Air conditioner and control method thereof
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsSung Goo Kim, Jae Hyuk Oh, Seong Je Wu, Dong Woon Jeong, Yong Hyun Jeon, Chang Seo Park
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An air conditioner controls supply of refrigerant so that the refrigerant is first supplied to one or more indoor units in operation from an outdoor unit, and is then supplied to a hot water generator, thereby sufficiently supplying refrigerant to the indoor units in heating operation even when the hot water generator is operated.
Claims18
A control method of an air conditioner, wherein the air conditioner comprises an outdoor unit, one or more indoor units to heat an indoor space by refrigerant supplied from the outdoor unit, and a hot water generator to heat water by the refrigerant supplied from the outdoor unit, the control method comprising:
- controlling supply of the refrigerant so that the refrigerant is first supplied to one or more indoor units in operation from the outdoor unit, and is then supplied to the hot water generator.
An air conditioner comprising:
- an outdoor unit;
- one or more indoor units to heat an indoor space by refrigerant supplied from the outdoor unit;
- a hot water generator to heat water by refrigerant supplied from the outdoor unit;
- a hot water expansion valve arranged at the hot water generator to control the amount of refrigerant which is supplied to the hot water generator, the hot water expansion valve being formed as a flow regulating valve capable of controlling an opening degree thereof;
- and
- a control unit to allow the hot water expansion valve to be opened to an opening degree thereof corresponding to the total amount of refrigerant used being used in the one or more indoor units.
An air conditioner comprising:
- an outdoor unit arranged at an outdoor space to exchange heat with outdoor air;
- one or more indoor units indoor units to exchange heat with indoor air so as to heat and cool indoor spaces by refrigerant supplied from the outdoor unit, each indoor unit including an indoor heat exchanger and an air conditioning expansion valve;
- and
- a hot water generator to heat water by refrigerant supplied from the outdoor unit, the hot water generator including a heating tank to heat water by refrigerant, a discharge water temperature sensing sensor to sense a temperature of water which is discharged from the heating tank and a hot water expansion valve,
- wherein the outdoor unit includes a compressor to compress refrigerant, an outdoor heat exchanger to allow the refrigerant to exchange heat with outdoor air, a valve to selectively supply the refrigerant compressed by the compressor to any one of the outdoor heat exchanger and each indoor unit, and a pressure sensing sensor to sense pressure of the refrigerant discharged from the compressor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.