摘要 |
Compressors (1) supply a primary air-cooled condenser (4) which is followed by an indirect heat exchanger (6), a liquid receiver (8) and a second indirect heat exchanger (10) acting as a refrigerant sub-cooler. A pump (12) supplies sub-cooled refrigerant to remote cooling devices (15, 18) and a bypass line (19) is provided to recirculate a proportion of the refrigerant through the sub-cooler (10), thereby maintaining a flow of cooled refrigerant in the distribution network even when there is no cooling demand. The distribution and return pipes are enclosed within a common temperature environment provided by a thermal insulation sheath (14). Secondary cooling circuits (21) operate off-peak to create pumpable ice slurry in an ice store (23) which is used to cool the indirect heat exchanger (6). The heat exchanger (6) acts as an additional condenser under hot ambient conditions. Systems are also described in which the ice store is eliminated with direct heat exchange between the primary and secondary cooling systems, and in which the cooling devices (15, 18) are supplied through a cooling loop containing an indirectly-cooled non-hydrocarbon heat exchange medium. |