Refrigerant cycle with plural condensers receiving refrigerant at different pressure
AssigneeCarrier Corporation
InventorsAlexander Lifson, Michael Taras
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Abstract
A refrigerant cycle is provided with a compressor system, capable of simultaneously delivering refrigerant to multiple condensers operating at different temperature levels. A single evaporator communicates with these condensers. One of the condensers receives fully compressed refrigerant while the others receives refrigerant at an intermediate pressure. A control can optionally direct refrigerant to only one of these condensers to achieve desired heat rejection and other operational characteristics. Various system configurations with multiple compressors and condensers are also disclosed.
Claims16
A refrigerant cycle comprising:
- at least one compressor delivering a refrigerant to a first condenser from a discharge line, refrigerant from said first condenser passing through an expansion device, and downstream to an evaporator, refrigerant from said evaporator returning to said compressor;
- and
- an intermediate pressure tap for tapping refrigerant from said compressor at an intermediate compression point, refrigerant from said intermediate pressure tap passing through a second condenser, refrigerant having passed through said second condenser passing through an expansion device and to said evaporator, and from said evaporator back to said compressor.
A method of operating a refrigerant cycle comprising the steps of:
- 1) providing at least one compressor, said at least one compressor having a discharge line for delivering a compressed refrigerant to a first condenser, and said at least one compressor having an intermediate pressure tap for delivering a partially compressed refrigerant to a second condenser, refrigerant from both first and second condensers passing through a common evaporator and back to at least said one compressor;
- 2) operating said refrigerant cycle by selectively routing refrigerant from said at least one compressor to said first and second condensers to achieve desired heat rejection characteristics.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.