Patent ID: 8297073

Claim:
A refrigeration system comprising: a heat source unit, said heat source unit comprising: a compressor to which a low-pressure gas line is connected; a heat-source side heat exchanger whose one end communicates with the compressor and another end is connected to a liquid line; and a sub-circuit whose one end is connected to the liquid line and another end is connected to the low-pressure gas line, wherein the compressor, the low-pressure gas line, the heat-source side heat exchanger, and the liquid line constitute a portion of a main circuit of a refrigerant circuit, the sub-circuit is separated from the main circuit, and stores refrigerant in the main circuit, the sub-circuit includes: a sub-passageway whose one end is connected to the liquid line and another end is connected to the low-pressure gas line; a refrigerant regulator provided on the sub-passageway and storing refrigerant in the main circuit; and a switch mechanism configured to establish and block communication between the refrigerant regulator and each of the liquid line and the low-pressure gas line, the main circuit of the refrigerant circuit is configured by connecting a utilization unit including a utilization side heat exchanger to the heat source unit, the refrigeration system includes a refrigerant-amount controlling device configured to control the switch mechanism such that when an amount of refrigerant in the main circuit is excessive, redundant refrigerant in the main circuit is stored in the refrigerant regulator, and the refrigerant-amount controlling device being configured to determine whether an amount of refrigerant in the main circuit is excessive or not, based on a degree of supercooling in one of the heat-source side heat exchanger and the utilization side heat exchanger which serves as a condenser.