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US 12,516,857 B2Granted
Systems and methods for controlling a purge unit of a vapor compression system
AssigneeTyco Fire & Security GmbH
InventorsDavid Andrew Bradshaw, Andrew Michael Welch, Curtis C. Crane, Calvin Andrew Nelson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods for selectively activating and deactivating the purge unit in response to one or more conditions to, for example, enable refrigerant-to-air ratios within the purge unit within certain industry standards.
Claims20
A vapor compression system, comprising:
- a refrigerant loop comprising a fluidly coupled condenser, expansion device, evaporator, and compressor, wherein the condenser comprises:
- a shell;
- a liquid refrigerant temperature sensor disposed within the shell;
- a total pressure sensor disposed within the shell;
- a processor communicatively coupled to the liquid refrigerant temperature sensor and the total pressure sensor, wherein the processor is configured to:
- receive, from the liquid refrigerant temperature sensor, a first signal indicative of a liquid refrigerant temperature in the condenser;
- receive, from the total pressure sensor, a second signal indicative of a total pressure of refrigerant vapor and non-condensable gas in the condenser;
- determine an observed saturation temperature and a predicted saturation temperature of the condenser based, at least in part, on the first signal and the second signal, wherein the liquid refrigerant temperature is a direct indication or representation of the observed saturation temperature and the predicted saturation temperature is determined by the processor by accessing a look-up table or using a mathematical equation to determine or calculate the predicted saturation temperature based on the total pressure of the refrigerant vapor and the non-condensable gas;
- selectively activate a purge unit when the observed saturation temperature is greater than the predicted saturation temperature by more than a threshold amount;
- and
- activate an alarm to indicate an issue with the purge unit when the observed saturation temperature is greater than the predicted saturation temperature by more than the threshold amount for greater than a predetermined amount of time.
8 more elements
A vapor compression system comprising a purge unit fluidly coupled to a condenser of the vapor compression system, wherein the vapor compression system comprises a memory storing instructions and a processor configured to execute the instructions to control operation of the purge unit, wherein the instructions comprise a purge cycle, wherein the instructions of the purge cycle comprise:
- instructions to activate the purge unit for a first predetermined period of time;
- instructions to determine whether one or more evacuations occur during the first predetermined period of time;
- instructions to restart the purge cycle when one or more evacuations occur during the first predetermined period of time;
- instructions to deactivate the purge unit for a second predetermined period of time when the processor determines that no evacuations occur during the first predetermined period of time;
- and
- instructions to repeat execution of the purge cycle a predetermined number of times, and then to deactivate the purge unit for a third predetermined period of time when no evacuations occur during execution of the purge cycle.
3 more elements
A vapor compression system, comprising:
- a refrigerant loop comprising a fluidly coupled condenser, expansion device, evaporator, and compressor, wherein the condenser comprises:
- a shell;
- a liquid refrigerant temperature sensor disposed within the shell;
- a total pressure sensor disposed within the shell;
- a processor communicatively coupled to the liquid refrigerant temperature sensor and the total pressure sensor, wherein the processor is configured to:
- receive, from the liquid refrigerant temperature sensor, a first signal indicative of a liquid refrigerant temperature in the condenser;
- receive, from the total pressure sensor, a second signal indicative of a total pressure of refrigerant vapor and non-condensable gas in the condenser;
- determine an observed saturation temperature and a predicted saturation temperature of the condenser based, at least in part, on the first signal and the second signal, wherein the liquid refrigerant temperature is a direct indication or representation of the observed saturation temperature and the predicted saturation temperature is determined by the processor by accessing a look-up table or using a mathematical equation to determine or calculate the predicted saturation temperature based on the total pressure of the refrigerant vapor and the non-condensable gas;
- selectively activate a purge unit when the observed saturation temperature is greater than the predicted saturation temperature by more than a threshold amount;
- and
- selectively deactivate the purge unit when the observed saturation temperature is not greater than the predicted saturation temperature by more than the threshold amount, wherein selectively deactivating the purge unit comprises providing control signals to deactivate a compressor and a condenser fan of the purge unit.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.