Emergency power generation system
AssigneeCarrier Corporation
InventorJoost J. Brasz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a comfort system having a combination furnace and air conditioner, the two are operated simultaneously at periods of time in which emergency power is desired, with the air conditioning system being temporarily converted to cause the flow of refrigerant to pass from the evaporator to a high pressure side of said compressor rather than to the low pressure side thereof to thereby drive the compressor in reverse such that it operates as a turbine. The turbine then drives its motor in reverse to generate power to be supplied to the various components of the systems and to other appliances during emergency mode operation.
Claims15
A comfort system for heating or cooling air by the selective circulation of air over a furnace heat exchanger or over an air conditioning evaporator coil comprising:
- a heating system for circulating hot gases through the heat exchanger;
- an air conditioning system for circulating refrigerant through an evaporator coil, a compressor, a condenser and an expansion valve;
- an activation control for simultaneously operating said heating and air conditioning systems to cause a combined heating of the air circulated thereover;
- and
- flow control apparatus for causing the flow of refrigerant to pass from said evaporator to a high pressure side of said compressor such that said compressor is driven in reverse to function as a turbine.
A method operating a comfort system having a heating system and a cooling system, the heating system having a heat exchanger through which hot gases are circulated and over which air is circulated to be heated, and the cooling system having in serial flow relationship a motor driven compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve and an evaporator coil, said heat exchanger and said evaporator coil both being in the path of the circulated air, comprising the steps of:
- causing said comfort system to operate such that circulated air passes over both said heat exchanger to be heated and over said evaporator coil;
- and
- changing the flow of refrigerant into said compressor from a low pressure side thereof to a high pressure side thereof so as to cause it to operate in reverse as a turbine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.