A geothermal heat utilization system includes a heat source well facility, a heat source device having a refrigeration cycle including a compressor, a condenser, an expanded portion, and an evaporator, a primary refrigerant circuit that is connected to a first unit which is one of the condenser and the evaporator of the heat source device, heat exchange being able to be performed between the first unit and the well-side pipe, a secondary refrigerant circuit that is connected to a second unit which is the other of the condenser and the evaporator of the heat source device, heat exchange being able to be performed between the second unit and a load, and a mode switching unit that switches between a cold heat storage operation mode in which the primary refrigerant circuit is connected to the evaporator and the secondary refrigerant circuit is connected to the condenser and a cold heat discharge operation mode in which the primary refrigerant circuit is connected to the condenser and the secondary refrigerant circuit is connected to the evaporator.

A method for controlling a refrigerator may include sensing whether a door of a refrigerator compartment is open, determining whether a compressor of the refrigerator is being driven, continuing driving a fan of the refrigerator if the door is open and the compressor is being driven, and driving the fan until the compressor is driven if the door is open and the compressor is not being driven.

An apparatus for optimizing an efficiency of a refrigeration system, comprising means for measuring a refrigeration efficiency of an operating refrigeration system; means for altering a process variable of the refrigeration system during efficiency measurement; and a processor for calculating a process variable level which achieves an optimum efficiency. The process variables may include refrigerant charge and refrigerant oil concentration in evaporator.

A water switch assembly for a nugget ice making assembly is provided. The ice making assembly includes a hollow auger rotatably mounted within a reservoir and configured for extruding ice. The water switch assembly includes a water supply pipe that extends vertically through the center of the ice making auger and reservoir. The water switch assembly is in fluid communication with a water inlet and includes a capacitance probe for measuring the water level in the reservoir. In this manner, the water switch assembly is configured to control the flow of water to the reservoir in response to the water level measured by the capacitance probe.

An oxygen concentration in the interior of a container is detected by an oxygen concentration detection sensor. If the oxygen concentration detected by the oxygen concentration detection sensor is higher than that of a gas mixture, the container is supplied with the gas mixture having an oxygen concentration lower than that of the outside air and higher than a target concentration. The oxygen concentration in the interior of the container is reduced to the vicinity of the oxygen concentration of the gas mixture by supplying the interior of the container with the gas mixture, and then is further reduced to the target concentration by respiration of plants. This appropriately controls the oxygen concentration in the interior of the container, and reduces a decrease in the degree of freshness of the plants.

A blast cell system is provided with simple and scalable designs that prevent short cycling of air flow through any pallets in blast cells. The blast cell includes a plurality of suction channels that provide independent fluid pathways for directing the air drawn from different rows in the blast cell into the fan.

A method includes receiving moisturized air from a refrigerated room and absorbing, in a portion of a desiccant wheel, moisture from the moisturized air, wherein absorbing moisture from the moisturized air produces dehumidified air. The method further includes discharging the dehumidified air to the refrigerated room.

An improved aircraft air chiller unit particularly suited for an aircraft galley that requires refrigerated or cooled beverage/meal carts and/or chilled storage compartments. The chiller of the present invention takes the form of a line replaceable unit (LRU) and incorporates a liquid-cooled refrigerant vapor compression cycle, arranged in a housing with a vertical orientation. Because of the vertical orientation, ducting on the rear surface of the chiller is omitted, reducing the overall footprint.

A duct (100) comprises the molded combination of: an inlet flange (110) surrounding an inlet (102), the inlet having a height and a width; and body (112) extending from the inlet to an outlet (104) and having a body interior that laterally outwardly diverges and upwardly shifts from the inlet toward the outlet.

A heat transport device includes: a heat receiving member that receives heat; a heat dissipation member that dissipates heat; a coolant circulation path that includes a main flow portion in which coolant flows and split flow portions where part of the main flow portion is split into plural flow paths, and that causes coolant to circulate between the heat receiving member and the heat dissipating member; pumps that are provided to the respective split flow portions; and a bypass flow path that forms a bypass between the respective split flow portions on an outlet side of the pumps and the main flow portion.