Diagnostic Method for Proper Refrigerant Valve Operation

Abstract

There is provided a refrigerant system 100 including at least one or a plurality of refrigerant flow control devices 125 for regulating operational parameters of the refrigerant system 100, at least one sensor 135, 140 connected to the refrigerant system 100 for monitoring the operational parameters of the refrigerant system 100, and a controller 130. The controller 130, which is connected to the plurality of refrigerant flow control devices 125 and to each of the at least one sensor 135, 140, switches a refrigerant flow control device 125 of the plurality of refrigerant flow control devices 125 between a first operating state and a second operating state, separately observes a variation in an operational parameter resulting from the switching of each refrigerant flow control device 125 of the plurality of refrigerant flow control devices 125, compares the observed variation with an expected variation due to the switching, and determines whether the refrigerant flow control device 125 is operating properly based on whether the actual variation corresponds to the expected variation. There is also provided a method for diagnostic testing of the refrigerant system 100.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.