Patent ID: 8261569

Claim:
An air conditioner, comprising: a compressor configured to compress refrigerant; an indoor heat exchanger configured to condense the refrigerant compressed by the compressor; an outdoor heat exchanger configured to evaporate the refrigerant condensed by indoor heat exchanger; a heater configured to transfer heat to the refrigerant condensed by the indoor heat exchanger; a first pipe between the indoor heat exchanger and the outdoor heat exchanger; a first connection pipe connecting the outdoor heat exchanger to the heater, a second connection pipe configured to selectively flow fluid from the first pipe to the heater; and a third connection pipe configured to flow the fluid from one of the heater and the compressor to the other one, wherein the first connection pipe is configured to selectively flow the fluid from the outdoor heat exchanger to the heater during a heating mode and to flow the fluid from the heater to the outdoor heat exchanger during a cooling mode.