to adjust the temperature based on the user&#39;s habits to satisfy the user&#39;s personal demand of the temperature so as to utilize energy more efficiently and save the cost extremely. 
         [0024]    The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended.