Air conditioning apparatus

Abstract

An air conditioning apparatus includes a defrosting flow channel mechanism. The air conditioning apparatus performs an air-warming defrost operation in which refrigerant sent from an indoor heat exchanger to an outdoor heat exchanger is evaporated while defrosting an arbitrarily selected heat exchange path using the defrosting flow channel mechanism. In the defrost operation, the refrigerant sent to the outdoor heat exchanger from the indoor heat exchanger is not channeled into the refrigerant flow diverter but is passed through the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path from the gas-side end to the liquid-side end of the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path, and the refrigerant passed through the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path flows through the refrigerant flow diverter to be passed through other heat exchange paths other than the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path from the liquid-side end to the gas-side end of the other heat exchange paths.

1 . An air conditioning apparatus comprising:
 a compressor configured to compress a refrigerant;   an indoor heat exchanger configured to radiate heat of the refrigerant compressed in the compressor;   an outdoor heat exchanger configured to evaporate the refrigerant heat-radiated in the indoor heat exchanger by heat exchange with outdoor air;   a refrigerant flow diverter; and   a defrosting flow channel mechanism,   the compressor the indoor heat exchanged the outdoor heat exchanger of the air conditioning apparatus being sequentially connected and configured to perform an air-warming operation in which refrigerant is circulated in order through the compressor, the indoor heat exchanger, the outdoor heat exchanger, and the compressor,   the outdoor heat exchanger having a plurality of heat exchange paths connected in parallel to each other, with liquid-side ends of the heat exchange paths connected in parallel by the refrigerant flow diverter configured to branch the refrigerant sent to the outdoor heat exchanger from the indoor heat exchanger to the liquid-side ends of the heat exchange paths,   the defrosting flow channel mechanism being arranged and configured to send the refrigerant sent to the outdoor heat exchanger from the indoor heat exchanger to a gas-side end of an arbitrarily selected heat exchange path of the plurality of heat exchange paths, without channeling the refrigerant into the refrigerant flow diverter, and   the defrosting flow channel mechanism being configured to perform an air-warming defrost operation in which
 the refrigerant sent to the outdoor heat exchanger from the indoor heat exchanger is not channeled into the refrigerant flow diverter but is passed through the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path from the gas-side end to the liquid-side end of the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path, and 
 the refrigerant passed through the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path flows through the refrigerant flow diverter to be passed through other heat exchange paths other than the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path, from the liquid-side end to the gas-side end of the other heat exchange paths, 
 the refrigerant sent from the indoor heat exchanger to the outdoor heat exchanger being evaporated while the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path is defrosted during the air-warming defrost operation. 
   
     
     
         2 . The air conditioning apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the outdoor heat exchanger has a subcooling path, and the refrigerant sent from the indoor heat exchanger to the outdoor heat exchanger passes through the subcooling path before flowing into the refrigerant flow diverter; and   the defrosting flow channel mechanism is further arranged and configured to send the refrigerant sent to the outdoor heat exchanger from the indoor heat exchanger to the gas-side end of the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path of the plurality of heat exchange paths after the refrigerant has passed through the subcooling path.   
     
     
         3 . The air conditioning apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the outdoor heat exchanger a subcooling path, and the refrigerant sent from the indoor heat exchanger to the outdoor heat exchanger passes through the subcooling path before flowing into the refrigerant flow diverter; and
 the defrosting flow channel mechanism is further arranged and configured to send the refrigerant sent to the outdoor heat exchanger from the indoor heat exchanger to the gas-side end of the arbitrarily selected heat exchange path of the plurality of heat exchange paths without passing the refrigerant through the subcooling path.