US 2025/0027671 A1Published application

Heater Systems

AssigneeHotStart, Inc.

InventorsChristopher Michael McFarland, Benjamin J. Boyce, Bruce I. Nelson, Jody Wayne Gaylord, Terry Judge

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A heater system for heating a piece of equipment. The heater system includes a reversing valve, a refrigerant compressor fluidly coupled to the reversing valve, an evaporator fluidly coupled to the condenser and the reversing valve, a condenser fluidly coupled to the reversing valve, the evaporator, and the piece of equipment, and a controller. The controller is configured to cause the reversing valve to operate between a first mode and a second mode. In the first mode, the piece of equipment utilizes a refrigerant, circulating in a first direction and heated via the evaporator, to keep the piece of equipment within a desired temperature range, and in the second mode, the evaporator utilizes the refrigerant, circulating in a second direction opposite the first direction and heated via the piece of equipment, to defrost the evaporator.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A heater system for heating a piece of equipment, the heater system comprising:

a reversing valve including:
a first refrigerant inlet,
a first refrigerant outlet,
a second refrigerant inlet, and
a second refrigerant outlet;
a refrigerant compressor including:
a third refrigerant outlet coupled to the first refrigerant inlet, and
a third refrigerant inlet coupled to the first refrigerant outlet;
a condenser including:
a fourth refrigerant inlet coupled to the second refrigerant outlet,
a fourth refrigerant outlet,
a coolant outlet coupled to the piece of equipment, and
a coolant inlet coupled to the piece of equipment;
an evaporator including:
an inlet coupled to the fourth refrigerant outlet, and
an outlet coupled to the second refrigerant inlet;
and
a controller for causing the reversing valve to operate between a first mode in which the piece of equipment utilizes a refrigerant, circulating in a first direction and heated via the evaporator, to maintain the piece of equipment within a desired temperature range, and a second mode in which the evaporator utilizes the refrigerant, circulating in a second direction opposite the first direction and heated via the piece of equipment, to defrost the evaporator.

15 more elements

A heater system, comprising:

a reversing valve;
a refrigerant compressor fluidly coupled to the reversing valve;
a condenser fluidly coupled to the reversing valve, an evaporator, and the reciprocating engine;
the evaporator fluidly coupled to the condenser and the reversing valve;
and
a controller for causing the reversing valve to operate between a first mode and a second mode, wherein:
when the controller causes the reversing valve to operate in the first mode, the reciprocating engine utilizes a refrigerant, circulating in a first direction and heated via the evaporator, to maintain the reciprocating engine within a desired temperature range, and
when the controller causes the reversing valve to operate in the second mode, the evaporator utilizes the refrigerant, circulating in a second direction opposite the first direction and heated via the reciprocating engine, to defrost the evaporator.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.