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EP-4097359-B1 - ADAPTIVE CAPACITOR SECTION FOR FAN SPEED CONTROL

EP4097359B1EP 4097359 B1EP4097359 B1EP 4097359B1EP-4097359-B1

Inventors

  • TETREAULT, Michael, Dennis
  • KRAUS, Nick, Charles

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20210129

Claims (14)

  1. A fan controller (310) for a ceiling fan (100), the fan controller (310) comprising: one or more switching devices (450) configured to selectively couple the ceiling fan (100) to a power source; a first capacitor (710) having a first capacitance; a second capacitor (720) having a second capacitance, the second capacitance being larger than the first capacitance; the fan controller characterised by a power meter circuit (430); and one or more control devices (420) configured to: obtain, via the power meter circuit (430), data indicative of electrical power a fan motor (140) of the ceiling fan (100) draws from the power source; determine a size of the fan motor (140) based, at least in part, on the data; select the first capacitor (710) or the second capacitor (720) as a selected capacitor based at least in part on the determined size of the fan motor (140); obtain data indicative of a user-request to operate the fan motor (140) at a lowest speed setting of a plurality of speed settings for the fan motor (140); and in response to the data indicative of the user-request, couple the fan motor (140) to the power source via the selected capacitor (710, 720).
  2. The fan controller (310) of claim 1, wherein the one or more control devices (420) are further configured to compare an amount of electrical power the fan motor (140) draws from the power source to a first range of values and a second range of values that is different than the first range of values to determine the size of the fan motor (140).
  3. The fan controller (310) of claim 2, wherein, when the amount of electrical power falls within the first range of values, the one or more control devices (420) are configured to determine the fan motor (140) corresponds to a first fan motor having a first size; and when the amount of electrical power falls within the second range of values, the one or more control devices (420) are configured to determine the fan motor (140) corresponds to a second fan motor having a second size that is greater than the first size.
  4. The fan controller (310) of claim 1, wherein when the one or more control devices (420) obtain the data indicative of the electrical power the fan motor (140) draws from the power source, the fan motor (140) is operating at a speed setting that is different than the lowest speed setting.
  5. The fan controller (310) of claim 4, wherein the speed setting corresponds to a highest speed setting of the plurality of speed settings for the fan motor (140).
  6. The fan controller (310) of claim 4, wherein the speed setting corresponds to an intermediate speed setting of the plurality of speed settings for the fan motor (140).
  7. The fan controller (310) of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the electrical power comprises data indicative of one or more parameters associated with the electrical power.
  8. The fan controller (310) of claim 7, wherein, when a value associated with the one or more parameters falls within a first range of values, the one or more control devices (420) are configured to determine the fan motor (140) corresponds to a first motor having a first size; and when the value associated with the one or more parameters falls within a second range of values that is different than the first range of values, the one or more control devices (420) are configured to determine the size of the fan motor (140) corresponds to a second motor having a second size that is larger than the first size.
  9. The fan controller (310) of claim 8, wherein the one or more parameters comprise a power factor associated with the electrical power.
  10. The fan controller (310) of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the electrical power comprises data indicative of at least one of real power and apparent power.
  11. The fan controller (310) of claim 1, wherein the capacitance of the first capacitor (710) and the capacitance of the second capacitor (720) each range from about 4 microfarads to about 10 microfarads.
  12. The fan controller (310) of claim 11, wherein, the capacitance of the first capacitor (710) is about 5 microfarads; and the capacitance of the second capacitor (720) is about 6 microfarads.
  13. The fan controller (310) of claim 11, wherein, the capacitance of the first capacitor (710) is about 5 microfarads; and the capacitance of the second capacitor (720) is about 7 microfarads.
  14. A fan system, comprising: a ceiling fan (100) comprising a fan motor (140), the fan motor (140) configurable to operate at a plurality of speed settings; and the fan controller (310) of any one of the preceding claims.

Description

FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to ceiling fans and, more particularly, fan controllers for ceiling fans. BACKGROUND Ceiling fans can include a plurality of fan blades and a fan motor. The fan motor can be configured to drive rotation of the fan blades to circulate air within a space. Fan controllers can be used to control operation of the fan motor. For instance, the fan motor can be selectively coupled to a power source via one of or more the capacitors of the fan controller to control a speed at which the fan motor rotates. In this manner, the fan motor can operate at a plurality of different speed settings (e.g., low, medium, high). US2019/0186496 A1 and CN110289801A are two examples of such a ceiling fan speed controller. SUMMARY Aspects and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be learned from the description, or may be learned through practice of the embodiments. In accordance with the present invention, a fan controller for a ceiling fan is provided having the features of claim 1. Optional, preferred features are defined in the dependent claims. These and other features, aspects and advantages of various embodiments will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the related principles. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Detailed discussion of embodiments directed to one of ordinary skill in the art are set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures, in which: FIG. 1 depicts a ceiling fan according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 2 depicts components of a ceiling fan according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 3 depicts a bottom view of a ceiling fan according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 4 depicts a ceiling fan having input devices configured to control operation of one or more electrical loads of the ceiling fan according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 5 depicts a fan system according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 6 depicts an example in-wall controller of a fan system according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 7 depicts an example canopy controller of a fan system according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 8 depicts fan controller circuitry associated with speed control of a fan motor of a ceiling fan according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 9 depicts configuration of the circuitry of FIG. 8 to operate the fan motor at a highest speed setting for the fan motor according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 10 depicts configuration of the circuitry of FIG. 8 to operate the fan motor at an intermediate speed setting for the fan motor according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 11 depicts configuration of the circuitry of FIG. 8 to operate the fan motor at a lowest speed setting for the fan motor according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;FIG. 12 depicts another configuration of the circuitry of FIG. 8 to operate the fan motor at the lowest speed setting for the fan motor according to example embodiments of the present disclosure; andFIG. 13 depicts a flow diagram of a method for selecting a capacitor of a fan controller to couple a fan motor to a power source when the fan motor is operating at a lowest speed setting of a plurality of speed settings according to example embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference now will be made in detail to embodiments, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the embodiments, not limitation of the present disclosure. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined by the appended claims. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that aspects of the present disclosure cover such modifications and variations However only such embodiments that fall within the scope of the appended claims are part of the invention. Typical fan controllers for ceiling fans capacitors that can be selectively coupled to a fan motor of the ceiling fan to facilitate speed control of the fan motor. For instance, typical fan controllers couple a single capacitor to the fan motor to operate at a lowest speed setting of a plurality of speed settings for the fan motor. Furthermore, typical fan controllers select the capacitor having a small capacitance to operate the fan motor at the lowest speed setting. Th