Economizer control systems and methods
AssigneeJohnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
InventorsPaul Nemit, Jr., Angela Marie Comstock
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An economizer control system includes a compressor including a compression area, a piston chamber, and an economizer inlet configured to receive economizer vapor into the compression area via a flow path that extends between the economizer inlet and the compression area. At least a portion of the flow path traverses the piston chamber. The economizer control system also includes a piston disposed within the piston chamber and configured to contact the economizer vapor. The piston is moveable between an open position that opens the flow path and a closed position that closes the flow path. Additionally, the economizer control system includes a biasing system configured to apply force to the piston to bias the piston toward the closed position.
Claims19
An economizer control system for a vapor compression system, comprising:
- a compressor including a compression area, a piston chamber, and an economizer inlet configured to receive economizer vapor into the compression area via a flow path that extends between the economizer inlet and the compression area, wherein at least a portion of the flow path traverses the piston chamber;
- a piston disposed within the piston chamber and configured to contact the economizer vapor, wherein the piston is moveable between an open position that opens the flow path and a closed position that closes the flow path;
- and
- a piston biaser configured to apply force to the piston to bias the piston toward the closed position, wherein the piston biaser is configured to allow the piston to transition to the open position in response to the economizer vapor having at least a threshold pressure that operatively exerts a counterforce on the piston that overcomes the force of the piston biaser.
A vapor compression system, comprising:
- an economizer comprising a vapor outlet;
- a compressor comprising a housing that defines a compression area, wherein the housing comprises:
- a channel configured to receive vapor from the vapor outlet of the economizer;
- and
- a passageway disposed between and communicatively coupled with the channel and the compression area, wherein the passageway extends crosswise to the channel and is configured to direct the vapor from the channel to the compression area;
- a piston configured to move within the channel;
- and
- a piston biaser configured to bias the piston to a closed position in which the piston seals the passageway relative to the channel, wherein, in response to the vapor having a threshold pressure, the piston biaser is configured to enable the piston to move to an open position in which the piston enables the vapor to flow from the channel, through the passageway, and into the compression area.
A method of economizing a vapor compression system using a controller, comprising:
- directing economizer vapor from an economizer to an economizer inlet of a housing of a compressor, wherein the housing comprises a flow path that traverses a piston chamber of the housing and extends between the economizer inlet and a compression area of the housing;
- biasing a piston disposed within the piston chamber toward a closed position via a piston biaser of the vapor compression system, wherein the piston in the closed position is configured to block the flow path to fluidly separate the economizer inlet from the compression area;
- and
- in response to the economizer vapor having at least a threshold pressure, enabling the economizer vapor to move the piston to an open position that enables the economizer vapor to flow to the compression area from the piston chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.