Air conditioner and control method thereof for determining an amount of refrigerant

Abstract

An air conditioner may prevent a refrigerant stored in a refrigerant storage from rapidly flowing into a main refrigerant circuit when the type of operation is switched. The air conditioner may include a refrigerant circuit provided with a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator; a refrigerant amount detection device configured to determine whether a refrigerant state in an outlet of the compressor is a subcooled state or a gas-liquid two phase state. The refrigerant amount detection device is configured to calculate a refrigerant amount ratio in the refrigerant circuit based on a predetermined set value according to at least one of a temperature and a pressure detected and the refrigerant state; and a controller configured to control the refrigerant circuit according to the refrigerant amount ratio calculated by the refrigerant amount detection device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.