JP2560060B2 - Air conditioning system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioning system in which a plurality of indoor units are connected in parallel to an outdoor unit via a refrigerant circuit capable of switching between heating and cooling.

<Prior Art> The air conditioning system as described above is generally configured as shown in the schematic system configuration diagram of FIG.

That is, the outdoor fan 01, the outdoor heat exchanger 02, and the compressor
In contrast to the outdoor unit 04 provided with 03, the plurality of indoor units 07 provided with the indoor heat exchanger 05 and the indoor fan 06 are
And the indoor heat exchanger 05 ... Are connected in parallel by connecting them via the refrigerant circuit 08.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, according to the conventional configuration, a plurality of indoor units 07
... is connected to one compressor 03, so indoor unit 07 ...
All of them can only operate with either cooling or heating. That is, it is not possible to perform cooling operation of one indoor unit 07 and heating operation of another indoor unit 07.

So, for example, at the turn of a season such as spring or autumn, one room wants to be cooled because the sun is hot, while the other room wants to be heated because it is cold without the sun hit. In such a case, one of the two sides must be sacrificed, which is inconvenient in terms of practical use and has the drawback that comfortable air conditioning cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and enables air conditioning to be comfortably performed by individually selecting cooling operation and heating operation in each of a plurality of indoor units. The purpose is to

<Means for Solving Problems> In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides the first and second outdoor units in the air conditioning system described at the beginning, and the indoor units respectively, First and second indoor heat exchangers are provided, and the first outdoor unit is
The first indoor heat exchangers are connected in parallel via a first refrigerant circuit capable of switching between heating and cooling, while the second indoor heat exchanger is connected to the second indoor heat exchanger.
The second indoor heat exchangers are connected in parallel to the outdoor unit via a second refrigerant circuit capable of switching between heating and cooling.

<Operation> According to the above configuration, for example, the refrigerant circuit from the first outdoor unit is set to the cooling operation state, while the refrigerant circuit from the second outdoor unit is set to the heating operation state, and the indoor unit side is set. Then, appropriately connect the indoor heat exchanger to the desired refrigerant circuit,
Either cooling or heating can be selected without being affected by the operating states of other indoor units.

<Example> Hereinafter, an example of the present invention is described in detail based on a drawing.

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic system configuration diagram of an embodiment of an air conditioning system of the present invention.

In this figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a first outdoor unit.
The outdoor unit 1 is provided with a first outdoor heat exchanger 2, a first outdoor fan 3, and a first compressor 4.

Reference numeral 5 indicates a second outdoor unit, and the second outdoor unit 5
Also, similarly to the first outdoor unit 1 described above, the second outdoor heat exchanger 6, the second outdoor fan 7, and the second compressor 8 are provided.

Reference numerals 9 ... Represent indoor units, and each of these indoor units 9 ... Is provided with first and second indoor heat exchangers 10, 11 and an indoor fan 12.

The first indoor-side heat exchanger 10 has a separate first opening / closing valve in the first refrigerant circuit 13 from the first compressor 4.
The second indoor heat exchangers 11 ... Are connected in parallel to each other via 14, while the second refrigerant circuit 15 from the second compressor 8 is connected to the respective second opening / closing valves 16 Are connected in parallel with each other.

With the above configuration, it is possible to make a simultaneous request for cooling and heating, a case for requesting only cooling, and a case for requesting only heating, based on an operation command signal from an operation switch (not shown) for each indoor unit 9. It is determined whether or not the four-way valves (not shown) of the first and second opening / closing valves 14 and 16 and the first and second outdoor units 1 and 5 are automatically switched according to the judgment. It will be explained next.

In the case of simultaneous request for cooling and heating, the first refrigerant circuit 13 is set to the cooling operation mode by the four-way valve of the first outdoor unit 1, and the second refrigerant circuit 15 is set by the four-way valve of the second outdoor unit 5. Is set to the heating operation mode, and only the first opening / closing valve 14 is opened in the indoor unit 9 requesting cooling, while only the second opening / closing valve 16 is opened in the indoor unit 9 requesting heating. Machine 9 ... Performs cooling and heating operations that meet the respective requirements.

When only cooling is required In either of the first and second outdoor units 1 and 5,
The four-way valve causes each of the first and second refrigerant circuits 13 and 15 to be in the cooling operation mode, and the indoor unit 9 requiring cooling.
... All the first and second on-off valves 14 and 16 are opened to perform the cooling operation.

In the case of requesting heating only In both the first and second outdoor units 1 and 5, the four-way valve is used to set the first and second refrigerant circuits 13 and 15 to the heating operation mode, and the indoor unit requesting heating. 9 ... All the respective first and second on-off valves 14 and 16 are opened to perform the heating operation.

When operating only by the demand for either cooling or heating, the compressors 4, 8 of the first and second outdoor units 1, 5 are driven, or only one of them is driven for operation. Since the low-temperature refrigerant or the high-temperature refrigerant is supplied, the control range in each of cooling and heating can be expanded to the lower limit side as compared with the case of operating only by driving the compressor 03 of the single outdoor unit 04 in the related art.

In other words, the compressor has a characteristic that the control range is only up to about 20% of the maximum capacity, and adjustment below that is impossible. Therefore, in the conventional case, as shown in FIG. As shown by the broken line, the lower limit could control only 20% of the maximum capacity. However, according to an embodiment of the present invention,
For example, if the capacity of each of the compressors 4 and 8 of the first and second outdoor units 1 and 5 is set to be half the capacity of the compressor 03 of the conventional single outdoor unit 04, the maximum capacity will be obtained. When it reaches 50%, one compressor 8 or 4 is stopped and one compressor 4
Or, the drive is switched to only 8 so that as shown in FIG. 2, the lower limit of the control range is 20% of the maximum capacity of the compressor 4 or 8, that is, the capacity of 10% which is 20% of 50%. The side can be enlarged.

The switching operation for each of the first and second on-off valves 14, ..., 16 and the four-way valve is performed, for example, by providing a temperature sensor in each room and automatically based on the room temperature measured by the temperature sensor. It may be possible to switch and automatically perform the mutual transition from the cooling operation to the heating operation.

<Effects of the Invention> According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately select either cooling or heating on the indoor unit side while being connected to a common outdoor unit, so that an operation mode according to a request for each room is obtained. It is now possible to comfortably perform air conditioning.

Moreover, when all the indoor units are operated in the same state of either cooling or heating, the capacity of the compressor of each of the first and second outdoor units is set to about half the capacity of the compressor of the conventional outdoor unit. By doing so, the capacity can be adjusted in the operating state of only one of the compressors, the lower limit of the control range can be halved, and the control range can be satisfactorily expanded to the lower limit and the ambient temperature For changes in
A wide range can be accommodated and comfortable cooling or heating can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 shows an embodiment of an air conditioning system according to the present invention, FIG. 1 is an overall schematic system configuration diagram, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing capacity changes in respective operating states of cooling and heating,
FIG. 3 is a schematic system configuration diagram of a conventional example. 1 ... First outdoor unit 5 ... Second outdoor unit 9 ... Indoor unit 10 ... First indoor heat exchanger 11 ... Second indoor heat exchanger 13 ... First refrigerant Circuit 15 …… Second refrigerant circuit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An air conditioning system in which a plurality of indoor units are connected in parallel to an outdoor unit through a refrigerant circuit capable of switching between heating and cooling, wherein first and second outdoor units are provided, and each of the indoor units is provided. A first indoor heat exchanger and a second indoor heat exchanger, and are connected in parallel to the first outdoor unit via a first refrigerant circuit capable of switching between the first indoor heat exchangers for heating and cooling. On the other hand, on the other hand, the air conditioning system, wherein the second outdoor heat exchanger is connected in parallel to the second indoor heat exchanger via a second refrigerant circuit capable of switching between heating and cooling.