FR2969254A1 - HEAT EXCHANGER HEAT EXCHANGER AND HEAT RECOVERY CIRCUITS OF A HEAT PUMP IN A PLANT - Google Patents

Abstract

This distribution box is made in the form of a stack (101) of a plurality of substantially parallel plates (P1, P2, P3, P4), each plate Pi having at least one face Fij of contact with a contiguous plate Pj of the stack, and in that a contact face Fij of a plate Pi carries, on the one hand, at least one cavity Eij forming a half-pipe constituting with a half-pipe formed by an impression Eji of a adjacent plate Pj a line parallel to the plane of the plates, and, secondly, at least one hole Tij constituting with a hole Tji of a contiguous plate Pj at least one element of a pipe perpendicular to the plane of the plates. Application to heat pump air conditioning / heating systems in single family homes and small buildings.

Description

The invention relates to a distributor housing a heat transfer fluid in an installation comprising heat exchangers and heat capture and return circuits. It also relates to a heating / air conditioning system comprising such a housing.

The invention finds a particularly advantageous application in the field of heat pump air conditioning / heating systems in individual homes and small office buildings, commercial, etc.. WO 2009/071765 A2 (Hades) discloses a heat transfer fluid distribution box, coupled to the heat exchangers of a thermodynamic unit of the heat pump type, and to various circuits for collecting and recovering heat which it interconnects. selective according to different predetermined combinatorial fluid distribution schemes, by automatic control of an integrated network of shut-off valves placed on the pipes of the distribution box. This type of distribution box has provided a significant advance to the heating / cooling systems that implement it, especially in individual residences and small commercial buildings. It makes it possible: to specialize the heat exchangers of the thermodynamic unit, namely condenser and evaporator, for a better optimization of the performances in the two modes of operation, heating and air-conditioning, to be able to appeal, according to the needs and the availability, at various cold sources such as the cold heat exchanger of the thermodynamic unit, the subsoil, a natural or artificial water supply, the atmosphere, etc. depending on needs and availability, it can be used for various hot springs such as the hot heat exchanger of the thermodynamic unit, the subsoil, a natural or artificial water reserve, the atmos- phere, solar thermal collectors, etc. -to be able to restore the heat or cold thus captured or produced to separate return circuits such as heating or cooling fan coil, a heated or cooling floor, a traditional central heating, a hot water tank, a swimming pool , a jacuzzi, etc. The heating / air conditioning installation architecture proposed by the aforementioned WO 2009/071765 A2, however, faces a number of specific constraints. In domestic and small tertiary use, the volume allocated to the installation must remain limited. In addition, it is desirable that this facility forms a compact package, able to be contained in a suitable cabinet. Such a cabinet must be able to pass the doors of the room and correspond to the 10 usual standards of household equipment, that is to say not to exceed a base of 60 x 60 cm and a height of 190 cm when it globe all the organs of the installation, namely: thermodynamic unit, circulation pumps, distribution box and electrical control unit. It is therefore not conceivable to indefinitely grow the size of the distribution box alone, even though it represents only one of the components of the installation. But the powers to be returned can vary to a large extent: from 6 kW or even less, to 36 kW or possibly more. Although the distribution box described in WO 2009/071765 A2 provides a great versatility of applications, it may happen that all the possibilities that are offered are retained, in particular the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 of FIG. request. In this case, the number of valves and conduits connecting them, to each other and to the various inlets / outlets, is particularly important, as well as considerably increases the complexity of the circuits used by these lines. As a result, the space required in the distribution box to accommodate valves and pipes becomes maximal. Finally, it should be emphasized that, in any heating / air-conditioning installation, the heat transfer fluid flow rate must be higher the lower the temperature difference (AT) between the inlet and the outlet, in order to to deliver the necessary heat energy. For example, in all cases of "low temperature" heating where the fluid circulates between 35 and 45 ° C, AT is often 5 ° C, or even 3 ° C; the flow must therefore be very high. To allow such a flow rate, it is necessary to limit the pressure drop, which can only be done by increasing the diameter of the pipes. In the frequent situation where the flow must be maximum, the power to be delivered imposes a pipe diameter greater than a minimum, in contradiction with the requirement of a limited space of the entire installation.

As a practical example, there may be mentioned distribution boxes in accordance with the aforementioned international application, intended for installations with a power of 12 kW restored at "low temperature". These housings were made with plastic pipes of 22 mm diameter interconnected, standard valves and inputs / outputs, T, elbows and sleeves. The housings were in the form of closed boxes of dimensions 30 x 55 x 70 cm or a volume of 110 liters. The 22 mm pipe diameter was just sufficient to provide the flow required to deliver the 12 kW to be supplied under allowable pressure drop conditions.

In order to be able to switch to a heating power of 36 kW, a design has shown that 32 mm pipes were necessary. With such a diameter and the same technology as that used in the previous example, the distribution box should have a volume between 220 and 330 liters, which is not admissible within the constraints imposed, namely the integration in a cabinet to pass the doors, and more generally the limits of space of the house or the building. Also, a technical problem to be solved by the object of the present invention is to provide a distribution box that would achieve high heating capacities, up to 40 kW for example, by increasing the diameter of the pipes but maintaining a volume limited housing, compatible with the constraints of congestion mentioned above. This problem is solved by the invention thanks to a distributor housing of a heat transfer fluid, comprising a network of pipes intended to selectively interconnect, according to various predetermined fluid distribution combinatorial schemes, heat exchangers of the heat transfer fluid with a thermodynamic unit, at least one circuit for collecting heat by the coolant, and at least one heat-transfer circuit for the heat-transfer fluid, characterized in that the distribution box is constructed as a stack of a plurality substantially parallel plates, each plate P; having at least one face F; i of contact with a contiguous plate Pi of the stack, and in that a contact face Fu of a plate Pi carries, on the one hand, at least one impression Eq forming a constituent half-pipe with a half-pipe formed by an impression Ei; a contiguous plate Pi a line parallel to the plane of the plates, and, secondly, at least one piercing Ti constituting a hole Ti; of a contiguous plate Pi at least one element of a pipe perpendicular to the plane of the plates.

Advantageously, the plates of the stack are made by molding a plastic material, polypropylene for example. The molding makes it possible to obtain very varied impression forms, often impossible to achieve with conventional tubes, which explains why the structure of the distribution box according to the invention can be extremely compact. It is indeed possible to bring two neighboring pipes as close as possible until they are separated only by the thickness of a single wall, or to create communications between them. Likewise, steep elbows with varying angles and geometries can be formed. Thanks to the high compactness thus obtained, it is conceivable to use pipes of larger diameter, 30 mm and more, and thus to increase the power output without an equivalent increase in the volume of the housing beyond what is required. According to one embodiment of the distribution box according to the invention, the plates are assembled by gluing or ultrasonic welding. The casings can thus be produced by industrial methods, namely molding of the various constituent plates and assembly by gluing or ultrasonic welding. According to the invention, an end plate of the stack carries at least one solenoid valve disposed between two holes provided on said end plate. Preferably, all the solenoid valves of the housing are disposed on the same end plate. More particularly, the solenoid valves are arranged in a regular pattern. Thus, the solenoid valves are in the form of an easily accessible panel allowing their replacement one by one in case of malfunction.

In the same vein, the invention provides that all the inputs / outputs of the housing with the heat exchangers, the heat sensing circuit and the heat recovery circuit are carried by said housing.

More specifically, the inputs / outputs of the housing with the heat capture circuit and the heat recovery circuit are formed on bores of at least one end plate, in particular on the same end plate, while the Inlets / outlets of the housing with the heat exchangers are made at the outlet of pipes parallel to the plane of the plates.

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An embodiment of the device of the invention will now be described with reference to the appended drawings in which the same reference numerals designate identical or functionally similar elements from one figure to another. Figure 1 is a perspective view of a heat transfer fluid distributor housing according to the invention.

Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of a stack of plates constituting the body of the housing of Figure 1. Figures 3a and 3b are respectively top and bottom views of a first end plate of FIG. 4a and 4b are respectively top and bottom views of a first intermediate plate of the casing body of FIG. 2. FIGS. 5a and 5b are respectively top views. and de-sous a second intermediate plate of the housing body of Figure 2.

Figs. 6a and 6b are respectively top and bottom views of a second end plate of the housing body of Fig. 2. Fig. 7 is a diagram of an application of the housing of Fig. 2 to a heating / air conditioning system.

Figure 8 is a sectional view of a seal between two adjacent plates before the plates are welded.

In FIG. 1 is shown a distribution box 100 of a heat-transfer fluid within a heating / air-conditioning installation further comprising heat exchangers with a thermodynamic unit, such as a water / water heat pump, heat collection circuits and heat recovery circuits. Specifically, the housing 100 is intended to ensure the selective interconnection of these various components according to different combinatorial fluid distribution schemes predetermined. The splitter box 100 of FIG. 1 is of the type described in the aforementioned WO 2009/071765 A2, and constitutes a particular embodiment of the box shown in FIG. 3 of this application, with sixteen valves and sixteen link inputs / outputs. heat exchangers and the capture and recovery circuits. However, it is understood that the invention applies to any type of splitter box and that it should not be limited to this specific example. As can be seen in Figure 1, the distribution box 100 according to the invention comprises a body 101 consisting of a stack of substantially parallel plates. Figure 2 shows the housing body 101 in exploded form. In this embodiment, the plates are four in number, namely two end plates P1, P4 and two intermediate plates P2, P3. In the particular embodiment of Figures 1 and 2, the plates P1 P2, P3, P4 are thin-walled plates made by molding a plastic material such as polypropylene and stiffened by means of a network of ribs 102 Figure 2 shows the stack of plates P1, P2, P3, P4 before they are assembled by gluing or, better, by ultrasonic welding. Each plate has at least one so-called contact face with a contiguous plate. More specifically, the end plates P1, P4 have only one contact face respectively denoted F12 and F43 with the intermediate plates P2 and P3. The intermediate plates P2, P3 have two contact faces, namely, for the plate P2, the shapes F21, F23 of contact with the end plate P1 and the intermediate plate P3, and for the plate P3 the faces F32, F34 of contact with the intermediate plate P3 and the end plate P4. In short, when the plates are assembled, the faces are in contact in pairs: F12 with F21, F23 with F32 and F34 with F43. Top and bottom views of the plates P1, P2, P3, P4 are respectively shown in Figures 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 54b, 6a, 6b. It can be seen from these Figures that a contact face of each plate carries at least one imprint, generically denoted E, forming a half-conductor constituting with a half-pipe formed by an imprint of a contiguous plate a complete pipe parallel to the plate plan. In FIG. 3b, the contact face F12 of the end plate P1 with the intermediate plate P2 notably has a recess E12 shown in relief in FIG. 3a. When the faces F12 of the plate P1 and F21 of the plate P2 come into contact with each other, the half-pipe formed by the cavity E12 constitutes with the half-pipe formed by the cavity E21 carried by the F21 face of the plate P2 of Figure 4a a complete pipe parallel to the plane of the plates. The impression E21 is visible in transparency in FIG. 4b, which represents the contact face F23 of the plate P2 with the intermediate plate P3. The face F23 has a footprint E23, for example, which constitutes with the footprint E32 of the contact face F32 of the plate P3 of Figure 5b a complete line parallel to the plane of the plates. The footprint E32 is visible in relief in Figure 5a.

In this Figure, it can be seen that the contact face F34 of the plate P3 with the end plate P4 carries, for example, an impression E34, also visible in transparency in Figure 5b, which forms with the impression E43 of the contact face F43 of the plate P4 shown in FIG. 6a, a complete pipe parallel to the plane of the plates.

The footprint E43 is shown in relief in Figure 6b.

In addition to the lines parallel to the plane of the plates just described, the body 101 of the distribution box 100 also includes lines perpendicular to the plane of the plates communicating with the parallel lines.

These perpendicular conduits are formed by holes in the contact faces of the plates, so that a hole in a plate coincides with a hole in a contiguous plate to form a perpendicular pipe element. For example, the bore T12 of the end plate P1 is opposite the bore T21 on the contact face F21 of the plate P2. This bore T21 forms with the bore T23 of the contact face F23 of the same plate P2 a pipe perpendicular to the plane of the plates. At the interface between the plates P2 and P3, the bore T23 communicates with the bore T32 on the contact face F32 of the plate P3 by a line parallel to the plane of the plates formed by the impressions E'23 and E'32 . The bore T32 forms with the hole T34 of the contact face F34 of the plate P3 a pipe perpendicular to the plane of the plates. Finally, the bore T34 is opposite the bore T43 of the contact face F43 of the end plate P4. In the embodiment described, the holes, such as T12, of the end plate P1 define 32 orifices, designated generically 01, connected in pairs by 16 solenoid valves, generically designated 110. All the solenoid valves are therefore arranged between two holes on the same end plate P1 of the body 101 of the housing 100 and in a regular pattern. Access to the solenoid valves is therefore easier, especially when changing one of them in case of malfunction. If, in a simplified application, solenoid valves were to be removed, then the corresponding holes could be shunted or plugged. On the side of the end plate P4, the holes such as T43 define 12 orifices, generically designated 04, intended to ensure the entry and exit of heat transfer fluid with the capture and heat recovery circuits.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inlets / outlets 121, 122 with the cold exchanger (C) and 131, 132 with the heat exchanger (H) of the heat pump are produced at the outlet of pipes parallel to the plane plates at the interfaces between the plates 1 and 2 on the one hand, and the plates 3 and 4 on the other hand. A very compact housing 100 is thus obtained in which all the inputs / outputs of the housing with the heat exchangers, the heat capture circuit and the heat recovery circuit are all carried by the housing body 101.

The advantage of such compactness is that, even with ducts 30 mm in diameter or more, a housing body 101 having end plates P1, P4 2 cm high and intermediate plates P2 can be made. , P3 4 cm high, a total height of 12 cm for a base of 65x75 cm.

Figure 7 shows the diagram of a heating / air-conditioning system built around the distribution box 100 of Figure 1. We find the inputs / outputs (respectively designated I and O) with the heat exchanger (H) and cold (C) a water / water type heat pump, for example, as well as the basement heat collection circuit (CAPT), and the fan coil (VC), low temperature (BT) return circuits. , high temperature (HT), for domestic hot water (DHW) and for a pool such as a pool or a hot tub (P). Figure 8 shows how the sealing between the contact faces of two adjacent plates Pi and Pi + 1 can be achieved. Each plate carries at least one spacer AND, AND; +1 projecting, made by molding with the plate itself. At the time of assembly of the plates, the homologous spacers are arranged in the extension of one another. During ultrasonic welding, the plates P 1, P +1 are brought together and the plastics material constituting the spacers ET 1 and ET 1 + becomes softer and occupies the space defined by the grooves G 1; and G; +1 to form a seal therein.

Claims (15)

REVENDICATIONS1. Heat distribution fluid distribution box (100) comprising a pipe network for selectively interconnecting, in accordance with various predetermined fluid distribution combinatorial schemes, heat-exchange fluid heat exchangers with a thermodynamic unit, at least one heat sink circuit. heat by the coolant, and at least one heat transfer circuit by the coolant, characterized in that the splitter box (100) is constructed as a stack (101) of a plurality of plates (P1 , P2, P3, P4) substantially parallel, each plate P; presenting at least one face F; j of contact with a contiguous plate Pi of the stack, and in that a face F; j of contact of a plate Pi carries, on the one hand, at least one impression E; forming a constituent half-pipe with a half-pipe formed by an impression Ej; an adjacent plate Pj a line parallel to the plane of the plates, and, secondly, at least one piercing T; j constituting with a hole Tj; of a contiguous plate Pi at least one element of a pipe perpendicular to the plane of the plates. 2. Dispatcher box according to claim 1, wherein an end plate (P1) of the stack (101) carries at least one solenoid valve (110) disposed between two holes provided on said end plate. 3. Dispatcher box according to claim 2, wherein all the solenoid valves of the housing are disposed on the same end plate. 4. Dispatcher box according to claim 3, wherein the solenoid valves (110) are arranged in a regular pattern. 5. Dispatcher box according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein all the inputs / outputs of the housing with the heat exchangers, the heat capture circuit and the heat return circuit are carried by said housing. (100). 6. Dispatcher box according to claim 5, wherein the inputs / outputs of the housing (100) with the heat sensing circuit and the heat recovery circuit are formed on bores of at least one plate (P4) of end. The splitter box according to claim 6, wherein said inputs / outputs are made on the same end plate (P4). 8. Dispatcher box according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the inputs / outputs of the housing (100) with heat exchangers (H, C) are formed at the outlet of parallel pipes to the plane of the plates. 9. Distribution box according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the plates of the stack are thin-walled plates, provided with stiffening ribs (102). 10. Distribution box according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the plates (P1, P2, P3, P4) of the stack are made by molding a plastic material. The splitter box of claim 10, wherein the plastic material is polypropylene. 25 12. Dispatcher box according to one of claims 10 or 11, wherein the plates (P1, P2, P3, P4) are assembled by gluing or ultrasonic welding. 13. Distribution box according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the pipes have a diameter of at least 30 mm. 14. Dispensing box according to any one of claims 1 to 13, comprising seals sealing the pipes between two adjacent plates (Pi, Pi + 1). 35 15. A distribution box according to claim 14, wherein the seals are made by merging spacers (ET ;, ET; ,,) formed between the contact faces of two adjacent plates (P ;, P; +1 ).