Multifluid heat pump system

Abstract

An economical heat pump system which uses a multifluid heat exchanger and the basic components of conventional heat pump systems including, as appropriate, a desuperheat exchanger. The invention may be operated in two conventional refrigerant flow configurations including heat pump space heating and cooling and simultaneous hot water heating via the desuperheater. The use of a multifluid heat exchanger allows the two refrigerant flow configurations to have nine operational modes. In one flow configuration the refrigerant is from the compressor, through the desuperheater, through a reversing valve, through the outdoor heat exchanger, through an expansion device, through the indoor heat exchanger and back to the compressor via the reversing valve. In the second configuration, the refrigerant flow is from the compressor, through the desuperheater, through the reversing valve, through the indoor heat exchanger, through an expansion device, through the outdoor heat exchanger and back to the compressor. In the four basic operational modes associated with the two refrigeration flow configurations (e.g. Space heating, space cooling and simultaneous hot water heating in each of these modes) the refrigerant desuperheater is used to heat water when needed. Additional modes made available by the use of the multifluid heat exchanger include, dedicated liquid heating or liquid chilling and space heating or space cooling utilizing heated or chilled liquid as the heat source or sink respectively. Finally, a defrost mode of the outdoor heat exchanger without affecting the condition of an indoor space by utilizing heat supplied from a stored previously heated (e.g. economically heat pump heated) liquid via the multifluid heat exchanger to evaporate the refrigerant in the defrost flow configuration.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.