Efficient heat pump
AssigneeAir Generate Inc
InventorSunil Kumar Sinha
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An efficient heat pump is disclosed, the heat content of the refrigerant flowing out of an existing condenser is reduced by sub-cooling using an additional condenser. The heat reduced during the sub-cooling phase is added to the evaporator to superheat the refrigerant during evaporation phase. Removing heat from condensation phase (which is otherwise wasted) of the refrigeration cycle and adding that heat to the evaporation phase (which requires additional heat) may enhance the efficiency of the heat pump.
Claims38
A heat pump comprising:
- an existing condenser, wherein the existing condenser includes an inlet, an outlet and a condenser pipe, wherein the existing condenser is to generate a first refrigerant at first temperature by dissipating a first portion of heat from a refrigerant flowing through the condenser pipe to a medium surrounding the existing condenser,
- an additional condenser comprising an input side, an output side and a condenser element, wherein the input side is coupled to the outlet of the existing condenser and the output side is coupled to the first input of a heat exchanger, wherein the additional condenser is to generate a second refrigerant at a second temperature by further reducing a second portion of heat of the first refrigerant by dissipating the second portion of heat of the first refrigerant flowing through the condenser element to a substance flowing over the condenser element,
- a heat exchanger including a first and second input and a first and second output, wherein the heat exchanger is to receive the second refrigerant through the first input and a third refrigerant through the second input, wherein a third portion of heat content is transferred from the second refrigerant to the third refrigerant,
- an expansion valve is to generate a fourth refrigerant by performing adiabatic expansion in response to receiving the second refrigerant from the heat exchanger, and
- an evaporator to generate the third refrigerant in response to receiving the fourth refrigerant, wherein the heat content of the substance is added to the third refrigerant by passing the substance over the evaporator,
- wherein dissipating the second portion of heat of the first refrigerant flowing through the condenser element to a substance flowing over the condenser element and adding the heat content of the substance to the third refrigerant by passing the substance over the evaporator is to enhance the performance of the heat pump.
A method to enhance coefficient of performance of a heat pump, comprising:
- receiving an initial refrigerant,
- generating a first refrigerant at a first temperature by dissipating a first portion of heat from the initial refrigerant in a first condensation phase,
- generating a second refrigerant at a second temperature by further reducing a second portion of heat from the first refrigerant by dissipating the second portion of heat of the first refrigerant in a second condensation phase,
- transferring a third portion of heat from the second refrigerant to a third refrigerant in a superheating phase in response to receiving the second refrigerant and the third refrigerant in a superheating phase,
- generating a fourth refrigerant by performing adiabatic expansion in response to receiving the second refrigerant after the superheating phase, and
- generating the third refrigerant in response to receiving the fourth refrigerant, wherein the second portion of heat extracted in the second condensation phase is added to the third refrigerant in an evaporation phase,
- wherein dissipating the second portion of heat of the first refrigerant in second condensation phase and adding the second portion of heat to the third refrigerant in evaporation phase is to enhance the performance of the heat pump.
The method of claim 33 further comprises increasing the temperature of the third refrigerant by utilizing the extracted second portion of heat during evaporation phase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.