Heat pump and control method thereof
AssigneeKyungdong Navien Co., Ltd.
InventorsDong Keun Lee, In Soo Hwang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heat pump and a control method thereof is provided. The heat pump includes: a first heat exchanger disposed indoors, a second heat exchanger and a third heat exchanger disposed outdoors, a fluid tube connected to the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger, a compressor and an expansion valve unit disposed on the fluid tube, a flow path switching valve unit configured to switch a path of a fluid discharged from the compressor to flow into at least one of the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger, a processor connected to the flow path switching valve unit, and a storage unit connected to the processor.
Claims10
A heat pump, comprising:
- a first heat exchanger disposed indoors, a second heat exchanger and a third heat exchanger disposed outdoors, a fluid tube connected to the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger, a compressor and an expansion valve unit disposed on the fluid tube, a flow path switching valve unit configured to switch a path of a fluid discharged from the compressor to flow into at least one of the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger, a processor connected to the flow path switching valve unit, and a storage unit connected to the processor,
- wherein the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger are disposed to be connected in series or in parallel to each other by the flow path switching valve unit on the fluid tube,
- the flow path switching valve unit includes a first flow path switching valve configured to control the fluid of the compressor to flow into the first heat exchanger or the second heat exchanger, and a second flow path switching valve configured to control the fluid of the compressor to flow into the first heat exchanger or the third heat exchanger, and
- the storage unit includes a program for the flow path switching valve unit to perform:
- a heating mode in which the flow path switching valve unit controls a fluid from the compressor to flow into the first heat exchanger so that the first heat exchanger operates as a condenser and at least one of the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger operates as an evaporator,
- a cooling mode in which the flow path switching valve unit controls the fluid of the compressor to flow into at least one of the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger so that the first heat exchanger operates as an evaporator and at least one of the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger operates as a condenser, and
- a cleaning mode switched from the cooling mode for a certain period of time, in which the first heat exchanger operates as a condenser.
A control method of a heat pump including:
- a first heat exchanger disposed indoors;
- a second heat exchanger and a third heat exchanger disposed outdoors;
- a water injection module disposed adjacently to the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger and configured to supply water to at least one of the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger;
- and a flow path switching valve unit configured to change a path of a fluid discharged from a compressor by connecting the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger in series or in parallel, to flow into at least one of the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger, on a fluid tube connected to the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger,
- wherein in a heating mode, the first heat exchanger operates as a condenser and the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger operate as evaporators, and in a cooling mode, the first heat exchanger operates as an evaporator, and the second heat exchanger and the third heat exchanger operate as condensers, so that water injection is controlled by the water injection module, and
- in a cleaning mode, the first heat exchanger operates as a condenser and at least one of the second heat exchanger and third heat exchanger operates as a evaporator for a certain period of time is controlled to be performed after the cooling mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.