JP2009115408A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator having illumination for irradiating the inside of the refrigerator with an optimal light quantity. <P>SOLUTION: The refrigerator comprises a plurality of storage chambers 4 partitioned by a heat insulating wall 1 and a heat insulating door 2; an inside illumination 7 irradiating the inside of the storage chambers 4; a temperature detecting means 10 detecting a temperature around the inside illumination 7; a door opening/closing detecting means 9 detecting the opened/closed state of the heat insulating door 2; and a control means for lighting the inside illumination 7 when detecting the open state of the heat insulating door 2 by the door opening/closing detecting means 9 and adjusting the light quantity of the inside illumination 7 according to the detected temperature of the temperature detecting means 10. The inside of the refrigerator is thereby irradiated with the optimal light quantity according to the temperature characteristics of an illuminating light source to obtain stable inside illuminance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator in which a lighting device is installed in a cabinet.

  In recent years, as an in-refrigerator lighting device, a device using a white LED in addition to a conventional incandescent lamp or light bulb has been proposed.

  As a refrigerator provided with the conventional illuminating device, there is a refrigerator in which a plurality of white LEDs are mounted on a single substrate and installed on the top surface of the interior to irradiate the interior (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a conventional refrigerator lighting device described in Patent Document 1. In FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the mounting board 101, the white LED 102, and the heat insulating plate 104 are configured and installed in a refrigerator.

  The mounting substrate 101 is a flat plate, and a circuit pattern (not shown) is formed on one surface or both surfaces, and an epoxy resin substrate or an insulating metal substrate having good thermal conductivity is used. The white LED 102 is formed in a bullet shape, and has a structure in which white light is obtained by exciting a fluorescent material using blue light from a GaN-based blue LED, and two energization terminals 103 for energizing current are derived.

  The heat insulating plate 104 is formed in a flat plate shape using a resin such as urethane, and is provided between the mounting substrate 101 and the white LED 102 with a plurality of insertion holes arranged in parallel. Here, in the white LED 102, the energization terminal 103 is inserted through the insertion hole of the heat insulating plate 104, soldered to the circuit pattern of the mounting substrate 101, and a plurality of white LEDs 102 are arranged in parallel on the mounting substrate 101. Note that when the amount of heat generated by the white LED 102 is small, the heat insulating plate 104 may be eliminated.

  The operation | movement is demonstrated below about the refrigerator using white LED comprised as mentioned above as an illuminating device.

First, when the refrigerator door is closed, the white LED 102 is not energized and the interior is not illuminated. When the door is opened, an electronic switch such as a mechanical switch or a Hall IC determines that the door is open, a DC voltage is applied to the mounting substrate 101, a forward current flows through the white LED 102 through the energizing terminal 103, and white Light is emitted and the interior is irradiated.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-159953

  However, in the above conventional configuration, the interior is irradiated with a constant brightness regardless of the environment around the refrigerator.

  In general, in a light source for illumination, the temperature of the light source body and its surroundings affects the luminous intensity of the light source, and when the temperature of the light source body and its surroundings is high, the light intensity decreases, and when the temperature is low, the light intensity increases. Depending on the temperature, a stable luminous intensity cannot be obtained.

  The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and can adjust the amount of illumination in the refrigerator according to the temperature around the illumination in the refrigerator to maintain a stable illuminance. It aims at providing the refrigerator provided with.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the refrigerator of the present invention is provided with a temperature detection means around the interior lighting, and adjusts the light quantity of the interior lighting according to the detected temperature, so that the environment inside the refrigerator interior Irradiate the inside of the refrigerator with the optimal amount of light according to the condition.

  The refrigerator of this invention can improve the visibility of the foodstuff in a warehouse by adjusting the light quantity of interior lighting according to ambient temperature.

  The invention according to claim 1 is a plurality of storage rooms partitioned by a heat insulating wall and a heat insulating door, interior lighting for illuminating the interior of the storage room, temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the interior lighting, The door opening / closing detection means for detecting the open / closed state of the heat insulating door, and when the door opening / closing detecting means detects that the heat insulating door is in the open state, the interior lighting is turned on, and the temperature detection means detects the temperature. And a control means for adjusting the light amount of the interior lighting according to the temperature, the refrigerator interior is irradiated with an optimal light amount according to the temperature characteristics of the illumination light source, and a stable interior illuminance is obtained. be able to.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the thermistor sensor is used as the illumination ambient temperature detection means, so that the temperature detection means is configured with a small and simple circuit. High configuration can be realized.

  The invention according to claim 3 is that in the invention according to claim 1 or 2, by using the light emitting diode as the light source of the interior lighting, it is possible to perform low-voltage driving illumination, thereby simplifying the drive circuit, Controllability can be improved.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the control means adjusts the amount of light by changing the output to the interior lighting, and an average based on duty control. By using a method such as voltage adjustment, the light amount of the interior lighting is changed by simple control, so that the drive circuit can be simplified and controllability can be improved.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a refrigerator according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the refrigerator according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  1 and 2, the refrigerator main body 3 configured to be thermally insulated from the surroundings by the heat insulating wall 1 and the heat insulating door 2 is stored in a storage chamber 4 so as to arrange and store stored items without overlapping. A shelf 5 is provided, and a part thereof is configured to be movable up and down. At the lowest level, a specific low temperature chamber 6 having a dedicated door on the front surface is provided, and a consumer stores the selected specific stored material at an optimum temperature.

  Moreover, the interior lighting 7 is embed | buried as the interior lighting at the indoor side wall of the storage chamber 4 from the left and right, respectively, seeing from the door opening front. A plurality of white LEDs 8 are arranged on the interior lighting 7 and are installed so as to irradiate the back side from the front side of the storage chamber 4. By using an LED as the light source, illumination with low voltage driving is possible, and the driving circuit can be simplified and controllability can be improved.

  Further, a temperature detection means 10 around the illumination is provided in the vicinity of the interior illumination 7 or inside the interior illumination 7.

  Moreover, in order to detect the open / close state of the heat insulation door 2, the door open / close detection means 9 is provided, and the interior lighting 7 lights up when the heat insulation door 2 is open.

  The control means 11 receives the temperature detected by the temperature detection means 10 around the illumination and adjusts the light quantity of the interior lighting 7. It is desirable to use a thermistor sensor as the temperature detection means 10 around the illumination. The thermistor sensor is small, inexpensive, stable in characteristics, and can have a simple circuit configuration.

  FIG. 3 is a time chart showing the output to the interior lighting of the refrigerator in the first embodiment of the present invention.

  The light quantity of the interior lighting 7 is adjusted by performing duty control of the output voltage, changing the average value of the output voltage, and adjusting the current flowing through the white LED 8. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the output pulse width is T1, the pulse period is T2, and the duty ratio T1 / T2 is changed according to the detected value of the external illuminance. Here, T1 and T2 may be set to values such that the flickering of the white LED 8 is not perceived by human eyes.

  (Table 1) is a table showing the temperature in the vicinity of the interior lighting of the refrigerator and the output to the interior lighting in the embodiment of the present invention.

  The output to the interior lighting 7 is determined by the detection illuminance of the temperature detection means 10 around the illumination and the temperature characteristics of the white LED 8 as shown in (Table 1). For example, when the temperature is less than 10 ° C., the duty is 80%, when the temperature is 10 ° C. or more and less than 30 ° C., the duty is 90%, and when the temperature is 30 ° C. or more, the duty is 100%.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the temperature around the interior lighting 7 is detected by the temperature sensing means 10 around the illumination, and when the temperature near the illumination light source is high, the light quantity of the interior lighting 7 is increased, and the temperature When the lighting is low, the amount of light in the interior lighting 7 is reduced and the amount of light in the interior lighting 7 is adjusted so that the interior of the storage room 4 can be irradiated with a stable amount of light. Can be secured.

  As described above, the refrigerator according to the present invention can be applied to a wide range of equipment to which lighting is applied, such as an article storage device with a door, as well as when lighting is applied to a household or commercial refrigerator. is there.

Side surface sectional drawing of the refrigerator in Embodiment 1 of this invention Control block diagram of refrigerator in Embodiment 1 of the present invention The time chart which shows the output to the interior lighting of the refrigerator in Embodiment 1 of this invention A perspective view of a conventional refrigerator lighting device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Heat insulation wall 2 Heat insulation door 3 Refrigerator 4 Storage room 7 Interior lighting 8 White LED
9 Door open / close detection means 10 Temperature detection means 11 Control means

Claims (4)

  A plurality of storage rooms partitioned by a heat insulating wall and a heat insulating door, interior lighting for illuminating the interior of the storage room, temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature in the vicinity of the interior lighting, and detecting the open / closed state of the heat insulating door When the door opening / closing detection means and the door opening / closing detection means detect that the heat insulating door is in an open state, the interior lighting is turned on, and the amount of light in the interior illumination according to the temperature detected by the temperature detection means And a control unit for adjusting the temperature.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a thermistor sensor is used as the temperature detection means.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a light emitting diode is used as a light source for the interior lighting.   The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the control unit adjusts the amount of light by changing an output to the interior lighting.