JPS591969A - Air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION When performing heating operation, the present invention heats the refrigerant circulating in the refrigeration cycle during its evaporation process, and a portion of the refrigerant does not circulate through the refrigeration cycle but instead flows from the discharge side of the compressor. This is related to heat pump air conditioners that release air to the suction side, and in particular controls the balance between the amount of heating of the refrigerant during the evaporation process and the amount of refrigerant released that bypasses it, ensuring stable operation of the refrigeration cycle. The present invention relates to an air conditioner that can maintain the same condition, suppress power consumption, and improve economical efficiency as much as possible.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

The conventional refrigeration cycle of the air conditioner according to the present invention was constructed as shown in FIG.

The refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle undergoes a phase change due to the exchange of heat, and is separated between the discharge side (high pressure side) 2 and the suction side (low pressure side) of the compressor 1.
3 circulates in the circuit 4.

During heating operation, the refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor 1 is passed through the four-way valve 5 (forming the flow path shown by the solid line in the figure).
is guided to the indoor heat exchanger 6 provided inside the conditioned room (not shown), where it is condensed to release latent heat and heat the conditioned room (not shown). become.

The refrigerant condensed in the indoor heat exchanger 6 further flows through the circuit 4 to the low-pressure side 3 and reaches a first branch point 1, or one flow path is provided with a first check valve 8. Therefore, it cannot flow any further, so it flows to the other flow path and is guided to the heat exchanger 9 for heating the refrigerant. Here, the refrigerant is heated in the combustor 10, evaporates, and changes its phase to a gaseous state, thereby storing the heat as latent heat.

Gaseous cold fs is even lower pressure 1'l! It flows through the circuit 4 to I 3 and reaches the second branch point 12 via the two-way valve 11 which is opened on the way, but from this point there is a second check valve 13 in the flow path in the direction of the four-way valve 5. Because of the presence of the
) is formed (indicated by a large solid line).

In addition, in this air conditioner (not shown), part of the refrigerant is released from the discharge side 2 of the compressor 1 during the compression process without circulating through the heating circuit 14 of the refrigeration cycle.
A release circuit 15 is formed to be bypassed. This release circuit 15 has a release valve 1 on its way.
The release circuit 15 is opened and closed by opening and closing the release valve 16, but during heating operation, the circuit 15 is opened and closed.
is opened and closed during cooling operation.

By the way, the heating capacity of this air conditioner (not shown) is determined by the sum of the compression work of the compressor 1 and the amount of heating of the refrigerant in the refrigerant heating heat exchanger 9, that is, the amount of combustion in the combustor 10. The heating capacity is adjusted by adjusting the combustion amount of the combustor 10 in response to changes in the heat load (heating load) in the air-conditioned room (not shown).

Specifically, the amount of fuel supplied to the combustor 10 is adjusted.

On the other hand, the amount of refrigerant flowing through the release circuit 15, that is, the amount of refrigerant released, is set to a certain amount according to the rated heating capacity or the rated combustion amount, and cannot be increased beyond that.

Generally, when the heating load decreases, the pressure within the heating circuit increases, and the amount of refrigerant circulated within this circuit tends to increase. Therefore, even if the heat load in the air-conditioned room (not shown) is reduced to adjust the combustion amount of the combustor 10, the amount of refrigerant released is increased to offset the pressure increase in the heating circuit 14. As a result, the pressure within the heating circuit 14 increases, and the amount of refrigerant circulating within this circuit 14 increases, etc.
There was a problem that the operating state of the refrigeration cycle became unstable.

Moreover, this increase in the amount of refrigerant circulation results in a wasted amount of work for the compressor 1, and there is a problem in that power consumption also increases accordingly.

Further, the amount of refrigerant sealed in the circuit 4 of the refrigeration cycle is determined by the cooling capacity, heating capacity, etc. of the air conditioner (not shown). By the way, as mentioned above, the combustion amount of the combustor 10 is adjusted according to the increase or decrease of the heat load, but if the sealed refrigerant leaks for some reason, the heating of the air conditioner (not shown) The capacity decreases, and if normal heating operation is performed without noticing this, the heat load will gradually increase by the amount of the above capacity deficiency, and the combustion amount will increase even though an appropriate amount of refrigerant circulation is not obtained. In particular, there was a problem in that the regular operation of the refrigeration cycle was disrupted, and the equipment was damaged due to overheating.

For cooling operation, if the four-way valve 5 is switched and a flow path is formed as shown by the broken line in the figure, normal cooling operation using the refrigeration cycle will be performed.

In the figure, 11 is an outdoor heat exchanger forming a condenser of the cooling circuit, and 18 is a throttling device using a capillary tube or an expansion valve.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems.

It was devised to effectively solve the problem.

An object of the present invention is to heat the refrigerant circulating in the refrigeration cycle during the evaporation process during heating operation, and to bypass a portion of the refrigerant from the discharge side to the suction side of the compressor without circulating the refrigeration cycle. In a heat pump type air conditioner that is released as needed, it is possible to control the balance between the amount of heating of the refrigerant in the evaporation process and the amount of bypassed refrigerant released, and it is possible to maintain a stable operating state of the refrigeration cycle. The object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner that can suppress power consumption and improve economical efficiency as much as possible.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the air conditioner according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the air conditioner according to the present invention, the configuration of the air conditioning circuit itself forming the refrigeration cycle is the same as that of the conventional example.

As shown in FIG. 2, a fuel supply system 19 is connected to the combustor 10 to supply fuel such as gas.
A fuel supply control means 20 for controlling the amount of fuel supplied according to fluctuations in the heat load (heating load) in the air-conditioned room (not shown) is interposed in the middle.

On the other hand, in the middle of the release circuit 15, there is a circuit for controlling the refrigerant release amount of the compressor 1 stepwise or continuously in response to a signal indicating that the fuel supply amount has changed from the fuel supply control means 20. A release control means 21 (for example, by an electric valve or the like) is provided.

Further, in the heating circuit 14, a pressure detection device 22 is provided on the suction side 3 of the compressor 1 to detect when the pressure in the circuit 14 becomes below a certain value during heating operation and to issue a signal. 23 is a fuel cutoff device for receiving this signal and preferentially stopping the fuel supply of the fuel supply control means 20.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described.

During heating operation, when the heat load in the air-conditioned room (not shown) decreases, the pressure in the heating circuit 14 increases and the circuit 1
The amount of refrigerant circulated within 4 tends to increase. At this time, the fuel supply control means 20 operates to reduce the amount of fuel supplied to the combustor 10 in order to reduce and adjust the heating capacity. The control means 20 transmits a signal indicating that the amount of fuel supplied has decreased to the release control means 21, and upon receiving this signal, the release control means 21 operates to increase the flow rate of refrigerant circulating within the release circuit 15. do. The amount of refrigerant circulated in the heating circuit 14 is offset and decreased by the increase in the amount of refrigerant circulated in the release circuit 15, and the amount of refrigerant circulated in the amount balanced with the amount of combustion in the combustor 10 is obtained. Become.

Further, when the heat load in the air-conditioned room (not shown) increases, the amount of fuel supplied to the fuel supply control means 20 is increased in order to increase the combustion amount, and the signal from the fuel supply control means 20 causes the sill release control means 21 to: The amount of refrigerant circulated within the release circuit 15 is reduced, and the amount of refrigerant circulated within the heating circuit 14 is therefore increased to balance the amount of combustion.

In this way, the refrigeration cycle during the heating operation of the air conditioner (not shown) is always controlled to a stable operating state in response to fluctuations in the heat load of the air conditioned room (not shown), and therefore the compressor 1 The amount of work done by the machine changes in response to the load, and its power consumption can also be made more efficient in response to the load.

Furthermore, if refrigerant leaks within the circuit 4 of the refrigeration/freezing cycle, the overall pressure within the heating circuit 14 will drop.

When the pressure drops below a certain set point, the pressure sensing device 22 is activated and a signal is sent to it to activate the fuel cut-off device 23. Upon receiving the signal, the fuel cutoff device 23 sends a fuel supply stop signal to the fuel supply control means 20, and upon receiving this signal, the fuel supply control means 20 stops the fuel supply to the combustor 10. Therefore, the equipment forming the refrigeration cycle is not overheated, and damage to the equipment can be prevented.

Incidentally, it goes without saying that the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained even if the activation command signal of the release control means 21 is sent from a means that detects a change in the temperature of the refrigerant heated by the combustor. be.

Also, the pressure detection device 22 is connected to the heating circuit 145? *It operates after the cycle reaches a steady state of operation. It does not operate when the pressure in the circuit 14 increases during startup.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above explanation, the present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) The amount of refrigerant released by the compressor can be controlled according to the combustion amount of the combustor, and the refrigeration cycle during heating operation can always be maintained in an appropriate state.

(2) It is possible to reduce wasteful work of the compressor, reduce power consumption accordingly, and increase economic efficiency as much as possible.

(3) When refrigerant leaks, it is possible to prevent the combustor from burning in a dry state, and it is also possible to prevent damage to equipment.

(4) The control method is simple and can be easily adopted.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing nine configurations of a refrigeration cycle of an air conditioner in a conventional example of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of a refrigeration cycle of an air conditioner in an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a compressor, 10 is a combustor, 20 is a fuel supply control means, and 21 is a release control means. Representative Patent Attorney Nobuo Kinutani Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An air conditioner that heats circulating refrigerant in a refrigeration cycle in a combustor during heating operation and bypasses and releases the refrigerant from the discharge side to the suction side of a compressor that forms the refrigeration cycle. a fuel supply control means for controlling the amount of fuel supplied to the combustor according to changes in the heat load in the air-conditioned room; An air conditioner comprising a release control means for controlling the amount of refrigerant released from a compressor. 2. The air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the release control means is configured to be activated in response to a change in temperature of the refrigerant heated by the combustor. 3. The air conditioner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the fuel supply means is configured to stop the fuel supply in response to leakage of refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle.