KR100735694B1 - Refrigerator and Method for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and a control method thereof. The present invention includes a vegetable compartment having a vegetable box for accommodating vegetables, a refrigerating compartment in which the vegetable compartment is located, an illumination lamp for illuminating the refrigerating compartment, and a light source for vegetables for irradiating light to the vegetable compartment to maintain the freshness of the vegetable. The lighting lamp and the vegetable light source are the same kind of light sources, and the refrigerator and the vegetable light source selectively light up as the refrigerator compartment opens and closes.

Vegetable, refrigerator, light emitting diode

Description

Refrigerator and its control method {Refrigerator and Method for the same}

1 is a perspective view showing a conventional refrigerator

2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a refrigerator according to the present invention;

3 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the refrigerator according to the present invention;

Figure 4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the refrigerator according to the present invention

<Explanation of Signs of Major Parts of Drawings>

100: refrigerator 200: vegetable room

110: freezer 120: cold storage room

210a, 210b, 210c: Vegetable box 272: Lamp

274: light source for vegetables

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to a refrigerator having a simple control structure associated with a light source used in the refrigerator and a control method thereof.

In general, a refrigerator includes a freezer compartment and a refrigerating compartment, and a predetermined vegetable compartment is provided with a vegetable compartment for storing vegetables and fruits (hereinafter, collectively referred to as "vegetable" or "vegetable") more freshly.

Factors affecting the freshness of vegetables are known as temperature, humidity, environmental gases, microorganisms, light and the like. Since vegetables continue to breathe and transpire, maintaining freshness of the vegetables requires suppression of breathing and transpiration. Most vegetables, with the exception of some vegetables that are impaired at low temperatures, can inhibit breathing at low temperatures and prevent transpiration at high humidity.

For this reason, the refrigerator is provided with a vegetable compartment for storing vegetables as a space independent of the refrigerating compartment in order to keep vegetables fresh for a long time. The vegetable chamber is kept at an appropriate low temperature and as high humidity as possible. That is, the vegetable room is maintained in a suitable low temperature and high humidity state, it is possible to maintain the freshness of the vegetables stored in the vegetable room.

Recently, a method of maintaining the freshness of vegetables using light, which is another influencing factor of freshness, has been proposed. While strong light has a negative effect on promoting food color change and transpiration, relatively weak light is known to improve the freshness of vegetables. In addition, such weak light is known to inhibit the decomposition of chlorophyll (chlorophyll), especially in green leafy vegetables, and is known to be effective in the maintenance of vitamin C.

Hereinafter, a conventional refrigerator having a vegetable room using light will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

The refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-28363. The refrigerator 10 is provided with an irradiation device 23 for irradiating weak light to the vegetable box 20, in particular, to prevent the concentration of chlorophyll of the green leafy vegetables from being lowered, thereby preventing the quality of the leafy vegetables from being lowered. It is configured to.

In addition, the lighting lamp 29 is provided at the upper portion of the refrigerator 10, in particular, the vegetable box 20, the lighting lamp 29 to allow the user to recognize the stored vegetables in the open state of the vegetable box 20. In operation, the vegetable box 20 is closed to operate the irradiation apparatus 23 to prevent the deterioration of the quality of green leafy vegetables by light.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-159953 discloses that the light source is constituted by a light emitting diode (LED) in the visible light region, thereby minimizing heat generation by the light source and preventing the temperature in the vegetable chamber from rising.

In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-49093 discloses a form in which a red light emitting diode having a wavelength of about 660 nm is applied to green leafy vegetables.

In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-65622 proposes an irradiation apparatus for dividing a vegetable compartment into a plurality of storage compartments and irradiating light of an appropriate wavelength according to the kind of vegetables. More specifically, the light emitting diode device is configured to be selected by using a combination of light emitting colors according to the type of vegetables, etc. using a three-color light emitting diode device of red, blue, green.

However, the refrigerator having a vegetable room using light according to the prior art has the following problems.

First, in the conventional refrigerator, a light source (hereinafter, "light") for illuminating the inside of a refrigerator, particularly a refrigerator compartment, and a light source (hereinafter, "vegetable light source") for irradiating light to vegetables stored in a vegetable box are separately configured. That is, in the conventional refrigerator, since separate parts are used for the lamp and the light source for vegetables, the parts used are complicated and many. Therefore, the conventional refrigerator has a disadvantage in that the manufacturing cost increases.

Second, in the conventional refrigerator, since the incandescent lamp, the halogen lamp, etc. are usually used as a lamp, a relatively large heat is generated. In addition, the conventional refrigerator has a disadvantage in that the control structure of a lighting lamp such as an incandescent lamp, a halogen lamp and the like is different from the control structure of a vegetable light source such as a light emitting diode.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator having a simple control structure associated with a light source and a control method thereof.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, the vegetable room having a vegetable box for accommodating vegetables; A refrigerator compartment in which the vegetable compartment is located; An illuminating lamp illuminating the refrigerating compartment; And a vegetable light source for maintaining freshness of the vegetable by irradiating light to the vegetable room, wherein the lamp and the vegetable light source are the same kind of light sources, and the lamp and the vegetable light source are selectively selected as the refrigerating chamber is opened and closed. It provides a refrigerator, characterized in that the lighting.

Preferably, the lamp and the vegetable light source include a light emitting diode. Further, the lamp is a white light emitting diode, and the vegetable light source is more preferably at least one combination of green, red and blue light emitting diodes. In addition, the lamp and the light source for vegetables is composed of at least one combination of red, green and blue light emitting diodes, it is more preferable to selectively emit light of the emission color required by the selective lighting of the red, green and blue light emitting diodes. desirable.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the method includes: determining whether the refrigerating compartment is opened; Lighting a white light emitting diode when the refrigerating compartment is opened; When the refrigerating compartment is closed, provides a control method of a refrigerator comprising turning on at least one light emitting diode among the red, green and blue light emitting diodes.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to reduce the parts used, and to efficiently control the various light sources.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to Figure 2, it will be described a preferred embodiment of the refrigerator according to the present invention.

The refrigerator 100 includes a freezing compartment 110 and a refrigerating compartment 120, and the refrigerating compartment 120 is usually provided with a separate vegetable compartment 200. The vegetable chamber 200 is usually located at the bottom of the refrigerating chamber 120.

The vegetable room 200 will be described in detail as follows.

One vegetable compartment 200 may be divided into a plurality of vegetable compartments. In FIG. 2, a refrigerator 100 is illustrated in a plurality of vegetable rooms. In this case, each vegetable compartment is accommodated in the vegetable box (210a, 210b, 210c), respectively, the bottom of the vegetable box (210c) is provided with a temperature control device 280 to adjust the temperature, meat or It is common to provide for selective storage of vegetables.

 In the following description, the uppermost vegetable chamber is described as an example for convenience. Other vegetable compartments are similar in structure to the vegetable compartments of the upper part, so description thereof is omitted.

In the refrigerating chamber 120 is formed a space for accommodating the vegetable box (210a). That is, a space is formed by the lower partition 270b, the upper partition 270b, the left and right partitions 420 and 410, and the rear partition (not shown), and the vegetable box 210a is located in the space. The vegetable box 210a may be withdrawn to the front of the refrigerator and has an open top portion. However, the structure of the vegetable chamber 200 in the present invention is not limited thereto, and may be modified in various other forms.

On the other hand, the refrigerating chamber 120 is provided with a lamp 272 for illuminating the refrigerating chamber 120, and a vegetable light source 274 for maintaining the freshness of the vegetable by irradiating light to the vegetable chamber 200. In the present invention, the illumination lamp 272 and the vegetable light source 274 are the same kind of light source, and the illumination lamp 272 and the vegetable light source 274 are selectively lit as the refrigerating chamber 120 is opened and closed.

In order to effectively use the low power, low heat generation characteristics and freshness retention characteristics, it is preferable that the lamp 272 and the vegetable light source 274 use a light emitting diode (LED).

In addition, in order to improve visibility when the user opens the refrigerating chamber 120, the lamp 272 may preferably use a white light emitting diode. The vegetable light source 274 preferably uses red, green, blue, and preferably green and red light emitting diodes to maintain freshness of the vegetables. In addition, the light source 274 for vegetables is preferably at least one combination of red and green.

On the other hand, the illuminating lamp 272 may use a white light emitting diode, but it is also possible to arrange | position and control red, green, and blue light emitting diode suitably, and to obtain white light. In addition, it is preferable that the light source 274 for vegetables also uses a combination of red, green, and blue light emitting diodes so as to obtain light having the most suitable wavelength according to the type of vegetable.

The illuminance of the lamp 272 and the vegetable light source 274 can be appropriately selected from the illuminance of the light emitting diode itself, but it is preferable to appropriately select and adjust the number of white, red, green, and blue light emitting diodes. . For example, in order to increase the illuminance of the lamp 272 and to lower the illuminance of the vegetable light source 274, the number of the white light emitting diodes may be relatively large, and the number of the red light emitting diodes, etc. may be relatively small. Do.

Referring to Figure 2, the operation of the refrigerator according to the present embodiment will be described.

When the user opens the door of the refrigerating compartment 120, the control unit (not shown) of the refrigerator detects this and turns on the lamp 272, that is, the white light emitting diode. When the user closes the door of the refrigerating compartment 120, the controller (not shown) of the refrigerator detects this and turns on the vegetable lamp 272, that is, the red and / or green LEDs.

Referring to Figures 3 and 4, another embodiment of the refrigerator according to the present invention will be described.

In the above-described embodiment, the lamp 272 and the vegetable light source 274 are illustrated and described above the refrigerator compartment 120. However, in the present embodiment, the installation positions of the lamp 272 and the vegetable light source 274 are changed. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the lamp 272 is installed at a predetermined position of the refrigerating chamber 120, for example, and the light source 274 for vegetables is provided at the top of the vegetable chamber 200, respectively. desirable. In addition, as shown in Figure 4, the lamp 272 and the light source for vegetables 274 is installed on the upper portion of the vegetable chamber 200, the lamp 272 is to be irradiated toward the refrigerating chamber 120 and the light source for vegetables 274 may be irradiated in the vegetable chamber 200 direction. In FIG. 4, all of the vegetable chambers 200 are provided with the lamps 272. However, the lamps 272 may be installed only in the uppermost vegetable chamber 200. Since the operation of the present embodiment is the same as the above-described embodiment, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Meanwhile, in the above-described embodiment, the refrigerator has a side-by-side type refrigerator in which the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment are divided into right and left sides, but the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, of course, it is also possible to apply to a top mount type refrigerator in which a freezer compartment is located at the upper side and a refrigerator compartment at the lower side, or a French style refrigerator in which the refrigerator compartment is located at the upper side and the freezer compartment at the lower side.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, a refrigerator having a vegetable compartment in which vegetables and fruits are mainly stored is illustrated and described, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, it is possible to apply the principle of the present invention to a kimchi refrigerator mainly storing kimchi, a rice barrel mainly storing grains, a wine cellar mainly storing liquor, and the like. It is also possible to apply the principles of the invention to a device for storing meat and other foods. .

The refrigerator according to the present invention having the above configuration has the following effects.

First, according to the present invention, since the same type of light source is used for the lamp and the light source for vegetables, there is an advantage that the control structure associated with the light source is simple.

Secondly, in the present invention, since the light emitting diode is used as a light source for a lamp and a vegetable, there is an advantage that power consumption and heat generation can be reduced.

Claims (5)

A vegetable room having a vegetable box for accommodating vegetables; A refrigerator compartment in which the vegetable compartment is located; An illuminating lamp illuminating the refrigerating compartment; And a vegetable light source for maintaining freshness of the vegetable by irradiating light to the vegetable room, wherein the lamp and the vegetable light source are the same kind of light sources, and the lamp and the vegetable light source are selectively selected as the refrigerating chamber is opened and closed. A refrigerator characterized by being lit. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the lamp and the vegetable light source comprise a light emitting diode. The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the lamp is a white light emitting diode and the light source for vegetables is at least one combination of green, red and blue light emitting diodes. The light source of claim 1 or 2, wherein the lamp and the light source for vegetables are composed of at least one combination of red, green, and blue light emitting diodes, and the light emitting color required by selective lighting of the red, green, and blue light emitting diodes. A refrigerator characterized by selectively emitting light. Determining whether the refrigerating compartment is opened; Lighting a white light emitting diode when the refrigerating compartment is opened; Lighting the at least one light emitting diode among the red, green and blue light emitting diodes when the refrigerating compartment is closed.

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