Method and device for controlling air conditioner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12584665-B2
Application number	US-202118550464-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 18, 2021
Priority date	Mar 15, 2021
Publication date	Mar 24, 2026
Grant date	Mar 24, 2026

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and device for controlling an air conditioner. The air conditioner includes an outdoor heat exchanger, an indoor heat exchanger, a heat storage heat exchanger, a compressor, a four-way valve assembly, and a throttling assembly, wherein the outdoor heat exchanger is connected to the indoor heat exchanger by means of a first pipeline and a bypass, the outdoor heat exchanger is connected to the compressor by means of a second pipeline, the indoor heat exchanger is connected to the compressor by means of a third pipeline, the heat storage heat exchanger is arranged on the bypass, the throttling assembly is arranged on the bypass, the four-way valve assembly includes a first four-way valve and a second four-way valve, the first four-way valve is arranged on the second pipeline, and the second four-way valve is arranged on the third pipeline.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for controlling an air conditioner, wherein the air conditioner comprises an outdoor heat exchanger, an indoor heat exchanger, a heat storage heat exchanger, a compressor, a four-way valve assembly, and a throttling assembly, the outdoor heat exchanger is connected to the indoor heat exchanger through either a first pipeline or a bypass, the outdoor heat exchanger is connected to the compressor through a second pipeline, the indoor heat exchanger is connected to the compressor through a third pipeline, wherein the heat storage heat exchanger is arranged at the bypass, the throttling assembly is arranged at the bypass, the four-way valve assembly comprises a first four-way valve and a second four-way valve, the first four-way valve is arranged at the second pipeline, the second four-way valve is arranged at the third pipeline,
the method for controlling the air conditioner comprises: identifying an operation mode of the air conditioner; controlling the first four-way valve and the second four-way valve both to be electrified in response to the operation mode of the air conditioner being a heating mode; and controlling the first four-way valve to be unelectrified and the second four-way valve to be electrified in response to the operation mode of the air conditioner being a defrosting mode, controlling the outdoor heat exchanger and the indoor exchanger each serve as a condenser, controlling the heat storage heat exchanger converted from serving as a condenser to serving as an evaporator, and controlling heat absorbed from the heat storage heat exchanger for defrosting the outdoor heat exchanger.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein after controlling the first four-way valve to be unelectrified and the second four-way valve to be electrified, the method further comprises:
controlling the first four-way valve and the second four-way valve both to be electrified, in response to identifying that the outdoor heat exchanger is of a first pipe-wall temperature higher than or equal to a first preset temperature and/or that a defrosting duration reaches a first preset duration.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the air conditioner is in a target operation state, wherein the target operation state comprises a heating target operation state and a cooling target operation state; and controlling the throttling assembly to switch on in response to the air conditioner being in the target operation state, or controlling the throttling assembly to switch off in response to the air conditioner being out of the target operation state.

4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein determining whether the air conditioner is in the target operation state comprises:
determining that the air conditioner is in the target operation state, in response to identifying that the air conditioner is of a heating capacity demand parameter or a cooling capacity demand parameter lower than or equal to a first preset threshold for a second preset duration; or determining that the air conditioner is out of the target operation state, in response to identifying that the air conditioner is of a heating capacity demand parameter or a cooling capacity demand parameter greater than or equal to a second preset threshold for a third preset duration.

5 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the air conditioner comprises a plurality of the indoor heat exchangers, and determining whether the air conditioner is in the target operation state further comprises:
based on that the operation mode of the air conditioner is a mixed mode, wherein the mixed mode comprises the heating mode for at least one of the indoor heat exchangers and a cooling mode for at least one of the indoor heat exchangers, acquiring a heating capacity demand parameter and a cooling capacity demand parameter; determining that the air conditioner is in the heating target operation state, in response to identifying that the heating capacity demand parameter is lower than or equal to the cooling capacity demand parameter, or determining that the air conditioner is in the cooling target operation state, in response to identifying that the heating capacity demand parameter is greater than the cooling capacity demand parameter.

6 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein prior to controlling the throttling assembly to switch on, the method further comprises:
identifying that the indoor heat exchanger is of a second pipe-wall temperature higher than or equal to a second preset temperature for a fourth preset duration in response to the air conditioner being in the heating target operation state; or identifying that the indoor heat exchanger is of a second pipe-wall temperature lower than or equal to a third preset temperature for a fifth preset duration in response to the air conditioner being in the cooling target operation state.

7 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein after controlling the throttling assembly to switch on, the method further comprises:
based on that the air conditioner is in the heating target operation state, controlling the first four-way valve to be powered off, in response to identifying that the heat storage heat exchanger is of an outlet pipe-wall temperature greater than or equal to a fourth preset temperature for a sixth preset duration; and controlling the first four-way valve to be powered on, and returning back to determine whether the air conditioner is in the target operation state and subsequent steps thereof, in response to identifying that the heat storage heat exchanger is of an inlet pipe-wall temperature lower than or equal to a fifth preset temperature and/or that the first four-way valve has been powered off for a seventh preset duration.

8 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein after controlling the throttling assembly to switch on, the method further comprises:
based on that the air conditioner is in the cooling target operation state, controlling the first four-way valve to be powered on, in response to identifying that the heat storage heat exchanger is of an outlet pipe-wall temperature lower than or equal to a sixth preset temperature for an eighth preset duration; and controlling the first four-way valve to be powered off, and returning back to determine whether the air conditioner is in the target operation state and subsequent steps thereof, in response to identifying that the heat storage heat exchanger is of an inlet pipe-wall temperature greater than or equal to a seventh preset temperature and/or that the first four-way valve has been powered on for a ninth preset duration.

9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the four-way valve assembly further comprises a third four-way valve arranged at the bypass,
the method further comprises: controlling the third four-way valve to be powered off in response to the operation mode of the air conditioner being the heating mode; and controlling the third four-way valve to be electrified in response to the operation mode of the air conditioner being the defrosting mode.

10 . The method according to claim 9 , further comprising:
controlling the first four-way valve and the second four-way valve both to be unelectrified, and the third four-way valve to be electrified, in response to the operation mode of the air conditioner being a cooling mode.

11 . An electronic device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the processor runs a program corresponding to an executable program code by reading the executable program code stored in the memory, to implement a method for controlling an air conditioner of claim 1 .

12

Assignees

• Gd Midea Heating & Ventilating Equipment Co Ltd
• Hefei Midea Heating & Ventilating Equipment Co Ltd

Inventors

• Wang Xinli
• Ma Xihua
• Wang Mingren

Classifications

• F25B2400/04

  Refrigeration circuit bypassing means · CPC title

• F25B2347/02

  Details of defrosting cycles · CPC title

• F25B2313/0292

  related to reversing valves · CPC title

• F25B41/26

  of fluid flow reversing valves · CPC title

• F24F11/65 Primary

  for selecting an operating mode · CPC title