JPH04288458A - Heat regenerator and air conditioner with heat regenerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an air conditioner capable of performing a cooling operation by using a small-sized heat regenerator capable of performing an efficient taking-out of heat. CONSTITUTION:Heat exchanging pipes 3 through which refrigerant flows are inserted into a plurality of piled-up plate fins 2 so as to form a plate-fin type heat exchanger. Heat regenerating pipes 4 having heat regenerating substance enclosed therein are assembled in the heat exchanger so as to constitute a heat regenerator 1.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat storage device and an air conditioner having the heat storage device.

0002

[Prior Art] In recent years, with the aim of resolving power supply concerns caused by the use of air conditioners during the day in the summer, ice is created in a heat storage tank using low-cost late-night electricity, and this ice is used during the day. An air conditioner that performs cooling operation has been proposed (Japanese Patent Publication No. 1-27343).

According to this proposal, a heat exchange pipe that acts as an evaporator of a refrigeration cycle is immersed in water in a heat storage tank.
The cooling action of this heat exchange pipe freezes the water in the heat storage tank, thereby storing heat.

0004

[Problem to be solved by the invention] Since the heat exchange pipe is immersed in the water in the heat storage tank to function as a heat storage device, the equipment becomes large, and although it has been put into practical use for building air conditioning, etc.
It was difficult to use for home use (small size).

[0005] In addition, in such a heat storage device, when ice is made, ice is gradually generated outward from around the heat exchange pipe.
Furthermore, when the ice melts, the ice gradually melts outward from around the heat exchange pipe, making it difficult to extract heat uniformly and efficiently from the heat storage device over time.

The object of the present invention is to propose a small-sized heat storage device that can efficiently extract heat, and to provide an air conditioner that can perform cooling using the heat storage device.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve this object, the present invention forms a plate-fin type heat exchanger by inserting a heat exchange pipe through which a refrigerant flows into a plurality of laminated plate fins, and A heat storage pipe containing a heat storage material is incorporated into this plate-fin type heat exchanger to form a heat storage device.

[0008] In addition, a compressor, a heat source side heat exchanger, a pressure reducer, and a user side heat exchanger are sequentially connected by refrigerant pipes to perform cooling operation, and a heat storage circuit is constructed in which a heat storage device and a pump are connected in series. The inlet end is connected to the piping connecting the heat exchanger on the user side and the pressure reducer, and the outlet end is connected to the suction pipe of the compressor or the inlet pipe of the heat exchanger on the user side via a switching valve. This is what I did.

[0009]

[Operation] When a refrigerant flows through the heat exchange pipe of the plate fin type heat exchanger constituting the heat storage device, the heat of the heat exchange pipe is stored in the heat storage material in the heat storage pipe via the plate fins.

During cooling operation using a heat storage device, the pump is operated and the compressor is stopped, so that the refrigerant condensed and liquefied in the heat storage device is sent to the user-side heat exchanger.

[0011]

[Embodiment] In Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a heat storage device, and this heat storage device includes a plurality of laminated plate fins 2, heat exchange pipes 3 arranged so as to pass through these fins, and these heat exchange pipes 3. It is composed of a heat storage pipe 4 disposed close to the plate fins and passing through the fins, an electric heater 5 disposed below the plate fins 4, and a heat insulating material 6 covering these.

7 and 8 are an inlet pipe and an outlet pipe of the heat exchange pipe 3, and the heat exchange pipes 3 mentioned above have U on the inlet pipe side.
They are connected in a dash-dotted line by a double tube (not shown). Therefore, the heat exchange pipe 3 is formed as a single conduit.

The heat storage pipes 4 are arranged close to these heat exchange pipes 3, and their inlet ends are connected in a meandering manner by a U-shaped tube (not shown) (see the dashed line), and their tips are is sealed. This heat storage pipe 4 is filled with water as a heat storage material. Here, the inside of the heat storage pipe 4 is maintained at about 22 atmospheres, and this water has a volume ratio of about 10%.
Contains some air.

In the heat storage device 1 having such a configuration, when the low-temperature refrigerant flows into the inlet pipe 7 of the heat exchange pipe 3 and is discharged from the outlet pipe 8, the heat radiated by the heat exchange pipe 3 is The heat is transmitted to the heat storage pipe 4 via the plate fins 2, and the water in the heat storage pipe 4 turns into ice. Here, the water in this heat storage pipe 4 contains air at a volume ratio of about 10%, so even if the volume of water expands during ice making, this expansion will be absorbed by the air in the heat storage pipe 4. It has become.

On the other hand, when the electric heater 5 is energized, the heat radiated from the electric heater 5 is transmitted to the heat storage pipes 4 through the plate fins 2, and the water in the heat storage pipes 4 is heated. Since the inside of the heat storage pipe 4 is pressurized to about 22 atmospheres, the water temperature rises to about 220°C. Since the heat storage device 1 is configured in this way and the heat storage pipe 4 and the heat exchange pipe 3 are connected by the plate fins 2, heat conduction between the two is performed smoothly and uniformly. In addition, conventionally, in a factory that has equipment for manufacturing plate fin type heat exchangers, by changing the member inserted into the holes of the laminated plate fins 2 from the heat exchange pipe 3 to the heat storage pipe 4, the above-mentioned heat storage 1 can be manufactured. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the heat storage device 1 can be kept low.

FIG. 2 shows a refrigerant circuit of an air conditioner using such a heat storage device 1, in which 10 is a compressor, 11 is a four-way valve,
12 is a user side (indoor) heat exchanger, 13 is a first three-way valve,
14 is the main pressure reducer, 15 is the heat source side (outdoor) heat exchanger, 16
A refrigerating cycle is constructed by sequentially connecting these devices with refrigerant pipes through a second three-way valve. Reference numeral 17 denotes a heat storage circuit whose inlet end is connected to the first three-way valve 13 and its outlet end is connected to the second three-way valve 16, and includes a parallel circuit of an auxiliary pressure reducer 18 and an on-off valve 19, and the heat storage circuit 1 described above. , a liquid pump 20, a third three-way valve 21 for allowing the refrigerant to bypass the liquid pump 20, and a check valve 22. 23 is a controller,
It controls the operation of the compressor 10 and liquid pump 20.

In addition, in the heat storage device 1 shown in FIGS. 2 to 5,
White circles indicate heat exchange pipes 3, black circles indicate heat storage pipes 4, and hatched circles indicate heaters 5.

In the air conditioner having such a configuration, during cooling operation, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 10 flows as indicated by the solid line arrow, and the room is cooled by the cooling action of the user-side heat exchanger 12.

Next, when the water in the heat storage pipe of the heat storage device 1 is frozen at night (during cold storage operation), the refrigerant from the main pressure reducer 14 should be made to flow into the heat storage circuit 17 (dotted chain arrow). Switch each three-way valve 13, 16, 21, and open/close valve 1
Release 9. As a result, a low-temperature refrigerant flows through the heat exchange pipe 3 of the heat storage device 1, and the water in the heat storage pipe 4 is frozen by the heat generated at this time. In this way, cold heat is stored in the heat storage device 1.

[0020] When performing cooling operation using this cold energy,
As shown in FIG. 3, the three-way valves 13, 16, and 21 are operated, and the liquid pump 20 is operated according to a signal from the controller 23.
The operation of the compressor 10 is stopped. As a result, the refrigerant flows as shown by the solid line arrows in FIG. That is, the refrigerant condensed and liquefied in the heat storage device 1 is sent to the user-side heat exchanger 12 via the liquid pump 20 and evaporated, and then returns to the heat storage device 1 again.

On the other hand, during heating operation, each three-way valve and on-off valve are operated as shown in FIG. 4, and the refrigerant discharged from the compressor is allowed to flow in the direction of the solid line arrow, allowing the heat to be radiated from the heat exchanger on the user side into the room. heating.

Next, when energizing the electric heater 5 of the heat storage device 1 to store heat in the heat storage device 1, first operate the three-way valves 13, 16, 21 and the on/off valves as shown in FIG. A pump-down operation is performed to recover the refrigerant in the heat storage device 1 to the user-side heat exchanger 12 or the like. Thereafter, the electric heater 5 is energized, and the heat radiated from the heater 5 is transmitted to the heat storage pipe 4 of the heat storage device 1, thereby raising the water temperature in this pipe. Here, since the inside of this heat storage pipe 4 is pressurized to about 22 atmospheres, the water temperature is heated to about 220°C. Since the water temperature in the heat storage pipe 4 is raised to about 220°C in this way, if there is refrigerant in the heat exchange pipe 3 of the heat storage device 1 during this heating,
This refrigerant is easily degraded by heat. Therefore, prior to this heating, the refrigerant in the heat exchange pipe 3 of the heat storage device 1 is removed by performing a pump-down operation.

When heating operation is performed using the heat of the heat storage device 1, the three-way valves 13, 16, 21 and the on-off valve 19 are operated so that the refrigerant flows in the direction of the dot-dashed line arrow in FIG.
The user operates the compressor 10 to heat the room by heat radiation from the user-side heat exchanger 12.

[0024] Here, a household air conditioner (for example, 1Kw
) approximately 2,000 hours of annual operation (5.
5 hours/day), approximately half of this time (10
Assuming that 00 hours) are used for the cooling/heating operation using the heat of the heat storage device described above, the power saving will be approximately 7000 yen/year. This 7,000 yen/year was calculated using the formula below.

[0025] 1000 hours/year x 12 yen/hour x 0.
7 x 0.8 ≒ 7000 yen/year Here 12 yen/hour: Daytime electricity charge (20 yen/KwH) - Nighttime electricity charge (8 yen/KwH)
KwH) 0.7: Correction factor (value after subtracting the power of the liquid pump (0.3) since the liquid pump is used even when operating using heat storage) 0.8: Load factor (value when the air conditioner is operating Average ability to 80
(% value) Although this amount of 7,000 yen/year is small, if the number of households using air conditioners equipped with such a heat storage device increases,
We believe this will be useful in resolving power companies' concerns about power supply during the summer, and in equalizing power consumption during the day and night.

Although the heat storage pipes described above are connected in a meandering manner, in another embodiment, the heat storage pipes are made into rod-shaped pieces whose length is set to be approximately the same as the width dimension of the plate-fin type heat exchanger, and the heat storage pipes are laminated. This rod-shaped heat storage pipe may be inserted into the hole of the fin.

[0027]

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention forms a heat storage device by incorporating a heat storage pipe filled with a heat storage material into a plate-fin type heat exchanger into which a heat exchange pipe is inserted. The heat is transferred smoothly to the heat storage pipe via the plate fins. This allows heat to be extracted from the heat storage device efficiently and uniformly over time.

[0028] Also, when cooling using heat from the heat storage device, a pump is used to flow the liquid refrigerant to the heat exchanger on the user side, so consumption is lower than when cooling is performed by operating a compressor. It can reduce power consumption and help alleviate concerns about power supply during the summer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an internal structural diagram of a heat storage device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a refrigerant circuit diagram showing the flow of refrigerant during cooling operation of the air conditioner of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a refrigerant circuit diagram showing the flow of refrigerant during cooling operation using the heat storage device of the air conditioner of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a refrigerant circuit diagram showing the flow of refrigerant during heating operation of the air conditioner of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a refrigerant circuit diagram showing the flow of refrigerant during heating operation using the heat storage device of the air conditioner of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Heat storage device 2 Plate fin 3 Heat exchange pipe 4 Heat storage pipe 10 Compressor 12 Utilization side heat exchanger 14　Pressure reducer 15 Heat source side heat exchanger 17 Heat storage circuit 20 Pump 23 Controller

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: A heat storage device comprising a heat exchanger and a heat storage material for storing heat from the heat exchanger, wherein a heat exchange pipe through which a refrigerant flows is inserted into a plurality of laminated plate fins as the heat exchanger. A heat storage device characterized in that a plate-fin type heat exchanger is used, and a heat storage pipe in which the heat storage material is sealed is incorporated into the plate-fin type heat exchanger. [Claim 2] In an air conditioner that can perform cooling operation by sequentially connecting a compressor, a heat source side heat exchanger, a pressure reducer, and a user side heat exchanger with a refrigerant pipe, a heat storage system in which a heat storage device and a pump are connected in series. a circuit, the inlet end of this circuit is connected to piping connecting the user-side heat exchanger and the pressure reducer, and the outlet end is connected to the suction pipe of the compressor through a switching valve during cold storage operation, A controller is provided, which is connected to the inlet pipe of the user-side heat exchanger during cooling operation using the heat storage device, and which operates the pump and stops operation of the compressor during cooling operation using the heat storage device. An air conditioner having a heat storage device characterized by: