(57) In an air conditioner, an occurrence of a refrigerant leakage can be immediately
detected after a normal operation thereof is started. The air conditioner includes
an outdoor unit having compressors 1,2, a four-way valve 3, an outdoor heat exchanger
4, an outdoor expander 5 and an outdoor air blower 20, and an indoor unit having an
indoor expander 9, an indoor heat exchanger 10 and an indoor air blower, the outdoor
unit being connected to the indoor unit through a liquid pipe line 30 and a gas pipe
line 31. Beforehand, in a state where an appropriate quantity of refrigerant is charged,
a relationship between an ambient temperature and a coefficient χ related to a ratio
between an output quantity delivered to the indoor or outdoor expander and an output
quantity delivered to the compressor is obtained and stored in memory, and then, the
coefficient χ related to the ratio between the output quantity delivered to the indoor
or outdoor expander and the output quantity delivered to the compressor which are
obtained during operation of the air conditioner is compared with the beforehand stored
value with respect to the present ambient temperature, thereby determining advisability
of the refrigerant quantity.
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