Patent ID: 8387411

Claim:
A refrigeration apparatus using a refrigerant operating in a supercritical range, the refrigeration apparatus comprising: a compression mechanism having a plurality of compression elements including a first-stage compression element and a second-stage compression element, the compression mechanism being configured and arranged to sequentially compress refrigerant in the first-stage compression element and then in the second-stage compression element; a heat source-side heat exchanger with air being used as a heat source; an expansion mechanism configured and arranged to depressurize the refrigerant; a usage-side heat exchanger; and an intercooler using air as a heat source, the intercooler being configured and arranged to cool refrigerant flowing through an intermediate refrigerant tube, the intermediate refrigerant tube drawing refrigerant discharged from the first-stage compression element into the second-stage compression, the intercooler being integrated with the heat source-side heat exchanger to form an integrated heat exchanger, the intercooler being disposed in an upper part of the integrated heat exchanger, and the intercooler being disposed in an upper upwind part, with the upper upwind part being a section in the upper part of the integrated heat exchanger arranged upwind relative to the flow direction of the air use as the heat source, the heat source-side heat exchanger having a plurality of high temperature heat transfer channels and plurality of low temperature heat transfer channels, the high and low temperature heat transfer channels being arranged vertically in multiple columns, the high-temperature heat transfer channels being disposed in a downwind part, the downwind part being a section in the heat transfer channels arranged farther downwind than the intercooler relative to the flow direction of the air used as the heat source, the low-temperature heat transfer channels being disposed in a lower upwind part, the lower upwind part being a section in a lower part of the intercooler arranged upwind of the high-temperature heat transfer channels relative to the flow direction of the air as the heat source, the number of low-temperature heat transfer channels being less than the number of high-temperature heat transfer channels, and due to the configuration of the heat source-side heat exchanger, refrigerant fed from the high-temperature heat transfer channels to the low-temperature heat transfer channels flows into the low-temperature heat transfer channels after being mixed in a number of flow paths equal the number of low-temperature heat transfer channels.