Air conditioning apparatus which selectively carries out a refrigerant collection operation
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsHaruo Noguchi, Akihisa Nakazawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An air conditioning apparatus carrying out a refrigerant collecting operation for a given operation period before the heating operation is begun if the standby period Et from the halt of the heating operation to the restart of the heating operation greater than the prescribed period Pt, the temperature Ta in a defined space to be heated lower than the predetermined temperature value Ts1, and the external temperature Tex lower than the given temperature value Ts2 are satisfied when the restart of the heating operation is commanded.
Claims11
An air conditioning apparatus for heating or cooling air in a defined space comprising:
- a compressor for circulating refrigerant;
- a four-way valve connected to the high pressure side of said compressor;
- a first heat exchanger positioned on an outlet side of said four-way valve;
- a refrigerant heating device, the inlet side of said refrigerant heating device being connected to the outlet side of said first heat exchanger and the outlet side of said refrigerant heating device being connected to the inlet side of said compressor;
- a second heat exchanger connected to said first heat exchanger to receive refrigerant fed from said first heat exchanger during a cooling operation and to send refrigerant fed from said compressor to said refrigerant heating device during a heating operation;
- a decompressing device positioned between said first heat exchanger and said second heat exchanger for controlling the flow of said refrigerant;
- timer means for measuring a standby period Et from the halt of a refrigerant heating operation to the restart of said heating operation;
- means for detecting a temperature Ta in said defined space;
- means for detecting a temperature Tex external to said defined space;
- control means for selectively operating said refrigerant heating device in accordance with Et, Ta and Tex to carry out a refrigerant collecting operation from said second heat exchanger to said compressor when the restart of said heating operation is commanded.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.