Chiller including heat transfer tube and method for controlling chiller to determine degree of contamination of the heat transfer tube
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsYoungjin Kim, Joongbeom Lee, Solji Ryu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A chiller including a heat transfer tube and a method for controlling a chiller to determine a degree of contamination of a heat transfer tube are provided. As a degree of contamination of the heat transfer tube may be determined and a notification provided to a user regarding whether to clean the heat transfer tube, the chiller may be managed efficiently and an operation performance of the chiller may be maintained well.
Claims19
A chiller, comprising:
- a cooling tower configured to store cooling water that exchanges heat with outside air;
- a condenser including at least one heat transfer tube through which the cooling water supplied from the cooling tower flows, and into which a refrigerant that exchanges heat with the cooling water of the at least one heat transfer tube is introduced;
- a cooling water outlet temperature sensor provided in a cooling water outlet pipe through which cooling water is discharged from the condenser, and configured to detect a temperature of the discharged cooling water;
- a condenser pressure sensor provided in the condenser and configured to detect a pressure of the refrigerant inside of the condenser;
- a controller configured to collect operation data by calculating a difference between a temperature detected by the cooling water outlet temperature sensor and a refrigerant temperature, converted from the pressure detected by the condenser pressure sensor, to recognize a degree of contamination of foreign matter of the cooling water deposited in the at least one heat transfer tube of the condenser;
- and
- a display configured to output information on the degree of contamination when it is recognized that information regarding the difference deviates from a predetermined amount, wherein the controller, in the process of recognizing the degree of contamination, is configured to stop a process of calculating the difference and collecting the operation data when a predetermined event occurs.
A method for controlling a chiller including a cooling tower configured to store cooling water that exchanges heat with outside air, a condenser including at least one heat transfer tube through which the cooling water supplied from the cooling tower flows, and into which a refrigerant that exchanges heat with the cooling water of the at least one heat transfer tube is introduced, a cooling water outlet temperature sensor provided in a cooling water outlet pipe through which cooling water is discharged from the condenser and configured to detect a temperature of the discharged cooling water, and a condenser pressure sensor provided in the condenser and configured to detect a pressure of the refrigerant inside of the condenser, the method comprising:
- collecting operation data by calculating, by a controller, a difference between a temperature detected by the cooling water outlet temperature sensor and a refrigerant temperature, converted from the pressure detected by the condenser pressure sensor;
- and
- outputting, by the controller, information on a degree of contamination to a display when it is recognized that the information on the difference deviates from a first predetermined amount, wherein the controller, in the process of recognizing the degree of the contamination, is configured to stop a process of calculating the difference and collecting drive data when a predetermined event occurs.
A chiller, comprising:
- a cooling tower configured to store cooling water that exchanges heat with outside air;
- a condenser including at least one heat transfer tube through which the cooling water supplied from the cooling tower flows, and into which a refrigerant that exchanges heat with the cooling water of the at least one heat transfer tube is introduced;
- a cooling water outlet temperature sensor provided in a cooling water outlet pipe through which cooling water is discharged from the condenser, and configured to detect a temperature of the discharged cooling water;
- a condenser pressure sensor provided in the condenser and configured to detect a pressure of the refrigerant inside of the condenser;
- and
- a controller configured to collect operation data by calculating a difference between a temperature detected by the cooling water outlet temperature sensor and a refrigerant temperature, converted from the pressure detected by the condenser pressure sensor, to recognize a degree of contamination of foreign matter of the cooling water deposited in the at least one heat transfer tube of the condenser, wherein the controller, in the process of recognizing the degree of contamination, is configured to stop a process of calculating the difference and collecting the operation data when a predetermined event occurs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.