Patent Application
20130014532
1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to cooling systems, particularly to a cooling system including a ground-coupled heat exchanger.
2. Description of Related Art
An air conditioner is an appliance, system, or machine designed to stabilize the air temperature and humidity within a closed area. However, the typical air conditioner has high energy requirements, such as blower and compressor energy consumption.
Therefore, there is a room for improved in the art.
Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the exemplary cooling system. Moreover, in the drawings like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements of an embodiment.
The Figure is a diagram view of an exemplary embodiment of a cooling system.
Referring to the, an exemplary embodiment of a cooling system for cooling a closed area 10, such as a container data center (CDC), is shown. The cooling system includes area heat extraction hardware 20 located in the container data center, a cooling device 30, a ground-coupled heat exchanger 40, a first heat pump 50 and a second heat pump 60. The area heat extraction hardware 20 is for extracting the heated air from the CDC environment to be cooled and sends the heated air to the rest of the cooling system and may include a blower and a duct. The area heat extraction hardware 20 is connected to the cooling device 30, and the cooling device 30 is connected to the ground-coupled heat exchanger 40. The parts of the cooling system are connected by a pipe network (not shown) with cooling medium (e.g., water) flowing through therein.
The cooling device 30 includes a condenser 31, a compressor 32, a throttling valve 33 and an evaporator 34. The compressor 32 and the throttling valve 33 are both connected to the evaporator 34. The condenser 31 transfers the heat generated by the evaporator 34 and the compressor 32 to the ground-coupled heat exchanger 40 by the cooling medium. The compressor 32 takes a cool, low pressure cooling medium that comes from the evaporator 34 and squeezes, i.e., pressurizes, the cool, low pressure cooling medium until it becomes a hot, high pressure cooling medium. The compressor 32 sends the hot high pressure cooling medium to the condenser 31 which transfers the heat of the hot high pressure cooling medium to the ground with the aid of the ground-coupled heat exchanger 40. The throttling valve 33 regulates the flow of the cooling medium to the evaporator 34. The evaporator 34 evaporates the cooling medium into gas, and as the cooling medium turns into gas, heat is extracted from the surrounding air.
The second heat pump 60 connects the evaporator 34 to the area heat extraction hardware 20. The second heat pump 60 diverts heat between the evaporator 34 and the area heat extraction hardware 20.
The ground-coupled heat exchanger 40 includes a plurality of underground heat exchanger tubes 41. The exemplary embodiment has two underground heat exchanger tubes 41. The underground heat exchanger tubes 41 can capture or dissipate heat to or from the ground. The ground-coupled heat exchanger 40 further includes a water collector 42 and a water segregator 43. The underground heat exchanger tubes 41 are parallelly connected to the water collector 42 and the water segregator 43. The water segregator 43 partitions the hot high pressure cooling medium from the condenser 31 into the underground heat exchanger tubes 41. The first heat pump 50 connects the condenser 31 to the water collector 42. The first heat pump 50 diverts heat between the condenser 31 and the water collector 42.
In use, the area heat extraction hardware 20 extracts the heat in the CDC and the cooling medium in the area heat extraction hardware 20 is heated. The heated cooling medium in the area heat extraction hardware 20 then passes into the evaporator 34 where it gasifies. As the heated cooling medium gasifies, the evaporator 34 extracts heat from the heated cooling medium, and the compressor 32 transfers the heat extracted by the evaporator 34 to the condenser 31. The condenser 31 transfers the heat from the compressor 32 to the water segregator 43, and then to the underground heat exchanger tubes 41. The underground heat exchanger tubes 41 transfer the heat of the cooling medium to the ground, thereby cooling the cooling medium. The cooled cooling medium flows into the water collector 42 and is pumped by the first heat pump 50 to the condenser 31, and then flows through the throttling valve 33, evaporator 34, the second heat pump 60 and area heat extraction hardware 20 for a next operation of extracting the heat from the CDC.
In the exemplary embodiment, the cooling system includes the ground-coupled heat exchanger 40 connected to the condenser 31, so the heat of the cooling medium in the condenser 31 can be transferred to the ground, i.e., the cooling medium in the condenser 31 can be cooled by ground-coupled heat exchanger 40, which can reduce the energy requirement of the cooling system.
It is to be further understood that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the exemplary embodiments have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of structures and functions of various embodiments, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the exemplary invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100212983 | Jul 2011 | TW | national |
