Air conditioning apparatus

An air conditioner including a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, a four-way valve least two expansion valves and an indoor heat exchanger, and controls for carrying out cooling and heating processes by switching circulation direction of a coolant through said four-way valve, one of said expansion valve effecting expansion of the coolant circulating from the outdoor exchanger to the indoor exchanger, and a second of said expansion valves effecting expansion of the coolant circulation from the indoor exchanger to the outdoor exchanger, the apparatus comprising:

• an indoor air exhaust chamber having the indoor heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between the coolant and air, an intake blower for supplying air in a room, and an indoor air outlet functioning as a channel through which the intake blower feeds air into the roam;
• an outdoor air exhaust chamber having the outdoor heat exchanger for performing heat exchange between the coolant and the air, an exhaust blower for exhausting the air, and an outdoor air outlet functioning as a channel through which the exhaust blower exhausts the air to the outdoors;
• an indoor air suction chamber connected to the indoor air exhaust chamber and the outdoor air exhaust chamber via an indoor air circulation damper and an indoor air exhaust damper, respectively, which are adjustable in opening ratio, and having an indoor air suction port functioning as a channel for introducing indoor air which is sucked under suction force of the intake blower and/or the exhaust blower;
• an outdoor air suction chamber connected to the indoor air exhaust chamber and the outdoor air exhaust chamber via an outdoor air feeding damper and an outdoor air exhaust damper, respectively, which are adjustable in opening ratio, and having an outdoor air suction port functioning ass channel for introducing outdoor air which is sucked under suction force of the exhaust blower and/or the intake blower;
• and
• a single housing for containing the indoor heat exhaust chamber, the outdoor air exhaust chamber, the indoor air auction chamber and the outdoor air suction chamber,
• said outdoor heat exchanger and said indoor heat exchanger each including:
• a pair of headers to which coolant conduits are connected, respectively, and a number of heat exchange tubes coupled between the headers for functioning as channels through which coolant introduced to one header is fed to the other header,
• hollow distribution each disposed between one of the indoor and outdoor heat exchangers and one of the two expansion valves, each distributor having a first end coupled to a coolant conduit and a second end coupled to a number of distribution tubes, and
• the distribution tubes of the distributor being coupled to ends of the heat exchange tubes of its respective heat exchanger, so as to form a coolant cycle so that coolant is distributed into corresponding ones of the heat exchange tubes via the coolant conduits of the respective distributor when introduced into the respective heat exchanger from the respective expansion valve, and discharged via the coolant conduits of each header when discharged toward the expansion valve vie the heat exchanger in the cooling and heating processes according to the switching of the four-way valves.