Patent ID: 8091377

Claim:
A heat pump, comprising: at least one compressor; a plurality of indoor devices, wherein each of the plurality of indoor devices includes an indoor heat exchanger which operates as a condenser or evaporator to heat or cool a different indoor room; an outdoor device coupled to the plurality of indoor devices, wherein the outdoor device includes a plurality of outdoor heat exchangers, and wherein each of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operates as either a condenser or an evaporator; a divider that couples the outdoor device to the plurality of indoor devices through a plurality of valves; and a plurality of switching devices, wherein: each of the plurality of switching devices couples one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers to the at least one compressor, the plurality of switching devices controls a flow of refrigerant between the at least one compressor and the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers, each indoor heat exchanger is coupled to first and second valves, the first and second valves set to opposing states to control a direction of flow of refrigerant into the indoor heat exchanger, and arranged to return refrigerant passing through the indoor heat exchanger to the at least one compressor along a path that bypasses indoor heat exchangers of remaining ones of the indoor devices, when the heat pump operates in a cooling dominant mode for heating a first number of rooms while simultaneously cooling a second number of rooms greater than the first number, all of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operate as condensers, when the heat pump operates in the cooling dominant mode and a ratio of the plurality of indoor devices performing heating to the plurality of indoor devices performing cooling increases above a predetermined amount, at least one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers switches from operating as a condenser to operating as an evaporator, and when the at least one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operates as a condenser and at least one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operates as an evaporator, at least a portion of refrigerant discharged from the at least one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operating as a condenser is directly introduced into the at least one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operating as an evaporator in the cooling dominant mode without passing through the at least one compressor, and the other portion of refrigerant discharged from the at least one of the plurality of outdoor heat exchangers operating as a condenser is introduced into at least one of the indoor heat exchangers which operates as an evaporator.