During a first cooling operation, a compressor is in an operational state, a liquid pump is in a non-operational state, and an amount of refrigerant allowing for existence of a liquid surface of the refrigerant in a refrigerant tank is accumulated in the refrigerant tank. During a second cooling operation, the compressor is in the non-operational state, the liquid pump is in the operational state, and the amount of the refrigerant allowing for the liquid surface of the refrigerant in the refrigerant tank is accumulated in the refrigerant tank.

A dynamic receiver is included in parallel to an expander of a heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) system. The dynamic receiver allows control of the refrigerant charge of the HVACR system to respond to different operating conditions. The dynamic receiver can be filled or emptied in response to the subcooling observed in the HVACR system compared to desired subcooling for various operating modes. The HVACR system can include a line directly conveying working fluid from compressor discharge to the dynamic receiver to allow emptying of the dynamic receiver to be assisted by injection of the compressor discharge.

A refrigerant amount management system manages an amount of refrigerant with which a plurality of refrigeration cycle apparatuses is filled. Each refrigeration cycle apparatus has a refrigerant circuit. The refrigerant amount management system includes an additional-filling-amount obtaining unit that obtains an additional filling amount of refrigerant with which a refrigeration cycle apparatus has been additionally filled after installation, a storage unit, and a useful-information creation unit. The storage unit stores apparatus information regarding the refrigeration cycle apparatus that has been additionally filled with refrigerant and the additional filling amount of the refrigeration cycle apparatus identified with the apparatus information in association with each other. The useful-information creation unit creates useful information to be used in management of the amount of refrigerant based on the additional filling amount of one of the refrigeration cycle apparatuses and the additional filling amount of another of the refrigeration cycle apparatuses.

A dynamic refrigeration system may automatically, at pre-determined time periods on-the-fly, adjust a refrigerant system's refrigerant pressures to predetermined optimal efficiency pressures as the internal and external heat loads change over a range. This may result in the refrigerant system pressures closely operating within a range of predetermined optimal efficiency pressures. This system may automatically instantaneously fine tune and balance on all air conditioning, heat pump, and refrigeration systems as the internal and external heat loads are continuously changing dynamically. The system may include a small liquid refrigerant pump and refrigerant storage tank, one or more wired or wireless pressure transducers and temperature sensors, and a “brain” to make decisions to keep the system instantaneously set at factory specs all the time. The system may include a wireless communication means so it can instantaneously report its operating condition, loads, and cost of operating.

Embodiments relate generally to subcooling control of a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. An HVAC system may include a compressor, a first heat exchanger, a refrigerant vessel having an inlet fluidly coupled to a discharge conduit extending from the compressor, and the refrigerant vessel having an outlet fluidly coupled to a liquid conduit, the liquid conduit configured to pass liquid refrigerant between the first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger. The HVAC system may further include an electronic expansion valve (EEV) fluidly coupled between the discharge conduit and the inlet of the refrigerant vessel, wherein the EEV is configured to modulate and divert a portion of vapor refrigerant flowing through the discharge conduit into the refrigerant vessel to control subcooling (SC) produced by the HVAC system.

A refrigerant amount management system manages an amount of refrigerant with which a plurality of refrigeration cycle apparatuses is filled. Each refrigeration cycle apparatus has a refrigerant circuit. The refrigerant amount management system includes an additional-filling-amount obtaining unit that obtains an additional filling amount of refrigerant with which a refrigeration cycle apparatus has been additionally filled after installation, a storage unit, and a useful-information creation unit. The storage unit stores apparatus information regarding the refrigeration cycle apparatus that has been additionally filled with refrigerant and the additional filling amount of the refrigeration cycle apparatus identified with the apparatus information in association with each other. The useful-information creation unit creates useful information to be used in management of the amount of refrigerant based on the additional filling amount of one of the refrigeration cycle apparatuses and the additional filling amount of another of the refrigeration cycle apparatuses.

An additional-filling-amount management system includes a mass correlation data obtaining unit, an additional-filling-amount determination unit, and a storage unit. The mass correlation data obtaining unit obtains mass correlation data correlating with a mass of a refrigerant container from which refrigerant is supplied to a refrigeration cycle apparatus that is additionally filled with refrigerant. The additional-filling-amount determination unit determines an additional filling amount based on the mass correlation data, the additional filling amount being an amount of refrigerant, from the refrigerant container, with which the refrigeration cycle apparatus has been additionally filled. The storage unit stores apparatus information regarding the refrigeration cycle apparatus for which additional filling with refrigerant is completed and the additional filling amount that is the amount of refrigerant with which the refrigeration cycle apparatus identified with the apparatus information has been filled, in association with each other.

A refrigeration cycle apparatus includes a heat source unit configured to supply refrigerant, a first distribution unit and a second distribution unit respectively connected to the heat source unit, and a distribution pipe located between the heat source unit and the first distribution unit and the second distribution unit for distributing the refrigerant flowing from the heat source unit into the first distribution unit and the second distribution unit. Further, the first distribution unit and the second distribution unit individually include a heat exchanger configured to serve as a condenser. Further, if the refrigerant flowing through the distribution pipe is unevenly distributed into the first distribution unit and the second distribution unit, a degree of subcooling at an outlet of the heat exchanger of one of the first distribution unit and the second distribution unit of which the distributed refrigerant is of high quality is increased.

A refrigerant control system includes: a charge module configured to determine an amount of refrigerant that is present within a refrigeration system of a building; a leak module configured to diagnose that a leak is present in the refrigeration system based on the amount of refrigerant; and at least one module configured to take at least one remedial action in response to the diagnosis that the leak is present in the refrigeration system.

The refrigerant device includes a refrigerant circuit, an injection circuit, an inlet temperature sensor, an outlet temperature sensor, and a controller configured to control the operation of the refrigerant circuit. The controller includes an evaluation value calculation unit and a refrigerant amount detection unit. The evaluation value calculation unit calculates an evaluation value indicating a capability of a subcooling heat exchanger in accordance with an inlet temperature detected by the inlet temperature sensor and an outlet temperature detected by the outlet temperature sensor. The refrigerant amount detection unit determines whether there is a shortage of refrigerant in accordance with the evaluation value calculated by the evaluation value calculation unit.