Air purifier

Abstract

A method for indicating to a user the expected time for an air purifier to achieve a target level of pollution in a room by: (A) acquiring the current level of pollution (CP) in said room; (B) acquiring current air flow speed (CAFS) through said air purifier; (C) comparing the current level of pollution (CP) with a pre-determined target level of pollution (IP); (D) calculating the expected time (T) required to reduce current pollution (CP) to said target level of pollution (IP) at current air flow speed (CAFS); (E) indicating said expected time (T) required to reduce current pollution to said target level of pollution at current air flow speed to a user; and (F) repeating steps (A) to (E).

Claims

1. A method for indicating to a user the expected time for an air purifier to achieve a target level of pollution in a room, the method comprising: acquiring a current level of pollution (CP) in said room; acquiring current air flow speed (CAFS) through said air purifier; comparing the current level of pollution (CP) with a pre-determined target level of pollution (TP); calculating the expected time (T) required to reduce current pollution (CP) to said target level of pollution (TP) at current air flow speed (CAFS), wherein the expected time (T) is calculated based solely on current air flow speed (CAFS) and current pollution (CP) and not on historical data or prior performance of the air purifier; indicating said expected time (T) required to reduce current pollution to said target level of pollution at current air flow speed to a user; and reducing a current airflow rate of the air purifier to idle or zero when the current level of pollution (CP) reaches said target level of pollution (TP) wherein the method is conducted when the pollution level (CP) changes by more than 1% of a preceding level, or when the said current air flow speed (CAFS) is changed by a user.

2. The method of claim 1, further including acquiring a size of the room and adjusting T based on the acquired size of the room.

3. The method according to claim 2 comprising inputting the size of the room manually.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein acquiring the current level of pollution (CP) in the room is executed by a particulate sensor.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein acquiring the current level of pollution (CP) in the room is executed by is a gas sensor.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein acquiring the current level of pollution (CP) in the room is executed by an allergen sensor.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein acquiring the current level of pollution (CP) in the room is executed by a microbe sensor.

8. The method according to claim 1, where acquiring current air flow speed (CAFS) is executed by a fan speed sensor.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining whether an ioniser is functioning and adjusting the time required to achieve target level of pollution accordingly.

Description

(1) Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the following non-limiting figures in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating the process for making the estimated time to clean air calculation and indicate the time required to clean the air.

(3) In detail, FIG. 1 shows a process whereby the air flow speed (CAFS) is determined by measurement or by reference to an attributed value based on air flow speed setting; the ambient pollution level (CP) is measured by a sensor; (CP) is compared with a nominal pre-determined level (TP) of pollution equating with clean air or the target level of air pollution; if (CP) is equal to or below (TP) then the indicator indicates that the air is clean; if (CP) is above (TP) then the time taken (T) to achieve clean air (TP) based on a calculation with (CAFS) and (TP); the T is indicated by the indicator. The process returns to the start in order to re-calculate though it is likely there is a time delay before doing this.