JPH0573480U - Midnight electric refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To make effective use of late-night power as much as possible. In a refrigerator that uses the midnight power to cool the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 with a refrigerator 20, a cold heat storage material 3 capable of storing cold heat cooled by the refrigerator 20.
0, a heat that is arranged between the cold heat storage material 30 and the freezing compartment 10 or between the cold heat storage material 30 and the cold storage compartment 11 and cools the freezing compartment 10 or the refrigerating compartment 11 via the cold heat storage material 30. It has pipes 31 and 32.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 This invention relates to a refrigerator that can effectively use late-night power.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 FIG. 4 shows an outline of a general refrigerator 100. This refrigerator 100 has a freezing room (room temperature: about −20 to −10 ° C.) 10 for freezing and freezing articles and a storage of articles having a slightly higher temperature than the freezing room 10. It mainly comprises a refrigerating room (room temperature: about 0 to 10 ° C.) 11 for cooling, and a freezer 20 and a refrigerator 20 for cooling the refrigerating room 11.

The refrigerator 20 includes a refrigerant (for example, CFC), a compressor 21 that compresses the refrigerant vapor, a condenser 22 that cools and condenses the refrigerant vapor compressed by the compressor 21, and a condensed liquid. The expansion valve 23 (or capillary tube) that adiabatically expands the refrigerant to a low temperature and the low-temperature vapor of the refrigerant to pass therethrough to remove heat from the freezer compartment 10 and maintain the inside of the freezer compartment 10 at a predetermined low temperature. It is composed of a container 24 and a pipe 25 through which the above-mentioned devices are connected and a refrigerant flows.

That is, in the refrigerator 20, the vapor of the refrigerant pressurized by the compressor 21 is cooled and liquefied by the condenser 22 via the fan 22a and the like, and is liquefied. After that, the low-temperature refrigerant vapor is sent to the evaporator 24 to cool the freezer compartment 10.

By controlling the compressor 21 of the refrigerator 20 and the fan 22a of the condenser 22 on / off, the inside of the freezer compartment 10 is maintained at a predetermined low temperature, and the air inside the freezer compartment 10 is kept cool. It is sent into the refrigerating compartment 11 and the temperature of the refrigerating compartment 11 is maintained at a constant temperature. The fan 21a for the compressor 21 and the condenser 22 of the refrigerator 20 is driven by a motor.

Here, since the outer surfaces of the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 of the refrigerator 100 are covered with the heat insulating material R and the heat input from the outside is small, the heat entering the refrigerator 100 is mainly due to the freezing compartment 10 or This occurs when articles are taken in and out by opening and closing the doors 10a, 11a of the refrigerating room 11.

[0007]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, since the articles are put in and taken out of the refrigerator 100 mainly in the daytime, the refrigerator 20 (the fan 22a of the compressor 21 and the condenser 22) does not operate much at midnight when the electricity unit price is low, and the electricity unit price is mainly used. Is relatively high during the day and night. Therefore, the operating cost of the refrigerator 100 becomes relatively high, and the above-mentioned operating pattern of the refrigerator 100 causes a time bias in the power demand, which is one of the causes of the increase in the peak load on the power generation equipment. ..

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

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a cold heat storage material capable of storing cold heat cooled by a refrigerator in a refrigerator that uses a late-night power to cool a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment with a refrigerator. A heat pipe arranged between the cold heat storage material and the freezing compartment or between the cold heat storage material and the cold storage compartment and cooling the freezing compartment or the refrigerating compartment via the cold heat storage material. To do.

Further, in the present invention, the heat pipe may be a variable conductance type heat pipe in which a small amount of non-condensable gas is enclosed together with the working fluid.

[0011]

[Action]

 In this invention, the cold heat storage material is cooled by operating the refrigerator, and the cooling energy is stored therein. Since a heat pipe is arranged between the cold heat storage material and the freezing compartment or between the cold heat storage material and the refrigerating compartment, if the temperature of the freezing compartment or the refrigerating compartment becomes higher than that of the cold heat storage material, the freezing compartment Alternatively, the heat of the refrigerating room is transferred to the cold heat storage material via the heat pipe, that is, the freezing room and the refrigerating room are cooled by the energy stored in the cold heat storage material.

Since the end portion on the side of the cold heat storage material serves as the condensing portion in the heat pipe that performs such an action, if a variable conductance type heat pipe is used, the cold heat storage material and the freezing room or the refrigerating room can be connected. Since the heat transfer capacity of the heat pipe increases in accordance with the temperature difference between the two, it becomes easy to control the temperature of the freezer compartment or the refrigerator compartment.

[0013]

【Example】

 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 household refrigerator 1. This refrigerator 1 has a freezing room (room temperature: about -20 to -10 ° C) 10 for freezing articles and an article storage room having a temperature slightly higher than that of the freezing room 10. 11 and a refrigerator 20 for cooling the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11.

Doors 10a and 11a are provided on the front sides of the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11, and articles (frozen products, refrigerated products) are put into and taken out of the box-shaped space by opening and closing the doors 10a and 11a. Is supposed to do. Further, a heat insulating material R is arranged on these outer wall portions including the doors 10a 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 is partitioned by a relatively thin heat insulating partition plate 10b.

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

A cold heat storage material 30 (for example, polyethylene glycol) housed in a predetermined container (having a certain degree of heat insulating property) is arranged above the freezing compartment 10, and inside the cold heat storage material 30. The evaporator 21 of the refrigerator 20 is arranged so that heat can be exchanged. Further, in order to cool the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 to a predetermined temperature by the cold heat storage material 30, the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 are provided inside the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11. The upper end sides (condensing sections 31a, 32a) of these heat pipes 31, 32 are disposed in the cold heat storage material 30, and the lower end side (evaporating section 31b) of the first heat pipe 31 is in the freezer compartment. 10 and the lower end side (evaporating section 32b) of the second heat pipe 32 is arranged in the refrigerating chamber 11.

The upper ends of the condensers 31a and 32a of the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 are bent horizontally so as to be sufficiently inserted into the cold heat storage material 30. In order to cool the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 to a predetermined temperature by the heat pipes 31 and 32, the number of heat pipes and the heat transfer areas of the condensers 31a and 32a and the vaporizers 31b and 32b (using fins) are used. (Including cases) are set to appropriate values.

Further, inside the first and second heat pipes 31, 32, a small amount of non-condensable gas G is enclosed in addition to a working fluid such as CFC, and the non-condensable gas G is operated in the condensing sections 31a, 32a. It is a variable-conductance heat pipe (VCHP) that self-controls the region where fluid condensation occurs.

The operation of the refrigerator 1 will be described below. The refrigerator 20 (the fan 22a of the compressor 21 or the condenser 22) is operated by using the inexpensive nighttime electric power at midnight when the heat input to the freezer compartment 10 or the refrigerating compartment 11 is small, and the evaporator 24 is used. Cooling energy is stored in the cold heat storage material 30 (the solidification heat is removed by changing from liquid to solid). 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 cold heat storage material 30 cools the inside of the freezing compartment 10 via the first heat pipe 31 and the refrigerating compartment 11 via the second heat pipe 32. Since the heat input to 11 is small at midnight and the amount of cooling of the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 by the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 may be small, the cold heat storage material 30 is stored in the refrigerator 20. It will be sufficiently cooled. Further, since the first and second heat pipes 31, 32 are of variable conductance type, if the cooling amount of the freezing compartment 10 or the refrigerating compartment 11 is small, as shown in FIG. When the non-condensable gas G is full, it narrows the condensing area of the working fluid, so the heat transfer capacity as a heat pipe decreases, and the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32 cool the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator. The chamber 11 is not overcooled.

On the other hand, the doors 10a and 11a of the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 are frequently opened and closed during the daytime when the unit price of electricity is high and at nights other than midnight, so that articles (frozen goods and refrigerated goods) are taken in and out. However, the heat input to the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 increases, but in this case, the first and second heat are stored by the cold heat storage material 30 that is sufficiently cooled by operating the refrigerator 20 at midnight when the unit price of electricity is low. The freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11 can be cooled via the pipes 31 and 32.

Therefore, the time during which the refrigerator 20 is operated during the daytime when the unit price of electricity is high is reduced. For example, when the freezing compartment 10 and the refrigerating compartment 11 can be cooled only by the cold heat storage material 30, the operating time of the refrigerator 20 during the daytime, etc. Can be reduced to zero, and operating costs can be reduced. In this case, it is possible to reduce the time bias of the power demand by the amount of using the late-night power.

In this case, in the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32, the non-condensable gas G gathered in the condensing sections 31a 1 and 32a is pressurized by a large amount of working fluid vapor and the condensing sections 31a 1 Since it is collected at the end of 32a, the working fluid in the condensers 31a and 32a can be sufficiently condensed, and the heat transport amount as the heat pipe is increased. Further, in this case, the cold heat storage material 30 is completely melted in the compressor 21 and the like of the refrigerator 20 and the temperature thereof rises, and the temperatures of the freezer compartment 10 and the refrigerator compartment 11 are increased by the first and second heat pipes 31 and 32. Is controlled to operate when it becomes impossible to maintain the specified value.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same members as those described in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals in the drawings, and the description thereof will be omitted. In the refrigerator 1 of this embodiment, an example heat storage material 30 capable of storing cold heat by using midnight power is arranged in the freezer compartment 10, and the cold heat storage material 30 and the freezing compartment 10 are cooled by the first heat pipe 33. In addition, the second heat pipe 34 is configured to cool the refrigerating chamber 11.

That is, the intermediate portion 33a of the first heat pipe 33 is disposed in the cold heat storage material 30, and the horizontal upper end portion 33b protruding from the cold heat storage material 30 (this portion becomes the condensation portion when using the midnight power). The evaporating section 24 of the refrigerator 20 is attached to the lower end 33c protruding from the cold heat storage material 30 into the freezer compartment 10. The second heat pipe 34 is of a variable conductance type, and its upper end portion is arranged inside the cold heat storage material 30 and its lower end portion is arranged inside the refrigerating chamber 11 as in the case of the first embodiment.

Then, the refrigerator 20 is operated at midnight when the unit price of electricity is low, and the horizontal upper end portion 33b of the first heat pipe 33 is cooled by the evaporator 24, whereby the cold heat storage material 30 is transferred through the intermediate portion 33a. It cools and stores cold heat in the cold heat storage material 30, and cools the freezer compartment 10 by its lower end portion 33c. On the other hand, in the daytime when the unit price of electricity is high, the intermediate portion 33a of the heat pipe 33 in the cold heat storage material 30 is used as a condensing portion, and the inside of the freezer compartment 10 is cooled by the heat pipe 33. Since the operation of the second heat pipe 34 is the same as the operation of the second heat pipe 32 of the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. Therefore, also in this embodiment, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

[0027]

[Effect of the device]

 As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, cold heat is stored in the cold heat storage material by using the late-night power, which has a relatively low power unit price, and is frozen by a heat pipe during the daytime, etc., via the cold heat storage material. Because the room and refrigerating room are configured to be cooled, the power consumption during the daytime can be reduced and the operating cost can be reduced, and the uneven distribution of power demand can be reduced, which contributes to the reduction of the peak load of power generation equipment. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

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

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional general household refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Freezing Room 11 Refrigerating Room 20 Refrigerator 30 Cold Heat Storage Material 31 First Heat Pipe 32 Second Heat Pipe

Front page continued (72) Takashi Chiba, 1007 Izumisawa, Chitose, Hokkaido, 151 151 Fujikura Co., Ltd. (72) Shinji Ishii, 1007, Izumisawa, Chitose, 151 151 Fujikura, Hokkaido (72) Shinichi Sugihara, Tokyo 1-5-1 Kiba, Koto-ku, Fujikura Electric Line Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masahiko Ito 1-5-1, Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Fujikura Electric Line Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yuuji Saito Tokyo Koto 1-5-1 Kiba, Fujikura Electric Line Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A midnight electric power type refrigerator in which a freezer compartment and a refrigerating compartment are cooled by a refrigerator, and a cold heat storage material capable of storing cold heat cooled by the refrigerator and the cold heat storage material and the freezer compartment. Alternatively, there is provided a refrigerator for late-night electric power use, comprising: a heat pipe arranged between the cold heat storage material and the refrigerating compartment and cooling the freezing compartment or the refrigerating compartment via the cold heat storage material. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the heat pipe is a variable conductance type heat pipe in which a small amount of non-condensable gas is enclosed together with a working fluid.