Heat pump with water heating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9885504-B2
Application number	US-201214758756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2012
Priority date	Dec 31, 2012
Publication date	Feb 6, 2018
Grant date	Feb 6, 2018

Abstract

Heat pump systems and methods for providing chilled/hot liquid for air-conditioning and domestic hot-water, are provided. The heat pump systems include a first heat exchanger, a second heat exchanger and a third heat exchanger (e.g., a hot-water heat exchanger) that share at least one expansion valve disposed at a downstream position of the hot-water heat exchanger. The at least one expansion valve is disposed between the hot-water heat exchanger and the first and second heat exchangers. The heat pump systems can provide six operation modes, including a cooling mode, a heating mode, a water-heating mode, a heat-recovery mode, a simultaneous heating and water heating mode, and a defrost mode.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A refrigeration circuit, comprising:
a compressor;
a first heat exchanger;
a second heat exchanger;
a third heat exchanger; and
at least one expansion valve being disposed at a downstream position of the third heat exchanger,
wherein the first, second and third heat exchangers share the at least one expansion valve, and the at least one expansion valve is disposed between the third heat exchanger and the first and second heat exchangers,
wherein the refrigeration circuit is operable in a plurality of modes including a cooling mode, a heating mode, a water-heating mode, a heat-recovery mode, a simultaneous heating and water heating mode, and a defrost mode.

2. The refrigeration circuit of claim 1 , further comprising an EVI component disposed at an input of the at least one expansion valve.

3. The refrigeration circuit of claim 2 , wherein the EVI component includes an EVI expansion valve and an economizer, an output of the EVI expansion valve is fluidly connected to an input of the compressor.

4. The refrigeration circuit of claim 1 , wherein one of the first and second heat exchanger is disposed downstream of the expansion valve and the other of the first and second heat exchanger is disposed upstream of the expansion valve.

5. The refrigeration circuit of claim 1 , further comprising first and second valves in parallel and a four-way valve, the first and second valves are fluidly connected to an outlet of the compressor, the four-way valve is fluidly connected to the first valve at a downstream position, and the second valve is fluidly connected to an inlet of the third heat exchanger.

6. The refrigeration circuit of claim 5 , wherein the first and second heat exchanger each have an input/output port fluidly connected to the four-way valve.

7. The refrigeration circuit of claim 1 , wherein the third heat exchanger is a hot-water heat exchanger configured to supply hot water.

8. The refrigeration circuit of claim 1 , wherein when one of the first, second and third heat exchangers is idle, the idle heat exchanger stores liquid refrigerant.

Assignees

• Trane Int Inc

Inventors

• Xu Liang
• Du Yuqing
• Wang Jun
• Lei Jing
• Wang Chungang
• Shen Guangyu

Classifications

• F25B2313/009

  indoor unit in circulation with outdoor unit in first operation mode, indoor unit in circulation with an other heat exchanger in second operation mode or outdoor unit in circulation with an other heat exchanger in third operation mode · CPC title

• F25B2400/13

  Economisers · CPC title

• F25B47/025

  by reversing the cycle · CPC title

• F25B2313/021

  Indoor unit or outdoor unit with auxiliary heat exchanger not forming part of the indoor or outdoor unit · CPC title

• F25B30/02 Primary

  of the compression type · CPC title