JP2000304404A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To miniaturize a DC power supply and reduce the cost for the power supply by avoiding the simultaneous operation of a refrigerant control valve and a refrigerating chamber side fan, in a refrigerator provided with an evaporator and a fan for a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber respectively while a refrigerant control valve, controlling the supply or the stopping of the supply of refrigerant, is provided at the side of the refrigerating chamber. SOLUTION: This refrigerator is provided with a refrigerating chamber side cooler 5, a freezing chamber side evaporator 6, a refrigerant control valve 7, a refrigerating chamber side fan 8, a refrigerating chamber side fan control means 9, a refrigerating chamber side temperature comparing means 16 and a refrigerant control valve- controlling means 22. When a refrigerating chamber temperature has become lower than a set temperature, the refrigerating chamber side fan is stopped and, thereafter, the refrigerant control valve is closed. When the refrigerating chamber temperature has become higher then the set temperature, the refrigerant control valve is opened and, thereafter, the refrigerating chamber side fan is operated. Accordingly, the refrigerant control valve will not be operated simultaneously with the operation of the refrigerating chamber side fan whereby a DC power supply can be miniaturized and a cost for the power supply can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, from the viewpoint of protection of the global environment, there has been a strong demand for electric products with low power consumption. In such a situation, the refrigerator accounts for a very high proportion of the amount of electricity at home, and as a result of the need to reduce the power consumption of the refrigerator, the DC load of the load and the refrigerator compartment were increased in order to increase the efficiency of the compressor and blower. Independent evaporators are installed on the side and the freezer side to efficiently cool the interior of each compartment, and power consumption is reduced by improving the refrigeration cycle.

[0003] As a conventional method of controlling a refrigerator having independent coolers and blowers on the freezer compartment side and the refrigerator compartment side, respectively.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-210755, in a refrigerator having an independent evaporator and a blower on the freezer compartment side and the refrigerator compartment side, the refrigerating compartment side blower is controlled to operate or stop according to the refrigerator compartment temperature. I was

[0004]

However, in the conventional configuration, since the operation or stop of the blower is controlled only by the temperature in the refrigerator compartment, in a refrigerator in which the load of a motor or the like is DC, Since all the loads may operate at the same time, it is necessary to increase the size of a DC power supply such as a switching power supply due to an increase in output current, and there is a disadvantage that the cost of the power supply increases, and as a result, the price of the refrigerator must also increase. .

An object of the present invention is to solve the conventional problems and to provide a low-cost refrigerator that can reduce the size of a DC power supply in a refrigerator having an increased DC load.

In addition, in the conventional configuration, a load such as an automatic ice making device, in which a large current flows instantaneously, may operate simultaneously with another load, so that the load current is instantaneous (for example, about 1/10 second). And the power supply voltage drops, causing a malfunction of a microcomputer or the like.

Another object of the present invention is to prevent a malfunction of a microcomputer or the like due to a voltage drop by avoiding simultaneous operation of a current load having a large load current such as a motor.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve this object, the present invention avoids the simultaneous operation of the refrigerant control valve and the refrigerator-side blower, the refrigerant control valve and the automatic ice making device.

This makes it possible to reduce the size of the DC power supply, to provide a low-priced refrigerator, and to prevent malfunction of a microcomputer or the like due to a drop in power supply voltage due to an instantaneous increase in output current.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a compressor, a condenser,
A refrigerator-side decompression device; a refrigerator-side evaporator; a freezing-room-side decompression device; a freezing-room-side evaporator; a refrigerant control valve for supplying or stopping supply of a refrigerant to the refrigerator-side evaporator; A refrigerating compartment side blower provided near the side evaporator for circulating air cooled by the refrigerating compartment side evaporator in the refrigerating compartment; a refrigerating compartment temperature detector for detecting a temperature in the refrigerating compartment; A refrigerator compartment temperature determining means for determining what the temperature of the refrigerator compartment detected by the compartment temperature detector is, and a refrigerator compartment temperature for comparing whether the temperature determined by the refrigerator compartment temperature determining means is higher or lower than a set temperature. It has a comparison means and a refrigerant control valve control means for controlling the opening and closing of the refrigerant control valve, and the operation timing is shifted so that the refrigerant control valve and the refrigerating compartment side blower do not operate simultaneously.

When the result of the refrigerating room temperature comparing means changes from a state lower than the set temperature to a higher state, after opening the refrigerant control valve, the operation of the refrigerating room side blower is started, and When the result of the temperature comparison means changes from a state higher than the set temperature to a state lower than the set temperature, after stopping the refrigerator compartment side blower, the DC power supply can be reduced in size by closing the refrigerant control valve, and a low-cost product Can be provided.

An automatic ice making device; an ice tray temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the ice tray; ice making completion recognizing means for recognizing whether or not ice has been produced from the temperature detected by the ice tray temperature detector; Automatic ice making device control means for controlling the operation of the automatic ice making device, and when the refrigerant control valve is operating, the operation of the refrigerant control valve is performed even if the ice making completion recognition means recognizes that ice has been formed. Is to wait until it stops.

When the automatic ice making device operates by recognizing that ice has been formed by the ice making completion recognizing means, the refrigerant control valve continues to be operated until the automatic ice making device stops even when the timing of operating the refrigerant control valve is reached. The operation of the automatic ice making device is stopped, and after the operation of the automatic ice making device is stopped, the refrigerant control valve is opened or closed to prevent a voltage drop due to an increase in load current during the operation of the automatic ice making device. This is to suppress malfunction.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a refrigerator according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a refrigerator according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the embodiment.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a compressor, 2 is a condenser,
3 is a refrigerator-side decompression device, 4 is a freezing-room-side decompression device, 5 is a refrigerator-room-side evaporator, 6 is a refrigerator-room-side evaporator, 7 is a refrigerant control valve that supplies or stops refrigerant to the refrigerator-room-side evaporator, Reference numeral 8 denotes a refrigerating compartment side blower provided for circulating the air cooled by the refrigerating compartment side evaporator 5 into the refrigerating compartment, the operation or stop of which is controlled by a refrigerating compartment side fan control means 9. It is driven by the driving means 10. Reference numeral 11 denotes a freezer-side blower provided to circulate the air cooled by the freezer-side evaporator 6 into the freezer compartment. The operation and the stop of the freezer-side blower control means 12 are controlled. It is driven by the blower driving means 13.

Reference numeral 14 denotes a refrigerator compartment temperature detector for detecting the temperature in the refrigerator compartment. Reference numeral 15 denotes a refrigerator compartment temperature determining means for determining what temperature the temperature detected by the refrigerator compartment temperature detector is.
Numeral 16 denotes a refrigerator temperature comparing means for comparing whether the refrigerator temperature determined by the refrigerator temperature determining means 15 is higher or lower than a set temperature (for example, 5 ° C.). 17 is a freezing room temperature detector for detecting the temperature in the freezing room, 18 is a freezing room temperature determining means for determining what temperature is detected by the freezing room temperature detector, and 19 is a freezing room temperature comparing means. Then, it is compared whether the freezing room temperature determined by the freezing room temperature determining means is higher or lower than the setting means (for example, −20 ° C.).

Reference numeral 20 denotes compressor control means for controlling the operation or stop of the compressor 1, and the compressor 1 is driven by compressor drive means 21. Reference numeral 22 denotes a refrigerant control valve control unit that controls opening and closing of the refrigerant control valve. The refrigerant control valve 7 is driven by a refrigerant control valve driving unit 23.

Regarding the refrigerator configured as described above,
The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in STEP 101, it is determined whether the compressor is operating. Here, if the compressor is stopped, S
Returning to STEP 101, if the compressor is operating, STEP 10
In STEP 102, whether the refrigerator compartment temperature is higher or lower than a set value (for example, 5 ° C.) is compared, and if the refrigerator compartment temperature is lower than the set temperature, the process returns to STEP 101; To release.
In STEP 104, it is determined whether or not the opening of the refrigerant control valve has been completed. If the opening has not been completed, the flow returns to STEP 104, and if the opening has been completed, the refrigerating compartment side blower is operated in STEP 105.

In STEP 106, it is determined whether the temperature of the freezer compartment is higher or lower than a set temperature (for example, -20 ° C.). If the temperature is lower than the set temperature, the process proceeds to STEP 108, in which the operation of the refrigerating compartment side blower is stopped. Close the valve. If it is determined in STEP 106 that the freezing room temperature is higher than the set temperature, the process proceeds to STEP 107, and STEP 1
At 07, it is determined whether the refrigerator compartment temperature is higher or lower than the set temperature, and if the refrigerator compartment temperature is higher than the set temperature, STEP106.
If the temperature is lower than the set temperature, the refrigerator-side blower is stopped in STEP 108 and the refrigerant control valve is closed in STEP 109.

As described above, the refrigerator of this embodiment does not operate the refrigerant control valve and the refrigerating compartment side blower at the same time, so that the size of the DC power supply can be reduced, and the cost of the power supply can be reduced. A priced refrigerator can be provided.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a refrigerator according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 24 denotes an automatic ice making device,
It is equipped with a water supply motor for pumping water from the water supply tank to the ice tray and an ice release motor for separating the finished ice from the ice tray. The operation of the automatic ice making device is controlled by 25 automatic ice making device control means and driven by 26 automatic ice making device driving means. 27 is an ice tray temperature detector attached to the bottom surface of the ice tray and the like to detect the completion of ice, and 28 is an ice tray for determining what the temperature detected by the ice tray temperature detector is. It is a dish temperature determining means. 29 is the ice tray temperature determining means 2
This is an ice making completion recognizing means for recognizing whether or not the ice is completed from the temperature determined in step 8.

With respect to the refrigerator configured as described above,
The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step 201, it is determined whether or not ice has been formed in the ice tray. If it is determined that ice has been formed, the flow proceeds to step 202. If it is determined that ice has not been formed, the flow proceeds to step 205. STEP2
In 02, it is confirmed whether or not the refrigerant control valve is operating, and if it is operating, STEP202 is repeated. When it is determined in STEP 202 that the refrigerant control valve is stopped, the ice making operation is started in STEP 203. Next, it is confirmed whether or not the ice making operation is completed in STEP 204, and if the ice making operation is in progress, STEP 2
04 is repeated, and when it is recognized that the ice making operation is completed, the process proceeds to STEP 205.

In STEP 205, it is determined whether the compressor is operating. If the compressor is stopped, the process returns to STEP 201. If the compressor is operating, the process proceeds to STEP 206, and it is checked whether the refrigerator compartment temperature is higher or lower than a set temperature. If the temperature is lower than the set temperature, the process returns to STEP 201. If the temperature is higher than the set temperature, it is determined in STEP 207 whether or not the automatic ice making device is in operation. If it is in operation, STEP 207 is repeated. To release.

Next, in STEP 209, it is determined whether the temperature of the freezer compartment is higher or lower than the set temperature. If the temperature is lower than the set temperature, the process proceeds to STEP 211;
At STEP 210, it is checked whether the refrigerator compartment temperature has become lower than the set temperature. If the temperature is higher than the set temperature, the process returns to STEP 201.
Proceed to P211. In STEP 211, it is confirmed whether or not the automatic ice making device is operating. If the automatic ice making device is operating, STEP 211 is repeated. If it is stopped, the refrigerant control valve is closed in STEP 212, and the process returns to STEP 201. Thereafter, this operation is repeated.

As described above, in the refrigerator of this embodiment, even if ice is generated during the operation of the refrigerant control valve, the operation of the automatic ice making device is kept on standby, and the operation is performed after the refrigerant control valve is stopped. During the operation of the device, when the operation timing of the refrigerant control valve comes, the operation of the refrigerant control valve is made to wait until the refrigerant control valve stops, so that the refrigerant control valve and the automatic ice making device are not operated simultaneously. This prevents a drop in current and voltage and a malfunction of a microcomputer and the like that occur when a refrigerant control valve that requires a large current and an automatic ice making device that instantaneously flows a large current simultaneously operate.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the refrigerator compartment temperature changes from a state lower than the set temperature to a higher state, after opening the refrigerant control valve, the operation of the refrigerator side blower is started,
When the refrigerating compartment temperature was changed from a higher temperature to a lower temperature than the set temperature, the refrigerating compartment side blower was stopped, and then the refrigerant control valve was closed, thereby avoiding simultaneous operation of the refrigerant control valve and the blower. The power supply can be reduced in size and a low-priced product can be provided.

Further, during operation of the refrigerant control valve, the operation of the automatic ice making device is made to stand by even when the ice in the ice tray of the automatic ice making device is completed, the refrigerant control valve is operated after stopping, and the automatic ice making device is operating. In addition, when the operation timing of the refrigerant control valve is reached, the operation of the refrigerant control valve is made to wait until the automatic ice making device stops, thereby avoiding simultaneous operation of the refrigerant control valve and the automatic ice making device. It is possible to prevent a drop in the power supply voltage that occurs when the refrigerant control valve that requires a current and the automatic ice making device that instantaneously flows a large current and a malfunction of the microcomputer and the like caused by the operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the refrigerator of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the refrigerator according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of the refrigerator of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 5 Refrigerator compartment evaporator 6 Refrigerator compartment evaporator 7 Refrigerant control valve 8 Refrigerator compartment blower 14 Refrigerator compartment temperature detector 15 Refrigerator compartment temperature determination means 16 Refrigerator compartment temperature comparison means 22 Refrigerant control valve control means 24 Automatic ice making device 25 Automatic ice making device control means 27 Ice tray temperature detector 29 Ice making completion recognition means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerator compartment, a freezer compartment, and a refrigerator compartment side evaporator, a refrigerator compartment side evaporator and a refrigerator compartment side evaporator of a refrigerating cycle provided respectively in the refrigerator compartment, the refrigerator compartment, and the freezer compartment. A refrigerant control valve for supplying or stopping supply of refrigerant to the refrigerator, and a refrigerator-side blower provided in the vicinity of the refrigerator-side evaporator and provided to circulate air cooled by the refrigerator-side evaporator into the refrigerator. A refrigerator compartment temperature detector for detecting the temperature in the refrigerator compartment, a refrigerator compartment temperature determining means for determining the refrigerator compartment temperature detected by the refrigerator compartment temperature detector, and a result determined by the refrigerator compartment temperature determining means. A refrigerator compartment temperature comparing means for comparing whether the temperature is higher or lower, and a refrigerant control valve control means for controlling the opening and closing of the refrigerant control valve, so that the refrigerant control valve and the refrigerator compartment side blower do not operate simultaneously. , Operation timing Refrigerator characterized by shifting. 2. When the result of comparison between the set temperature and the refrigerator temperature by the refrigerator temperature comparison means changes from a state lower than the set temperature to a higher state, the refrigerant control valve is opened, and then the refrigerator-side blower is opened. Starting the operation, when the result of the refrigerator compartment temperature comparison means has shifted from a state higher than the set temperature to a lower state, after stopping the refrigerator compartment side blower, characterized by closing the refrigerant control valve The refrigerator according to claim 1. 3. A refrigerating compartment, a freezing compartment, and a refrigerating compartment side evaporator, a freezing compartment side evaporator, and a refrigerating compartment side evaporator of a refrigerating cycle provided in the refrigerating compartment and the refrigerating compartment, respectively, formed in the refrigerating compartment body. A refrigerant control valve for supplying or stopping the supply of refrigerant to the refrigerator, an automatic ice making device provided in the freezing chamber, an ice tray provided in the automatic ice making device, and an ice tray temperature detection detecting the temperature of the ice tray An ice making completion recognizing means for recognizing whether or not ice is formed based on the temperature detected by the ice tray temperature detector, and an automatic ice making apparatus controlling means for controlling an operation of the automatic ice making apparatus, wherein the refrigerant When the control valve is operating, the refrigerator waits until the operation of the refrigerant control valve stops even if the ice making completion recognition means recognizes that ice has been formed. 4. A refrigerating compartment, a freezing compartment, and a refrigerating compartment side evaporator, a freezing compartment side evaporator, and a refrigerating compartment side evaporator of a refrigerating cycle provided in the refrigerating compartment and the refrigerating compartment, respectively, formed in the refrigerator main body. A refrigerant control valve for supplying or stopping supply of refrigerant to the refrigerator, an automatic ice making device provided in the freezing chamber, an ice tray provided in the automatic ice making device, and an ice tray temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the ice tray An ice making completion recognizing means for recognizing whether or not ice has been formed based on the temperature detected by the ice tray temperature detector; and an automatic ice making device controlling means for controlling the operation of the automatic ice making device. During the operation of the refrigerator, even when it is time to operate the refrigerant control valve, the refrigerator is opened or closed after waiting for the operation of the refrigerant control valve until the operation of the automatic ice making device is stopped. .