Patent Publication Number: US-2012042867-A1

Title: Re-Exchange Energy-Saving Building System

Description:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to a building technology, and more particularly to an innovative one which involves power supply, hot water supply, air conditioning, water-saving and fire protection systems for the buildings. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     The power supply system for the buildings is generally stemmed from utility power grid with higher cost. 
     The hot water supply system for the buildings is generally originated from solar water heater, whereby water is heated up electrically by various users. The disadvantages include: hot water over 90° C. must be heated up by the users with higher power consumption and water cost. 
     The flush toilet for the buildings adopts tap water with higher consumption of water resources. 
     The air conditioner for the buildings is used for electrical heating and cooling without auxiliary power supply, leading to higher energy consumption. 
     The fire protection system for the buildings is required to maintain regularly the pressure of fire water tank at top floor, meanwhile the fire pump has to be often activated in a complicated procedure. 
     Content of Invention 
     The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a re-exchange energy-saving building system, whereby the hot water supply system can supply hot water for the building, the air conditioner enables heating and cooling via a GSHP (ground source heat pump), the water-saving system permits a membrane filter tank to filter the bath water and domestic water and then supply to the flush toilet at lower floor. This saves the power and water consumption, and also reduces the cost of hot water and air conditioning; moreover, fire prevention water can be obtained from water tank on the top floor. 
     The technical solution of the present invention is described below: A re-exchange energy-saving building system covers a building and a building power supply system, which comprising: top floor pond, basement pond, capillary generator set, Solar PV, valley load, water pump and user load. 
     The top floor pond is arranged at the roof of the building, and the basement pond is arranged underground, of which water from top floor pond is supplied to the capillary generator set; the electric energy generated by the capillary generator set is supplied to the user load, and the electric energy generated by Solar PV energizes the water pump to transfer water from basement pond to top floor pond; the valley load in the utility power grid is supplied to the water pump to transfer water from basement pond to top floor pond and also to the user load. 
     The capillary generator set is composed of several small hydro generators, of which the inflow pipe is connected to the top floor pond, and the outflow pipe connected to the basement pond. 
     Said solar PV is arranged laterally onto the building, where the electric energy generated by solar PV is charged into the battery and then supplied to the water pump to transfer water from the basement pond to the top floor pond, whilst the valley load in the utility power grid is supplied to the water pump at nighttime to transfer water from the basement pond to the top floor pond. 
     Said hot water supply system for the building is composed of solar water heater, tap water, big hot water tank and hot water users; some solar water heaters are arranged on the upper part of the top floor pond, and a big hot water tank is arranged at top floor to supply hot water to the hot water users. 
     The solar water heaters are arranged in such a manner: tap water flows through level  1  parallel solar water heater, level  2  parallel solar water heater . . . level n parallel solar water heater&#39;s water tank into the big hot water tank; the number of individual solar water heaters in level  1  parallel solar water heater, level  2  parallel solar water heater . . . level n solar water heater increases one-by-one; 
     Parallel connection of solar water heaters means the water tanks of several solar water heaters are arranged in rows, there are only a single main water inlet and outlet, and the water tanks of solar water heaters in a row are connected. 
     The inlet pipeline of said level  1  parallel solar water heater is fitted with a flow control valve. 
     A drying box is arranged at the unit rooms in the building, a heating pipe is fixed in the drying box, and hot water in the big hot water tank is circularly connected to the heating pipe. 
     The water-saving system of the building is composed of the downcomer in the bathroom, sewage pipe, the downcomer for washing purposes, membrane filtration tank and flush toilet; 
     The flush toilet of unit rooms in the top floor is supplied from tap water, and the downcomer of this flush toilet is connected to the sewage pipe; 
     The downcomers of flush toilets in the unit rooms from 2 nd  floor are connected to the sewage pipe, the downcomers in the bathrooms and for washing purposes are connected to the water inlet of the membrane filtration tank; filtering membrane is fixed in the membrane filtration tank, and the outlet pipe of the membrane filtration tank is connected to the water inlet of flush toilet at lower floor; the outflow pipes of membrane filtration tanks in the unit rooms at the same floor are interconnected; 
     The downcomers of flush toilets in the unit rooms at the first floor, and the downcomers in the bathrooms or for washing purposes are connected to the sewage pipe. 
     Said air conditioner for the building is composed of underground heat exchange tube, GSHP unit, air conditioner users and big hot water tank; 
     The underground heat exchange tube is buried underground and connected to GSHP unit, which is then connected to air conditioner users, and the pipeline of big hot water tank is connected to the heat exchangers of air conditioner users. 
     Said fire protection system is composed of pipeline and hose nozzles, of which hose nozzles are arranged in the unit rooms and connected to the top floor pond. 
     The efficacies of the present invention lie in that:
         (1) The solar energy can be converted into hydropower for the capillary generator set, then the electric energy generated by the capillary generator set is supplied to the electric load of the building in a controlled way; the capillary generator set generates power where necessary, thus saving the potential energy of water resources. In the event of insufficient solar energy, valley load is used to pump water from the basement pond to the top floor pond; as the valley load&#39;s price is half of the electricity price in the daytime, this method could provide an electricity cost about 35% lower despite of the power loss during conversion of valley load&#39;s energy into the water potential energy and application by the capillary generator set. After the electric energy generated by the solar PV is charged into the battery, the energy is supplied to water pump for pumping water from the basement pond to the top floor pond; as the solar energy is not required to be extensively stored in the battery, this avoids higher storage cost, serious pollution and safety hazards when solar energy is extensively stored in the battery. In most cases, the electric energy generated from solar energy and water potential energy in the top floor pond are supplied to the power supply system of the building, saving greatly the power consumption cost by about 30%.   (2) The water-saving system permits a membrane filter tank to filter the bath water and domestic water and then supply to the flush toilet at lower floor, thus saving greatly water resources.   (3) The hot water supply system allows to arrange level  1  parallel solar water heater, level  2  parallel solar water heater . . . level n parallel solar water heater in sequence, then heat up the tap water for hot water supply. The tap water entering into the water storage tank of level  1  parallel solar water heater is kept constant, and the heat flux into the water storage tank of level  2  parallel solar water heater is increased gradually, so that tap water is heated up quickly to hot water; meanwhile, the flow is controlled to adjust the water temperature in the water storage tank of level n parallel solar water heater, making hot water available for the users in the building.   (4) The air conditioner could provide heat sources by terrestrial heat and solar energy during winter, or refrigerate air source from ground source heat pump and supply to the rooms during summer, thus saving electric power and heating/cooling cost. In the winter, the hot water in the big hot water tank generated by solar water heater is added into the heat exchanger of air conditioners, helping to save electric power. In the cloudy or rainy weather, the recycling water in the air conditioner is heated up by GSHP unit, and pumped to heat exchanger in big hot water tank for the building.   (5) The building cost of the present invention is 20˜30% higher than that of common buildings, but it only takes 2˜3 years to save the cost in terms of power/water consumption and air conditioning.   (6) The water of top floor pond can be reserved for fire control; in the event of any fire hazard in the unit rooms, the water of top floor pond is available to guarantee timely and safe fire extinguishing. This eliminates the inconvenience of regular repair and maintenance of fire pump.       

    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1 : a structural view of power supply system for the building 
         FIG. 2 : a structural view of hot water supply system for the building 
         FIG. 3 : a configuration view of solar energy heaters of the present invention 
         FIG. 4 : a structural view of drying box 
         FIG. 5 : a structural view of capillary generator set 
         FIG. 6 : a structural view of small hydro generator in  FIG. 4   
         FIG. 7 : a structural view of water-saving system for the building 
         FIG. 8 : a structural view of water-saving system at uppermost two floors 
         FIG. 9 : a structural view of water-saving system at lowermost two floors 
         FIG. 10 : a structural view of air conditioner for the building 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Preferred embodiment: referring to  FIGS. 1˜10 , a re-exchange energy-saving building system covers a building  1  and a power supply system  2  of the building  1 , which comprising: top floor pond  21 , basement pond  22 , capillary generator set  23 , solar PV  24 , valley load  25 , water pump  26  and user load  27 ; 
     The top floor pond  21  is arranged at the roof of the building  1 , and the basement pond  22  is arranged underground, of which water from top floor pond  21  is supplied to the capillary generator set  23 ; the electric energy generated by the capillary generator set  23  is supplied to the user load  27 , and the electric energy generated by solar PV  24  energizes the water pump  26  to transfer water from basement pond  22  to top floor pond  21 ; the valley load  25  in the utility power grid is supplied to the water pump  26  to transfer water from basement pond  22  to top floor pond  21  and also to the user load  27 ; 
     The capillary generator set  23  is composed of several small hydro generators  231 , of which the inflow pipe  232  is connected to the top floor pond  21 , and the outflow pipe  233  connected to the basement pond  22 . 
     Said solar PV  24  is arranged laterally onto the building, where the electric energy generated by solar PV  24  is charged into the battery and then supplied to the water pump  26  to transfer water from the basement pond  22  to the top floor pond  21 , whilst the valley load  25  in the utility power grid is supplied to the water pump  26  at nighttime to transfer water from the basement pond  22  to the top floor pond  21 . 
     Said hot water supply system  3  for the building  1  is composed of solar water heater  31 , tap water  32 , big hot water tank  33  and hot water users  34 ; some solar water heaters  31  are arranged on the upper part of the top floor pond  21 , and a big hot water tank  33  is arranged at top floor to supply hot water to the hot water users  34 ; the solar water heaters are arranged in such a manner: tap water  32  flows through level  1  parallel solar water heater  311 , level  2  parallel solar water heater  312  . . . water tank of level n parallel solar water heater  31   n  into the big hot water tank  33 ; the number of individual solar water heaters in level  1  parallel solar water heater  311 , level  2  parallel solar water heater  312  . . . level n solar water heater  31   n  increases one-by-one; parallel connection of solar water heaters means the water tanks of several solar water heaters  31  are arranged in rows, there are only a single main water inlet and outlet, and the water tanks of solar water heaters  31  in a row are connected. 
     The inlet pipeline of said level  1  parallel solar water heater  311  is fitted with a flow control valve  35 . 
     Drying box  36  is arranged at the unit rooms in the building  1 , heating pipe  361  is fixed in the drying box  36 , and hot water in the big hot water tank  33  is circularly connected to the heating pipe  361 . 
     The water-saving system  4  of the building  1  is composed of the downcomer  41  in the bathroom, sewage pipe  42 , the downcomer  43  for washing purposes, membrane filtration tank  44  and flush toilet  45 ; 
     The flush toilet  45  of unit rooms in the top floor is supplied from tap water, and the downcomer of this flush toilet  45  is connected to the sewage pipe  42 ; 
     The downcomers of flush toilets  45  in the unit rooms from 2 nd  floor are connected to the sewage pipe  42 , the downcomers  41 ,  43  in the bathrooms and for washing purposes are connected to the water inlet of the membrane filtration tank  44 ; filtering membrane is fixed in the membrane filtration tank  44 , and the outlet pipe of the membrane filtration tank  44  is connected to the water inlet of flush toilet  45  at lower floor; the outflow pipes of membrane filtration tanks  44  in the unit rooms at the same floor are interconnected; 
     The downcomers of flush toilets  45  in the unit rooms at the first floor, and the downcomers  41 ,  43  in the bathrooms or for washing purposes are connected to the sewage pipe  42 . 
     Said air conditioner  5  for the building is composed of underground heat exchange tube  51 , GSHP unit  52 , air conditioner users  53  and big hot water tank  33 ; the underground heat exchange tube  51  is buried underground and connected to GSHP unit  52 , which is then connected to air conditioner users  53 , and the pipeline of big hot water tank  33  is connected to the heat exchangers  531  of air conditioner users  53 . 
     Said fire protection system for the building  1  is composed of pipeline and hose nozzles, of which hose nozzles are arranged in the unit rooms and connected to the top floor pond  1 .