The present invention is directed to air conditioners and, more particularly, to the configuration of the indoor grill of a room air conditioner.
Air conditioning units such as so-called "window room air conditioners" are commonly used for residential and similar applications and generally include closed refrigeration circuits having an evaporator and a condenser. The unit is normally divided by a partition into an evaporator section and a condenser section. The evaporator section communicates with the room air to be conditioned and the condenser section communicates with external air such as outdoor air. Refrigerant flows through a refrigerant circuit absorbing heat from room air at the evaporator and discharging heat energy to the external air at the condenser. The conventional refrigeration circuit is completed by the addition of a compressor, an expansion device, and the appropriate connections between the components.
Such an air conditioning unit usually includes a basepan supporting all of the components and an outer housing surrounding the entire unit. The front of the evaporator, or indoor section, includes an indoor grille, which has openings therein for directing warm indoor air into the evaporator and discharge openings therein for directing air back into the room. The indoor grille also includes a region therein wherein the control panel for the air conditioner unit is located.
The location of the various openings in a front grille are dictated by the location of the components of the particular air conditioner on which the grille is adapted to be used. For a given air conditioning unit having an evaporator, air discharge, and control panel located in a given position, the grille adapted to be used with that unit must have the appropriate openings arranged to cooperate with such components when the grille is installed on the unit.
When a room air conditioner is installed in a window or a wall opening, the front grille is normally the only part of the air conditioner which is visible to the consumer. Accordingly, the appearance of the front grille, once the unit is installed, is the only appearance feature distinguishing one air conditioning unit from another. It is common practice for a basic air conditioning unit to be marketed under more than one brand name. Accordingly, in order to distinguish one brand from another when using the same basic unit, it is necessary to have an indoor grille which is sufficiently different in appearance to distinguish one brand from another. Usually, this requires a grille having the same basic openings as described above but with a different ornamental appearance. Typically, such grilles are fabricated from a molded plastic material and thus require a fairly large mold. When two or more different brands are desired for the same basic unit, the expense of such additional molds becomes a significant cost consideration. It is accordingly desirable to be able to fabricate indoor grilles which have distinguishing characteristics for brand differentiation without incurring the high costs of acquiring a number of large molds.