Support system and support method
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing refrigerant systems in buildings often fail to ensure compliance with modern safety standards regarding maximum allowable refrigerant charge during updates, despite ensuring sufficient thermal load capacity.
Innovation Solution
A support system with a control unit that calculates the required refrigerant amount post-update, ensures it does not exceed safety standards, and presents optimal system configurations for updating refrigerant systems, including outdoor and indoor units, and refrigerant pipes, using ISO 5149 standards for safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If an air conditioner is selected based on thermal load capacity alone, then sufficient cooling and heating capacity is ensured, but compliance with maximum allowable refrigerant charge standards is not guaranteed
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes multiple parameters simultaneously - thermal load requirements, refrigerant charge limits, and system configuration options - to find optimal solutions that satisfy both capacity and safety constraints. The control unit calculates various system configurations with different refrigerant charges to meet both thermal and safety requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the refrigerant system into multiple components (outdoor units, indoor units, refrigerant pipes) and evaluates each component's contribution to both thermal capacity and refrigerant charge. This allows selective optimization of individual components to achieve overall system compliance.
2Power
If refrigerant system components are selected to meet thermal requirements, then adequate cooling and heating performance is achieved, but the refrigerant charge may exceed safety limits
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit calculates and compares multiple system configurations with varying refrigerant charge amounts, selecting configurations that achieve required thermal capacity while staying within safety limits. The system dynamically adjusts refrigerant charge parameters based on calculated thermal loads and safety constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The system calculates thermal loads and refrigerant charges with appropriate margins, ensuring sufficient capacity while preventing excessive refrigerant charge. This balanced approach avoids both under-sizing (insufficient capacity) and over-sizing (excessive refrigerant charge).
Data Source
AI summary
A support system supports update of a refrigerant system to which an outdoor unit, an indoor unit, and a refrigerant pipe connecting the outdoor unit and the indoor unit belong. The support system includes a processor that calculates a first amount, which is an amount of refrigerant charged in a refrigerant system after update, based on information related to at least one of the outdoor unit, the indoor unit, and the refrigerant pipe belonging to a refrigerant system before update. The processor acquires a second amount, which is the maximum allowable amount of refrigerant charged in the refrigerant system after update or a retention allowable amount. The processor supports update of a refrigerant system by presenting, as information related to the refrigerant system after update, information related to a refrigerant system in which the calculated first amount does not exceed the acquired second amount.