Refrigeration – Reversible – i.e. – heat pump
Reexamination Certificate
2003-01-02
2004-10-19
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Reversible, i.e., heat pump
C062S187000, C062S238700, C062S426000, C062S427000, C062S428000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06804975
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly, to a cooling-heating combination type air conditioner capable of improving cooling and heating efficiency, in which the degree of ventilation may be freely adjusted depending upon the condition of indoor air, with no an additional ventilation equipment being provided, in which waste energy contained in the discharged air and condensate water produced in an evaporator is effectively recycled, and in which a circulation course of a coolant is optimized upon changeover between cooling and heating.
BACKGROUND ART
As well known in the art, a vapor compression-type cooling system capable of functioning as a heat pump when actuating in a reverse cycle is greatly increasing its popularity in the recent, since a restricted indoor space can be efficiently utilized by selectively carrying out cooling or heating of a room without separate installation of a cooler and a heater if a cooling-heating combination-type air conditioner is installed to obtain cooling and heat pump cycles in a single apparatus.
FIGS. 1 and 2
are conceptual views of an operation cycle of a heat pump and cooling-heating combination-type air conditioner, in which
FIG. 1
illustrates a circulation process in cooling, and
FIG. 2
illustrates a circulation process in heating. As shown in
FIG. 1
, where coolant exhausted from a compressor
1
is circulated in the air conditioner in the order of a four-way valve
2
, an outdoor heat exchanger
3
, an expansion valve
4
and an indoor heat exchanger
5
, the indoor heat exchanger
5
functions as an evaporator so that a cold liquid coolant introduced into the indoor heat exchanger
5
sucks heat from the indoor air to evaporate into gas while flowing through the inside of the indoor heat exchanger
5
, thereby cooling the indoor air. As shown in
FIG. 2
, where the four-way valve
2
is switched so that the coolant exhausted from the compressor
1
is circulated in the air conditioner in the order of the four-way valve
2
, the indoor heat exchanger
5
, the expansion valve
4
and the outdoor heat exchanger
3
, the indoor heat exchanger
5
functions as a condenser so that hot gaseous coolant introduced into the indoor heat exchanger
5
radiates heat into the indoor air to condense into liquid while flowing through the inside of the indoor heat exchanger
5
, thereby heating the indoor air.
In the heat pump and cooling-heating combination-type air conditioner, the outdoor heat exchanger is generally installed outdoor as separately manufactured from an indoor unit and disadvantageously consumes a large amount of time and endeavor for treatment and installation. Although several types of air conditioners have been proposed each of which has an indoor heat exchanger and an outdoor heat exchanger in a single housing in order to overcome these problems, they have not been put to practical use yet since their have complicated constructions and are expensive.
Further, where a ventilation function is added to an apparatus to actively ventilate indoor air, the apparatus is increased in weight and size and complicated in construction thereby elevating manufacturing cost. Also there is a problem that cooling-heating efficiency is very low since this apparatus fails to effectively recycle thermal energy contained in cooled or heated air which is exhausted from the room in ventilation.
As set forth above, the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger function as an evaporator and a condenser, respectively, in cooling operation. The outdoor heat exchanger
3
for receiving coolant in gaseous state and discharging the same in liquid state has a number of tubes
33
fixed to a frame
34
for connecting between cylindrical headers
31
and
32
and heat exchange fins between tubes. In the indoor heat exchanger
5
functioning as the evaporator, if a header is installed in the inlet side, liquid coolant introduced into the header in the inlet side through the expansion valve
4
collects in a lower portion of the header owing to gravity without feeding to tubes in a higher portion of the header thereby dropping cooling efficiency. In order to prevent this problem, the indoor heat exchanger replaces the header in the inlet side with a distributor
51
for uniformly introducing liquid coolant into each of the tubes. The distributor
51
is free from bias of liquid coolant since it is smaller in height and volume compared to the header.
According to this construction, as shown in
FIG. 1
, in introducing liquid coolant toward the indoor heat exchanger
5
functioning as an evaporator in cooling during summer, liquid coolant is uniformly fed into each of the tubes via the distributor
51
to elevate cooling efficiency. However, where this apparatus is converted into a heating mode during winter as shown in
FIG. 2
, the indoor heat exchanger
5
functioning as the condenser receives gaseous coolant having a high temperature and pressure and then discharges liquid coolant having a high temperature and pressure is discharged while the outdoor heat exchanger
3
functioning as the evaporator receives liquid coolant having a low temperature and pressure flown from the expansion valve
4
and then discharges gaseous liquid. Liquid coolant introduced into the header
32
in the inlet side of the outdoor heat exchanger
3
is collected in a lower portion of the header under gravity. This insufficiently feeds to the tubes in a high portion of the header so that liquid coolant may not have a sufficient amount of heat exchange with the ambient air. Also the distributor
51
having a low volume and micro tubes in the outlet side of the indoor heat exchanger
5
increase conduit resistance in respect to high liquid coolant discharged from the indoor heat exchanger. These things coact to remarkably degrade heating efficiency.
Further, in conversion of the cooling and heating functions, gaseous coolant conduits exchange their function with liquid coolant conduits so that gas conduits convert into liquid conduits while liquid conduits convert into gas conduits. Thus it is difficult to obtain the optimum conduit features according to coolant state and thus coolant does not smoothly flow frequently causing breakdown.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the foregoing problems and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioner having an outdoor heat exchanger and an indoor heat exchanger in a single housing, by which the degree of ventilation can be freely adjusted in the range of 0 to 100% using a simple construction without any additional ventilation equipment while energy in indoor air which is exhausted in ventilation can be effectively recycled.
It is another object of the invention to provide an air conditioner capable of optimizing a circulation course of coolant according to cooling-heating conversion to remarkably improve cooling-heating efficiency thereby downsizing the apparatus and preventing breakdown of conduit trains according to cooling-heating conversion.
According to an aspect of the invention to obtain the above objects, it is provided an air conditioner including a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, expansion valves and an indoor heat exchanger, and carrying out cooling and heating processes by switching circulation direction of a coolant through a four-way valve, the apparatus comprising: an indoor air exhaust chamber having the indoor heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between the coolant and air, an intake blower for supplying air in a room, and an indoor air outlet functioning as a channel through which the intake blower feeds air into the room; an outdoor air exhaust chamber having the outdoor heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between the coolant and the air, an exhaust blower for exhausting the air, and an outdoor air outlet functioning as a channel through which the exhaust blower exhausts the air to the outdoors; an indoor air suction chamber connected to the indoor air exhaust chambe
Dann Dorfman Herrell and Skillman, P.C.
Doerrler William
Skillman Henry H.
Zec Filip
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