Patent ID: 9546806
Date: 2017-01-17
CPC Classifications: F24F,F25B

Claim:
1. An air conditioner comprising a refrigerant circuit in which a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, an expansion valve, and an indoor heat exchanger are connected to one another, the air conditioner configured to perform a cooling operation in which the entirety of the indoor heat exchanger functions as an evaporation region and a dehumidification operation in which a part of the indoor heat exchanger functions as the evaporation region, wherein: the indoor heat exchanger includes a first part that functions as an auxiliary heat exchanger and a second part that functions as a main heat exchanger, the auxiliary heat exchanger being windward of the main heat exchanger, in the dehumidification operation, the compressor and the expansion valve are controlled so that a part of the auxiliary heat exchanger of the indoor heat exchanger that is in the vicinity of a liquid inlet functions as the evaporation region and a part of the auxiliary heat exchanger of the indoor heat exchanger that is downstream of the evaporation region and windward of the main heat exchanger functions as a superheat region, and so that an extent of the evaporation region varies depending on a load, the compressor, the outdoor heat exchanger, and the expansion valve are disposed in an outdoor unit; the indoor heat exchanger is disposed in an indoor unit; the expansion valve is configured so that its flow rate decreases with a decrease in its opening degree while the expansion valve is in a state close to a fully closed state, and is configured to be fully closable; an evaporation temperature detecting unit configured to detect an evaporation temperature is disposed in the outdoor unit downstream of the expansion valve; and the fully closed state of the expansion valve is detected based on the evaporation temperature detected by the evaporation temperature detecting unit.