BETTELLI GIAMPAOLO (IT)
| FR2339813A1 | 1977-08-26 | |||
| FR2516223A2 | 1983-05-13 | |||
| US5092134A | 1992-03-03 | |||
| GB1558563A | 1980-01-03 | |||
| DE4202204A1 | 1993-07-29 | |||
| DE2940079A1 | 1981-04-16 | |||
| US3996759A | 1976-12-14 | |||
| US4332137A | 1982-06-01 | |||
| GB2102929A | 1983-02-09 |
| 1. | Automatic machine (10) for heating and refrigerating of fluids comprising a control electronics for automatically carrying out the machine functions, characterised in that it is constituted by a first circuit for circulating a fluid including a first heat exchanger (17a, 17b) , a compressor (19) suitable for sucking a first fluid from said exchanger and for compressing said first fluid, a first condenser (21) inside of which said first fluid transfers heat to a second fluid to be heated and is then let again into said first exchanger (17a, 17b) , further comprising first deviation means (25, 27) allowing said first fluid coming from said first exchanger (17a, 17b) to be selectively deviated towards either a first serpentine belonging to an evaporator inside of which said first fluid evaporates and adsorbs heat from a third fluid to be refrigerated before coming back to said first exchanger (17a, 17b), or towards an evaporation battery (14, 15) through which said first fluid flows before coming back to said first exchanger (17a, 17b) , and in that said machine comprises a second heat exchanger (16a, 16b) , a second compressor (18) suitable for sucking a fourth fluid from said exchanger and for compressing said fourth fluid, a second condenser (20) inside of which said fourth fluid transfers heat to a fifth fluid to be heated, said fourth flouid being then let again into said second exchanger (16a, 16b) , furthermore comprising second deviation means (24, 26) allowing said fourth fluid coming from said second exchanger (16a, 16b) to be selectively deviated either towards a second serpentine belonging to an evaporator inside of which said fourth fluid evaporates and adsorbs > heat from said third fluid to be refrigerated before being brought back to said second exchanger (16a, 16b) , or towards an evaporation battery (14, 15) through which said second fluid flows before coming back to said second exchanger (16a, 16b) . |
| 2. | Machine (10) according to claim 1, characterised in that it comprises third deviation means (22, 23) allowing to prevent the accessof said first and fourth fluids to the respective condensers (20, 21) and to send said fluids to said evaporation batteries (14, 15) . |
| 3. | Machine (10) according to claim 2, characterised in that it comprises nebulizer devices (32, 33) suitable for nebulizing said first and fourth fluids before these fluids enter said evaporation batteries (14, 15) . |
| 4. | Machine (10) according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterised in that said first and said second deviation means (24, 25, 26, 27) are constituted by electronic thermostatic valves. |
| 5. | Machine (10) according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterised in that said third deviation means (22, 23) are constituted by threeway valves. |
| 6. | Machine (10) according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterised in that the access of said fisrt and fourth fluids towards said first and second exchangers is controlled by means electrovalves (28, 29, 30, 31) . |
| 7. | Machine (10) according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterised in that it further comprises at least a fan (12, 13) suitable for sucking from or pressing to said evaporation batteries (14, 15) the environment air. |
| 8. | Machine (10) according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterised in that said first and fourth fluids are constituted by a gas flowing into the pipelines of said machine, in that said second fluid is constituted by water to be heated for sanitary purposes, in that said third fluid is constituted by water to be refrigerated and in that said fifth fluid is constituted by water to be heated for heating purposes. |
The present invention relates to an automatic machine for heating and refrigerating of fluids.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-purpose machine which enables the simultaneous production of, e.g. hot and cold water for heating and sanitary use, as well as air conditioned at a predetermined temperature.
The invention may be maily applied in the field of thermo-mechanical industry.
BACKGROUND ART In order to carry out the respective functions of producing sanitary hot water, heating water, air conditioned at a predetermined temperature, the background art provides for the use of different thermal machines, each of which is adapted to a specific use. In the case of large bodies of users, such as hospitals, campings, communities, hotels, the functions of water heating are carried out by means of boilers, and/or storage tanks and/or heat exchangers, while the functions of producing conditioned air are generally carried out by evaporation towers.
The use of the individual machines for carriyng out the functions described above involves several disadvantages and drawbacks, since every machine undergoes a large loss of energy in the form of heat which is dissipated in the environment and which may not be recovered.
Furthermore, the purchase of several machines for carrying out said functions involves in most cases very high costs.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to obviate to the disadvantages and drawbacks which are typical of the background art, and to provide, thus, for a multi-purpose machine which is able to group the main functions of heating and refrigerating of fluids, which is at the same time economical and which allows considerable energy savings to be achieved.
This is obtained by means of a machine having the features disclosed in the main claim.
The dependent claims describe advantageous forms of embodiment of the invention.
The machine according to the invention comprises a pair of hydraulic circuits, which are connected to each other by means of suitable pipelines, each of said circuits respectively comprising an evaporator, an exchanger, a compressor, a nebulizer, a condenser, an evaporation battery and a fan.
A suitable electronic control logics allows the machine to simultaneously produce hot water at a temperature > 65°C and cold water at a temperature > 7°C, which may respectively be used for sanitary or heating purposes, as well as for air conditioning.
The control logics allows the machine to automatically switch over the best possible conditions of use, relative to the user's demands and to the external temperature.
Thus, the machine according to the invention provides for different working cycles according to the use conditions which are determined both by the user and by the year's season in which the machine is actually working.
ILLUSTRATION OF DRAWINGS Other features and advantages of the invention will
become apparent by reading the following description of a form of embodiment of the invention, given as a non- restrictive- example, with the help of the drawing illustrated in the annexed sheet, which shows a schematical representation of the machine according to the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF A FORM OF EMBODIMENT In the figure, a machine 10 according to the present invention comprises an evaporator 11, a pair of fans 12, 13, a pair of evaporation batteries 14, 15, a pair of exchangers formed by respective tanks 16a, 16b, 17a, 17b, a pair of compressors 18, 19, a pair of condensers 20, 21 and a pair of nebulizers or diffusers 32, 33.
The different elements described above are connected to each other by means* of suitable pipelines, as illustrated in the figure; furthermore, in order to describe the way the machine works, it is necessary to mention the presence of four thermostatic valves 24, 25, 26, 27, four electrovalves 28, 29, 30, 31 and a pair of three-way valves 22, 23.
By way of example, four different working possibilities of machine 10 will be hereinafter described.
EXAMPLE I This example represents the maximum use conditions of machine 10, which is required to simultaneously produce:
1) Hot water for sanitary purposes having a temperature
> 65°C; the inlet of the cold water to be heated is indicated by arrow A in correspondence of the lower part of condenser 21, while the outlet of hot water is indicated by arrow B;
2) Hot water for heating purposes having a temperature
> 65°C; the inlet of the water to be heated is indicated by arrow C in correspondence of the lower part of condenser 20, while the outlet of hot water
is indicated by arrow D; 3) Refrigerated water having a temperature ≥ 7°C for conditioning or cooling purposes; the inlet of the hot water to be refrigerated is indicated by arrow E in correspondence of the lower part of evaporator 11, while the outlet of cold water from the evaporator is indicated by arrow F. Concerning circuit 1) (production of sanitary hot water) , a refrigerating fluid (generally a freon 22 gas) is sucked from tank 17b and sent to compressor 19.
The fluid, which is condensed in compressor 19, is then sent to three-way valve 23 and, in the case where condenser 21 is at a temperature lower than the normal working temperature (> 65°C) , the fluid is ducted into the condenser in order to heat up the sanitary water; the fluid which comes out of condenser 21 is then sent to tank 17a, within of which a thermal exchange is carried out on the external surface of tank 17b.
The consequences of this thermal exchange, which takes place between the hot condensation gas and the cold evaporation gas, will be later described in detail.
The fluid comes then out of tank 17a and flows towards thermostatic valve 27, which controls the inlet of fluid into the right-hand (in the figure) circuit of evaporator 11.
The fluid flows in the evaporator pipeline, it cools the water which comes from inlet E and which flows out from outlet F, and it is then sent again to tank 17b.
Circuit 2) (production of hot water for heating purposes works in a substantially similar way as circuit
1) .
Therefore, the refrigerating fluid is sucked from tank 16b, it is condensed in compressor 18 and it is sent to three-way valve 22; in the case where the temperature
inside of condenser 20 is lower than the normal temperature, the fluid is sent to condenser 21 for heating the water and it is then sent to tank 16a.
In this case too, a thermal exchange takes place by contact with the surface of tank 16b, which is contained inside of tank 16a; thereafter, the fluid is sent to thermostatic valve 26, which controls the inlet of fluid into the left-hand (in the figure) part of evaporator 11, it flows in the pipeline of the evaporator, cooling the water which is present there, and it is then sento to tank 16b.
In this situation, batteries 14, 15 and fans 12, 13 are switched off; thus, they are not active.
EXAMPLE II Both in the cases of circuit 1) and of circuit 2), if the temperature inside of condensers 20, 21 is higher than the normal working temperature, i.e. higher than 65°C, a part of the fluid is immediately recycled (by opening electrovalves 29, 30) towards the respective tanks 16b, 17b.
However, the most part of the fluid is inlet, by means of respective three-way electrovalves 22, 23, into another circuit which feeds the evaporation batteries 14, 15 and which enables an optimized use of the conditioning circuit; this is a situation which is typical of the summer season, in which there is a poor demand of hot water and, by contrast therewith, a large demand of cool air.
Considering the circuit 1) described above, the relatively hot fluid flowing through three-way valve 23 is sent by means of a nonreturn valve to a diffuser or nebulizer device 32 which nebulizes the fluid particles in order to prevent any storage of oil in the elements of evaporation battery 14.
The fluid coming out of the right-hand portion (in the figure) of evaporation battery 14 is then sent to tank 17a by means- of electrovalve 31, it carries out a thermal exchange by contacting the surface of tank 17b, and it runs then along the same path which has already been described towards evaporator 11 (through thermostatic valve 27) and, finally, towards tank 17b.
Circuit 2) operates in a similar fashion: the fluid flows through electrovalve 22, nebulizer 33 and reaches then evaporation battery 15; once the latter has been passed through, the fluid is inlet into tank 16a by means of electrovalve 28, which is open.
At the same time, the fluid flows in the already described circuits of the evaporator 11: therefore, referring to the circuit starting from the base of tank 17a, the fluid coming out of said tank reaches thermostatic valve 27, flows through the right-hand (in the figure) serpentine of evaporator 11 and is then brought back to tank 17b. In a similar way, the fluid coming out of tank 16a flows through thermostatic valve 26, the left-hand (in the figure) serpentine of tank 11 and is then brought back to tank 16b.
During these operations the pressing fan 12 is still, while the sucking fan 13 is active.
As it may be remarked by the preceding description, in this case the machine exclusively produces refrigerated water in evaporator 11 (inlet E - outlet F) , while the heat which is produced by the operation is dissipated in the environment.
The commutation from the cycle controlled by compressor 19 to the cycle controlled by compressor 18 takes place in this case automatically, thanks to a suitable control electronics.
EXAMPLE III This example represents a working situation of the machine which is typical of the winter season, in which the outside temperature is > 5°C. In this case, the circuit for producing refrigerated water by means of evaporator 11 is switched off, while the circuits for producing hot water for sanitary and for heating use are active.
Referring to circuit 1) , as described above, the fluid is sucked from tank 17b and sent to compressor 19; the condensed fluid flows then through three-way valve 23 and along the serpentine of condenser 21, thereby heating the sanitary water at a temperature £ 65°C on outlet B of the condenser. Thereafter, the fluid* is directly sent to tank 17a, electrovalve 31 being switched off.
The fluid coming out of tank 17a is then sent to evaporation battery 15 by means of thermostatic valve 25, it flows through said battery and is then sent to tank 17b.
Circuit 2) (production of heating water) works in a similar way: the fluid is sucked from tank 16b, it is condensed inside of compressor 18 and sent to condenser 20 through three-way valve 22. A thermal exchange takes place within condenser 20, and the water temperature on outlet D of said condenser reaches a value < 75°C.
Thereafter, the fluid is brought into tank 16a (electrovalve 28 being switched off) , and it is then sent to evaporation battery 14 through thermostatic valve 24. Once the evaporation battery has been passed through, the fluid is brought back to tank 16b.
During this working cycle the pressing fan 12 is off, while the sucking fan 13 is active.
EXAMPLE IV The following situation corresponds to a machine operation during the winter season, in which the circuit of evaporator 11 is not active. This working cycle allows to carry out a pre-heating and a defrosting operation with a thermal energy exchange between the fluid of circuit 1) and the fluid of circuit 2) within one of the evaporation batteries (14, 15) .
Referring to circuit 1) , for producing hot water for sanitary use, the fluid path corresponds exactly to the one which has been described relative to example III: thus, the fluid sucked from tank 17b is condensed in compressor 19, it flows through three-way valve 23, condenser 21 and brought into tank 17a (electrovalve 31 is off) .
The fluid coming out of tank 17a is then sent to evaporation battery 15 (right-hand portion in the figure) by means of thermostatic valve 25, it flows through said battery from the top towards the bottom thereof and is then sent to tank 17b.
In this situation sanitary hot water is permanently available.
In this case circuit 2) has two different operating ways, and the machine provides for automatically commutating from an operating way to the other one in accordance with the use requirements.
In the case where condenser 20 needs to be continuously feeded for producing water for heating use, the fluid sucked from tank 16b is compressed inside of compressor 18, it flows through condenser 20 and is then brought to tank 16a (electrovalve 28 is off) .
Thereafter, the fluid is inlet into tank 16a (electrovalve 28 being off) and it is sent to evaporation battery 14 through thermostatic valve 24.
Once the evaporation battery 14 has been passed through, the fluid is brought back to tank 16b.
This cycle corresponds exactly to the one which has been described in example III. However, in the case where there were no immediate demand of hot water for heating purposes, and where condenser 20 would keep the requested temperature, three- way valve 22 is automatically operated, and the fluid coming from compressor 18 is brought to nebulizer 33 and then to evaporation battery 15 (left-hand portion in the figure) , thereby flowing from the bottom to the top thereof.
The fluid coming out of evaporation battery 15 (left- hand portion in the figure) is then sent to tank 16a, electrovalve 28 being open * .
At the same time leakage electrovalve 30 is open, and a small quantity of fluid is ' directly let into tank 16b through three-way valve 22.
As it may be remarked by the preceding description, a countercurrent thermal exchange between the fluids belonging to the two different circuits takes place in evaporation battery 15, the elements of said battery 15 being mechanically connected to each other.
In this situation, pressing fan 12 is switched on, while sucking fan 13 is still.
Therefore, the air passes through batteries 14 and 15 in a direction towards the outside part of machine 10.
Of course, the roles played by the units which are respectively connected to compressor 18 and compressor 19 may automatically be reversed, according to the use requirements, by the control electronics: thus, in the case where there is no demand of sanitary water and where condenser 21 keeps its predetermined temperature, the countercurrent thermal exchange cycle may take place
inside of battery 14, by simply operating three-way valve
23 in a suitable fashion, which is absolutely the same as the one described above.
* * * * * * * The invention has been previously described with reference to a particularly advantageous form of embodiment.
More particularly, the use of exchangers 16, 17, each of which is constituted by a pair of tanks, one of which is placed inside of the other one, allows large energy savings to be achieved, in respect of the known solutions,
By way of example, taking into consideration exchanger 16, which is formed by two tanks 16a and 16b, it may be remarked that such exchanger allows to combine in a single apparatus the different functions "storage of liquid", "separator" and "exchanger", the contact surface where the thermal exchange takes place being constituted by the wall of tank 16b.
Thus, the fact of obtaining an exchange of thermal energy between the hot condensation fluid, which is present in tank 16a, and the cold evaporation fluid which is contained in tank 16b (the evaporation fluid overheats instead of transferring heat to the external environment) , results in a large energetic saving, since the temperature differential dt between the respective phases of sucking and condensing of compressor 18 is considerably reduced, thereby substantially reducing the electrical input of the motor of compressor 18.
Of course, exchanger 16, 17 may also be used in combination with machines other than the machine according to the present invention; it may effectively be employed in combination with any kind of thermodynamic circuit, thereby contributing to substantially reduce the management costs of the compressor.
A similar phenomenon takes place inside of the evaporation batteries, and it has been remarked that the energetic consumption of a machine according to the invention may be set at a value of approximately 1/20 in respect of the consumption caused by a background art plant, which is formed by a plurality of thermal and/or refrigerating machines, each of which carries out a specific function.
The exchanger pair 16, 17 may be substituted by other known exchangers; however, the same energetic savings cited above may in this case not be achieved.
Furthermore machine 10, as described, comprises a pair of fans 12, 13, one of which is a sucking fan and the other is a pressing fan; they are never active at the same time.
Such fans may easily be substituted by a single fan having swinging blades.
It may finally be noted that evaporation batteries 15 are constituted by pipe bundles made of copper/aluminium or copper/stainless steel.