Selective Refrigerant Cooling for Air Conditioner Power Elements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air conditioners face issues with dew condensation occurring at power elements and their surroundings, even when not in operation, due to uniform cooling by refrigerant circuits, leading to potential frosting and reduced efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The air conditioner incorporates a main refrigerant circuit and a sub refrigerant circuit with a cooling member, where refrigerant branched from the main circuit flows, and a pipe connects discharged compressor refrigerant to the cooling member, allowing for controlled refrigerant flow to prevent dew condensation by maintaining surface temperatures above the dew point.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If refrigerant flows uniformly through the cooling member to cool power elements, then the power elements are cooled effectively, but dew condensation occurs on stopped power elements and their peripheries
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces a sub-refrigerant circuit that selectively supplies refrigerant to specific cooling sections corresponding to operating power elements, while stopped power elements are excluded from refrigerant flow. This local differentiation prevents dew condensation on stopped elements while maintaining cooling of operating elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling member is divided into multiple cooling sections, each corresponding to a specific power element. The sub-refrigerant circuit enables selective refrigerant supply to individual cooling sections based on the operational status of corresponding power elements, preventing uniform cooling that causes dew condensation.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a branched refrigerant circuit is added to selectively cool power elements, then dew condensation is prevented, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the main refrigerant circuit with a sub-refrigerant circuit, where the sub-circuit branches from the main circuit to provide selective cooling. This integration allows the system to maintain a relatively simple overall structure while achieving selective refrigerant supply to prevent dew condensation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration reduces dew condensation at stopped power elements and their peripheries, preventing frosting and maintaining operational efficiency by adjusting refrigerant flow rates and temperatures.
Implementation Method 1
a cooling member (41) configured such that refrigerant branched from the main refrigerant circuit (4) flows in the cooling member (41) and configured such that refrigerant branched from the main refrigerant circuit (4) flows in the sub refrigerant circuit (6)
Implementation Method 2
refrigerant flowing in a refrigerant circuit (18) can be more efficiently performed
Data Source
AI summary
An air conditioner provided which has: a main refrigerant circuit including a compressor, a heat source side heat exchanger, a first expansion valve, and a utilization side heat exchanger and configured such that refrigerant flows in the main refrigerant circuit; a sub refrigerant circuit including a cooling member configured such that refrigerant branched from the main refrigerant circuit flows in the cooling member and configured such that refrigerant branched from the main refrigerant circuit flows in the sub refrigerant circuit; and a heat generator to be cooled by the cooling member, wherein a pipe in which part of refrigerant discharged from the compressor flows is connected to the cooling member of the sub refrigerant circuit.