by Phil Rowe
Twenty years ago, when the energy crunch was in full glory, Americans were very aware of the limited availability and high cost of energy sources. Gasoline prices were high. Heating oil supplies were uncertain and alternative energy sources were all the rage. Energy conservation was a hot topic.
It was into that environment that I designed, developed and produced a device intended to conserve thermal energy. It was a device which attempted to re-cycle warm air, already paid for, but going to waste up high in heated buildings.
What was needed, I thought, and would be widely purchased, I hoped, was a device to bring back down to floor level the hot air trapped up near the ceiling. There existed, according to my tests and research, a substantial thermal gradient between the cold air at floor level and the warm air up above.
Further, I was convinced that industrial work spaces, such as factories, shops and high-rise factory buildings could benefit most from a special kind of thermal (hot air) recycling device to re-use the heated air already paid for. I came up with the name "ThermoBank" as a descriptive product name.
The third generation design is shown here on this page. It is an 18-foot tall apparatus, consisting of a lower fan housing, an extensible duct, and a floor level diffuser. It all stored within its own 18"x18" housing. The duct would be extended to whatever height was needed (up to 18') and held in place by a cord tied over a beam or rafter. The key to the break-up of the stubborn layer of cold air at floor level was the diffuser at the base, which enabled warm air drawn down from above to displace the cooler air down low. The unit was quiet and really effective.
I was issued a trademark for the ThermoBank name and thought I was on my way to a successful business enterprise when two things happened. Firstly, the Patent Office later reversed its decision to allow me to use the ThermoBank name. They allowed as how somebody else was given prior claim to the name, though why they failed to recognize that before issuing me the right to it is beyond me. Hence the "or not" in the title above. And secondly, the price of Energy dropped. That pretty much killed energy conservation and re-cycling markets.
An interesting sidebar to this story is the initial sales of my industrial-type re-circulator. I actually sold some of these from the back of my truck to farmers in Pratt, Kansas in the heat of summer. Those farmers told me that horses and cows are the equivalent to 300-watt heaters. A number of such critters in an unheated barn or shed in the winter would raise the temperature up high by tens of degrees Fahrenheit. They wanted to bring down that wasted hot air and make the lower level of the barn more comfortable. Who was I to argue?