Systems and methods for refrigerant leak management
AssigneeJohnson Controls Technology Company
InventorJamie Weinert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerant leak management system includes a return inlet assembly and a purge exhaust outlet assembly. The system also includes a sensor configured to detect refrigerant proximate an air handling enclosure of a HVAC unit. The system further includes a controller configured to control the system to drive air from a conditioned interior space of a building into an external environment via the purge exhaust outlet assembly when the sensor detects the refrigerant proximate the air handling enclosure by: actuating the return inlet assembly to close the return inlet assembly, actuating the purge exhaust outlet assembly to open the purge exhaust outlet assembly, and activating a reversible supply fan of the HVAC unit in a reverse direction.
Claims27
A refrigerant leak management system for a heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system, wherein the refrigerant leak management system comprises:
- a controller communicatively coupled to a sensor and a supply fan that is disposed within an air handling enclosure of the HVAC system, wherein the controller is configured to:
- receive, from the sensor, a sensor signal indicative of a refrigerant leak;
- and
- in response to receiving the sensor signal, activate the supply fan to direct a flow of refrigerant-containing air from an interior space of a building and into the air handling enclosure via a supply outlet of the air handling enclosure.
A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising machine-readable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a controller of a heating, ventilation, and air/or conditioning (HVAC) system, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to:
- receive a sensor signal indicative of a refrigerant concentration of air from a sensor of the HVAC system;
- determine that the refrigerant concentration is indicative of a refrigerant leak;
- and
- in response to determining that the refrigerant concentration is indicative of the refrigerant leak, activate a supply fan of the HVAC system in a reverse direction to direct a flow of refrigerant-containing air from an interior space of a building into an air handling enclosure of the HVAC system.
An air handling system of a heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building, wherein the air handling system comprises:
- a sensor disposed within an enclosure of the air handling system;
- a supply fan disposed within the enclosure;
- and
- a controller communicatively coupled to the sensor and the supply fan, wherein the controller is configured to:
- receive a sensor signal indicative of air having a refrigerant concentration that is greater than a predefined concentration threshold from the sensor;
- and
- in response to receiving the sensor signal, activate the supply fan in a reverse direction to draw a flow of refrigerant-containing air from an interior space of the building into the enclosure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.