RU2848645C1 - Stove for steam room with organisation of steam-air flow circulation - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: sanitary and hygienic facilities.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to baths and can be used in sports and health complexes, individual and commercial baths with steam rooms. The steam room stove with steam-air flow circulation comprises a metal body 1 mounted on a foundation 3 with brick cladding 2, forming an air gap 4 between the outer walls of the metal body 1 of the stove and the inner surface of the brick cladding 2, a combustion chamber module 10 connected to a chimney 11, a closed-type heater module 12 for heat accumulation, and a supply and exhaust ventilation system connected to the street. According to the invention, the furnace is located in the basement 5 of the bathhouse. The front cladding of the brick wall 7 is extended upwards into the steam room 6, forms part of the wall of the steam room 6 and is made of double brick walls with an air channel 13 between them, connected to the air gap 4 between the outer walls of the metal body 1 of the furnace and the inner surface of the brick cladding 2 and with conventional openings 8 formed in the cladding of the front wall 7 on the side of the steam room 6, which are equipped with regulating louvers 9. The supply and exhaust ventilation system additionally includes convection air ducts 14, the free ends 15 of which are designed to be connected to openings formed in the floor 16 of the steam room 6, while the opposite ends of the convection air ducts 14 are connected to the brick lining 2 of the furnace and are connected to the air gap 4 between the outer walls of the metal casing 1 of the furnace and the inner surface of the brick lining 2. The convection air ducts 14 are equipped with tees 17, to which air ducts 18 are connected, connected to the street to supply oxygen-enriched fresh air to the circulation flow of supply and exhaust ventilation. The closed-type heater module 12 is equipped with steam pipes 19 passing through the additional steam generation funnel 20 located at the level of the finished floor 16 of the steam room 6 and a water supply system to the heater module 12. The furnace also additionally contains a channel for discharging 22 excess heat associated with the gap 4 between the outer walls of the metal body 1 of the furnace and the inner surface of the brick lining 2.

EFFECT: organisation of maintaining microclimate conditions favourable for humans in a large steam room using a distributed air exchange system.

10 cl, 7 dwg

Description

The invention relates to sanitary and hygienic structures, in particular to baths, and can be used in sports and health complexes, individual and commercial baths with steam rooms.

The recommended temperature in a Russian banya steam room is between 45 and 70°C, with a relative humidity of 30-65% and adequate forced ventilation. Typically, temperature and humidity in a banya steam room are distributed unevenly across the room's height and area. The parameters of the bathing regime should be determined based on the person's location in the banya, which in the treatment area is the person's position on the canopy. Using the appropriate settings during the steaming procedure prevents harm to the body from overheating, and provides a pleasant sensation of warmth when touching the heated canopy, without the burning sensation of skin contact. The temperature regime should be maintained without constant or frequent manual adjustments throughout the bathing procedure, without significant fluctuations.

The air exchange system must remove stale air from its accumulation sites and supply fresh air to the person's breathing zone in sufficient quantities to ensure comfortable, easy breathing. In a sauna, at temperatures above body temperature, stale air sinks and accumulates at the bottom due to its higher density than the surrounding air due to its lower temperature. Therefore, stale air must be removed from the sauna treatment area where it accumulates, i.e., at the bottom. Convective currents in the sauna, caused, for example, by air heating by the hot surfaces of the stove, can cause mixing of fresh and stale air. To ensure user comfort in the sauna, it is not advisable to preheat stale air and supply it back to the person's breathing zone without enriching it with fresh air. Cold air in the person's breathing zone is unacceptable due to its safety, as a large temperature difference between the inhaled air and the surrounding air can lead to a cold. Supplying cold or overheated air, relative to the ambient temperature in the sauna treatment area, negatively impacts people's sensations, and maintaining the temperature in the steam room is unacceptable. Fresh air entering the sauna treatment area must be heated to ensure a comfortable microclimate.

A well-known Russian banya steam room features both preventative and therapeutic effects, with outside air supplied to the stove (RU 2655719, cl. F24B 1/00, F24B 5/02, A61H 33/00, 2018). The circulation of steam and air flows, their heating, and saturation with medicinal substances are achieved by the fact that outside air, before entering the steam room, "passes" through a casing containing a chimney pipe, is heated by it via a heat exchanger, and is directed into the steam room via booster pipes, which pass through the stove at an angle to it, with their ends protruding beyond the stove, at the upper ends of which is a tray containing a medicinal solution for prevention and treatment. Air volume and heating rate are regulated using a block of dampers on the booster pipes. To supply water to the stones of the stove, there is a door in the casing for heating the outside air, and a tap in the lower part of the casing above the stove.

A disadvantage of the traditional Russian banya (sauna) steam room is the elevated temperature it creates, which is undesirable for therapeutic procedures. Furthermore, the open stove produces only low-temperature steam, which is inappropriate for a high-quality steam bath. This traditional stove is of limited practical use, as it has a short service life due to the placement of air heating pipes within the stove's firebox, which has a high specific heat output, typical of sauna stoves. Due to the large difference in height and the relatively high temperature of the heated air, the resistance between the air entering from outside along the chimney and its exit into the steam room will be high enough to force heated air downwards. To operate such a system, the stove would have to be constantly fired in forced mode to overcome the resistance of the upward air flow along the chimney, and the ash pit would also have to be kept open, which would negatively impact the temperature in the firebox. Balancing such a system would be virtually impossible due to the dynamically changing operating characteristics of the stove's firebox. Disadvantages also include the possibility of combustion products and carbon monoxide entering the air supply channel located along the chimney, which can harm people in the steam room.

A sauna stove is known (RU 2809370, class F24B 7/00, F24B 1/02, F24C 3/00, 2023), comprising a metal body consisting of a firebox module with a loading tunnel connected to a heater module, as well as a flue gas removal system. The firebox module is designed with an open top, and the heater module is made of a closed type and is divided into compartments in the form of containers for a heat-accumulating filler, each of which is welded with a front and rear wall to the front and rear wall of the heater module body with the formation of slit gaps between the side walls of the heater module body and the side walls of the containers for the heat-accumulating filler, which are included in the flue gas removal system through a pipe mounted in the upper part of the heater module, connected to a chimney. The furnace's metal body is designed for mounting on a foundation with a pre-installed supply and exhaust ventilation duct. The furnace body is lined with brick on the outside, leaving an 80 to 200 mm gap between the outer walls of the furnace's metal body and the inner surface of the brick walls. Convection vents are also provided in the lower and upper portions of the brick walls around the entire perimeter of the furnace. The supply and exhaust ventilation duct, built into the furnace's foundation, is equipped with a damper for metering fresh air into the steam room. A gas burner is installed in the loading tunnel of the firebox module. Convection vents, formed in the upper portion of the brick walls, are equipped with doors to control convection currents in the steam room.

The current stove design does not adequately ensure a stable, favorable environment throughout the steam room due to uneven temperature distribution, thermal radiation, and the steam generated within the steam room. Furthermore, since the stove is installed within the steam room itself and takes up significant space, it reduces the comfort of sauna treatments and creates hazardous areas from the stove's hot walls.

The prototype of the invention is a Russian steam bath and a sauna stove with an air duct beneath the stove's base (RU 2291999, cl. F24B 1/24, 2007). The Russian steam bath comprises a floor, a stove opposite which are three tiers of benches, and an internal wooden lining of the steam bath room, between which and the building's frame are three air-restricting shells. Openings are made in the floor for air to escape from the steam bath room into the basement. A through opening is made in the outer wall of the steam bath building, connected by a box equipped with a damper to an air duct passing beneath the stove's base into the steam bath room. The sauna stove comprises an ash pan and a firebox with a cast-iron bed for stones placed above it. The bed's pocket is designed so that it is level with the firebox and serves as a guide surface for the flue. The ashpit air intake is located below floor level and connects the ashpit to the crawl space. A metal partition is installed beneath the stove's base, separating the air duct from the chimney. The duct for air coming from outside the building, which enters the steam bath room between the metal partition and the stove foundation, is located between the metal partition and the stove foundation.

The disadvantages of the known device include the low temperature of the steam generated by the open heater, which does not allow for high-quality sauna treatments. The low reliability of the cast iron bed, due to the possibility of its destruction from a localized large temperature gradient when water is supplied to the heater, the unjustified complex thermal insulation design of the steam room, the limited number of users, and the low efficiency in maintaining a stable climate throughout the steam room. Furthermore, due to its large weight, the known steam bath cannot be installed in buildings with insufficient load-bearing capacity of the floors. Another drawback of the known bath is the location of the air inlet and air intake vents at the same level near the floor, which creates conditions for some of the exhaust air to mix with fresh air in the steam room itself and remain in the steam room. If these vents are too close, incoming fresh air from outside will be immediately drawn into the exhaust vents, preventing oxygenation of the steam room.

The objective of the invention is to eliminate the shortcomings of known designs for creating and maintaining a safe and human-friendly microclimate in a steam room.

The technical result of the invention is the organization of maintaining microclimate conditions favorable for humans in a large steam room, using a distributed air exchange system, with the elimination of potentially dangerous elements of the stove, increasing the convenience and comfort when receiving bath procedures with a relatively large number of users, as well as ensuring the possibility of placing the stove in buildings with low load-bearing capacity of the floors.

The stated objective and technical result are achieved by a steam room stove with a circulating steam-air flow system comprising a brick-lined metal body mounted on a foundation, forming an air gap between the outer walls of the stove's metal body and the inner surface of the brick lining. A firebox module connected to a chimney is also included. A closed-type heater module for a heat-accumulating insert is also included. A supply and exhaust ventilation system is connected to the outside. According to the invention, the stove is located in the basement of the bathhouse. The front brick wall cladding extends upward into the steam room, forms part of the steam room wall, and is constructed with double brick walls, forming an air duct between them. The brick wall cladding is connected to the air gap between the outer walls of the stove's metal body and the inner surface of the brick lining, and to ventilation openings formed in the front wall cladding on the steam room side, which are equipped with adjustable louvers. The supply and exhaust ventilation system additionally includes convection ducts, the free ends of which are designed to connect to openings formed in the floor of the steam room, while the opposite ends of the convection ducts are connected to the brick lining of the stove and connected to the air gap between the outer walls of the stove's metal body and the inner surface of the brick lining. The convection ducts are equipped with tees, which are connected to air ducts connected to the outside to supply oxygen-enriched fresh air into the supply and exhaust ventilation system. The closed-type heater module is equipped with steam lines passing through a funnel for additional steam generation, located at the level of the finished floor of the steam room, and a system for supplying water to the heater module. The stove also includes a channel for discharging excess heat associated with the gap between the outer walls of the stove's metal body and the inner surface of the brick lining.

Openings for connecting the free ends of the convection ducts are made in the finished floor of the steam room, opposite the front wall of the steam room stove, and are located in opposite corners to ensure more efficient and uniform air exchange. Cooled air in the steam room descends and enters through the openings in the floor into the convection ducts, where it is enriched with fresh air, heated, and supplied to the steam room, ensuring air exchange in the steam room. Cooled air is replaced by air enriched with fresh air, warmed to an optimal temperature, creating a favorable microclimate in the steam room.

Convection vents in the front wall cladding are typically arranged in parallel horizontal rows above the additional steam generation system funnel. This arrangement of the convection vents ensures a uniform flow of heated air and steam mixture into the steam room, creating favorable conditions in the steam room.

The funnel of the supplemental steam system is primarily made of stainless steel. It accommodates additional stones, which are heated by the air heated by the stove and re-radiate gentle heat into the steam room. In some cases, the stones can be used to generate a small volume of low-temperature steam by adding water with aromatic additives. The funnel can also accommodate trays of essential oils, whose evaporation pleasantly scents the air. Steam lines from the stove heaters are also routed through the funnel to periodically humidify and heat the air with steam generated in the heater when the required volume of water is added.

The number of funnels in the steam generation system may be more than one. Typically, the number of funnels depends on the number of heaters in the heater module, which may also be more than one.

For large steam rooms, the stove is manufactured with increased power, and to increase the volume of steam produced, two or more heaters are installed in the stove with the necessary water supply and steam exhaust systems.

The water supply system for the heat-accumulating material in the sauna heater module consists of pipes connected to a water tank or an external water supply with adjustable volume control, ensuring a measured and evenly distributed flow of water to the heat-accumulating material. Water can also be manually supplied to the sauna heater module by pouring it onto the stones located in the steam outlet funnel. This allows water to flow through the steam outlet channel onto the hot stones. The steam generated by the steam pipes from the sauna heaters and by the water supply through the funnels will vary in temperature and particle size, allowing for a wide range of climate control options in the sauna room.

The furnace is typically equipped with a duct for discharging excess heat, fitted with a damper and a servo drive to regulate the volume of hot air removed. The damper can be configured for automatic adjustment using temperature sensors, or it can be operated manually.

The outer walls of the furnace's metal body are made with heat-exchange fins to increase the efficiency of heat transfer to the air in the supply and exhaust ventilation system.

The stove can also be additionally equipped with steam generators (with water supply and steam exhaust systems) to ensure a larger volume of steam and its temperature in the steam room.

Placing the stove in the bathhouse's basement increases the usable area of the steam room and ensures natural air circulation. Furthermore, this technical solution allows for a unique design aesthetic within the bathhouse.

The stove's front brick wall extends upward into the steam room. This wall, which is part of the steam room wall, is uniformly heated by hot air coming from an air duct connected to the air gap between the stove's metal outer casing and the inner surface of the brick wall. This air radiates heat steadily into the steam room, creating comfortable conditions for sauna and spa treatments. The reverse side of the front wall can be used to heat the washroom or relaxation room.

Installing louvers in the convection vents allows for the regulation of the hot air volume, allowing for the temperature in the steam room to be controlled. The louvers can be opened and closed automatically, depending on the set temperature, or manually, depending on the user's preferences. Instead of louvers, dampers with smoothly adjustable louvers can be installed in the convection vents, allowing for more precise control of the air temperature in the steam room.

The use of tees with connected air ducts connected to the outside allows the circulating flow of steam-air mixture in the supply and exhaust ventilation system to be enriched with fresh air. This supply and exhaust ventilation system is directed from the steam room through convection ducts back to the steam room. This design of the supply and exhaust ventilation system creates conditions in which the circulating air flow, enriched with oxygen from the fresh air, quickly reaches the required temperature for delivery to the steam room, ensuring an even and stable microclimate for a comfortable stay in the sauna's steam room.

The closed-loop heater module, with steam pipes running through a funnel located at the finished floor level of the steam room, provides a periodic supply of steam to the steam room for additional heating and humidification. A heat-accumulating layer, located on the funnel and heated by hot air, emits soft radiant heat and creates a distributed, convective, upward air flow. This air heating system significantly improves the uniformity of temperature distribution across the entire area and height of the steam room, ensuring a highly comfortable sauna experience throughout virtually the entire steam room.

The invention is illustrated by the following drawings, where Fig. 1 is a stove located in the basement of a bathhouse; Fig. 2 is a view of the stove from above; Fig. 3 is a stove connected to convection air ducts and to a channel for discharging excess heat; Fig. 4 is a side view of the metal body of the stove; Fig. 5 is a front view of the metal body of the stove; Fig. 6 is a view of the brick wall with front cladding from the side of the steam room; Fig. 7 is a view from the side of the steam room of the front wall of the stove with an additional accumulating filler on the funnel of the additional steam generation system.

The steam room stove with the organization of steam-air flow circulation is explained by the following positions:

1 - metal body;

2 - brick cladding;

3 - foundation;

4 - air gap between the outer walls of the metal body 1 and the inner surface of the brick cladding 2;

5 - basement of the bathhouse;

6 - steam room;

7 - brick wall with front cladding, extended into the steam room 6;

8 - conventional openings in the upper part of the brick cladding of the brick wall 7, located in horizontal rows;

9 - blinds, adjustable for opening/closing;

10 - combustion chamber module;

11 - chimney;

12 - closed-type heater module for heat-accumulating deposit;

13 - air channel of brick wall 7, connected to air gap 4;

14 - convection air ducts;

15 - free ends of convection air ducts;

16 - finished floor of steam room 6;

17 - tee;

18 - air duct connecting tee 17 to the street;

19 - steam pipelines;

20 - a funnel of the additional steam generation system, located at the level of the finished floor 16 of the steam room 6, made of stainless steel;

21 - stones of additional heat-accumulating foundation;

22 - channel for discharging excess heat associated with the air gap 4 between the outer walls of the metal body 1 of the furnace and the inner surface of the brick cladding 2;

23 - pipeline connected to external water supply;

24 - damper with servo drive of channel 22 for discharging excess heat;

25 - heat exchange fins;

26 – steam generators.

The steam room stove with the organization of circulation of steam and air flows operates in a continuous mode.

The sauna stove can operate on either gaseous fuel, such as natural gas, or solid fuel (wood, briquettes, or pellets). The stove heats and humidifies the air in the steam room. This produces high-temperature, finely dispersed (light) steam, as well as heavy steam, depending on the needs of the people taking the steam bath. The metal body 1 of the stove with heat-exchange fins 25 is installed on a foundation 3 in the basement 5 of the sauna (Fig. 1) and lined with brick cladding 2 on the outside (Figs. 1 and 2), creating an air gap 4 between the outer walls of the metal body 1 and the inner surface of the brick cladding 2. The stove in the basement 5 allows for a more rapid change in climatic conditions, as the steam room does not contain a massive, inert radiating body, which would make the process of changing climates very lengthy. The stove's location under the floor also saves steam room space, allowing for both individual and group steaming sessions. This stove placement also improves safety in the steam room, as there are no overheated objects to burn yourself on. Furthermore, the air circulation system, located at the far ends of steam room 5, ensures an even climate throughout. When the stove is heated, the walls of the metal casing 1 and the heat-transfer surfaces of the heat-exchange fins 25 quickly heat up and begin to warm the air in the gap 4. Heated air enters steam room 6 through open convection vents 8, arranged in rows along the upper portion of the brick wall 7, warming it. Louvers 9 can be used to regulate the flow of heated air into steam room 6 manually or automatically.

The large mass of the heat-accumulating material in heater module 12 ensures a sufficiently large volume of steam, necessary for additional heating and humidification of the air in steam room 6. The mass of stones for heater module 12 is determined at a rate of 2.5-6 kg per 1 m³ of steam room 6 volume. The required heater power and steam production volume are determined based on the size of steam room 6. Accordingly, the required amount of heat-accumulating material and the number of stones in module 12 are determined based on this information.

Air from the steam room 6 enters through the open free ends 15 of the convection air ducts 14 installed in the finished floor 16 and passes to the tee 17, in which the hot moist air is mixed with fresh air, which enters through the air duct 18 connected to the street. The mixed air enters through the tee 17 into the convection air duct 14 connected to the air gap 4 of the stove, in which it is heated and enters the air duct 13 of the front wall 7 and then through the convection openings 8 into the steam room 6, thereby providing a closed system of convection air flows of supply and exhaust ventilation.

When a person takes a steam bath, their body temperature and breath cool the air, as it is 36.6°C. Intensive cooling of the air also occurs due to heat loss through the enclosing walls and floor. The air in steam room 6 is typically heated to at least 55-80°C, so the used (colder) air, depleted of oxygen, sinks, while fresh, hot air enters through convection vents 8, located in the central upper portion of wall 7. To properly ventilate steam room 6, it is necessary to remove the cooled air and replace it with hot air.

In order to supply steam to the steam room 6, a limited volume of water is supplied to the module 12 of the closed-type heater with a heat-accumulating deposit through a pipeline 23 connected to an external water supply system, which evaporates and in the form of steam, through steam pipes 19, enters through a funnel 20 of the additional steam generation system, into the steam room 6. Due to the additional heat-accumulating deposit 21, located on the funnels 20, heated by the radiation of the metal body of the stove and the air from the channel 4, re-radiation of thermal radiation occurs, which additionally heats the air and the walls of the steam room 6. In addition, it is possible to place baths with aromatic oils on the heat-accumulating deposit 21 to saturate the air of the steam room 6 with aromas, thereby increasing the comfortable conditions in it. To generate additional high-temperature steam (for a large number of users), steam generators 26 can be used. They are placed in the furnace firebox and equipped with water supply and steam drainage systems for the steam room 6. An example of such a steam generator design is described in Russian Patent No. 2836376. Using a steam generator 26 expands the range of steam parameters and allows for the greatest positive sauna experience for various categories of users, including those with increased temperature and humidity requirements.

To regulate the temperature in the steam room 6, the stove is equipped with a duct 22 for discharging excess heat, with a damper 24 controlled by a servo. Duct 22 is connected to an air gap 4 between the outer walls of the stove's metal body 1 and the inner surface of the brick lining 2. Temperature control can be either manual or automatic.

The invention is not limited to a specific description of its implementation and can be expanded within the scope of the claims, for example, for automatic regulation of the temperature or steam generation mode, the oven and steam room can be equipped with appropriate sensors.

A sauna stove with a steam-air circulation system has been tested with positive results, providing a favorable, comfortable climate in the steam room under real-life sauna conditions with a large number of users, increased usable volume in the steam room, uniform distribution of temperature and humidity in the room and their regulation using a distributed air exchange system, depending on the needs of the users, and creating a modern design for the sauna interior.

Claims (10)

1. A steam room stove with the organization of circulation of steam and air flows, containing a metal body mounted on a foundation with a brick lining, with the formation of an air gap between the outer walls of the metal body of the stove and the inner surface of the brick lining, convection openings in the upper part of the brick lining, a firebox module connected to a chimney, a closed-type heater module for a heat-accumulating deposit, a supply and exhaust ventilation system connected to the street, characterized in that the stove is located in the basement of the bathhouse, the front facing of the brick wall is extended upward, into the steam room and is part of the wall of the steam room, wherein the front wall is made with double brick walls with the formation of an air duct between them, connected to the air gap between the outer walls of the metal body of the stove and the inner surface of the brick lining, with convection openings formed in the facing of the front wall on the side of the steam room, which are provided adjustable for opening/closing of blinds, in addition, the supply and exhaust ventilation system additionally includes convection air ducts, the free ends of which are designed with the possibility of connection to openings formed near the floor of the steam room, and the opposite ends of the convection air ducts are connected to the lining of the stove with the possibility of their connection with the air gap between the outer walls of the metal body of the stove and the inner surface of the brick lining, while the convection air ducts are equipped with tees, to which air ducts are connected, connected to the street for supplying fresh air to the circulation flow of the supply and exhaust ventilation, the closed-type heater module is equipped with steam pipes connected to the additional steam generation system, including a funnel located at the level of the finished floor of the steam room and a system for supplying water to the heater module, the stove also additionally contains a channel for discharging excess heat associated with the gap between the outer walls of the metal body of the stove and the inner surface of the brick lining. 2. The furnace according to paragraph 1, characterized in that the openings for connecting the free ends of the convection air ducts are made in the finished floor of the steam room on the opposite side from the front wall of the furnace of the steam room, in its opposite corners. 3. A furnace according to claim 1, characterized in that the convection openings in the facing of the front wall are located in parallel horizontal rows above the funnel of the additional steam generation system. 4. The furnace according to item 1, characterized in that the funnel of the additional steam generation system is made of stainless steel, with the possibility of placing an additional heat-accumulating deposit and baths with essential oils on them. 5. The stove according to paragraph 1, characterized in that the water supply system to the heat-accumulating deposit of the heater module is made in the form of a pipeline that evenly distributes water in the heater, connected to an external water supply with the ability to regulate the volume of water supplied. 6. The stove according to item 1, characterized in that the water supply system to the heat-accumulating deposit of the heater module is possible through funnels in manual mode. 7. The furnace according to paragraph 1, characterized in that the excess heat discharge channel is equipped with a damper with a servo drive for regulating the volume of hot air removed. 8. A stove according to paragraph 1, characterized in that the number of heaters in the module and the number of funnels in the steam generation system is more than one. 9. The furnace according to paragraph 1, characterized in that the outer walls of the metal body of the furnace are made with heat exchange fins. 10. The furnace according to paragraph 1, characterized in that it is additionally equipped with steam generators placed in the furnace firebox, with systems for supplying water and sewering steam into the steam compartment.