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US 2011/0225992 A1Published application
Air conditioner using photovoltaic energy
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsChoonghee LEE, Jintag Choi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An air conditioner using photovoltaic energy is provided. The air conditioner may include a photovoltaic cell for converting photovoltaic energy into Direct Current (DC) power, an indoor unit for exchanging heat, and an outdoor unit for exchanging heat. Photovoltaic power generated by the photovoltaic cell may be supplied to the indoor unit and used as at least one of standby power in a standby mode, consumption power in an automatic photovoltaic mode, or auxiliary power in a cooling mode.
Claims21
An air conditioner, comprising:
- an indoor unit that performs heat exchange;
- an outdoor that performs heat exchange;
- a photovoltaic cell that converts photovoltaic energy into direct current (DC) power and supplies the DC power to the indoor unit;
- and
- a controller that controls operation of the indoor unit, wherein the controller controls the indoor unit to use the power supplied by the photovoltaic cells as at least one of standby power in a standby mode of the air conditioner, consumption power in an automatic photovoltaic mode of the air conditioner, or auxiliary power in a cooling mode of the air conditioner.
2 more elements
An air conditioner, comprising:
- a photovoltaic cell that converts photovoltaic energy into Direct Current (DC) power;
- an indoor unit that performs heat exchange, wherein the indoor unit selectively receives DC power from the photovoltaic cell;
- and
- an outdoor unit operably coupled to the indoor unit, wherein the outdoor unit performs heat exchange, the indoor unit comprising:
- a first converter that adjusts a voltage level of DC power received from the photovoltaic cell;
- an Alternating Current (AC) switching device that selectively switches input AC power;
- a second converter that converts AC power to DC power;
- and
- a capacitor that stores at least one of DC power received from the first converter or DC power received from the second converter.
6 more elements
An air conditioner, comprising:
- an outdoor unit that performs a heat exchange operation;
- an indoor unit operably coupled to the outdoor unit, wherein the indoor unit performs a heat exchange operation;
- a photovoltaic cell operably coupled to the indoor unit, wherein the photovoltaic cell receives photovoltaic energy and converts the received photovoltaic energy into direct current (DC) power, and selectively supplies the DC power to the indoor unit;
- and
- a controller that controls operation of the indoor unit such that the indoor unit operates in a plurality of operation modes including a standby mode, an automatic photovoltaic mode, and a cooling mode, and wherein the controller selectively directs power from the photovoltaic cell to the indoor unit based on the operation mode of the indoor unit.
2 more elements
A method of controlling an air conditioner having an indoor unit operably coupled to an outdoor unit, the method comprising:
- determining a current operation mode of the air conditioner;
- supplying power from a photovoltaic cell to the indoor unit and using the supplied power as auxiliary power that augments an external power supply when it is determined that the current operation mode is a cooling mode;
- when it is determined that the current operation mode is not the cooling mode, cutting off the supply of external power when an amount of power available from the photovoltaic cell is greater than a required amount of standby power and operating in a standby mode;
- after cutting off the supply of external power, determining whether the amount of power available from the photovoltaic cell is greater than an amount of power required for an automatic photovoltaic mode;
- operating the indoor unit in the automatic photovoltaic mode when it is determined that the amount of power available from the photovoltaic cell is greater than an amount of power required for an automatic photovoltaic mode, and maintaining the standby mode when it is determined that the amount of power available from the photovoltaic cell is not greater than an amount of power required for an automatic photovoltaic mode.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.