Refrigeration and air-conditioning apparatus, refrigerant leakage detection device, and refrigerant leakage detection method
AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Corporation
InventorsYasutaka Ochiai, Makoto Saito, Fumitake Unezaki
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Abstract
A refrigeration and air-conditioning apparatus rapidly varies the pressure or the temperature inside a liquid reserve container to identify a liquid level position inside the liquid reserve container on the basis of the surface temperature of the liquid reserve container.
Claims22
A refrigeration and air-conditioning apparatus including a refrigerant circuit formed by connecting a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and a liquid reserve container to one another by pipes, the apparatus comprising:
- a temperature sensor that measures a temperature of the liquid reserve container;
- and
- a controller that varies a pressure or a temperature inside the liquid reserve container,
- wherein the controller
- detects a liquid level position inside the liquid reserve container, based on a measured value of the temperature sensor.
A refrigerant leakage detection device for detecting a liquid level position inside a liquid reserve container provided as one of element devices of a refrigerant circuit to detect refrigerant leakage, the device comprising:
- a temperature sensor that measures a temperature of the liquid reserve container;
- and
- a controller configured to control at least one of the compressor and the expansion valve, which are actuators, to vary a pressure or a temperature inside the liquid reserve container,
- wherein the controller
- detects the liquid level position inside the liquid reserve container, based on a measured value of the temperature sensor, and
- detects refrigerant leakage by comparing, with a reference amount of refrigerant, a sum of an amount of refrigerant calculated from the measured value and an amount of refrigerant reserved in the liquid reserve container.
A refrigerant leakage detection method for detecting a liquid level position inside a liquid reserve container provided as one of element devices of a refrigerant circuit, based on a temperature of the liquid reserve container, to detect refrigerant leakage, the method comprising:
- controlling at least one of the compressor and the expansion valve, which are actuators, to vary a pressure or a temperature inside the liquid reserve container;
- detecting the liquid level position inside the liquid reserve container, based on the temperature of the liquid reserve container;
- and
- determining whether a refrigerant leaks from the refrigerant circuit by comparing, with a reference amount of refrigerant, a sum of an amount of refrigerant calculated from the temperature of the liquid reserve container and an amount of refrigerant reserved in the liquid reserve container.
A refrigeration and air-conditioning apparatus comprising:
- a refrigerant circuit formed by connecting a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and a liquid reserve container to one another by pipes;
- a liquid level detection sensor that detects an amount of liquid refrigerant within the liquid reserve container;
- a refrigerant leakage detection device that determines whether there occurred refrigerant leakage from the refrigerant circuit by detecting an amount of liquid refrigerant within the liquid reserve container at a predetermined time after stop of the compressor by the liquid level detection sensor, and comparing a value obtained by the detection with a predetermined reference value.
A refrigerant leakage detection device configured to detect refrigerant leakage from a refrigerant circuit formed by connecting a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and a liquid reserve container to one another by pipes, the refrigerant leakage detection device detecting an amount of liquid refrigerant within the liquid reserve container, and comprising a determining section configured to determine whether there occurred refrigerant leakage from the refrigerant circuit based on an amount of excessive liquid refrigerant at a predetermined time after stop of the compressor.
A method for detecting refrigerant leakage from a refrigerant circuit formed by connecting a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, an evaporator, and a liquid reserve container to one another by pipes, the method comprising:
- detecting an amount of liquid refrigerant within the liquid reserve container,
- comparing the amount of excessive liquid refrigerant at a predetermined time after stop of the compressor with a predetermined reference value, and
- determining that there occurred refrigerant leakage from the refrigerant circuit when the excessive amount of liquid refrigerant is smaller than the reference value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.