A heater exchanger used to condense a refrigerant in a refrigeration system.
The
heat exchanger is designed to perform a heat exchanging operation by the use of
latent heat of water vaporization, thus having improved heat exchanging efficiency
as well as a reduced size. The heat exchanger includes an upper header having a
refrigerant inlet port and distributing a refrigerant introduced into the upper
header through the refrigerant inlet port, a plurality of heat exchanging tubes
connected at upper ends thereof to the upper header and extending in a vertical
direction, a lower header connected to lower ends of the heat exchanging tubes
and gathering the refrigerant flowing from the heat exchanging tubes, with a refrigerant
outlet port formed in the lower header, and a water supply unit assembled with
upper portions of external surfaces of the heat exchanging tubes, and feeding water
to the tubes to cause water to flow along the external surfaces of the tubes. The
water supply unit is a channeled body with the heat exchanging tubes perpendicularly
passing the channeled body. The interior of the water supply unit is partitioned
into a pressure regulating chamber and a water supply chamber by a partition wall
having a plurality of pressure regulating holes. The pressure regulating chamber
receives water from the outside, while the water supplying chamber feeds water
to the heat exchanging tubes to cause water to flow along the external surfaces
of the heat exchanging tubes. A plurality of lower holes are formed at a lower
portion of the water supply unit to allow the heat exchanging tubes to perpendicularly
pass the water supply unit through the lower holes. Each of the lower holes has
a size larger than a cross-sectional size of each of the heat exchanging tubes.
