Cooling system for a building with low energy consumption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9476602-B2
Application number	US-201314372485-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2013
Priority date	Jan 16, 2012
Publication date	Oct 25, 2016
Grant date	Oct 25, 2016

Abstract

Building cooling system involving circulation of a cooling liquid in a hydraulic circuit comprising at least one first tank ( 2 ), at least one second tank ( 4 ) in which at least part of one of its walls ( 4.1 ) are made of a porous material and at least one heat exchanger ( 6 ) connected in series through a hydraulic circuit, at least one hydraulic pump ( 8 ) placed between the first tank ( 2 ) and the heat exchanger ( 6 ), in which the second tank ( 4 ) is located outside the building, in which in which the system comprises means ( 10 ) of controlling circulation of liquid from the second tank ( 4 ) to the first tank ( 2 ), and when the system is in operation to cool the inside of the building, flow from the second tank ( 4 ) to the first tank ( 2 ) is interrupted and the hydraulic pump ( 8 ) circulates the liquid from the first tank ( 2 ) to the second tank through the heat exchanger ( 6 ), such that the second tank fills up.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Building cooling system involving circulation of a cooling liquid in a hydraulic circuit comprising:
at least one first tank,
at least one second tank in which at least part of one of its walls are made of a porous material the at least one second tank being configured to be located outside the building,
at least one heat exchanger, in which the at least one heat exchanger, the at least one first tank and the at least one second tank being connected in series through a hydraulic circuit,
at least one hydraulic pump placed between the first tank and the heat exchanger, and
a control unit of circulation of liquid from the at least one second tank to the at least one first tank,
in which, when the system is in operation to cool the inside of the building, flow from the at least one second tank to the at least one first tank is interrupted and the hydraulic pump circulates the liquid from the at least one first tank to the at least one second tank through the heat exchanger, such that the at least one second tank fills up.

2. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the porosity of the porous material is between 10% and 35%.

3. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the porous material is a baked clay or porous ceramic.

4. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the second tank comprises at least one textured outside face so as to have a large heat exchange area.

5. Cooling system according to claim 4 , in which the textured outside face is a face of the porous part.

6. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the second tank is designed to be fixed on an outside facade of the building.

7. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the second tank comprises a second wall parallel to said one wall, said second wall being impervious to liquid, for example made of galvanised steel or plastic.

8. Cooling system according to claim 1 , comprising means of making a hydraulic bypass of the second tank so that the liquid from the heat exchanger drains to the first tank when the second tank is completely filled.

9. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the first tank is designed to be buried.

10. Cooling system according to claim 1 , in which the first tank comprises an upper face which is at least partially open to enable heat exchange by evaporation between the liquid that it contains and the outside environment.

11. Cooling system according to claim 1 , comprising at least two second tanks, the two second tanks being connected to each other.

12. Building comprising one or several levels and a cooling system according to claim 1 , the second tank being fixed on an external facade.

13. Building according to claim 12 , in which said external facade is a facade not exposed to solar radiation.

14. Building according to claim 12 , in which the first tank comprises an open upper face with an area that is more than 5% of the floor area of the building.

15. Building according to claim 12 , comprising one heat exchanger at each level.

16. Building according to claim 12 , in which the elevation of the second tank is higher than the elevation of the first tank such that flow takes place from the second tank to the first tank by gravity.

17. Method of cooling a building by circulating a cooling liquid in a hydraulic circuit, comprising at least one first tank, at least one second tank and at least one heat exchanger connected in series through a hydraulic circuit, at least one hydraulic pump placed between the first tank and the heat exchanger, in which the second tank will be located outside the building, in which the system comprises a control unit of circulation of the liquid from the second tank to the first tank, said method comprising the following steps:
a) interruption of the flow of cooling liquid from the second tank to the first tank,
b) start the hydraulic pump to circulate the cooling liquid through the heat exchanger from the first tank into the second tank as long as the inside of the building needs to be cooled,
c) stop the hydraulic pump,
d) allow the cooling liquid to flow from the second tank to the first tank.

18. Cooling method according to claim 17 , in which step d) takes place when the temperature of the cooling liquid is less than or equal to a given threshold, and not later than at the end of the night.

19. Cooling system according to claim 7 , in which the impervious second wall is made of galvanised steel or plastic.

20. Cooling system according to claim 9 , in which the at least one first tank is located inside a crawl space.

Assignees

• Commissariat A L'Energie Atomique Et Aux Ene Alt
• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Stephan Louis

Classifications

• F24F2005/0032

  Systems storing energy during the night · CPC title

• Y02B30/545

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• F24F2001/0092

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• Y02B10/20

  Solar thermal · CPC title

• F24F2005/0057

  receiving heat-exchange fluid from a closed circuit in the ground · CPC title