Refrigerant charge management in a heat pump water heater
Abstract
Heat pumps that heat or cool a space and that also heat water, refrigerant management systems for such heat pumps, and methods of managing refrigerant charge. Various embodiments remove idle refrigerant from a heat exchanger that is not needed for transferring heat by opening a refrigerant recovery valve and delivering the idle refrigerant from the heat exchanger to an inlet port on the compressor. The heat exchanger can be isolated by closing an electronic expansion valve, actuating a refrigerant management valve, or both. Refrigerant charge can be controlled by controlling how much refrigerant is drawn from the heat exchanger, by letting some refrigerant back into the heat exchanger, or both. Heat pumps can be operated in different modes of operation, and various components can be interconnected with refrigerant conduit. Some embodiments deliver refrigerant gas to the heat exchanger and drive liquid refrigerant out prior to isolating the heat exchanger.
- Inventors:
- Issue Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1260403
- Patent Number(s):
- 9,383,126
- Application Number:
- 14/278,982
- Assignee:
- Nortek Global HVAC, LLC (O'Fallon, MO)
- Resource Type:
- Patent
- Resource Relation:
- Patent File Date: 2014 May 15
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; 42 ENGINEERING
Citation Formats
Chen, Jie, and Hampton, Justin W. Refrigerant charge management in a heat pump water heater. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web.
Chen, Jie, & Hampton, Justin W. Refrigerant charge management in a heat pump water heater. United States.
Chen, Jie, and Hampton, Justin W. Tue .
"Refrigerant charge management in a heat pump water heater". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1260403.
@article{osti_1260403,
title = {Refrigerant charge management in a heat pump water heater},
author = {Chen, Jie and Hampton, Justin W.},
abstractNote = {Heat pumps that heat or cool a space and that also heat water, refrigerant management systems for such heat pumps, and methods of managing refrigerant charge. Various embodiments remove idle refrigerant from a heat exchanger that is not needed for transferring heat by opening a refrigerant recovery valve and delivering the idle refrigerant from the heat exchanger to an inlet port on the compressor. The heat exchanger can be isolated by closing an electronic expansion valve, actuating a refrigerant management valve, or both. Refrigerant charge can be controlled by controlling how much refrigerant is drawn from the heat exchanger, by letting some refrigerant back into the heat exchanger, or both. Heat pumps can be operated in different modes of operation, and various components can be interconnected with refrigerant conduit. Some embodiments deliver refrigerant gas to the heat exchanger and drive liquid refrigerant out prior to isolating the heat exchanger.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {2016},
month = {7}
}