Frostless heat pump having thermal expansion valves

Patent · Tue Oct 22 04:00:00 EDT 2002

OSTI ID:874816

Chen, Fang C ^[1]; Mei, Viung C ^[2]

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1. Knoxville, TN
2. Oak Ridge, TN

A heat pump system having an operable relationship for transferring heat between an exterior atmosphere and an interior atmosphere via a fluid refrigerant and further having a compressor, an interior heat exchanger, an exterior heat exchanger, a heat pump reversing valve, an accumulator, a thermal expansion valve having a remote sensing bulb disposed in heat transferable contact with the refrigerant piping section between said accumulator and said reversing valve, an outdoor temperature sensor, and a first means for heating said remote sensing bulb in response to said outdoor temperature sensor thereby opening said thermal expansion valve to raise suction pressure in order to mitigate defrosting of said exterior heat exchanger wherein said heat pump continues to operate in a heating mode.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• Assignee: UT-Battelle, LLC (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Patent Number(s): 6,467,284
• OSTI ID: 874816
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

/62/
accumulator
atmosphere
bulb
compressor
contact
continues
defrosting
disposed
exchanger
expansion
exterior
fluid
frostless
heat
heat exchanger
heat pump
heat transfer
heating
interior
means
mitigate
mode
operable
operate
outdoor
piping
pressure
pump
raise
refrigerant
relationship
remote
response
reversing
section
sensing
sensor
suction
temperature
thermal
thermal expansion
transferable
transferring
transferring heat
valve
valves
via