Geothermal air conditioning system

Abstract

Provided is a geothermal air conditioning system. The system includes a plurality of indoor units, at least one outdoor unit, a ground heat exchanger, and an auxiliary heat source. The plurality of indoor units condition indoor air, the at least one outdoor unit communicates with the indoor units via, a plurality of pipes, and includes an outdoor heat exchanger where heat exchange occurs, and a plurality of compressors for compressing coolant. The ground heat exchanger is connected with the outdoor heat exchanger of the outdoor unit, and laid under the ground to allow heat to be exchanged between ground heat and a circulating medium circulating through the ground heat exchanger. The auxiliary heat source is installed on one side of the outdoor unit to assist heat exchange of the outdoor heat exchanger.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to a geothermal air conditioning system, and more particularly, to an air conditioning system including a plurality of ground heat exchangers having a plurality of circulating pumps that can operate individually and selectively to perform heat exchange using ground heat, and including a plurality of compressors provided to an outdoor unit and selectively used depending on a load.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]Generally, an air conditioning system called an air conditioner a cooling / heating system for cooling an indoor space through repetition of sucking warm indoor air, exchanging heat with coolant of low temperature, and discharging the indoor space, or for heating the indoor space through a reverse operation. The air conditioning system provides a series of cycles of a compressor-condenser-expansion valve-evaporator.[0005]Also, recently, the air conditioning system also prov...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0022]A geothermal air conditioning system of the present invention is used for improving an air conditioning performance.

[0023]First, coolant at an outdoor heat exchanger provided to an outdoor unit exchanges heat using circulating medium such as water. The circulating medium exchanges heat with ground heat at a ground heat exchanger laid deep under the ground. Since the outdoor heat exchanger is a water-cooled heat exchanger where heat is exchanged between a circulating medium (water) and ground heat as described above, the outdoor heat exchanger of the present invention provides relatively higher thermal efficiency of COP and EER than that of a related art heat exchanger using air. Therefore, an air conditioning performance of the air conditioning system improves.

[0024]Second, the present invention provides a system for cooling or heating a circulating medium using an auxiliary heat source besides a ground heat exchanger that uses ground heat. Therefore, in the case where ground heat is insufficient in condensing or evaporating coolant at an outdoor heat exchanger, the auxiliary heat source operates to assist heating or cooling of a circulating medium. Therefore, there is an advantage that coolant can be evaporated or condensed using the auxiliary heat source even under an environment where ground heat is insufficient for the outdoor heat exchanger to evaporate or condense the coolant. That is, an air conditioning system according to the present invention exhibits a stable air conditioning performance, not affected by ground heat.

[0025]Third, a constant-speed compressor and an inverter compressor are provided according to the present invention, and selectively used depending on a size of a load. Therefore, since only the inverter compressor operates when a relatively low load is required, power is saved compared to the case where a high-capacity single compressor is used in a related art. That is, it is possible to prevent wasting power for driving a compressor in the case where a low load is required.

[0026]Fourth, a plurality of outdoor units, indoor units, and ground heat exchangers are provided, and a coolant distributor for distributing coolant and a circulation distributor for distributing a circulating medium are installed according to the present invention. Therefore, since only some of the indoor units, the outdoor units, and the ground heat exchangers can be used depending on a selection of a user or a set value of a control unit, energy is saved. That is, since an operation of unnecessary units is prevented, an energy efficiency improves.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, temperature of outside air is too low during a heating cycle, and too high during a cooling cycle in a heat exchange system using the air.

Therefore, great energy is consumed in absorbing and exhausting heat from coolant.

When temperature of outside air is not constant, it is difficult to stably operate a cooling cycle and a heating cycle due to abnormality of a heat source required for the heating / cooling cycles.

However, an air conditioning system using ground heat has lots of problems.

That is, despite advantages such as thermal efficiency improvement, the air conditioning system using ground heat still has a problem that stability and reliability of cooling / heating cycles decreases when coolant that has flowed through an outdoor heat exchanger after it exchanges heat in an indoor space does not sufficiently exhaust / absorb heat to / from the ground during cooling / heating cycles.

Also, since a related art air conditioning system uses only one compressor or pump for flowing of fluid such as coolant, the compressor or pump cannot be selectively used depending on capacity of a load.

Accordingly, power is wasted in the case where a relatively low load is required.

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