Patent ID: 6434959
Filing Date: 2002-08-20
Classification: F25B

Abstract:
An air conditioner including a compressor, a four-way valve, an outdoor heat exchanger, a pressure-reducing mechanism, an indoor heat exchanger and an accumulator which are successively connected to one another to construct a loop-like refrigerant circuit, non-azeotropic mixture refrigerant composed of first refrigerant having a high boiling point and second refrigerant having a low boiling point being filled in the refrigerant circuit and the flow of the non-azeotropic mixture refrigerant being inverted between cooling operation and heating operation by operating the four-way valve, characterized in that when one of said outdoor heat exchanger and said indoor heat exchanger serves as an evaporator, the first refrigerant of the non-azeotropic mixture refrigerant is stocked in said accumulator while the second refrigerant of the non-azeoptropic mixture refrigerant is circulated in said refrigerant circuit, thereby mixture refrigerant is stocked in said accumulator while the second refrigerant of the non-azeotropic mixture refrigerant is circulated in:said refrigerant circuit, thereby increasing the refrigerant pressure in the evaporator, wherein said pressure-reducing mechanism comprises an expansion valve, and the stock of the first refrigerant into said accumulator is-performed by increasing the value opening degree of said expansion valve when the temperature of the refrigerant flowing in said indoor heat exchanger is equal to a first predetermined temperature or less, wherein when the temperature of the refrigerant flow in said indoor heat exchanger is equal to a second predetermined temperature or less, the second predetermined temperature being lower than the first predetermined temperature, the number of revolution of an indoor fan for blowing air to said indoor hear exchanger is increased to increase the pressure of the refrigerant in said evaporator.