Systems and methods for detecting refrigerant leaks in heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (hvac) systems

A heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system having a condenser, an expansion device, an evaporator, and a compressor fluidly coupled to form a vapor compression system, wherein the HVAC system includes a refrigerant leak detection and mitigation system, comprising:

• icing sensors, subcooling sensors, and superheat sensors communicatively coupled to a controller that is configured to:
• determine an amount of icing, an amount of subcooling, and an amount of superheat based on measurements from the icing, subcooling, and superheat sensors, respectively;
• determine a probability of a refrigerant leak in the vapor compression system based on at least two of the determined amount of icing, subcooling, and superheat;
• and
• provide a control signal to modify operation of the HVAC system in response to results of comparing the probability to a threshold value.

A heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system having a condenser, an expansion device, an evaporator, and a compressor fluidly coupled to form a vapor compression system, wherein the HVAC system includes a refrigerant leak detection and mitigation system, comprising:

• icing sensors, subcooling sensors, and superheat sensors communicatively coupled to a controller that is configured to:
• determine an amount of icing, an amount of subcooling, and an amount of superheat based on measurements from the icing, subcooling, and superheat sensors, respectively;
• determine a probability of a refrigerant leak in the vapor compression system based on the determined amount of icing, subcooling, and superheat;
• and
• provide a control signal to modify operation of the HVAC system in response to results of comparing the probability to a threshold value.