An air-conditioning apparatus includes: a plurality of heat source units each including a compressor, a heat-source-side heat exchanger, a flow control valve, and an accumulator; a use-side load connected to the heat source units by pipes, and including a use-side heat exchanger that causes heat exchange to be performed between refrigerant supplied from each of the heat source units and a use-side heat medium; and a controller that controls an operation of each of the heat source units. The controller includes a determination unit and a liquid equalization unit. The determination unit determines whether or not a current operation is a non-normal operation in which the heat source units and the use-side load operate in a different manner from that in a heating operation or a cooling operation. The liquid equalization unit equalizes the amounts of liquid refrigerant that flows in the heat source units, when the determination unit determines that the current operation is the non-normal operation.

A refrigerated storage container is provided and includes a container housing defining an interior, an air conditioner operable to maintain control of temperatures within the interior and a local controller configured to cycle the air conditioner on and off within a time window based on waste heat ingestion from neighboring refrigerated storage containers.

A performance degradation diagnosis system includes a determining unit, and control unit. A refrigeration cycle apparatus includes a refrigerant circuit having a compressor, heat-source-side heat exchanger, and use-side heat exchanger. The determining unit determines, based on an index indicating an operation state of the refrigeration cycle apparatus, performance degradation of the refrigeration cycle apparatus with respect to each of a plurality of performance degradation factors. In a case in which the determining unit determines performance degradation, the control unit grasps an operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus which is operating. In a case in which the operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus is not suitable to determine performance degradation with respect to a performance degradation factor of a determination target, the control unit controls the operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus so that the operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus becomes an appropriate operation condition.

A refrigerant leakage determination system capable of detecting leakage of refrigerant without requiring complicated processing is provided. A refrigerant leakage determination system is a refrigerant leakage determination system of a refrigeration cycle apparatus that includes a refrigerant circuit including a heat-source-side heat exchanger and has, as operating modes, a normal mode in which the heat-source-side heat exchanger is caused to function as an evaporator and a defrosting mode in which the heat-source-side heat exchanger frosted during a normal operation is defrosted. The refrigerant leakage determination system includes a processor configured to acquire defrosting information regarding a relationship between a normal operation period and the number of defrosting operations, and memory that stores the defrosting information. The processor is further configured to determine, based on the acquired defrosting information, leakage of refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit.

A cooling system including a vaporizer configured to absorb heat due to a liquid-phase refrigerant being vaporized, a condenser configured to discharge heat due to a refrigerant in a gaseous phase state being liquefied, a resistance body provided in a middle of a pipe passage ranging from the vaporizer to the condenser and applying a resistance to the refrigerant, state detection sensors provided in the pipe passage on an upstream and downstream sides of the resistance body and detecting a state of the refrigerant flowing through each side inside the pipe passage, and a flow rate controller configured to detect droplets in the refrigerant flowing through the pipe passage on the basis of a difference between detection values of the state detection sensors which are detected on the upstream and downstream sides of the resistance body, and controls a flow rate of the refrigerant on the basis of detection results.

A system for controlling or optimizing the performance of a vapor compression system by modifying the actuator commands via an output interface, that realizes thermofluid property functions and their derivatives as spline functions which are represented in a coordinate system that is aligned with a fluid saturation curve. The system includes an interface configured to receive measurement data from sensors, a memory configured to store thermofluid property data and computer-executable programs including a B-spline method, and a processor for performing the computer-implemented method. The processor is configured to take as input two thermofluid property variables, and compute a coordinate transformation in which one axis of the coordinates is aligned with the liquid and vapor saturation curves. In the saturation-curve aligned coordinates, a spline function represents the thermofluid property function, with coefficients and knots stored in memory. The spline function is constructed in a manner such that derivatives of the thermofluid property function may be discontinuous across the saturation curve.

A refrigeration system includes a heat exchanger configured to provide superheat control for the low temperature low pressure gas refrigerant flowing out of the evaporator and through the first side of the heat exchanger by transferring heat from the high pressure high temperature superheated gas refrigerant flowing through a second side of the heat exchanger. A modulating solenoid valve is located at the inlet of the second side of the heat exchanger and configured to modulate the flow of high pressure high temperature superheated gas refrigerant flowing through the second side of the heat exchanger. A temperature sensor is located in such a way as to measure the temperature of the gas refrigerant flowing out of the evaporator and through the first side of the heat exchanger. A controller is configured to calculate the superheat of the gas refrigerant based on the measured temperature and measured pressure of the gas refrigerant and may compare the calculated superheat to a superheat threshold. If the calculated superheat is less than the superheat threshold, the controller will modulate the flow the high pressure high temperature gas refrigerant flowing through the second side of the heat exchanger. The refrigeration system may be activated in a variety of methods by appropriate control of the valves and other system components.

The determination of the refrigerant amount is facilitated. A refrigerant amount inference apparatus infers a refrigerant amount in an air conditioner in which a compressor, a heat source side heat exchanger, a supercooling heat exchanger, a pressure reducing valve, and a use side heat exchanger are connected to piping. The supercooling heat exchanger is a heat exchanger that exchanges heat between refrigerant that passes through a supercooling bypass expansion valve provided in a bypass circuit and refrigerant in a mainstream circuit. The bypass circuit is connected to piping on a suction side of the compressor from a position between the heat source side heat exchanger and the supercooling heat exchanger or a position between the pressure reducing valve and the supercooling heat exchanger. The refrigerant amount inference apparatus includes an acquiring unit configured to acquire a state of refrigerant in first piping provided between the pressure reducing valve and the supercooling heat exchanger and an operation amount related to the state of the refrigerant in the first piping, and a training unit configured to perform training by associating the state of the refrigerant in the first piping and the operation amount related to the state of the refrigerant in the first piping with a refrigerant amount.

An outdoor unit control unit includes a degree-of-dryness calculating unit that calculates the degree of dryness of a refrigerant flowing into an heat exchanger (an indoor heat exchanger at the time of a cooling operation, and an outdoor heat exchanger at the time of a heating operation) disposed on the downstream side of a liquid pipe, and performs an inhibition mode of inhibiting, when the degree of dryness exceeds a threshold A, control that is performed in the direction of decreasing the degree of opening of the expansion valve (an indoor expansion valve at the time of the cooling operation, and an outdoor expansion valve at the time of the heating operation) disposed on the upstream side of the liquid pipe.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed toward systems and method for cooling a refrigerant flow of a refrigerant circuit with a cold cooling fluid flow from a thermal storage unit to generate a warm cooling fluid flow, thermally isolating the cold cooling fluid flow and the warm cooling fluid flow in the thermal storage unit, and cooling the warm cooling fluid flow from the thermal storage unit in a chiller system to at least partially produce the cold cooling fluid flow.