Patent ID: 6070420
Filing Date: 2000-06-06
Classification: F04C,F25B

Abstract:
A heat pump system comprising:an indoor primary coil;an outdoor primary coil;a compressor;a suction accumulator feeding the input of said compressor;means for alternatively directing the effluent of said compressor to said outdoor coil and for directing effluent of said indoor coil to said suction accumulator so that said outdoor coil serves as a condenser, said indoor coil serves as an evaporator and said heat pump system operates in a cooling mode, or for directing the effluent of said compressor to said indoor coil and the effluent of said outdoor coil to said suction accumulator so that said indoor coil serves as a condenser, said outdoor coil serves as an evaporator, and said heat pump system operates in a heating mode; andmeans for selectively expanding the effluent flowing from the one of said coils serving as condenser to the one of said coils serving as evaporator;characterized by the improvement comprising:a storage tank, a rectification column feeding said storage tank, and a phase separator disposed at the inlet of said rectification column;means for selectively diverting some of the effluent from the one of said coils serving as evaporator to said phase separator, and contemporaneously connecting the vapor outlet of said phase separator with the inlet of said suction accumulator, whereby to separate a portion of the low pressure component of said effluent from the effluent operating in said system and hold said portion in said storage tank, andvalve means for totally isolating said tank, said column and said separator from the rest of said system, thereby trapping said portion in said tank.