Patent attributes
A fluid valve is described to help reduce oil sump pressures of a variable speed compressor and a fixed speed compressor working in parallel in a HVAC system. The fluid valve can be a ball valve. Openings of a variable flow through structure of the ball can be configured to elongate along an equator the ball. When the ball rotates along a rotation axis, a size of a variable fluid path formed between the openings can be varied, resulting in a variable pressure drop across the ball. In operation, when the variable speed compressor is operated at different operation speeds, the ball can be rotated to different positions relative to the rotation axis, which may help reduce the pressure differential between the sumps of the variable speed compressor and the fixed speed compressor.