Refrigeration cycle apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9822995-B2
Application number	US-201514622067-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2015
Priority date	Oct 28, 2009
Publication date	Nov 21, 2017
Grant date	Nov 21, 2017

Abstract

A refrigeration cycle apparatus including a heat source side heat exchanger including a first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger connected in parallel; an air-sending device that supplies air, which is an object to be heat exchanged in the first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger, in a variable manner; solenoid valves that each opens and closes a refrigerant passage of the first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger; a third refrigerant circuit that is parallelly connected to the first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger; and a flow control valve that controls the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing in the third refrigerant circuit. The refrigeration cycle apparatus can improve continuity of control of a heat exchange capacity of a heat source side heat exchanger.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An air-conditioning apparatus comprising:
a heat source unit comprising:
a heat source side heat exchanger including a plurality of heat exchangers connected in parallel;
a supply device supplying, in a variable manner, an object to be heat exchanged to the heat source side heat exchanger, the object to be heat exchanged exchanges heat with a refrigerant that flows in the heat exchangers;
passage on-off devices opening and closing refrigerant passages of the heat exchangers, respectively;
a bypass piping being connected to the heat exchangers in parallel; and
a flow control device being provided in the bypass piping, the flow control device controlling a flow rate of the refrigerant flowing in the bypass piping while some of passages to the plurality of heat exchangers are closed;
a plurality of indoor units, each including an indoor side heat exchanger in which water or antifreeze flows; and
a relay unit comprising:
a first and a second water-to-refrigerant heat exchanger where the refrigerant which flows in a refrigerant circuit of the heat source unit exchanges heat with the water or the antifreeze which flows in the indoor units,
a flow direction device which controls a flow direction of the refrigerant in the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchangers, and
a switching valve which connects the first or the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchanger to the plurality of indoor units, wherein

the relay unit and the heat source unit are connected by two refrigerant pipes and the relay unit and each of the indoor unit are connected by two water or antifreeze pipes, and
the flow direction device in the relay unit is configured to control both the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchanger to function as an evaporator during a cooling only operation of the plurality of indoor units, control the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchanger to function as a condenser during a heating only operation of the plurality of indoor units, and control one of the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchangers to function as a evaporator and controls the other of the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchangers to function as a condenser during a mixed operation of cooling and heating of the plurality of indoor units.

2. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a distributor regulating a gas-to-liquid ratio of a two-phase gas-liquid refrigerant to a prescribed ratio and sending out the two-phase gas-liquid refrigerant to a downstream side of the distributor, the distributor being provided to a junction of pipings connected to the respective heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger and the bypass piping, the junction becoming the inlet side of the heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger when the heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger operate as evaporators.

3. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising
a connecting piping serially connecting at least some of the heat exchangers among the plurality of heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger; and
an on-off valve opening and closing a passage of the connecting piping.

4. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger serially connected by the connecting piping are disposed such that the object to be heat exchanged that has exchanged heat in one of the heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger that is on a downstream side in a refrigerant flow direction is supplied to one of the heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger that is on an upstream side in the refrigerant flow direction.

5. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the refrigerant flowing in the heat exchangers of the heat source side heat exchanger is a refrigerant that transfers heat to the object to be heat exchanged in a supercritical state without being condensed when transferring heat to the object to be heat exchanged.

6. The air-conditioning apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in the mixed operation of cooling and heating of the plurality of indoor units, the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchangers are connected in series with the one of the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchangers that functions as a evaporator being downstream of the other of the first and the second water-to-refrigerant heat exchangers that functions as a condenser.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Wakamoto Shinichi
• Takenaka Naofumi
• Yamashita Koji
• Morimoto Hiroyuki
• Motomura Yuji
• Hatomura Takeshi

Classifications

• F25B2313/0253

  in parallel arrangements · CPC title

• F25B30/00

  Heat pumps (F25B1/00-F25B25/00, F25B29/00 take precedence) · CPC title

• F25B2313/0252

  with bypasses · CPC title

• F25B2313/0231

  with simultaneous cooling and heating · CPC title

• F25B2313/02741

  using one four-way valve · CPC title