JP2573082Y2 - Late-night electric power type refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator capable of effectively utilizing midnight power.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 shows an outline of a general refrigerator 100. This refrigerator 100 has a freezing room (room temperature: about -20 to -10.degree. C.) 10 for freezing articles and a temperature slightly higher than that of the freezing room 10. Refrigerated room for preserving goods (room temperature: about 0 to 10 ° C)
11 and a refrigerator 20 for cooling the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11.

The refrigerator 20 includes a refrigerant (for example, chlorofluorocarbon), a compressor 21 for compressing the vapor of the refrigerant, and a condenser 22 for cooling and condensing the vapor of the refrigerant compressed by the compressor 21.
When, of the condensed liquid and the expansion valve 23 to a low temperature by expanding adiabatic (or capillary tube) refrigerant, it is passed through a low-temperature vapor refrigerant refrigeration compartment a predetermined 10 removes heat from the refrigeration chamber 10 It is composed of an evaporator 24 for maintaining a low temperature, a pipe 25 for connecting the above-described devices and flowing a refrigerant.

[0004] That is, the refrigerator 20 uses the refrigerant vapor pressurized by the compressor 21 through the condenser 22 through the fan 22a and the like.
The refrigerant is cooled and liquefied at 2 and is adiabatically expanded by the expansion valve 23 to a low temperature. Then, the low-temperature refrigerant vapor is sent to the evaporator 24 to cool the freezing chamber 10.

The compressor 21 and the condenser 2 of the refrigerator 20
By turning on / off the second fan 22a, etc.,
The inside of the freezer compartment 10 is maintained at a predetermined low temperature, and the cool air in the freezer compartment 10 is sent into the refrigerating compartment 11 so that the temperature of the refrigerating compartment 11 is maintained at a constant temperature. The compressor 22 and the fan 22a for the condenser 22 of the refrigerator 20 are driven by a motor.

Here, since the outer surfaces of the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11 of the refrigerator 100 are covered with the heat insulating material R and the heat input from the outside is slight, heat enters the refrigerator 100 mainly by the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment. This occurs when the doors 10a, 11a of the chamber 11 are opened and closed to carry out articles.

[0007]

However, since articles are taken in and out of the refrigerator 100 mainly during the daytime or the like, the refrigerator 20 (the fan 22a of the compressor 21 and the condenser 22) operates at midnight when the unit price of electric power is low. Does not operate very much, and mainly operates during the daytime or nighttime when the power unit price is relatively high. Therefore, the operation cost of the refrigerator 100 becomes relatively high, and the above-described refrigerator 10
An operation pattern of 0 causes a temporal deviation of the power demand, and contributes to an increase in the peak load on the power generation equipment.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a refrigerator that can promote the use of late-night power as much as possible.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems] This invention is, in order to achieve the above object, in the refrigerator of midnight power-using the freezing chamber and the refrigerating compartment is cooled by the refrigerator, refrigerator
And the cold heat heat storage material covering the outer periphery of the evaporator out, the cold thermal storage material and the freezing chamber or the refrigerating chamber through the disposed and having cold heat storage material between or between cold heat storage material and refrigerating chamber and the freezing chamber the and a heat pipe to cool, and the Hitopai
May contain a small amount of non-condensable gas with the working fluid.
It is characterized by being a transconductance type heat pipe .

[0010]

[0011]

In the present invention, the cold storage material is cooled by operating the refrigerator, and the cooling energy is stored therein . As described above, the outer periphery of the evaporator is a cold heat storage material
Because it is covered by heat, heat is efficiently stored. Since between or between cold heat storage material and the refrigerating compartment with the cold heat the heat storage material and the freezing compartment heat pipe is arranged, if the temperature of the freezing chamber or the refrigerating compartment is higher than the cold heat storage material,
The heat of the freezing room or the cold room is transferred to the cold heat storage material via the heat pipe, that is, the freezing room or the cold room is cooled by the energy stored in the cold heat storage material.

The end of the heat pipe which performs such an operation on the side of the cold heat storage material serves as a condensing portion, and the cold heat storage material and the freezing compartment are also provided.
Properly because heat transport capacity of the heat pipe is increased according to the temperature difference between the cold heat storage material and refrigerated chamber facilitates temperature control of the freezer compartment or the refrigerator compartment.

[0013]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a cross section of a refrigerator 1 for home use, and the refrigerator 1 is a freezer for freezing goods (room temperature:
Refrigeration room (room temperature: about 0 to 10 ° C.) 11 for storing articles whose temperature is slightly higher than that of the freezing room 10
And a refrigerator 20 for cooling the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11.

Doors 10a, 11a are provided on the front side of the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11, and articles (frozen products, refrigerated products) can be taken in and out of the box-shaped space by opening and closing the doors 10a, 11a. It is supposed to do. Door 10
A heat insulating material R is disposed on these outer wall portions including a and 11a so as to minimize the invasion of heat from the outside. The freezer compartment 10 is located above the refrigerating compartment 11, and these are separated by a relatively thin heat insulating partition plate 10b.

The refrigerator 20 includes an expansion valve 23 and an evaporator 24 provided in the freezing room 10, a compressor 21 and a condenser 22 provided outside, and a pipe 25 connecting these devices. The motor of the fan 22a for the compressor 21 and the condenser 22 is turned on / off in order to maintain the freezing room 10 and the refrigerating room 11 at a predetermined temperature. It is supposed to be. Since the refrigerator 20 is the same as that described in the section of the related art, a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

A cold heat storage material 3 contained in a predetermined container (having a certain degree of heat insulation) above the freezing compartment 10
0 (for example, polyethylene glycol), and the evaporator 2 of the refrigerator 20 is provided inside the cold heat storage material 30.
1 is arranged so that heat exchange is possible. Further, in order to cool the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11 to a predetermined temperature by the cold heat storage material 30, first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 are disposed inside the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11, respectively. The upper end sides of these heat pipes 31 and 32 (condensing sections 31a, 3
2a) is disposed in the cold heat storage material 30, the lower end of the first heat pipe 31 (evaporator 31b) is in the freezer compartment 10, and the lower end of the second heat pipe 32 (evaporator 32).
b) are arranged in the refrigerator compartment 11, respectively.

The first and second heat pipes 3
The upper ends of the condensing portions 31a and 32a are bent horizontally and sufficiently inserted into the cold heat storage material 30, and the freezing room 10 and the cold room are formed by the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32. In order to cool 11 to a predetermined temperature, the number of heat pipes and the heat transfer area (including the case where fins are used) of the condensers 31a and 32a and the evaporators 31b and 32b are set to appropriate values.

Further, a small amount of non-condensable gas G is sealed inside the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 in addition to a working fluid such as Freon.
32a: Variable conductance heat pipe (VCHP) for self-controlling the region where the working fluid condenses in 32a
It has become.

Hereinafter, the operation of the refrigerator 1 will be described. The refrigerator 20 (compressor 21 and condenser 22
Is operated, and the cooling energy is stored in the cold heat storage material 30 by the evaporator 24 (the solidification heat is removed by changing the liquid from a liquid state to a solid state). When all of the cold heat storage material 30 is solidified, the cold heat storage is completed, and the operation of the refrigerator 20 is stopped.

In this case, the inside of the freezer compartment 10 is cooled by the cold heat storage material 30 via the first heat pipe 31 and the refrigerator compartment 11 is cooled via the second heat pipe 32. Since the heat input to the heat storage 11 is slight at midnight and the amount of cooling of the freezing room 10 and the refrigerator 11 by the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 is small, the cold heat storage material 30 is cooled by the refrigerator 20. It will be cooled sufficiently. Further, since the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 are of a variable conductance type, the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 have a
2, the condensing portions 31a and 32a are widely filled with the non-condensable gas G, as shown in FIG. And the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 do not excessively cool the freezing room 10 or the refrigerating room 11.

On the other hand, the doors 10a and 11a of the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11 are frequently opened and closed during the daytime when the unit price of electric power is high and at night other than late at night, so that articles (frozen products and refrigerated products) are taken in and out. In this case, the heat input to the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11 increases, but in this case, the first and second heats are generated by the cold heat storage material 30 which is sufficiently cooled by operating the refrigerator 20 at midnight when the unit price of electric power is low. Refrigerator 10 via pipes 31 and 32
And the refrigerator compartment 11 can be cooled.

Accordingly, the time for operating the refrigerator 20 during the daytime when the unit price of electric power is high is reduced, and for example, the cold storage material 3
When the freezing room 10 or the refrigerated room 11 can be cooled by only 0, the operating time of the refrigerator 20 during the daytime or the like can be made zero,
Operation costs can be reduced. In the case of or Taso,
The time bias of the power demand can be reduced by using the midnight power.

In this case, in the first and second heat pipes 31, 32, the non-condensable gas G collected in the condensing portions 31a, 32a is pressurized by a large amount of steam of the working fluid, and the condensing portions 31a, 32 are condensed. Because it is collected at the end of 32a,
The working fluid can be sufficiently condensed in the condensing sections 31a and 32a, and the heat transport amount as a heat pipe increases. In this case, in the compressor 21 and the like of the refrigerator 20, the cold heat storage material 30 is completely melted and its temperature rises, and the temperatures of the freezing room 10 and the cold room 11 are reduced by the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32. It is controlled to operate when it cannot be maintained at the predetermined value.

[0024]

[0025]

[0026]

[0027]

[Effects of the Invention] As is apparent from the above description, according to the invention, cold energy is stored in the cold heat storage material by using late-night power, which has a relatively low unit price of electricity, and is stored in the cold heat storage material during the daytime or the like. Heat pipes are used to cool the freezer and refrigerator compartments, which reduces power consumption during the daytime and lowers operating costs, and reduces uneven power demand and reduces peak load on power generation equipment. Can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the actual施例of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed top view of first and second heat pipes in the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional general household refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Freezer room 11 Refrigerator room 20 Refrigerator 30 Cold heat storage material 31 1st heat pipe 32 2nd heat pipe

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Takashi Chiba 1007, Izumisawa, Chitose-shi, Hokkaido 151 Inside Fujikura, Hokkaido Co., Ltd. Inventor Shinichi Sugihara 1-5-1, Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Inside Fujikura Electric Wire Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masahiko Ito 1-5-1, Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo In Fujikura Electric Wire Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yuji Saito 1-5-1, Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Fujikura Electric Wire Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-63-187063 (JP, A) JP-A-63-96463 (JP, A) JP-A-57-210274 ( JP, A) JP-A-2-233957 (JP, A) JP-A-48-94058 (JP, U) JP-A-1-97159 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A refrigerator midnight power-using the freezing chamber and the refrigerating compartment is cooled by the refrigerator, out of the refrigerator
And the cold heat heat storage material covering the outer periphery of the evaporator, the freezing chamber or the refrigerating chamber through the disposed and having cold heat storage material between or between cold heat storage material and refrigerating chamber and the freezing chamber and the cold heat storage material A heat pipe for cooling , and the heat pipe
But with a small amount of non-condensable gas enclosed with the working fluid
A late-night electric power type refrigerator characterized by a conductance type heat pipe .