Monitoring refrigerant charge
First Claim
1. A method of monitoring an amount of refrigerant in a refrigerant system having an electric motor driven compressor, a condenser and an evaporator;
- determining a temperature difference between a saturation condensing temperature and a liquid refrigerant temperature of sub-cooled refrigerant; and
automatically determining a variance between the determined temperature difference and a desired temperature difference, and utilizing said variance to determine whether the amount of refrigerant in the refrigerant system is as desired.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An air conditioning, heating or refrigeration system includes a controller that automatically determines if refrigerant amount is above or below the desired amount within the system. In one example, a sensor measures the temperature difference between sub-cooled liquid and saturated condensing temperature and provides information to the controller. The controller determines a variance between the measured and an expected value. If that variance exceeds a selected threshold, the controller automatically determines that the amount of refrigerant in the system is outside of an acceptable range.
83 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of monitoring an amount of refrigerant in a refrigerant system having an electric motor driven compressor, a condenser and an evaporator;
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determining a temperature difference between a saturation condensing temperature and a liquid refrigerant temperature of sub-cooled refrigerant; and automatically determining a variance between the determined temperature difference and a desired temperature difference, and utilizing said variance to determine whether the amount of refrigerant in the refrigerant system is as desired. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 6, 15, 16, 17)
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5. A method of monitoring an amount of refrigerant in a refrigerant system having an electric motor driven compressor, a condenser and an evaporator;
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determining a temperature difference between a saturation condensing temperature and a liquid refrigerant temperature of sub-cooled refrigerant; and automatically determining a variance between the determined temperature difference and a desired temperature difference, including determining the temperature difference when the system is operating to provide heating.
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7. A refrigerant system, comprising:
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at least one sensor that provides an indication of a temperature difference between a saturation condensing temperature and a liquid refrigerant temperature of sub-cooled refrigerant; and a controller that uses the temperature difference to determine if the amount of refrigerant within the refrigerant system is different from a desired amount. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20)
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10. A refrigerant system comprising:
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at least one sensor that provides an indication of a temperature difference between a saturation condensing temperature and a liquid refrigerant temperature of sub-cooled refrigerant; and a controller that uses the temperature difference to determine if the amount of refrigerant is different from a desired amount, wherein the controller also uses at least one of a compressor free volume on a suction side, a compressor free volume on a discharge side, an oil amount in the compressor, a low side pressure, an outdoor temperature, an indoor dry bulb temperature, an indoor wet bulb temperature, a vapor saturated temperature, an amount of superheat at a compressor suction line, an electric motor size, an electric motor efficiency or a line voltage as a further indicator of the amount of refrigerant.
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Specification