Snow ice cooling system

Abstract

To provide a snow ice cooling system that facilitates maintenance.SOLUTION: A snow ice cooling system 30 cools a room 5 of a building 1 by using cold energy of snow ice 14 stored in a snow storage 10. The snow ice cooling system 30 comprises: a room side heat exchanger 31 installed in the room 5; an annular pipeline 32 through which a refrigerant 34 for supplying the cold energy of the snow ice 14 to the room side heat exchanger 31 passes; and a pump 33 connected to the pipeline 32, and for circulating the refrigerant 34 along the pipeline 32. A portion of the pipeline 32 is embedded in a concrete floor 16 of the snow storage 10.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a snow and ice cooling system that uses the cold energy of snow and ice stored in a snow room to cool rooms in a building. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, a snow and ice cooling system has been known as an air conditioning system used in buildings constructed in areas where snow accumulates in the winter. The snow and ice cooling system stores the snow and ice that accumulates in the winter in a snow room, and when the season when air conditioning is needed arrives, it uses the cold energy of the snow and ice stored in the snow room to cool the rooms of the building, such as the living rooms, thereby saving energy.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a snow and ice cooling system in which cold water that accumulates on the floor as snow and ice stored in a snow room melts is circulated by a pump in a circulation path connected between a water intake and a supply port, and the cold energy of the snow and ice contained in the cold water is supplied to air conditioning equipment installed in the room via a heat exchanger, thereby cooling the room. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2016-194378 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, in the conventional snow and ice cooling system described above, as the snow and ice in the snow room melts, cold water that accumulates on the floor is taken in through a water intake and circulated in a circulation path, so there is a risk that foreign matter contained in the snow and ice may enter the circulation path through the water intake and interfere with the circulation of the cold water, and there is a problem in that the maintenance required to prevent this is complicated.

[0006] The present invention has been made in consideration of these problems, and its purpose is to provide a snow and ice cooling system that is easy to maintain. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The snow and ice cooling system of the present invention is a snow and ice cooling system that cools rooms of a building by utilizing the cold energy of snow and ice stored in a snow room, and is characterized in that it comprises a room-side heat exchanger installed in the room, a circular pipeline through which a refrigerant passes to supply the cold energy of the snow and ice to the room-side heat exchanger, and a pump connected to the pipeline for circulating the refrigerant along the pipeline, with a portion of the pipeline being buried in the concrete floor of the snow room.

[0008] In the snow and ice cooling system of the present invention, in the above configuration, a dam is preferably provided around the floor.

[0009] In the snow and ice cooling system of the present invention, in the above-mentioned configuration, it is preferable that the snow room is provided in a separate building of the building from the main building in which the room is provided.

[0010] In the snow and ice cooling system of the present invention, in the above configuration, it is preferable that the system has a plurality of pipe systems corresponding to a plurality of areas of the floor. Effect of the Invention

[0011] According to the present invention, a snow and ice cooling system that is easy to maintain can be provided. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a plan view showing an outline of a building equipped with a snow and ice cooling system according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] This is a side view of the part of the building shown in Figure 1 where the snow room is installed. [Diagram 3] This is a plan view of the snow room shown in Figure 1. [Figure 4]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. [Diagram 5] 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of the configuration of a snow and ice cooling system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 6] FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the arrangement of multiple pipe systems buried in the floor. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A snow and ice cooling system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0014] 1 and 2 is an example of a building in which a snow and ice cooling system according to an embodiment of the present invention is installed, and is used as a logistics center. This building 1 is, for example, made of RCS and is built in an area where snow accumulates in the winter.

[0015] The building 1 has a building main body 2 and a slope portion 3.

[0016] The main building 2 has multiple floors, and an entrance 4 for vehicles (not shown) such as trucks is provided on the second floor. Although not shown in detail, the inside of the main building 2 is provided with a space (not shown) for vehicles entering through the entrance 4 to load and unload cargo, a space for storing luggage, and the like.

[0017] 1, a room 5 is provided inside the building main body 2. The room 5 may be, for example, a room used as a break room or an electrical room in which electrical equipment is installed, but is not limited to these.

[0018] The slope section 3 is provided on the side of the portion of the building body 2 where the entrance / exit 4 is provided. The slope section 3 is constructed separately from the building body 2 and is a separate building from the building body 2. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the slope section 3 forms a roadway 7 between a road 6 provided within the site of the building 1 and the entrance / exit 4. More specifically, the slope section 3 has an inclined section 3a where the roadway 7 is inclined, and a connecting section 3b where the roadway 7 is horizontal at a height corresponding to the entrance / exit 4 and connects the inclined section 3a and the entrance / exit 4. Vehicles such as trucks can travel between the road 6 and the entrance / exit 4 through the roadway 7 of the slope section 3.

[0019] A snow room 10 is provided in the building 1. In this embodiment, the snow room 10 is provided in the slope section 3. More specifically, the snow room 10 is provided inside the connection section 3b of the slope section 3. The snow room 10 is used as a storage facility for storing snow and ice.

[0020] As shown in Figures 3 and 4, snow room 10 has an entrance 11 on the side facing away from inclined portion 3a of slope section 3, and entrance 11 is provided with a shutter 12 for opening and closing. Entrance 11 is large enough for a bulldozer 13 to enter and exit, so that snow and ice 14 that has accumulated on the grounds of building 1 during the snowfall period can be carried into snow room 10 by bulldozer 13. Snow room 10 is preferably constructed so that its walls, shutters, etc. have high thermal insulation properties so that snow and ice 14 can be stored for long periods of time.

[0021] The snow room 10 may be configured with a sight window 15 for visually checking the inside of the snow room 10 from outside the snow room 10. In this embodiment, the sight window 15 is provided adjacent to the entrance / exit 11. It is preferable to use argon-filled double-glazed glass, which has high thermal insulation properties, for the sight window 15.

[0022] The floor 16 of the snow room 10 is made of concrete. In this embodiment, the concrete floor 16 is constructed by pouring a concrete slab on top of the reinforced concrete foundation beams 17 of the slope section 3.

[0023] In this embodiment, a dam 18 is provided around the periphery of the floor 16 of the snow room 10. By providing the dam 18 around the periphery of the floor 16, cold water 19 produced by melting the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 is allowed to accumulate on the floor 16 of the snow room 10 within the range of the height of the dam 18.

[0024] A slope-shaped climbing over slope 20 may be provided in a portion of the floor 16 of the snow room 10 adjacent to the entrance 11 so that the bulldozer 13 can easily climb over the dam 18. In this case, a portion of the dam 18 may be constituted by the climbing over slope 20.

[0025] The snow room 10 is provided with a storage tank 21 outside the area enclosed by the dam 18. The storage tank 21 can store cold water 19 that overflows from the floor 16 of the snow room 10 and over the dam 18. The storage tank 21 is provided with a discharge pump 22 (see FIG. 5) that discharges cold water 19 to the outside of the storage tank 21 when a predetermined amount or more of cold water 19 accumulates in the storage tank 21.

[0026] A snow and ice cooling system 30 according to one embodiment of the present invention cools a room 5 of a building 1 by utilizing the cold energy of snow and ice 14 stored in a snow room 10. As shown in Fig. 5, the snow and ice cooling system 30 has a room-side heat exchanger 31, a circular pipe 32, and a pump 33.

[0027] The room-side heat exchanger 31 is an indoor unit of the air-conditioning system. In this embodiment, the room-side heat exchanger 31 is a fan coil unit. As shown in Fig. 1, the room-side heat exchanger 31 is installed in a room 5 of a building 1, and can exchange cold energy supplied from outside (cold energy of snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 supplied by a refrigerant 34, as described below) with the air inside the room 5 to cool the inside of the room 5.

[0028] The annular pipe 32 is passed through by a refrigerant 34 for supplying the cold energy of the snow and ice 14 to the room-side heat exchanger 31. In other words, the annular pipe 32 constitutes a circulation path for the refrigerant 34. The annular pipe 32 may be configured using, for example, a double-walled polyethylene pipe, but may also be configured using a pipe (pipe) made of another material. The refrigerant 34 may be, for example, a liquid such as antifreeze, but is not limited to this.

[0029] A part of the annular pipeline 32 is an embedded section 32a, which is embedded in the concrete floor 16 of the snow room 10. It is preferable that the embedded section 32a is disposed over the entire area inside the weir 18 of the floor 16. The refrigerant 34 passing through the inside of the annular pipeline 32 is cooled in the embedded section 32a embedded in the floor 16 through the concrete floor 16 by the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 or by the cold water 19 accumulated in the floor 16 as the snow and ice 14 melts. In other words, the refrigerant 34 passing through the inside of the annular pipeline 32 can receive cold energy from the snow and ice 14 in the embedded section 32a embedded in the floor 16.

[0030] The pump 33 is connected to the annular pipe 32. The pump 33 is capable of pumping the refrigerant 34 inside the annular pipe 32 and circulating it along the pipe 32 in one direction.

[0031] In this embodiment, a heat exchanger 35 is provided between the room-side heat exchanger 31 and the annular pipe 32. That is, the annular pipe 32 is connected to the heat exchanger 35 at a non-buried portion 32b that is not buried in the floor 16. On the other hand, the room-side heat exchanger 31 is connected to the heat exchanger 35 by a circulation path 36 in which a refrigerant (not shown), such as antifreeze, circulates. A pump 37 is connected to the circulation path 36, and the refrigerant in the circulation path 36 is pumped by the pump 37 to circulate inside the circulation path 36. Therefore, the cold energy of the refrigerant 34 circulating in the annular pipe 32 is transferred by the heat exchanger 35 to the refrigerant circulating in the circulation path 36, and is supplied to the room-side heat exchanger 31 via the refrigerant.

[0032] The circulation path 36 has a coil section 36a inside the room-side heat exchanger 31 configured as a fan coil, and can exchange heat with the air inside the room 5 in the coil section 36a. This allows the room 5 to be cooled by cold energy supplied to the room-side heat exchanger 31 from the snow and ice 14 in the snow room 10 via the refrigerant 34 circulating in the circular pipe 32. A fan 38 is provided inside the room-side heat exchanger 31, and the fan 38 sends the air inside the room 5 to the coil section 36a, promoting heat exchange with the air in the room 5 in the coil section 36a.

[0033] The pump 33 connected to the annular pipe 32 and the pump 37 connected to the circulation path 36 are each connected to a control device 39. The control device 39 is configured by, for example, a microcomputer, and can control the operation of the pump 33 and the pump 37 individually.

[0034] According to the snow and ice cooling system 30 of this embodiment, by having the above-mentioned configuration, the cold energy of the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 can be supplied to the room-side heat exchanger 31 via a refrigerant 34 circulating through a ring-shaped pipe 32 whose buried section 32a is buried in the floor 16 of the snow room 10, thereby cooling the room 5 in which the room-side heat exchanger 31 is installed.

[0035] Furthermore, in the snow and ice cooling system 30 of this embodiment, as described above, cold energy is transmitted between the circular pipe 32 buried in the floor 16 of the snow room 10 at the buried portion 32a and the circulation path 36 of the room-side heat exchanger 31 via the heat exchanger 35. Therefore, by individually controlling the operation of the pumps 33 and 37 using the control device 39 and individually adjusting the flow rate of the refrigerant 34 flowing through the circular pipe 32 and the flow rate of the refrigerant flowing through the circulation path 36, it becomes possible to more easily cool or adjust the temperature of the room 5 using the room-side heat exchanger 31.

[0036] The snow and ice cooling system 30 may be configured without the heat exchanger 35, with the annular pipe 32 directly connected to or integrated with the circulation path 36 of the room-side heat exchanger 31.

[0037] Here, in the snow and ice cooling system 30 according to this embodiment, the refrigerant 34 that receives cold energy from the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 is circulated through the annular pipeline 32, and the buried portion 32a, which is a part of the annular pipeline 32, is buried in the concrete floor 16 of the snow room 10. With this configuration, the cold energy of the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 is transferred to the refrigerant 34 passing through the annular pipeline 32 via the concrete floor 16, which has high heat transfer efficiency, while the refrigerant 34 circulates only inside the annular pipeline 32, preventing foreign matter contained in the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 from entering the annular pipeline 32 and impeding the circulation of the refrigerant 34. This makes it unnecessary to carry out work such as removing blockages in the annular pipeline 32 caused by foreign matter, and facilitates maintenance of the snow and ice cooling system 30.

[0038] Furthermore, in the snow and ice cooling system 30 according to this embodiment, a weir 18 is provided around the floor 16 of the snow room 10, so that cold water 19 resulting from melting of the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 is stored inside the weir 18 of the floor 16. As a result, even if the melting of the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 progresses to a state where the snow and ice 14 is present only in a part of the floor 16, the cold energy of the snow and ice 14 can be transferred to the refrigerant 34 through the annular pipe 32 in the entire area inside the weir 18 of the floor 16 via the cold water 19 that has accumulated on the entire inside of the weir 18 of the floor 16. Therefore, the efficiency of recovering the cold energy of the snow and ice 14 in the snow and ice cooling system 30 according to this embodiment can be increased.

[0039] Furthermore, in the snow and ice cooling system 30 according to this embodiment, the snow room 10 for storing the snow and ice 14 is provided in the slope section 3 of the building 1, which is a separate building from the main building 2 in which the room 5 is provided. This makes it possible to prevent the weight of the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 from being added to the main building 2, even if the building 1 is provided with a snow room 10 for storing a large amount of snow and ice 14. This makes it unnecessary to reinforce the structure of the main building 2, thereby reducing costs.

[0040] As shown in Fig. 6, the snow and ice cooling system 30 according to this embodiment can also be configured to have multiple pipes 32 corresponding to multiple regions of the floor 16 of the snow room 10. In the case shown in Fig. 6, the annular pipe 32 is configured in two systems, with a first pipe 32A having an embedded portion 32a buried in a first region 16A occupying approximately half of the floor 16, and a second pipe 32B having an embedded portion 32a buried in a second region 16B occupying the remaining half of the floor 16. This allows the cold energy of the snow and ice 14 stored in the snow room 10 to be more efficiently recovered into the refrigerant 34 by each of the embedded portion 32a of the first pipe 32A and the embedded portion 32a of the second pipe 32B, thereby improving the cooling efficiency of the snow and ice cooling system 30.

[0041] The annular pipeline 32 may have only one system, or may have three or more systems when it has multiple systems. When the annular pipeline 32 has multiple systems, the areas of the floor 16 in which the pipelines 32 of each system are arranged are preferably the same, but may be different from each other.

[0042] The annular pipeline 32 or the first pipeline 32A and the second pipeline 32B of the multiple systems may be configured in such a way that the multiple loop-shaped portions are arranged in a straight line so that some of them overlap each other and are connected in series, as shown in Fig. 6. In this case, the annular pipeline 32 or the first pipeline 32A and the second pipeline 32B of the multiple systems are arranged on a wire mesh, and the multiple loop-shaped portions are fixed to the wire mesh, thereby preventing the multiple loop portions from floating up or shifting in position before being buried inside the floor 16. With this configuration, the annular pipeline 32 can efficiently recover the cold energy of the snow and ice 14.

[0043] The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

[0044] For example, in the above embodiment, the building 1 is used as a logistics center, but this is not limited to this, and it may be used for other purposes as long as it has a snow room 10 and a room 5 to be air-conditioned.

[0045] In addition, in this embodiment, the snow room 10 is provided in the slope section 3 which is a separate building from the main building 2, but this is not limited to this and the snow room 10 may be provided in the main building 2.

[0046] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, a room-side heat exchanger 31 is provided in only one room 5 of the building 1, but a room-side heat exchanger 31 may be provided in each of multiple rooms 5 of the building 1, and these multiple rooms 5 may be cooled by the room-side heat exchanger 31.

[0047] Furthermore, the range in which buried portion 32a of annular pipeline 32 in floor 16 is buried is not limited to the entire floor 16, and can be variously changed. Also, the arrangement or path of annular pipeline 32 inside floor 16 can be variously changed. [Explanation of symbols]

[0048] 1. Building 2. Main building 3. Slope section 3a Slope 3b Connection 4 Entrance / Exit 5 rooms 6 road 7 roadway 10 Snow Room 11 Entrance / Exit 12 Shutter 13. Bulldozer 14 Snow and Ice 15. Peephole 16 Beds 16A 1st area 16B 2nd area 17 Foundation beam 18 Weir 19 Cold water 20. Overpass Hill 21 Reservoir 22 Discharge pump 30 Snow and ice cooling system 31 Room side heat exchanger 32 Conduit 32a Buried part 32b Non-buried part 32A 1st pipeline 32B 2nd conduit 33 Pump 34 Refrigerants 35 Heat exchanger 36 Circulation path 36a Coil section 37 Pump 38 Fans 39 Control device

Claims

1. A snow and ice cooling system that uses the cold energy of snow and ice stored in a snow room to cool rooms in a building. A room-side heat exchanger installed in the room; a circular pipe through which a refrigerant passes to supply the cold energy of the snow and ice to the room-side heat exchanger; a pump connected to the pipeline for circulating the refrigerant along the pipeline; A snow and ice cooling system characterized in that a portion of the piping is buried in the concrete floor of the snow room.

2. The snow and ice cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising a dam around the periphery of the floor.

3. The snow and ice cooling system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the snow room is provided in a separate building of the building from a main building in which the room is provided.

4. The snow and ice cooling system according to claim 1 or 2, comprising a plurality of pipe systems corresponding to a plurality of areas of the floor.

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