Refrigeration – Automatic control – Of external fluid or means
Patent
1985-04-23
1987-04-14
Tanner, Harry
Refrigeration
Automatic control
Of external fluid or means
62 59, 62435, 16510427, 137568, F25D 1702, F25D 300
Patent
active
046568360
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to cooling systems and to thermal storage systems which use ice storage.
The object of "cool[ storage (also called "thermal storage") is to extract heat from a thermal reservoir during one time period and, during a different time period, to use the reservoir to extract heat from another environment. One important application of thermal storage is in building air conditioning systems. Ice and chilled water are the usual media for thermal storage. Each has advantages and disadvantages. For example, pure chilled water systems (no ice storage) can use higher refrigeration temperatures than ice storage systems (approx. 30.degree. F. vs. 20.degree. F.). In addition, ice systems have a distinct size advantage, as a rule-of-thumb requiring about one-fifth the storage volume of pure chilled water systems. Because of such desirable features, the ice-based thermal storage systems are experiencing an increasingly wide range and large volume of usage. It is to such ice building systems that the present invention is primarily directed.
Ice-based thermal storage systems can be classified as dynamic or static. In dynamic systems, ice is made in chunks or as crushed ice and is stored in large containers. In static systems, ice is formed on the cooling coils of the storage vessel itself. FIG. 1 is a block diagram example of an application system 10 which uses a prior art ice-based static thermal storage system. Static ice-storage system 10 utilizes an open tank or other unpressurized water heat exchanger 11, with heat extraction being provided, for example, by piping refrigerant through evaporator tubes in the water. It should be noted that, as used herein, "unpressurized" means open or at atmospheric pressure, whereas "pressurized" means above atmospheric pressure at the surface of the water.
The system 10 is typical of prior art application systems in that it comprises three major component systems or subsystems: a pressurized refrigeration system; an unpressurized chilled water heat sink system; and a pressurized chilled water utilization system which includes the building air conditioning loads. The refrigeration system includes the evaporator section of unpressurized heat exchanger system 11, a compressor 13 which withdraws and compresses the gaseous refrigerant from the heat exchanger, and a condensing heat exchanger 14 for cooling and condensing the refrigerant gas to liquid before it is returned to the evaporator in heat exchanger system 11.
The pressurized chilled water utilization system includes a second heat exchanger system 16, which includes a pressurized component. A pump 17 circulates system water between the two heat exchanger systems to extract heat from the chilled water utilization system at heat exchanger 16 and in turn have heat extracted by the refrigeration based ice storage system at heat exchanger 11. Finally, the cool water utilization system includes a pump or pump system 18 for circulating the water through the pressurized component in heat exchanger system 16 and other heat exchange water coils included in the system.
The cooling/air conditioning system 10 has achieved increasingly wide-spread application during the past several years, in no small part due to the fact that it is the only previously known application technology for such ice-storage water-circulation systems. A strong impetus for use of thermal storage for commercial building air conditioning systems has arisen from the difficulty that commercial power companies have experienced in bringing up a sufficient electrical power generation capability to handle peak electricity usage, especially in major metropolitan areas having widespread use of commercial air conditioning. The peak power demand on the power generation capability of the utility on a very hot day can put a severe strain on the power generation system. About thirty percent of the summer peak load is contributed by commercial air conditioning demand. This contrasts with an approximate two percent contribution by residen
REFERENCES:
patent: 2596195 (1952-05-01), Arbuckle
patent: 2984458 (1961-05-01), McFarlan
patent: 3271968 (1966-09-01), Karnath
patent: 4254635 (1981-03-01), Simon et al.
patent: 4345715 (1982-08-01), Van Craenenbroeck
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