Patent ID: 6062035
Filing Date: 2000-05-16
Classification: F24F,F25B,F25D,Y02E

Abstract:
An air conditioner comprising:a main refrigerant circuit which is formed in a manner that a heat source-side heat exchanger and a user-side heat exchanger are at least connected through a refrigerant pipe and in which refrigerant is circulated in a manner to be condensed in one of the heat exchangers and to be evaporated in the other heat exchanger;heat source means for applying heat to refrigerant, in the heat source-side heat exchanger of the main refrigerant circuit; andrefrigerating means for refrigerant transfer which is formed such that a compressor, a first sub-heat exchanger, an expansion mechanism and a second sub-heat exchanger are connected in this order and forms a single refrigerating cycle reciprocally operable in a manner that sub-refrigerant is condensed in one of the sub-heat exchangers and is evaporated in the other sub-heat exchanger and in which both the sub-heat exchangers are connected to some midpoint in a liquid line of the main refrigerant circuit and the sub-refrigerant cools and heats liquid refrigerant of the main refrigerant circuit thereby giving a moving force to the liquid refrigerant wherein the heat source-side heat exchanger and the user-side heat exchanger of the main refrigerant circuit (20) are at least placed in a higher position and a lower position, respectively,during a cooling operation, refrigerant in the main refrigerant circuit naturally circulates between the heat source-side heat exchanger and the user-side heat exchanger, andduring a heating operation, the refrigerating means for refrigerant transfer is driven so that the refrigerant in the main refrigerant circuit circulates between the heat source-side heat exchanger and the user-side heat exchanger.