Description
Edmonds Odyssey is an intelligent ventilation system for automatically cooling the building mass and environment in residential homes quietly and efficiently. Consisting of a high flow hybrid ventilator coupled with an intelligent control system, Odyssey monitors conditions to determine how to best ventilate in order to create an optimal living environment. Utilising natural wind and/or electric power, the hybrid ventilator achieves quiet and energy efficient operation. Odyssey can reduce or eliminate the cooling requirements for air-conditioning while using a peak power consumption of only 55W. Additionally, the increased ventilation provided by the system results in a fresh and healthy home.
Key Features
and/or Benefits
Focus groups demanded any roof or ceiling attachments to be as unobtrusive as possible. A hybrid ventilator that needs to be roof mounted for wind exposure cannot be hidden easily. The solution was to design a unit to mount parallel with the roof slope and be as low profile as possible. Maintaining rain-resistance with such a design required many detail design features around the cowling and inside the unit to repel and divert rain from entering the ducting and building envelope. This is a world-first and five patents have been approved or filed for this and other design features.
Odyssey cools the home by exhausting hot air and replacing it with cooler outdoor air. To work effectively such as system needs to operate automatically and measure air temperature accurately. A controller is employed in conjunction with indoor, outdoor and roof space temperature sensors to determine when the living space or roof space should be ventilated and cooled. Highly accurate digital temperature sensors (±0.5°C) were designed to allow the system to run effectively whenever there is even slightly cooler outside air. System settings and temperature information is provided via a wall-mounted touch screen.
Buildings retain heat long after external temperatures have fallen and radiate this heat into internal spaces. Odyssey employs “free air” cooling to remove this heat which is far less energy intensive than using air conditioners. “Free air” cooling requires high air flow rates to provide effective cooling yet power consumption needs to be very low to ensure significant energy savings over air-conditioning. This has previously been difficult to achieve to make such a system commercially viable. Cooling load energy savings of 17%-58% are estimated in various climate zones within NSW for a typical brick veneer home.
Running for long periods at night the system needs to be quiet, yet produce a high flow rate of 2000m3/hr. This is achieved through the use of a highly efficient EC motor powering a large diameter, low speed, unshrouded centrifugal fan impeller. Maximum power consumption of 55W and a noise level of 30dB(A) at 2m distance is achieved. The hybrid capability of the ventilator further reduces power consumption allowing it to run purely in natural wind or electric powered modes. Additionally, wind energy can be harnessed to augment and reduce electrical power required in powered mode.
Due to the large air flow dirt can build up on the ceiling grille. To minimise this and ensure cleanliness in the ceiling grille required it to be designed to minimise dirt build-up and be easily removable for cleaning. The grille design consists of simple yet elegant elements with smooth surfaces and a minimum of sharp corners to both reduce build-up and make cleaning easy. Furthermore such a design results in low air flow resistance, minimising flow losses. The ceiling grille is held in place to the fixed ceiling frame magnetically, allowing easy removal and re-fitting.
