Method and apparatus for calculating super heat in an air conditioning system

A method for calculating the degree of super heat in an air conditioning system containing one of a plurality of refrigerants, comprising the steps of:

• providing a superheat measuring device comprising a computer platform having a stored computer program including a plurality of models, each of said models defining vapor pressure values of one of the refrigerants at a plurality of vapor temperature points;
• selecting the model corresponding said one refrigerant;
• measuring the temperature of the refrigerant and transmitting a temperature signal proportional to the sense temperature to the computer platform;
• measuring the pressure of the refrigerant and transmitting a pressure signal proportional to the sensed pressure the computer platform;
• comparing said pressure signal to said model to define a vapor temperature value;
• and
• computing the difference between said temperature signal and said vapor temperature value to determine the heat value of the refrigerant.

A method for optimizing the of an air conditioning system containing one of a plurality of refrigerants, each of the refrigerants having an ideal super value when the refrigerant is between the evaporator and the compressor of air conditioning system, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing a superheat measuring device comprising a computer platform having a stored computer program including of models, each of said models defining vapor pressure values of the refrigerants at a plurality of vapor temperature points;
• selecting the model corresponding to said one refrigerant;
• measuring the temperature of the refrigerant and transmitting a first temperature signal proportional to the sensed temperature to the computer platform;
• measuring the pressure of the refrigerant and transmitting a pressure signal proportional to the sensed pressure to the computer platform;
• comparing said pressure signal to said model to define a vapor temperature value;
• computing the difference between said first temperature signal and said vapor temperature value to determine a super heat value;
• displaying said computed super heat value;
• comparing said computed super heat value with the ideal super heat value;
• and
• adjusting the performance of the air conditioning unit.

Apparatus for optimizing the performance of an air conditioning system, the air conditioning system containing one of a plurality of refrigerants, the refrigerant having an ideal super heat value when the refrigerant is between the evaporator and the compressor of the air conditioning system, the apparatus comprising:

• first temperature sensing means for sensing the temperature of the refrigerant and transmitting a first temperature signal proportional to the sensed temperature;
• pressure sensing means for sensing the pressure of the refrigerant and transmitting a pressure signal proportional to the sensed pressure;
• a computer platform including data processor means for performing arithmetic and logic operations on digitized data, data storage means coupled to said data processor means, for storing digitized data including instruction data and operand data, first input means for supplying instruction data to said data processor means, second input means for receiving and digitizing said first temperature signal and said pressure signal, said second input means supplying said digitized first temperature signal and said digitized pressure signal to said data processor means, said data storage means containing a stored computer program including a plurality of models wherein each of said models defines the vapor pressure of one of the refrigerants at a plurality of vapor temperature points, input means for selecting a said model corresponding to the refrigerant, comparison means for comparing said digitized pressure signal to said model wherein said digitized pressure signal and said model define a vapor temperature value, and computing means for computing and transmitting a super heat value wherein said super heat value is the difference between said digitized first temperature signal and the vapor temperature value;
• and
• display means for receiving and displaying said computed super heat value;
• wherein said computed super heat value is compared with the ideal super heat value and the performance of the air conditioning unit thereby adjusted.