Cooling system
AssigneeLennox Industries Inc.
InventorsRakesh Goel, Eric Giles, Siddarth Rajan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus includes a microchannel heat exchanger, a load, a compressor, and a controller. The microchannel heat exchanger removes heat from a refrigerant. The load uses the refrigerant to remove heat from a space proximate the load. The compressor compresses the refrigerant from the load. The controller determines a discharge temperature of the refrigerant at the compressor and predicts a saturation temperature of the refrigerant between the compressor and the microchannel heat exchanger. The controller also determines a discharge superheat by subtracting the saturation temperature from the discharge temperature and triggers an alarm if the discharge superheat is below a threshold temperature.
Claims27
An apparatus comprising:
- a microchannel heat exchanger configured to remove heat from a refrigerant;
- a load configured to use the refrigerant to remove heat from a space proximate the load;
- a compressor configured to compress the refrigerant from the load;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine a discharge temperature of the refrigerant at the compressor;
- predict a saturation temperature of the refrigerant between the compressor and the microchannel heat exchanger;
- determine a discharge superheat by subtracting the saturation temperature from the discharge temperature;
- and
- trigger an alarm if the discharge superheat is below a threshold temperature.
A method comprising:
- removing heat from a refrigerant using a microchannel heat exchanger;
- using the refrigerant to remove heat from a space proximate a load;
- compressing the refrigerant from the load using a compressor;
- determining a discharge temperature of the refrigerant at the compressor;
- predicting a saturation temperature of the refrigerant between the compressor and the microchannel heat exchanger;
- determining a discharge superheat by subtracting the saturation temperature from the discharge temperature;
- and
- triggering an alarm if the discharge superheat is below a threshold temperature.
A system comprising:
- a microchannel heat exchanger configured to remove heat from a refrigerant;
- a load configured to receive the refrigerant from the microchannel heat exchanger and to use the refrigerant to remove heat from a space proximate the load;
- a compressor configured to compress the refrigerant from the load;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine a discharge temperature of the refrigerant at the compressor;
- predict a saturation temperature of the refrigerant between the compressor and the microchannel heat exchanger;
- determine a discharge superheat by subtracting the saturation temperature from the discharge temperature;
- and
- trigger an alarm if the discharge superheat is below a threshold temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.