US 2026/0276271 A1Published application

System and method for selectively executing defrosting operations of an outdoor coil of an HVAC system during heating cycle

AssigneeLennox Industries Inc.

InventorsArvind Chitrala, Eric Perez, Aylan Him, Colin Clara

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Abstract

A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system includes a heat pump system and a system controller communicatively coupled to the heat pump system. The system controller includes a memory configured to store sensor data and instructions and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to detect, based on sensor data, a frosting of a coil zone, and, in response, initiate a first defrosting operation for the coil zone by transmitting instructions to open a first valve. The first valve is coupled to the coil zone and configured to allow a flow of refrigerant to the coil zone for defrosting the coil zone. The processor is further configured to determine whether the first defrosting operation has been completed within a threshold time period, and, in response to determining that the first defrosting operation has been completed within the threshold time period, transmit instructions to close the first valve.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, comprising:

a heat pump system configured to regulate temperature of a conditioned space, comprising:
an indoor coil;
a compressor coupled to the indoor coil and configured to direct a first flow of refrigerant to the indoor coil during a heating cycle;
an outdoor coil comprising a plurality of coil zones, wherein the outdoor coil is coupled to the compressor and configured to receive a second flow of refrigerant diverted to the outdoor coil by the compressor during the heating cycle;
and
a plurality of valves each coupled to a respective one of the plurality of coil zones of the outdoor coil, wherein the plurality of valves is configured to isolate each of the plurality of coil zones and to regulate a third flow of refrigerant to each respective coil zone of the plurality of coil zones for defrosting the plurality of coil zones;
and
a system controller communicatively coupled to the heat pump system, the system controller, comprising:
a memory configured to store sensor data and instructions for executing a selective defrosting cycle of the plurality of coil zones;
and
a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to:
detect, based at least in part on the sensor data, a frosting of at least one coil zone of the plurality of coil zones, and, in response:
initiate a first defrosting operation for the at least one coil zone by transmitting instructions to open a first valve of the plurality of valves, wherein the first valve is coupled to the at least one coil zone and configured to allow the third flow of refrigerant to the at least one coil zone;
determining, based at least in part on the sensor data and a counter associated with the first defrosting operation, whether the first defrosting operation has been completed within a threshold time period;
and
in response to determining that the first defrosting operation has been completed within the threshold time period, transmit instructions to close the first valve.

13 more elements

A method, comprising:

detecting, based at least in part on sensor data, a frosting of at least one coil zone of a plurality of coil zones of an outdoor coil of a heat pump system, wherein the outdoor coil is coupled to a compressor of the heat pump system and configured to receive a first flow of refrigerant diverted to the outdoor coil by the compressor from an indoor coil of the heat pump system, and, in response:
initiating a first defrosting operation for at least one coil zone by transmitting instructions to open a first valve of a plurality of valves, wherein the first valve is coupled to the at least one coil zone and configured to allow a second flow of refrigerant to the at least one coil zone for defrosting the at least one coil zone;
determining, based at least in part on the sensor data and a counter associated with the first defrosting operation, whether the first defrosting operation has been completed within a threshold time period;
and
in response to determining that the first defrosting operation has been completed within the threshold time period, transmitting instructions to close the first valve.

2 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

detect, based at least in part on sensor data, a frosting of at least one coil zone of a plurality of coil zones of an outdoor coil of a heat pump system, wherein the outdoor coil is coupled to a compressor of the heat pump system and configured to receive a first flow of refrigerant diverted to the outdoor coil by the compressor from an indoor coil of the heat pump system, and, in response:
initiate a first defrosting operation for at least one coil zone by transmitting instructions to open a first valve of a plurality of valves, wherein the first valve is coupled to the at least one coil zone and configured to allow a second flow of refrigerant to the at least one coil zone for defrosting the at least one coil zone;
determine, based at least in part on the sensor data and a counter associated with the first defrosting operation, whether the first defrosting operation has been completed within a threshold time period;
and
in response to determining that the first defrosting operation has been completed within the threshold time period, transmit instructions to close the first valve.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.