Patent ID: 8769968

Claim:
A refrigerant system, comprising: an outdoor heat exchanger disposed in an operating loop of the refrigerant system and configured to perform a heat exchange between outdoor air and a refrigerant; a compressor disposed in the operating loop and configured to compress the refrigerant; an indoor heat exchanger disposed in the operating loop and configured to perform a heat exchange between indoor air and the refrigerant; an expander disposed in the operating loop and configured to expand the refrigerant; a refrigerant storage connected to the operating loop and configured to receive and store the refrigerant from and discharge the refrigerant to the operating loop; and a refrigerant storage controller configured to control a total amount of refrigerant in the operating loop based on an indoor air conditioning load and an amount of the stored refrigerant, and wherein if the indoor air conditioning load is less than a reference load and if the amount of the stored refrigerant is greater than a first reference amount, then the refrigerant storage controller controls the total amount of refrigerant in the operating loop to be increased.