Patent ID: 8413456

Claim:
A refrigeration apparatus in which to refrigerant piping including liquid-side piping and gas-side piping installed between the indoor side and the outdoor side, a plurality of indoor units each including an indoor expansion valve and an indoor heat exchanger are connected in parallel on the indoor side and a plurality of outdoor units each including a compressor, a directional control valve, an outdoor heat exchanger, an outdoor expansion valve, and an accumulator are connected in parallel on the outdoor side; and each of the outdoor units is provided with a hot gas bypass circuit which includes a solenoid valve and an expansion mechanism arranged in series, and is connected between high-pressure piping on the discharge side of the compressor and low-pressure piping on the accumulator side, wherein if a shortage of refrigerant occurs in the refrigerant piping when air cooling operation is performed in a state in which at least only one outdoor unit of the plurality of outdoor units is operated and other outdoor units are not operated, the solenoid valves of the outdoor units not being operated are opened so that the refrigerant accumulating in the outdoor heat exchangers of the outdoor units not being operated is supplied to the gas-side piping of the refrigerant piping via the hot gas bypass circuit and the low-pressure piping, and the connecting part of the low-pressure piping to which the hot gas bypass circuit is connected is tilted so that the refrigerant supplied via the hot gas bypass circuit does not flow to the accumulator side on account of gravity.