Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above problems, the present invention has been made to provide a refrigerator and a control method thereof that overcome or at least partially solve the above problems.
One object of the present invention is to prevent the formation of condensation in the inner space of the storage box.
Another object of the present invention is to improve the heating effect inside the storage box.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a method for controlling a refrigerator, the refrigerator including a storage box disposed in a storage compartment of the refrigerator, the method comprising: detecting the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box; judging whether the relative humidity value is greater than a first humidity threshold value or not; if yes, determining a heating target temperature according to the relative humidity value; heating the inner space of the storage box to a heating target temperature.
Optionally, the step of determining the heating target temperature according to the relative humidity value comprises: detecting the temperature value of the inner space of the storage box; inquiring a preset database, and obtaining a corresponding absolute humidity value according to the relative humidity value and the temperature value; inquiring a preset database, and obtaining a corresponding temperature value when the relative humidity is reduced to a second humidity threshold value under the environment of the current absolute humidity value according to the temperature value to serve as a heating target temperature; the database contains functional relationships between temperature values, relative humidity values and absolute humidity values.
Optionally, determining a heating target temperature according to the relative humidity value; and the step of heating the inner space of the storage box to the heating target temperature comprises the following steps: continuously heating the inner space of the storage box; continuously detecting the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box; and when the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box reaches a second humidity threshold value, the heating is stopped.
Optionally, the first humidity threshold is set according to the size of the inner space of the storage box.
In another aspect, the present invention also provides a refrigerator, including: the box body is internally provided with a storage chamber; the storing box sets up the storing room indoor, and the storing box includes: a housing; the humidity sensor is arranged in the shell and is configured to detect the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box; the heating device is arranged in the shell and is configured to heat the inner space of the storage box; the control device is electrically connected with the heating device and is configured to determine a heating target temperature according to the relative humidity value under the condition that the relative humidity value is greater than a first humidity threshold value; and heating the inner space of the storage box to a heating target temperature.
Optionally, the refrigerator further includes: the temperature sensor is arranged in the shell and is configured to detect the temperature value of the inner space of the storage box; the control device is also configured to query a preset database and obtain a corresponding absolute humidity value according to the relative humidity value and the temperature value; and inquiring a preset database to obtain a corresponding temperature value when the relative humidity is reduced to a second humidity threshold value under the environment of the current absolute humidity value, so as to be used as the heating target temperature.
Optionally, the storage box is a storage drawer comprising: the drawing part is arranged in the barrel and is configured to open or close the barrel in a drawing manner along the front-back direction.
Optionally, the heating means is a heating wire.
Optionally, the heating wire is arranged on the top plate of the storage box and is located in the center of the top plate.
Optionally, the power line of the heating wire is embedded in the top plate and extends out of the rear side face of the barrel to be communicated with an external power supply.
The invention provides a control method of a refrigerator, wherein a closed storage box is arranged in the refrigerator. The method comprises the following steps: determining a heating target temperature according to the relative humidity value under the condition that the relative humidity value in the storage box is larger than a first humidity threshold value; and heating the inner space of the storage box to a heating target temperature. When the relative humidity in the storage box exceeds a first humidity threshold value, the possibility of generating condensation is greatly improved. At this time, the refrigerator heats the inside of the storage box to reduce the relative humidity value of the air. According to the air humidity theory, in the case where the absolute humidity is stable, the relative humidity of the air decreases with the increase in temperature. According to the invention, the possibility of condensation can be reduced by properly improving the humidity value of the inner space of the storage box, water dripping in the storage box is prevented, and the use experience of a user is improved.
Further, the invention also provides a refrigerator, and the refrigerator is internally provided with a closed storage box. The heating device is arranged in the shell of the storage box to heat the inner space of the storage box. In the invention, the heating device is a heating wire, and the heating wire can be a copper wire. The heating wire is arranged on the top plate of the storage box and is positioned in the center of the top plate so as to uniformly heat the space in the storage box. The heating wires are arranged on the top plate in an S-shaped disc mode so as to improve the heating area. The power cord of heater strip is pre-buried in the barrel roof to prevent the electric leakage. The arrangement mode of the heating device improves the heating effect inside the storage box, and avoids the condition that the inside of the storage box is heated unevenly or the heating speed is slow.
The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Detailed Description
As shown in fig. 1 to 3, an embodiment of the present invention first provides a refrigerator including: a box body, a storage box 100 and a control device 200. The refrigerator body is internally provided with a storage chamber of the refrigerator. The storage box 100 is disposed inside the storage compartment. In this embodiment, the refrigerator may be an air-cooled refrigerator, and the storage compartment of the air-cooled refrigerator includes: a refrigerated compartment and a freezer compartment. The storage box 100 may be a drawer, and a housing thereof is composed of a cylinder 101 and a drawing part 102. The drawer is detachably arranged at the bottom of a refrigerating chamber of the refrigerator, a plurality of pairs of convex ribs are arranged on two sides of the inner container of the refrigerating chamber, and a pair of convex ribs positioned at the bottom of the refrigerating chamber are used for limiting the installation position of the drawer. In this embodiment, the storage box 100 is mainly used for storing foods with high moisture content such as vegetables and fruits, and therefore, the humidity of the inner space of the storage box is high.
The storage box 100 is further provided therein with a humidity sensor 120, a temperature sensor 130 and a heating device 110. The humidity sensor 120 is disposed in the housing and configured to detect a relative humidity value of an inner space of the storage box. The temperature sensor 130 is disposed inside the housing and configured to detect a temperature value of an inner space of the storage box. In this embodiment, the humidity sensor 120 and the temperature sensor 130 may be integrated together to form a temperature and humidity sensor, and disposed on the top plate of the drawer cylinder.
In the prior art, there are various methods for representing humidity, including: absolute humidity, relative humidity, dew point, ratio of moisture to dry gas (weight or volume), and the like. The most commonly used physical quantity in daily life that represents humidity is the relative humidity value of air, expressed in% RH. The relative humidity value is closely related to the temperature in the derivation of the physical quantity. A volume of an encapsulated gas having a lower relative humidity at a higher temperature and a higher relative humidity at a lower temperature. Some definitions relating to relative humidity and absolute humidity are supplemented here: relative humidity refers to the percentage of the amount of water vapor (or water vapor pressure) contained in a gas (usually air) to the amount of saturated water vapor (or saturated water vapor pressure) in the same case as that of the air. Absolute humidity, which refers to the amount of water vapor actually contained in a unit volume of air, is generally expressed in grams. The temperature has a direct influence on the absolute humidity, and generally, the higher the temperature is, the more the water vapor is evaporated, and the larger the absolute humidity is; in contrast, the absolute humidity is small.
The heating device 110 is disposed in the housing and configured to heat an inner space of the storage box 100. In the present embodiment, the heating device 110 is a heating wire, and the heating wire may be a copper wire. The heating wire is disposed on the top plate of the storage box 100 and is located at the center of the top plate to uniformly heat the space in the storage box 100. The heating wires are arranged on the top plate in an S-shaped disc mode so as to improve the heating area of air. The power cord of the heating wire is embedded into the top plate of the cylinder 101 to prevent electric leakage. And an end 111 of the power cord protrudes from the rear side of the barrel 101 to communicate with an external power source.
The control device 200 is electrically connected to the heating device 110 to control the power of the heating device 110. The control device 200 is configured to determine the heating target temperature according to the relative humidity value in the case where the relative humidity value is greater than the first humidity threshold value; and heating the inner space of the storage box to a heating target temperature. According to the above description, a volume of an encapsulated gas has a lower relative humidity at a higher temperature and a higher relative humidity at a lower temperature. Therefore, the air in the storage box 100 is heated to the heating target temperature, so that the relative humidity can be obviously reduced, and the condensation risk in the storage box is greatly reduced.
Specifically, the control device 200 queries a preset database, and obtains a corresponding absolute humidity value according to the relative humidity value and the temperature value; and obtaining a corresponding temperature value when the relative humidity is reduced to a second humidity threshold value under the environment of the current absolute humidity value according to the temperature value, so as to be used as the heating target temperature. In this embodiment, the database is stored in the main control board of the refrigerator in advance, and the database stores an psychrometric chart or an psychrometric relationship function containing a functional relationship among a temperature value, a relative humidity value, and an absolute humidity value, as shown in fig. 4. Thus, after two of the above three physical quantities are determined, the numerical value of the third physical quantity can be obtained by inquiry. For example, when the temperature and the relative humidity in the storage box 100 are 3 ℃ and 95%, respectively, the relative humidity is close to saturation (100%), and the risk of dew condensation in the box is high. At this point, it can be found by inquiry that the absolute humidity at 3 ℃ and 95% corresponds to 4.5g/kg, i.e. the moisture content per kg of air is 4.5 g. Since the storage box 100 is approximately a closed space, the absolute humidity value inside thereof remains substantially constant. When the temperature was increased to 4 ℃, the relative humidity decreased to 88.54%; the temperature is increased to 5 ℃, and the relative humidity is reduced to 82.55 percent; when the temperature is raised to 6 c, the relative humidity will drop to 77%, and there is substantially no risk of condensation. Therefore, setting the heating target temperature to 6 ℃, the generation of condensation in the cartridge can be substantially prevented. Meanwhile, although the temperature is increased by 3 ℃, the suitable storage temperature of common fruits and vegetables is 2-8 ℃, so that the fresh-keeping effect of the fruits and vegetables cannot be influenced.
The present invention also provides a control method of a refrigerator, and fig. 5 is a schematic view of a control method of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention, the method generally including the steps of:
step S502, detecting the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box 100.
Step S504, determining whether the relative humidity value is greater than a first humidity threshold. The first humidity threshold is close to 100%, and in the present embodiment, the first humidity threshold is set to 95% relative humidity. In other embodiments of the present invention, the relative humidity may be set to 90% or other selectable values, which may be specifically set according to the size of the inner space of the storage box 100. Generally, the greater the space within the magazine 100, the greater the risk of condensation, and thus the first humidity threshold may be set to a lower value for a magazine 100 having a larger volume.
In step S506, if the determination result in step S504 is yes, the heating target temperature is determined according to the relative humidity value. Since the storage box 100 is a nearly closed space, the absolute humidity value thereof does not change significantly in a short time. According to the air humidity theory, in the case where the absolute humidity is stable, the relative humidity of the air decreases with the increase in temperature. Therefore, the possibility of condensation can be reduced by properly increasing the temperature of the inner space of the storage box 100. In the present embodiment, a heating target temperature, i.e., a temperature value to which the inside of the storage box 100 needs to be raised, is first determined according to the relative humidity value.
Step S508, the inner space of the storage box 100 is heated to a heating target temperature.
Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a refrigerator control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, which sequentially performs the following steps:
step S602, detecting a relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box 100.
Step S604, determine whether the relative humidity in the storage box 100 is greater than 95%.
In step S606, if the determination result in step S604 is yes, the temperature value of the inner space of the storage box 100 is detected. In this embodiment, if the relative humidity value in the storage box 100 is greater than 95%, indicating that condensation is likely to occur in the box, it is necessary to properly increase the temperature in the storage box 100 to reduce the relative humidity value.
In step S608, if the determination result in step S604 is negative, the internal space of the storage box 100 is not heated. If the relative humidity value in the storage box 100 is less than 95%, the interior of the storage box 100 does not need to be heated.
Step S610, inquiring a preset database, and obtaining a corresponding absolute humidity value according to the relative humidity value and the temperature value. In this embodiment, the preset database stores a psychrometric chart or psychrometric function, which contains the functional relationship among the temperature value, the relative humidity value, and the absolute humidity value. After two of the three physical quantities have been determined, the numerical value of the third physical quantity can be obtained by means of a query. For example, when the temperature and the relative humidity in the storage box 100 are 3 ℃ and 95%, respectively, the relative humidity is close to saturation (100%), and the risk of dew condensation in the box is high. At this point, it can be found by inquiry that the absolute humidity at 3 ℃ and 95% corresponds to 4.5g/kg, i.e. the moisture content per kg of air is 4.5 g.
Step S612, querying a preset database, and obtaining a temperature value corresponding to the temperature value when the relative humidity drops to the second humidity threshold value in the environment of the current absolute humidity value according to the temperature value, so as to serve as the heating target temperature. The second humidity threshold may be set to 80% relative humidity (specifically, may be set according to the parameters of the storage box 100). Through a plurality of experiments, the inventor finds that the dew condensation risk can be eliminated by increasing the temperature. According to the previous example, the absolute humidity at 95% at 3 ℃ is 4.5 g/kg. Since the storage box 100 is approximately a closed space, the absolute humidity inside thereof remains substantially constant. When the temperature was increased to 4 ℃, the relative humidity decreased to 88.54%; the temperature is increased to 5 ℃, and the relative humidity is reduced to 82.55 percent; when the temperature is raised to 6 c, the relative humidity will drop to 77%, and there is substantially no risk of condensation. Therefore, the heating target temperature was set to 6 ℃. Meanwhile, although the temperature is increased by 3 ℃, the suitable storage temperature of common fruits and vegetables is 2-8 ℃, so that the fresh-keeping effect of the fruits and vegetables cannot be influenced.
In step S614, the inner space of the storage box 100 is heated to a heating target temperature. The heating wire is started, and simultaneously, the real-time temperature in the storage box 100 is monitored, so that the temperature in the storage box 100 is heated to the heating target temperature.
In other embodiments of the invention, the heating process may be controlled by other methods.
Fig. 7 is a flowchart of a refrigerator control method according to another embodiment of the present invention, which sequentially performs the following steps:
step S702, detecting the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box 100.
Step S704, determine whether the relative humidity value in the storage box 100 is greater than 95%.
In step S706, if the determination result in step S704 is yes, the internal space of the storage box 100 is heated. In this embodiment, if the relative humidity value in the storage box 100 is greater than 95%, indicating that condensation is likely to occur in the box, it is necessary to properly increase the temperature in the storage box 100 to reduce the relative humidity value.
In step S708, if the determination result in step S704 is negative, the internal space of the storage box 100 is not heated. If the relative humidity value in the storage box 100 is less than 95%, the interior of the storage box 100 does not need to be heated.
Step S710, continuously monitoring the relative humidity of the inner space of the storage box 100. The relative humidity value in the storage box 100 is continuously monitored by the humidity sensor 120.
In step S712, when it is detected that the relative humidity value of the inner space of the storage box 100 reaches the second humidity threshold, the heating is stopped. In the method of the embodiment, the relative humidity value is detected in real time, and when the relative humidity reaches the second humidity threshold value, the temperature is determined to reach the heating target temperature, and the heating process is stopped.
Thus, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that while a number of exemplary embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described in detail herein, many other variations or modifications consistent with the principles of the invention may be directly determined or derived from the disclosure of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be understood and interpreted to cover all such other variations or modifications.