INTERMODAL PUMP FOR COOLING, HEATING AND

PRODUCTION OF HOT WATER

FIELD OF ART

The invention relates to the field of mechanical engineering and particularly to the field of machinery and more particularly to cooling and heating pumps. The invention also refers to the production of hot water for use, where the produced counterbalancing energy discharged into the environment is exploited.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The new type intermodal pump for cooling, heating and production of hot water by exploiting the produced counterbalancing energy discharged into the environment, which is disclosed in the present invention has not been disclosed in the prior art.

The heat pump operation principle is based on the absorption from the environment of the energy provided to the user and discharge of the counterbalancing energy therein. That is, when it generates cooling for the needs of the user, it discharges an equal amount of heat into the environment and when it generates heating for the needs of the user, it discharges an equal amount of energy into the environment in the form of cold air or cold water.

Although it is a pump that it consumes approximately 30% of the energy produced, which makes it very popular in space heating besides that it covers 100% of indoor cooling needs and in recent years has also begun to meet hot water production needs, the amount of energy discharged into the environment is huge in every use. This results both in burdening the home and business budget, the wastage of huge amounts of energy that are wasted, and the deterioration of the environment, exacerbating the climate change phenomenon.

It is thus an object of the present invention to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages and shortcomings of the prior art by proposing a new type of pump for simultaneous cooling, heating and hot water production for use.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide this particular pump, which utilizes the otherwise useless, discharged into the environment energy for the benefit of the consumer.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system, wherein the disclosed pump replaces the installations for separate systems of cooling, heating and hot water production, with a single system consisting of one pump for all of the above functions. This reduces both the installation costs of these systems and the space requirements for these installations.

A further advantage of the invention is the reduced environmental burdening, since energy is fully utilized, without discharging it, resulting in recycling the discharged counterbalancing energy.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel pump for cooling, heating and hot water production, which can meet the needs of a space, regardless of size, such as a dwelling, but also a business space, such as a hotel.

It is another object of the invention to provide a system for two uses and not two different systems, e.g. a heat pump for cooling the space and solar systems for the production of hot water or a hot water boiler.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art with reference to the accompanying figure in which it is illustrated in a non limited manner.

Figure 1 is a linear drawing illustrating the system and its particular components. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the accompanying drawing, we will describe indicative embodiments of the new type intermodal pump for cooling, heating and hot water production for use.

The new type heat pump is an intermodal type device for cooling, heating and simultaneous production of hot water, utilizing the counterbalancing energy produced and discharged into the environment. In this way, losses are significantly reduced, since most of the so far wasted energy is used for the benefit of the consumer by recycling the counterbalancing energy.

The new type pump of the invention consists of a compressor (1), Fig. 1, and air expansion and water and air compression and water exchangers. In this way, it operates as an air-water pump or water-water pump, as appropriate, simultaneously providing hot water for heating or hot water for use on one side and cold water for cooling on the other. The compressor (1) of the invention may be, by option, an open type, a semi- closed type or even a closed type compressor. The device has an expansion valve (2) which helps to release the coolant flowing in the tubes (3). The expansion valve (2) helps reducing the coolant pressure and thus evaporating, cooling and absorbing heat. The system is constructed on or next to one or more inertial containers (4), equipped with exchangers (5), as required. Thus a system may have a heat exchanger (6), an exchanger (7) of hot water for use and a cold water exchanger (8), without this being restrictive. In such a case, the system has two inertial containers (4), one for hot water, where the heat exchanger (6) and the hot water exchanger (7) are located, and one for cold water, where the cold water exchanger (8) is located. The inertial container (4) also functions as a pump operation balancing vessel, but also for storing energy, to maximize economy. Installing twin inertial containers (4) for counterbalancing energies, where one stores heat and the other one cooling energy, is an important element of economy.

By its operation, the intermodal pump can provide air conditioning as the primary function in a space and at the same time, as a secondary function, may provide hot water for use, by utilizing the wasted energy. On the other hand, heating and hot water for use supply may be the primary function and cooling through the discharged energy may be the secondary function.

The new type invention pump can be equipped with air conditioners, cabinets, air conditioning cassettes, ductable units, floor and wall fancoils, etc. The pump further has fans (9) on each side which, in the event of additional wasted energy that cannot be utilized, undertake to dispose of this energy to the environment.

The (one or more) inertial containers (4) may be filled with other liquids, in the place of water, e.g. oil based liquids, liquids with high heat capacity, untouchable by time and with a gasification point above 100 °C. In alternative embodiments of the invention, special salts with a freezing and melting point of 45-85°C, characterized by high specific heat and high latent heat in phase change, may be placed in the hot water inertial container (4).

Respectively, within the cold water inertial container (4), special salts with a freezing and melting point of 2-5 °C can be placed with characteristics of high specific heat and high latent heat in phase change.

The new type pump is tuned and operated by a program that can receive commands, both wired and wireless, over a network. The program can also work to control external energy sources that can be connected to the pump, such as a boiler, a solar collector, or even a corresponding backup pump. These systems will be able to operate as ancillary ones to meet greater user needs.

It should be noted at this point that the invention was described with reference to illustrative and not limiting embodiments. Thus any change or modification in the shape, dimensions, morphology, materials used and components of construction and assembly, as long as they do not constitute a new inventive step and do not contribute to the technical development of the already known are considered to be contained in the purposes and aspirations of the present invention.