Abstract:
A refrigerant system includes a compressor, an evaporator, an expansion valve, an accumulator or equivalent, one or more earth loops, and auxiliary heat removal means. The auxiliary means comprises a fan and fan coil and the fan forces air between multiple tubes of the fan coil to remove unwanted heat from the hot vapor exiting the compressor.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/717,353, filed on Oct. 23, 2012 the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference their entirety. 
     
    
       [0002]    The present invention relates to the field of a refrigerant-to-air device that works in conjunction with earth-coupled heat pumps, to dissipate a portion of the heat otherwise intended to be rejected in the earth. 
     
    
     
         [0003]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of the components, the refrigerant circuit, and the electrical connections. 
       
    
    
       [0004]    In  FIG. 1 , the parts are numbered as follows:
         10  . . . Compressor     12  . . . Auxiliary Cooling Module (ACM)     27  . . . Electronic Motor Control Unit (EMCU)     11 ,  13 ,  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and  22  . . . Refrigerant conduits     14  and  15  . . . Earth loop conduits     17  . . . Expansion Valve or Liquid Flow Control     19  . . . Evaporator     21  . . . Accumulator or Active Charge Control     29  . . . Temperature Sensor     30  . . . Pressure Sensor     23  . . . Wiring from temperature sensor to EMCU     24  . . . Wiring from pressure sensor to EMCU     25  . . . Power cable from the EMCU to blower inside the ACM     28  . . . Surface of Earth.       
 
         [0019]    In  FIG. 2 , the parts are numbered as follows:
         35  . . . Fan coil     36  . . . Inlet manifold     37  . . . Outlet manifold     38  . . . Refrigerant tubing     39  . . . Refrigerant outlet       
 
         [0025]    In  FIG. 3 , the parts are numbered as follows:
         50  . . . Fan and Fan coil arrangement     51  . . . Fan motor     53  . . . Fan blades     37  . . . Side view of Fan coil outlet manifold     39  . . . Fan coil outlet.       
 
         [0031]    In  FIG. 4 , additional parts are:
         31  . . . Refrigerant-to-water heat exchanger     32  . . . Water circulating pump     33  . . . Underground water loop       
 
         [0035]    In  FIG. 5 , additional parts are:
         36  . . . Power cable from wattage sensor to EMCU     34  . . . Power inlet cable     35  . . . Wattage sensor     36  . . . Wiring from wattage sensor to EMCU     37  . . . Power cable from wattage sensor to compressor       
 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0041]    The operation of the system is a follows: 
         [0042]    With reference to  FIG. 1 , the unwanted heat is absorbed by the refrigerant in the evaporator  19 . The refrigerant is then drawn through Active Charge Control (ACC)  21 , and on to the compressor  10 , via conduits  20  and  22 . The hot compressed vapor then leaves the compressor through conduit  11  to the Auxiliary Cooling Module (ACM)  12 . The ACM removes superheat from the refrigerant vapor, and the heated vapor proceeds onward to earth loop  14  and  15 , where the remaining heat is dissipated within the earth  28 , where the vapor is condensed back to liquid refrigerant. The liquid then flows via conduit  16  to the Liquid Flow Control (LFC)  17 , which regulates the amount of refrigerant required by the evaporator  19 . The refrigerant then flows on to the evaporator  19  via conduit  18  to complete the cycle. The LFC  17  and the ACC  21  work in concert to require the condenser (earth loop  14 , and  15 ) to be fully condensing and the evaporator  19  fully wetted, such that all inactive liquid refrigerant resides in the ACC, and an optimum amount of refrigerant is in active circulation under all operating conditions, and the ACC provides storage for inactive liquid refrigerant to provide for all operating conditions, plus any desired amount of reserve refrigerant charge. 
         [0043]    Pressure sensor  30  transmits a pressure signal via wiring  24  to The Electronic Motor Control Unit (EMCU)  27 , or temperature sensor  29  transmits a temperature signal via wiring  23  to the EMCU  27 . The purpose of the EMCU  27  is to turn the fan motor  51  on or off and modulate the electrical power that enters the EMCU by power entrance cable  26  and then flows from the EMCU via power cable  25  to a fan within the ACM  12 . Within the EMCU is an electronic control (not shown), that uses pressure or temperature signals to regulate the speed of the fan motor  51  by controlling the amount of electrical power that flows on to the fan within the ACM. The electronic control modules are off-the-shelf modules that are generally readily available, leaving no need to describe the details of such modules. The amount of power delivered to the fan may vary from zero (off) to full power, thus allowing the ACM  12  to remove the optimum amount of unwanted heat from the hot vapor, to achieve a predictable system capacity and efficiency. Improving efficiency by use of the ACM can allow fewer earth loops for a given system capacity, which can result in a reduced overall system cost. 
         [0044]    Alternatively, the LFC  17  may be replaced with other expansion devices such as a capillary tube, TXV (Thermostatic expansion valve), or a fixed orifice, and the ACC  21  may be replaced with a liquid/vapor separator such as an accumulator. For a system with these refrigerant controls, it is necessary to calculate a fixed refrigerant charge for the system, the amount of charge that will provide the best average efficiency as the systems operates through the whole range of operating conditions. 
         [0045]    With reference to  FIG. 2 , the Fan coil  35  receives hot vapor at inlet manifold  36 , then the hot vapor flows through multiple tubes  38 , where air blowing between the tubes absorbs and removes heat. The tubes may be finned (not shown) for maximum heat removal. The vapor flows from the tubes into outlet manifold  37 , and exits the Fan coil at exit stub  39 . 
         [0046]      FIG. 3  is a side view of Fan and Fan coil  50 , viewed from the exit manifold  37  side of the Fan coil. The fan motor  51  rotates the fan blades  53 , to force air through the fan coil  35  ( FIG. 2 ). The refrigerant vapor exits the fan coil at exit stub  39 . 
         [0047]    With reference to  FIG. 4 , another embodiment of the invention dissipates the unwanted heat into the earth by way of a heat exchanger  31  and water loop circuit. In this configuration, the hot vapor leaving the ACM  12  is conveyed via conduit  12  to the primary side of heat exchanger  31 , wherein the vapor is condensed back to a liquid and the liquid refrigerant proceeds via conduit  16  to the expansion valve  17 , to complete the cycle. The unwanted heat is transferred to the secondary side of the heat exchanger. A water loop circuit consists of the secondary side of the heat exchanger  31 , a circulating pump  32 , and underground water loop  33 . The pump  32  circulates water, or glycol or some other liquid through the circuit, thereby transferring the unwanted heat into the earth  28 . 
         [0048]    Yet another embodiment of the invention is shown in  FIG. 5 . All the components in  FIG. 4  remain, and components  34 ,  35 ,  36 , and  37  are added. In  FIGS. 1 and 4 , the function of holding the compressor output temperature and/or pressure to or below a desired limit, is provided by automatically or manually controlling the speed of the fan motor  51 . The configuration of  FIG. 5  further provides the function of automatically controlling the fan to a speed that results in the lowest power consumption incurred by the system. Power for the system enters through power cable  34 , and proceeds through wattage sensor  35  to the EMCU  27  via electric power cable  26 , and to the compressor  10 , via power cable  37 . Wattage sensor  35  then sends a signal representing the total power usage to the EMCU via wiring  36 . 
         [0049]    With this configuration, the EMCU is set to maintain a fan speed that gives the lowest system wattage input. When the pressure and/or temperature sensor reaches the desired limit, the EMCU will then respond to control the fan such that the desired limit is not exceeded. When the pressure and temperature are below the set limit, the AMCU will adjust the fan speed to a speed that reduces the total wattage to the system to a minimum, but not to a speed that allows the temperature or pressure to rise above the desired limits.