Patent ID: 7763212

Claim:
An in-room air sterilizer for a room having a planar ceiling not less than about eight feet from the floor, said sterilizer being suspended from the planar ceiling and adapted for connection through the planar ceiling to a source of electrical energy, said air sterilizer comprising: a housing that has a lateral dimension small relative to said room and that is spaced from the walls thereof; a UV-C radiation baffle located vertically below said housing and having a top surface; a source of UV-C radiation located between said housing and said baffle such that a bottom surface of said source is flush with a horizontal plane formed by said top surface of the baffle, wherein said source creates a radiation field extending laterally into the room around said housing, and wherein horizontal radiation emissions from said source are unimpeded by said baffle; and an air mover including an impeller generally at the same vertical level as said source and an electric motor driving said impeller, said air mover drawing air upwardly into said impeller and discharging air generally horizontally from said impeller into the radiation field, wherein the location of said source and said housing defines the upper limit of the angle of direct radiation from said source into the room and thus the maximum angle at which direct radiation is reflected from the planar ceiling into the room, said angle of direct radiation being not greater than about 35 degrees, wherein the location of said source and said baffle defines the lower limit of the angle of direct radiation into the field, said angle of direct radiation being not less than about zero degrees, and wherein the intensity of the radiation field inclusive of direct and reflected radiation is less than about 0.3 μj/cm 2 within about five feet of the room floor.