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US 12,704,328 B2Granted
Cold climate heat pump system with energy storage
AssigneeTrane International Inc.
InventorsLee R. Cline, Richard M. Heiden, Brian J. Fiegen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat pump system for a building can include thermal energy storage tanks, a first air source heat pump for providing energy to the system, a second air source heat pump for providing energy to the system under cold climate conditions, and an additional heat source for supporting defrost operations and/or to provide energy under extreme cold conditions. The system can further include a controller configured to provide efficient use of energy sources to meet heating demands under extreme cold conditions.
Claims18
A heat pump system, comprising:
- a storage source energy transfer circuit comprising one or more thermal energy storage tanks, the storage source energy transfer circuit configured to circulate a process fluid;
- a heating distribution circuit configured to circulate a heating fluid to a heating load such that the heating fluid provides heating at the heating load when in an operational mode including heating;
- a cooling distribution circuit configured to circulate the process fluid to a cooling load such that said process fluid provides cooling at the cooling load when in an operational mode including cooling;
- one or more chiller-heaters each configured to transfer heat from the process fluid to the heating fluid so as to heat the heating fluid and cool the process fluid;
- and
- an air source heat pump circuit including an air source heat pump configured to transfer heat from an ambient environment to the process fluid,
- wherein the air source heat pump circuit is configured to circulate the process fluid from the air source heat pump circuit to the cooling distribution circuit and/or to add heat to the process fluid to add heat to the heating fluid of the heating distribution circuit.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.