EP1819974A1

EP1819974A1 - Refrigerator

Info

Publication number: EP1819974A1
Application number: EP05811101A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Helmut Konopa; Michael Neumann; Wolfgang Nuiding
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH
Current assignee: BSH Hausgeraete GmbH
Priority date: 2004-12-02
Filing date: 2005-11-09
Publication date: 2007-08-22
Also published as: DE102004058198A1; WO2006058818A1; CN101069053A; CN101069053B

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerator (1) incorporatable into a furniture (20). The inventive refrigerator (1) comprises a heat-insulated refrigeration chamber (4) closable on the front side thereof by a door (5), a refrigeration circuit provided with a condenser (10) which is arranged in the machine chamber (12) spatially separated form the refrigeration chamber (4) and is exposed to a forced ventilation by a ventilator (14) by means an air supply channel (33) and exhaust air channel (34). Said refrigerator (1) comprises a housing unit (7) and a base unit (30) embodied in the form of a component separated from the housing unit (7). Said housing unit comprises the refrigeration chamber (4) and the machine chamber (12). When the base unit (30) is placed under the housing unit (7), it defines the air supply channel (33) and the air supply channel (33).

Description

The refrigerator

The present invention relates to a refrigerator for installation in a piece of furniture. The refrigeration device has a heat-insulated cold room, which is closed at the front with a door. Furthermore, the refrigeration device comprises a refrigeration circuit with a condenser, which is arranged in a separate from the cold room engine room and forced ventilation by a fan via a supply air duct and an exhaust duct.

Such a refrigeration device is known for example from DE 199 07 077 A1. In this refrigerator, a condenser 41 and a fan 42 are arranged in a machine room 40, which is trough-shaped and is located below a cold room surrounded by a housing. The refrigeration device is arranged in a niche of a built-in furniture. For cooling the condenser 41, the ventilator 42 draws air from the environment of the refrigeration device via an inlet opening in the base of the cabinet located on the front side of the cabinet via an air supply channel which flows via the condenser 41. The heated air flowing away from the condenser 41 is discharged into the installation room via exhaust air ducts which are located between side walls of the refrigerating appliance and side walls of the niche (FIG. 2) or the rear wall of the refrigerating appliance and the rear wall of the niche (FIG. 3). A mixture of cold, to the condenser inflowing air with warm air flowing from the condenser air should be avoided. Disadvantage of such a configuration, however, is that the supply and exhaust ducts run inside the furniture and thereby claim volume within the furniture tables. In the dimensioning of the cold room 4, this has a negative effect, since this, apart from the required, heat-insulating housing can be dimensioned only relatively small in standards specified by standards of furniture tables. In addition, the built-in furniture must be specially adapted to the disclosed in DE 199 07 077 A1 refrigerator by the furniture special support rails 24 must be provided on the side walls.

US Pat. No. 3,142,162 likewise relates to a refrigeration appliance which has a heat-insulated refrigeration space which can be closed at the front by a door. Furthermore, the refrigeration device also comprises a refrigeration circuit with a condenser 23, which is arranged in one of the cold room spatially separate engine room and forced ventilation by a fan 27 via a supply air duct 21 and an exhaust duct 22. In contrast to the refrigeration device disclosed in DE 199 07 077 A1, however, the US patent does not refer to a built-in refrigeration appliance, but to a stand-alone refrigeration appliance (tabletop appliance) whose teaching does not apply to a built-in refrigeration appliance ,

It is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigeration device for installation in a furniture recess of a standardized piece of furniture, which enables an improved utilization of the volume of the furniture recess.

The object is achieved with a refrigeration device according to claim 1. The dependent claims relate to preferred embodiments.

Accordingly, a refrigeration device is provided for installation in a piece of furniture, which has a heat-insulated, with a door front closable cold room and a

Refrigeration circuit comprising a condenser, which is arranged in a spatially separated from the cold room engine room and forced ventilation by a fan via a supply air duct and an exhaust duct. According to the refrigerator has a

Housing unit, which comprises the cold room and the engine room, and designed as a separate housing unit from the housing unit, which under the

Housing unit placed, the supply air duct and the exhaust duct defined.

By arranging the base unit in the base space provided with standardized furniture for built-in refrigerators, it is possible to use the base space for accommodating the supply air and exhaust air duct necessary for forced ventilation of the condenser. The volume that supply and exhaust air ducts would otherwise occupy in the furniture tables located above the base space can thus be used to increase the cold room volume or to improve the insulation of the cold room. The latter leads to a saving in energy. The otherwise in the base space of a piece of furniture for built-in refrigerators unused volume can be used meaningfully in this way. The object of the present invention is also achieved with a refrigeration device according to the preamble of claim 2, comprising a housing unit which comprises the cold room and the engine room and is arranged in a niche of a piece of furniture, and wherein the supply air duct and the exhaust duct via a below run the niche socket space of the furniture. As in the refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, inlet and outlet ducts run in the base space of the furniture, but are not necessarily defined by a base unit of the refrigerating appliance, but can also be defined by the design of the furniture itself.

Preferably, the housing unit rests on a bottom plate of the furniture, which delimits the niche towards the base space down. Since only the bottom plate is located here between the housing unit and the base space, short paths of the cooling air duct between the base space and the machine room of the housing unit are possible, which is usually located in a lower, rear area of the housing unit and thus adjacent to the floor panel.

Preferably, the bottom plate forms a flat footing for the housing unit, with inlet and outlet openings are located to the engine room in this flat floor space. Thus, only minor adjustments to the furniture must be made when installing the refrigerator in the furniture. There are only appropriate supply and exhaust openings to be excluded from the bottom plate. Since the bottom plate is usually made of wood, this can be done by sawing example, rectangular openings.

The supply air duct and the exhaust duct are preferably formed in the base space of the furniture by at least one vertical, extending in the direction of the depth of the base space plate. This simple construction with one plate is enough to form two channels, so that it can come to no mixing of cold, inflowing air and warm, outflowing air. Preferably, however, three such plates are provided, which are arranged in parallel and spaced from each other in the base space, so that a supply air duct and an exhaust duct are formed, which are not only centrally separated from each other, but also bounded laterally. - A -

Preferably, the supply air duct and the exhaust air duct are formed in the base space of the furniture in a base unit of the refrigeration appliance that is independent of the housing unit of the refrigeration appliance. Thus, it is possible by mounting only one assembly, namely the base unit, to provide supply and exhaust ducts in the base space.

The base unit is preferably attached to the bottom plate. The advantage is that this configuration is independent of the height of the base space. Preferably, the base unit is releasably secured to the bottom plate, for example by screw or snap-in connections. For a simple and quick installation of the base unit is possible.

The exhaust air duct preferably has an outlet, oriented toward the front side of the refrigeration device or furniture, toward the surroundings of the refrigeration device. This makes it possible to match the housing unit of the refrigerator in its outer dimensions to the inner dimensions of the furniture niche exactly, as a guide of exhaust air between a housing surrounding the cold room and the inner walls of the furniture table does not need to be provided.

A simple and inexpensive design of the supply and exhaust air duct can be achieved if the supply air duct and the exhaust duct in the base unit of the refrigerator or in the base space of the furniture at least partially have a rectangular cross-section.

Preferably, the base unit is in the form of a trough, which is divided by a extending in the direction of the depth of the base space dividing wall into two compartments, one of which forms the supply air duct and the exhaust duct. This simple construction can be cost-effective, for example made of plastic.

The refrigeration device further comprises an evaporation tray for defrost water from the cold room, which is arranged in the exhaust duct. The air flowing through the condenser in the exhaust air duct can thus be used to evaporate the defrosting water. The refrigeration appliance according to the invention may be, for example, a refrigerator or a freezer or a so-called fridge-freezer combination.

Further embodiments and advantages of the present invention will be explained below with reference to several embodiments of the present invention. Showing:

1 shows a schematic section through a refrigerator 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a section through the refrigeration device 1 in a sectional plane indicated in FIG. 1 with the line A-A; FIG.

FIG. 3 shows a section through the refrigeration device 1 in a sectional plane indicated by the line B-B in FIG. 2; FIG.

4 shows a schematic section through a second embodiment of a

Refrigerating appliance 1 according to the present invention in one of the Figure 2 corresponding sectional view;

5 shows a schematic section through a third embodiment of a refrigeration device 1 according to the present invention in a sectional view corresponding to FIGS. 2 and 4;

6 shows a schematic section through a fourth embodiment of a refrigeration device 1 according to the present invention in a sectional view corresponding to FIGS. 2 and 4;

7 shows a schematic section through a fifth embodiment of a refrigerator 1 according to the present invention in a sectional view corresponding to FIGS. 2 and 4; 8 shows a schematic section through a sixth embodiment of a refrigeration device 1 according to the present invention in a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 shows a section through the refrigeration device 1 according to FIG. 8 in a sectional plane indicated in FIG. 8 with the line C-C; FIG.

1 shows a schematic sectional view of a refrigeration device 1, for example a refrigerator 1, which is installed in a piece of furniture 20, for example a kitchen cabinet 20. The section shown extends vertically and in the depth direction by the refrigerator 1. It comprises a heat-insulating housing 3, which encloses a cold room 4, in which goods to be cooled can be stored. About a door 5 on the refrigerator 1, the cold room 4 is accessible. On the front side, the door 5 is covered by a front panel 6 belonging to the furniture 20. On the rear wall of the refrigerating room 4, a plate-shaped evaporator 8 is arranged, through which a refrigerant is passed for cooling the refrigerating room 4. The evaporator 8 is part of a refrigeration cycle of the refrigeration device 1, which further comprises a compressor 9 shown in FIG. 2 and a condenser 10. The compressor 9 and the condenser 10 are arranged within a machine room 12, which is excepted cuboid from a rear, lower part of the housing 3.

The surrounding of the housing 3 cold room 4 of the refrigerator 1 and the engine room 12 are arranged in a niche 21 of the cabinet 20. The niche 21 is formed by two apparent from Fig. 2 side walls 22 and 23, a cover plate 24, a bottom plate 25 and a rear wall 26, which are made out as wood panels. The bottom plate 25 serves as a base for the refrigerator 1. The depth and width of the niche 21 is 60 cm, which corresponds to the current standard for kitchen appliances built-in furniture.

At the bottom of the bottom plate 25 four feet 27 are attached, which carry the furniture 20. Between the bottom 17 of the installation room and the bottom plate 25 of the furniture 20 thus a base space 28 is formed, which is closed to the front of the cabinet 20 by a baseboard 29. Optionally, the furniture 20 also includes side baseboards, which are not shown. The baseboard 29 is opposite to the Front panel 6 of the furniture 20 offset to the rear. The feet 27 are height adjustable.

For ventilation of the condenser 10, the refrigeration device 1 further comprises a fan 14, which is arranged in the engine room 12 between the condenser 10 and the compressor 9. The necessary for cooling the condenser 10 air is led away via a cooling air duct 11 in the base space 28 of the furniture 20 to the engine room 12 and away from it. The cooling air guide via the base space 28 of the furniture 20 has the advantage that a cooling air guide within the niche 21 is eliminated, which would occupy volume within the niche 21. This volume saved within the niche 21 can be used either to improve the heat insulation of the housing 3 of the refrigerating appliance 1, which would lead to energy savings, or to increase the volume of the refrigerating room 4.

The cooling air duct 11 in the base space 28 is formed by a base unit 30, which belongs to the refrigeration device 1 and the customer separately to a housing unit 7 of the refrigerator 1, which includes the housing 3, the cold room 4, the door 5 and the engine room 12 , As can be seen from Figs. 1 and 2, the base unit 30 is formed as an upwardly open trough 30, which is divided by a vertical partition 32 into two cuboid compartments 33 and 34. The right compartment 33 shown in FIG. 2 serves as a supply air duct 33 to the engine room 12 and the left compartment 34 as an exhaust duct 34th

The supply air duct 33 and the exhaust duct 34 each have a rectangular

Cross-section. As can be seen from Fig. 3, which has in the base space 28 by the

Supply air duct 33 and the exhaust air duct 34 formed cooling air duct 11 at the aligned to the front of the refrigerator 1 and the furniture 20 end of the tub 30 an inlet 35 and an outlet 36th

The base unit 30 or trough 30 is attached to the underside of the bottom plate 25 hanging. An advantage is a detachable connection, such as a locking connection or a rail guide. However, it is also possible to have the socket unit 30 permanently, e.g. by gluing, to be attached to the bottom plate 25.

The supply and exhaust air ducts 33 and 34 extend, as can be seen from Fig. 3, over the entire depth of the socket space 28. From the bottom plate 25 of the furniture 20 are Zu- and Exhaust ports 38 and 39 except in a region of the bottom plate 25, in which the engine room 12 adjacent to the bottom plate 25. The engine room 12 itself also includes in its bottom 13 recesses 15 and 16, which each serve as inlet or outlet openings for the cooling air. As can be seen from Figs. 1 and 3, the skirting 29 has in the region of the inlet 35 and the outlet 36 of the cooling air duct 11 ventilation openings 18 and 19, which are formed here as horizontally extending slots.

During operation of the fan 14 cool air passes through the ventilation slots 18 of the baseboard 29 via the inlet 35 of the cooling air duct 11 in the supply air duct 33 and from there via the supply air opening 38 in the furniture panel 25 and the recesses 15 in the bottom 13 of the engine room 12 to the condenser 10. The heated by the condenser 10 air flows past the compressor 9, where it is further heated, and passes through the recesses 16 in the bottom 13 of the engine room 12 and the exhaust ports 39 in the bottom plate 25 in the exhaust duct 34. At the outlet 36 leaves the warmed cooling air the cooling air duct 11 and flows through the ventilation openings 19 in the baseboard 29 back into the installation room.

The accumulating at the evaporator 8 defrost or condensation from the cold room 4 of the refrigerator 1 is passed through a collecting groove 40 and at the lowest point of the collecting groove 40 connected Abtauwasserleitung 41 in an evaporation tray 43, which, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 see, in the exhaust duct 34 of the base unit 30 is arranged. The evaporation tray 43 is a separate from the tub 30 part, which is inserted into the exhaust duct 34. It can therefore be removed after removal of the baseboard 29 from the exhaust duct 34 and possibly emptied and cleaned or replaced. Due to the warm air flowing in the exhaust air duct 34, the defrost water is evaporated in the evaporation tray 43 and thus discharged into the air surrounding the refrigerator 1. The evaporation tray 43 occupies approximately the entire bottom surface of the exhaust duct 34. Thus, a large evaporation area can be achieved. A further evaporation tray, for example, in the machine room 12 of the housing unit 7 of the refrigeration device 1 is not necessary. The arrangement of the evaporation tray 43 immediately upstream of the outlet 36 of the cooling air duct 11, the warm, humid air without further routes into the environment of the refrigeration device 1 are discharged. A formation of undesirable condensation in the cooling air channel 11 is thus prevented.

The second embodiment of a refrigeration device 1 shown in FIG. 4 differs from that shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 in that in the compartment 33 and in the supply air duct 33, a horizontal partition extending over the entire width and depth of the supply air duct 33 45 is located, with the flow cross-section in the supply air duct 33 can be reduced. Thus, flow conditions in the cooling air duct 11 can be changed.

In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the flow cross-section of the exhaust air duct 34 in comparison to the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 on

Costs of the flow cross section of the supply air duct 33 is increased. This is achieved by an asymmetric division of the channels 33 and 34. The partition 32 is offset from that in Fig. 2 further to the right. The advantage of this is that the

Evaporation tray 43 can be configured with a larger than in Fig. 2 evaporation surface, so that high evaporation rates can be achieved.

The fourth embodiment of a refrigeration device 1 shown in FIG. 6 differs from that shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 in that the base unit 30 or the tub 30 is not attached to the bottom plate 25 in a suspended manner, but via height-adjustable feet 47 on the bottom Floor 17 is placed. Due to the height adjustment of the feet 47, the base unit 30 can be adapted to the height of the bottom plate 25 and brought to rest on the underside thereof.

7 shows a fifth embodiment, in which the supply air duct 33 and the exhaust air duct 34 are formed by vertically arranged plates 49 which extend over the entire depth and height of the base space 28. The plates 49 can over

Screw connections or snap-in connections to the bottom plate 25 are attached.

Notwithstanding the illustrated embodiment with three plates 49, it is also conceivable only one, namely to provide the central plate 49, to prevent mixing of cold, inflowing cooling air and warm, outflowing cooling air in the base space 28. In the embodiments according to FIGS. 1 to 7, the housing unit 7 of the refrigeration device 1, which comprises the cold room 4 and the machine room 12, rests directly on the floor panel 25 of the furniture 20. However, it is also an embodiment, not shown here conceivable in which the housing unit 7 rests on a plate located above the bottom plate 25 and spaced therefrom. In this embodiment, then corresponding connection channels between the supply air duct 33 in the base space 28 and the engine room 12 on the one hand and the engine room 12 and the exhaust duct 34 in the base space 28 on the other hand are provided. Advantageously, these connection channels then adjoin the rear wall 26 of the cabinet 20.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show a sixth embodiment of a refrigerator 1 according to the present invention. In contrast to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 7, in the refrigerator 1 shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, part of the machine room 12 of the housing unit 7 protrudes into the base space 28 of the cabinet 20. In contrast, in the embodiments according to FIGS. 1 to 7, the cuboid machine chamber 12 of the housing unit 7 is arranged entirely within the furniture recess 21.

As a result of the partial removal of the machine space 12 into the socket space 28, in the embodiment according to FIGS. 8 and 9, in comparison to the embodiments of FIGS. 1 to 7, even greater volume is obtained in the furniture recess 21 with the same niche dimensions, which increases the volume the cold room 4, as shown, or can be used to improve the insulation of the housing 3. The latter would lead to further energy savings.

Before installation of the refrigeration device 1 of FIGS. 8 and 9, a recess 62 corresponding to the dimensions of the machine room 12 is to be introduced into the bottom plate 25 of the cabinet 20.

In the other construction, the sixth embodiment of FIGS. 8 and 9 corresponds to the first embodiment according to FIGS. 1 to 3, unless a constructive adaptation to the changed positioning of the machine room 12 is required. In addition to the recesses 15 and 16 in the bottom 13 of the machine room 12 are in one of the baseboard 29 facing side wall 60 of the engine room 12th Ventilation openings 61 are provided, which allow an inflow and outflow of cooling air into and out of the engine room 12.

Claims

claims

1. Refrigeration appliance (1) for installation in a furniture (20) with a thermally insulated with a door (5) front closable cold room (4), a refrigeration circuit comprising a condenser (10) in one of the cold room (4 ) spatially separate machine room (12) and arranged by a fan (14) via a

Supply air duct (33) and an exhaust duct (34) is forced ventilated, characterized in that the refrigeration device (1) comprises a housing unit (7) comprising the cold room (4) and the engine room (12), and one of the housing unit ( 7) separate component designed base unit (30), which, placed under the housing unit (7), the supply air duct (33) and the exhaust air duct (34) defined.

2. Refrigerating appliance (1) with a thermally insulated with a door (5) front closable cold room (4), a refrigeration circuit comprising a condenser (10) arranged in one of the cold room (4) spatially separate machine room (12) and is positively ventilated by a fan (14) via a supply air duct (33) and an exhaust air duct (34), characterized in that the refrigeration appliance (1) comprises a housing unit (7) comprising the cold room (4) and the engine room (12) and in a niche (21) of a piece of furniture (20), and the supply air duct (33) and the exhaust air duct (34) extend over a base space (28) of the furniture (20) located below the niche (21).

3. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to claim 2, characterized in that the housing unit (7) rests on a bottom plate (25) of the furniture, which delimits the niche (21) towards the base space (28) down.

4. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to claim 3, characterized in that the bottom plate (25) forms a flat base for the housing unit (7) and inlet and outlet openings (38, 39) to the engine room (12) are in this flat floor space ,

5. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the supply air duct (33) and the exhaust duct (34) in the base space (28) of the furniture (20) by at least one vertical, in the direction of the depth of the base space (28) extending plate (49) are formed.

6. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the supply air duct (33) and the exhaust duct (34) in the base space (28) of the furniture (20) in one of the housing unit (7) of the refrigerator ( 1) independent base unit (30) of the refrigeration device (1) are formed.

7. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to claim 6, characterized in that the base unit (30) on the bottom plate (25), in particular releasably secured.

8. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the exhaust air duct (34) has an outlet (36) to the environment of the refrigeration device (1) which is aligned with the front side of the refrigeration device (1).

9. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the supply air duct (33) and the exhaust duct (34) in the base unit (30) of the refrigeration device (1) or in the base space (28) of the furniture (20) at least Sectionally have a rectangular cross-section.

10. Refrigerating appliance according to one claims 1 or 6 to 9, characterized in that the base unit (30) as a trough (30) is formed by a in the direction of the depth of the base space (28) extending partition (32) in two compartments (33, 34) is divided, which form the supply air duct (33) and the exhaust duct (34).

11. Refrigerating appliance (1) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in the exhaust duct (34) is an evaporation tray (43) for defrost water from the cold room (4).