GB2238863A

GB2238863A - Fire appliance for domestic use

Info

Publication number: GB2238863A
Application number: GB9024119A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ernest Hutchins
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1989-12-09
Filing date: 1990-11-06
Publication date: 1991-06-12
Also published as: GB8927896D0; GB9024119D0

Abstract

A fire appliance such as a gas fire (10) incoporates a heat exchanger (14) for heating by hot gaseous products of combustion from a fuel burner (12) and radiants in order to cause heating and convection flow of air through the heat exchanger (14) from inlet (19) to outlet (21). The heat exchanger may consist of one or more rows of closely spaced tubes (15) to provide a labyrinth of passages for flow of the hot gases between the tubes (15). <IMAGE>

Description

Fire Appliance for domestic heating This invention relates to a fire appliance for domestic heating, and which may, for example, be a gas fire.

In gas fires used at present, a gaseous fuel is burned by burners at the base of the fire and the flames are used to heat radiants which provide most of the heating effect by radiating forwardly through an open front of the fire. The combustion gases are then drawn rearwardly from the top of the radiants to a flue, through which they are discharged. An air space above the radiants and flue will tend to receive heat by convection from the hot parts of the radiant housing and this heat may be emitted at the top of the fire as a convection current.

The efficiency of present appliances of this type is very low.

Much of the heat escapes in the flue gases without warming the room.

It an object of the present invention to provide a new or improved fire appliance having more efficient operation than that described above.

According to the invention there is provided a fire appliance primarily for domestic use comprising: fuel burner means; radiant means arranged to be heated by gaseous products of combustion from the fuel burner means; a flue connection outlet adapted to be coupled to a flue for subsequent discharge of the products of combustion; and heat exchanger means comprising at least one passageway member arranged to be externally heated by contact with hot gaseous products of combustion passing from the burner means to the flue connection outlet, which passageway member has a lower air inlet means for receiving air for heating therein and an upper air outlet means for convectional dischage of heated air therefrom.

Preferably, the heat exchange means comprise a plurality of passageways in the form of tubes.

The tubes may be closely packed so as to provide a labyrinth of passageways for hot combustion products.

A domestic gas fire incorporating the invention will now be described in more detail by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic vertical section of a gas fire Figure 2 is a front elevational view on the arrow 2 of figure 1, with part of the fire shown broken away Figure 3 is a plan sectional view on the line 3 3 of figure 2.

Referring to the drawings, a gas fire is generally indicated at 10 and comprises a housing 11 within which burner means 12 are disposed. The burner means 12 may burn any suitable fuel such as gas or kerosene for example.

A flue connection outlet 13 is provided to pass the spent flue gases from the burner means 12 to a suitable flue for discharge to the atmosphere, this flue outlet 13 being separate from the room space to be heated.

Hot gaseous products of combustion from the burner means may play on a plurality of ceramic radiants (not shown) or may play on solid inert material to give the appearance of a solid fuel fire or may otherwise provide direct heating for the room space.

However, in addition and according to this invention, heat exchanger means generally indicated at 14 is provided to extract more efficiently heat from the flue gases passing upwardly to the flue outlet 13 from the burner means 12, via the radiants or the like. As indicated in Figure 1 the heat exchange 14 is closely or contiguously situated behind the radiants or solid fuel effect.

The heat exchanger 14 comprises a plurality of upwardly and forwardly directed tubes 15, which may be of square or circular cross section, or any other suitable shape with or without thermal contact webs or fins for optimum heat transfer. The tubes 15 are preferably arranged in staggered rows as will best be seen from figure 3 of the drawings so as to provide a labyrinth of passageways 16 for the passage of flue gases between the tubes 15 from the burner means 12 and radiants.

Whereas two rows of tubes 15 can be employed as shown in Figure 3 or, if desired, more than two rows, a single row can also provide an effective heat exchange action.

The tubes 15 are fed with fresh air from a passageway 18 which is connected below the burners 12 to an air intake 19, the air passing by conventional flow from the passageway 18, through the heated tubes 15 and then as heated air into a convection space 20 at the top of the fire. This may also receive radiant heat from the burner means 12 and radiants below. Finally, the heated air in the convection space 20 is emitted at 21 from the front of the fire appliance.

The room space therefore receives additional heating in the form of conventional heated air flow emitted at 21, this heat being extracted from flue gases instead of going to waste with the latter.

Claims

1. A fire appliance for domestic use comprising: fuel burner means; radiant means arranged to be heated by gaseous products of combustion from the fuel burner means; a flue connection outlet adapted to be coupled to a flue for subsequent discharge of the products of combustion; and heat exchanger means comprising at least one passageway member arranged to be externally heated by contact with hot gaseous products of combustion passing from the burner means to the flue connection outlet, which passageway member has a lower air inlet means for receiving air for heating therein and an upper air outlet means for conventional discharge of heated air therefrom.

2. A fire appliance according to claim 1 wherein said at least one passageway member is upwardly directed from the lower air inlet means to the upper air outlet means.

3. A fire appliance according to claim 1 or 2 wherein said at least one passageway member is forwardly inclined from the lower air inlet means to the upper air outlet means.

4. A fire appliance according to claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the heat exchanger means is disposed closely or contiguously behind the radiant means.

5. A fire appliance according to any of the preceding claims wherein the heat exchanger means comprises at least one row of passageway members.

6. A fire applicant according to any of claims 1 to 5 wherein the heat exchanger means comprises two or more closely arranged rows of passageway members.

7. A fire appliance according to claim 6 wherein the passageway members of one row are staggered relative to the passageway members of the other or an adjacent row.

8. A fire appliance according to any of the preceding claims having a plurality of passageway members wherein the passageway members are closely arranged to provide a plurality of passageways therebetween for the passage of hot gaseous products of combustion through said passageways and in external contact with the passageway members for heating the latter.

9. A fire appliance according to any of the preceding claims wherein the or each passageway member is of rectangular crosssection.

10. A fire appliance according to any of the preceding claims wherein the or each passageway member is of square cross-section.

11. A fire appliance according to any of preceding claims wherein the or each passageway member is of substantially circular crosssection.

12. A fire appliance according to any of the preceding claims wherein the or each passageway member is provided with fins.

13. A fire appliance for domestic use substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.