1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an outside unit of an air conditioner.
2. Background
Generally, an air conditioner is a cooling and heating system that undergoes a refrigeration cycle to heat and cool an inside space by repeatedly suctioning inside air, exchanging heat with a low temperature or high temperature refrigerant, and then discharging the heat-exchanged air into the room. When the refrigeration cycle performs a cooling operation, an outside heat exchanger serves as a condenser, and an inside heat exchanger serves as an evaporator. Alternatively, when the refrigeration cycle performs a heating operation, the inside heat exchanger serves as a condenser and the outside heat exchanger serves as an evaporator.
The outside unit generally includes an electric unit for driving the air conditioner. The electric unit includes a plurality of control components, which generate a lot of heat. The heating temperature of the electric unit may be approximately 70 to 80° C.
Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2007-0097001, titled “An Outside Unit For An Air Conditioner,” (“Korean '001 Publication) discloses a conventional air conditioner, such as described above, and explains that the electric unit will malfunction when it is not sufficiently cooled. To cool the electric unit, Korean '001 Publication discloses disposing a board having high thermal conductivity on one side of the electric unit, and a method for exchanging heat by outside air (heat-sink). However, this is problematic because the effect of such a heat-sink method is limited to the area in which a temperature of outside air is very high (in one example, about 50° C.).
Accordingly, to solve the above problem, recently, a cooling device through which a refrigerant of the refrigeration cycle is flowing is provided at one side of the electric unit, and a technology in which the cooling of the electric unit is made by the heat exchange between the refrigerant and the electric unit is introduced. In one example, the cooling device may include a refrigerant pipe.
Meanwhile, to improve the efficiency of heat transfer, the electric unit should be in close proximity with the cooling device, but there is a difficulty in fastening during assembly of the outside unit, as well as a problem in which the electric unit is damaged due to the movement of the cooling device.
Also problematic is that when the electric unit needs to be repaired or a driving part of the outside unit needs to be replaced, the cooling device or the refrigerant pipe must be removed after discharging all of the refrigerant, and then when the repair or replacement work is completed, the cooling device or the refrigerant pipe must be assembled again, and then the refrigerant should be recharged.