WO2014057331A1 - Système de commande pour équipement réfrigéré et appareil pourvu de fonctionnalités avancées d'économie d'énergie - Google Patents

Système de commande pour équipement réfrigéré et appareil pourvu de fonctionnalités avancées d'économie d'énergie Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2014057331A1
WO2014057331A1 PCT/IB2013/002205 IB2013002205W WO2014057331A1 WO 2014057331 A1 WO2014057331 A1 WO 2014057331A1 IB 2013002205 W IB2013002205 W IB 2013002205W WO 2014057331 A1 WO2014057331 A1 WO 2014057331A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
temperature
control system
energy saving
refrigerated
evaporator
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IB2013/002205
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Manlio POTO
Paolo CHIARAMONTE
Roberto DI TOMMASO
Original Assignee
Dixell, S.R.L.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Dixell, S.R.L. filed Critical Dixell, S.R.L.
Priority to BR112015007697A priority Critical patent/BR112015007697A2/pt
Priority to CN201380052416.1A priority patent/CN104969137B/zh
Publication of WO2014057331A1 publication Critical patent/WO2014057331A1/fr
Priority to DKPA201570251A priority patent/DK178891B1/en

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
    • G05D—SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES
    • G05D23/00—Control of temperature
    • G05D23/19—Control of temperature characterised by the use of electric means
    • G05D23/1951—Control of temperature characterised by the use of electric means with control of the working time of a temperature controlling device

Definitions

  • the hereafter invention describes a control system for refrigerated equipment and apparatus (for drinks and not perishable foods, hereafter referred as consumer goods) where the above mentioned control system, with or without door for accessing to the refrigerated stored compartment, implements advanced energy saving features.
  • control system for refrigerated equipment and apparatus (for drinks and not perishable foods, hereafter referred as consumer goods) where the above mentioned control system, with or without door for accessing to the refrigerated stored compartment, implements advanced energy saving features.
  • Refrigerated Equipment is used worldwide because of they provide the ability to sell consumer goods at the best temperature (hereafter referred as business temperature or SETPOINT) in shops, restaurants, shopping center and so on (hereafter referred as dealers).
  • business temperature or SETPOINT business temperature
  • any refrigerated equipment implements a cooling/freezing circuit where at least a compressor, an evaporator with or without fans, a condenser and an isolated/refrigerated storage compartment are used to maintain consumer goods at a temperature (called the operating SETPOINT) lower than the environmental one. This makes the consumer goods more attractive and promotes their consumption.
  • the operating SETPOINT a temperature lower than the environmental one.
  • some type of electronic or mechanical control equipment is used to maintain the operating temperature in the refrigerated equipment
  • One of the existing solutions is to maintain the consumer goods at the operating SETPOINT only during business hours of the dealer and by using a different temperature, higher than the SETPOINT, during non-business hours.
  • This solution requires an additional electronic circuit and it is not able to detect variations in openings and closing hours of the dealer or time changes due to the beginning or the ending of a daylight saving time period. In case of these events, the SETPOINT settings of the refrigerated equipment must be corrected manually from an external operator.
  • EP 1540438 B1 discloses this technique: it is a very efficient technique because of the refrigerated equipment is able to automatically adapt the SETPOINT temperature of the goods depending on the use of the refrigerated equipment itself or changing of the opening intervals of the dealer. On the opposite way, this solution needs to install additional components on the refrigerated equipment such as door sensor, presence sensor and so on. This introduces additional costs for both raw materials and assembling time of the refrigerated equipment.
  • Another technique to reduce energy consumption is to optimize the compressor on/off cycle: its scope is to reduce the compressor on time.
  • Patent US2012/0059522 A1 discloses a method to optimize the compressor on/off cycles by analyzing the real and predicted pattern of use of the apparatus and by measuring the internal and external temperatures. This permits to increase energy efficiency through time, but, it requires the use of an external temperature probe, which leads to incremental complexity of the control system used and also introduces additional costs.
  • Patent EP 2474799 A2 discloses a method to control the temperature of the refrigerated storage compartment without using any temperature probes which is placed into the compartment itself.
  • the temperature regulation is performed by measuring and comparing one or both signals arriving from an external temperature probe and a power supply voltage analyzer. An additional signal from a door sensor can also be used. These signals allow the creation of a pattern of operation of the refrigerated equipment which will be used to modify the compressor on/off cycles.
  • This method is based on the assumptions of reaching a stationary behavior of the compressor as soon as the request temperature is reached. It needs to combine signals arriving from different sources and cannot guarantee an accurate temperature control nor give the possibility to display the real temperature of the refrigerated storage compartment. In addition to this, specific tests must be done to estimate the optimal pattern of operation of any different apparatus which means increasing of the complexity and also of the final costs.
  • a defrost cycle is required to melt the ice present on the evaporator surface.
  • the presence of ice on the evaporator surface makes the thermal exchange of the cooling circuit worse, increasing total energy consumption.
  • Off-cycle defrosts in this case the compressor, which is part of the cooling circuit, is stopped following a preset schedule and for a predefined interval of time.
  • Defrost with evaporator temperature control a temperature probe, placed on the evaporator surface, is used to stop the running defrost cycle as soon as the measured temperature reach and goes over a preset value.
  • a safety timer is also used to guarantee that the running defrost cycle will be stopped, in case of any malfunctioning, after elapsing this safety timer. As in the previous case, defrost cycle follow a preset schedule.
  • the present invention addresses these needs, by combining the capability to maintain the lower SETPOINT temperature of the goods only during the business hours of a dealer, and without introducing in the refrigerated equipment any additional components normally not required for its operation. Moreover, the present invention introduces a new concept of energy savings through an integrated management and optimization of the various sources, present in the refrigerated equipment, and responsible for the energy consumption. Summary of the invention
  • the present invention is intended to be applied to any refrigerated equipment, with or without door for accessing to the refrigerated storage compartment, and make use of the already present temperature probes (both the regulation and the evaporator one) to control the temperature inside the refrigerated storage compartment and for estimating the time periods for Energy Saving Mode activation, where "Energy Saving Mode” is intended to be any working period of time for the refrigerated storage equipment with a temperature higher than the business temperature. For further information, any working period of time for the refrigerated equipment at the business temperature will be defined hereafter as "Normal Mode".
  • FIG. 1 represent a block diagram of the control system object of the present invention is shown. Inputs, outputs and their interaction with the electronic controller are reported. See the following TABLE to find the description of the blocks present in the FIG.1.
  • FIG.2 describes a flow chart related to the method used from the functional model of the invention object of the present patent.
  • FIG.3 describes a flow chart related to the classification of any temperature variation measured during the functioning of the refrigerated equipment.
  • FIG.4 describes a flow chart related to the management of the defrost cycle during any Energy Saving Mode. Detailed description
  • the present invention is intended to be applied to any refrigerated equipment where the regulation of the temperature of the refrigerated storage compartment is controlled by an electronic controller.
  • the temperature regulation of a refrigerated stored compartment, part of the apparatus is normally managed from a temperature controlling system and by monitoring one or more characteristic temperature trends, measured by one or more temperature probes.
  • Such temperature controlling system is able to regulate the temperature of the apparatus under its control by supervising all the involved parts (compressor, evaporator, condenser, fans, see Fig. ).
  • the inputs of such temperature controlling system are defined as:
  • ⁇ passive method the defrost is performed by compressor cycle off;
  • active method the defrost is performed by using hot gas, also known as cycle inversion, or by using electrical heater elements.
  • the target is to melt the ice present on the evaporator surface.
  • a collateral effect of melting the ice will be introduced: the rising of the temperature of the refrigerated storage compartment depending from the position of the evaporator and the quantity of ice present.
  • the first request is to optimize the duration and the schedule of the defrost cycle in order to limit the rise of the temperature inside the refrigerated storage compartment.
  • EP0328151 B1 discloses the state of the art method for defrost cycle.
  • the defrost cycle is made by using electrical heater elements which are actively driven, till the end of the latent heating phase, and pulsing till the end-defrost condition is reached.
  • the evaporator temperature trend is analyzed at preset interval of time in order to detect the end of the latent heating phase and the end-defrost condition.
  • the present invention introduces an innovative way to extend the analysis of the evaporator temperature trend also to appliances using passive defrost methods by integrating both:
  • EP 1540438 B1 discloses a solution that permits to dynamically create and update interval of time where different SETPOINS will be used.
  • a plurality of signals coming from "use sensors” e.g. door switch or vibration sensor
  • This solution requires the use of at least one of the "use sensors", even if these sensors lead to additional raw material and production costs for the manufacturer.
  • the present invention introduces the possibility of avoiding any "use sensors” but still providing the benefits of energy savings.
  • to the invention discloses a method of analyzing the temperature variations instead of activity signals (generated from use sensors). In this way, the production process is simplified and the final costs for the manufacturer are reduced. It is also possible to replace or refurbish in a short amount of time and in a simple way any kind of appliance (refrigerated equipment) already present in the field.
  • Another aspect of the present invention is that it makes use of different energy saving methods and merges them into the same control system, resulting in a better performing solution.
  • the modes of operation of a control system can be distinguished between: ⁇ "Normal Mode”: this mode of operation is identified with an interval of time where the regulation temperature for the refrigerated storage compartment is equal to the SETPOINT • "Energy Saving Mode”: this mode of operation is identified with an interval of time where the regulation temperature for the refrigerated storage compartment is higher than the SETPOINT.
  • the control system of the present invention makes use of an electronic controller (C of Fig.1 ) which provides the data collection from the available temperature probes used in the refrigerated equipment (A, B of Fig.1 ).
  • This electronic controller converts in the data collected into a data set, and then analyzes this data set.
  • the result of the analysis is an analytical model able to automatically change the mode of operation of the refrigerated equipment by acting on the available outputs (E, F, G and H of Fig.1 ).
  • control system object of the present invention is made of:
  • One or more temperature probes placed in the refrigerated storage compartment and used to regulate the temperature and to detect any temperature variation. Said temperature variation, measured by the temperature probes, can be classified as follows:
  • Short-period variation which is defined as an instantaneous temperature variation. It is due to any change in the balance conditions of the appliance under control. This can be due to a door opening or to any refilling operation of the refrigerated stored compartment.
  • Medium-period variation which is defined as a slow temperature variation. It can be due to the thermal dispersion of the appliance under control toward the surrounding environment or following day- night temperature changing or due to seasonal temperature variations.
  • One of these temperature probes can be placed on the evaporator surface in order to measure the evaporator temperature and control any defrost cycle.
  • An electronic controller (C of Fig.1 ) able to collect, analyze, classify, process and store the temperature variations detected from the available temperature probes (data set processing).
  • This electronic controller drives the available loads, where the means of "loads" is all the elements, parts of the appliance under control, which require energy, like the compressor, the fans, the lights and the heater elements of the appliance (E, F, G, H of Fig.1 ).
  • the electronic controller is able to build an analytical model of operation. By using this model, the electronic controller is able to adapt the functioning of the apparatus to any specific case, giving the best optimization between business temperature and energy saving request.
  • the analytical model is able to enable two different operating conditions for the apparatus: the above mentioned “Energy Saving Mode” and the “Normal Mode”.
  • the analytical model identifies the "Normal Mode” with any interval of time where temperature variations are detected and the “Energy Saving Mode” with any interval of time where no temperature variations had been detected.
  • the SETPOINT will be moved to a value higher than the business SETPOINT and depending of a preset value.
  • This defrost cycle is optimized by controlling the difference between the regulation and the evaporator probe temperature (17, 18, 19 of Fig.4). By analyzing this difference, it is possible to decide the right moment to stop the running defrost. This permits to automate the defrost cycle, without any external interaction of third persons.
  • defrost cycle automated and optimized reduces the temperature rising of the temperature increase of the goods in the refrigerated storage compartment (due to the physics related to any defrost process) with less energy request to maintain the SETPOINT after finishing the running defrost.
  • PERIOD PERIOD of analysis
  • the electronic controller will begin a new PERIOD of analysis of predefined duration (from 1 to 20 days).
  • Any PERIOD is divided into sub intervals of 30 min each and named CELLS.
  • a CELL is used to collect, analyze and classify all temperature data coming from the available temperature probes (Fig.3).
  • VT number of the nth-CELL is higher or equal to the average value MVT (11 of Fig.2), then the nth-CELL will be classified as belonging to the "Normal Mode” (NM-CELL).
  • NM-CELL the average value MVT (11 of Fig.2)
  • Energy Saving Mode E-CELL
  • the last operation of the algorithm is to create the functional model for the apparatus ( 1 of Fig.2) as grouping of the CELLS belonging to the same mode.
  • a filter is used to force any ES-CELL sequence lower that a preset value (which depends on the configuration) to belong to the "Normal Mode".
  • the outputs (compressor (E of Fig.1 ), evaporator fans (F of Fig.1 ) and heating elements (G of Fig.1 )) are driven from the electronic controller according to the difference of temperature between the regulation and the evaporator temperature probes (17 of Fig.4).
  • the electronic controller continuously calculates the difference of temperature between the regulation and the evaporator temperature probes.
  • the electronic controller stops the running defrost cycle as soon as the here above difference of temperature reach a preset value (19 of Fig.4).

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  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
  • Devices That Are Associated With Refrigeration Equipment (AREA)
  • Defrosting Systems (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un système de commande destiné à être appliqué à n'importe quel meuble réfrigéré ou à n'importe quel appareil réfrigéré équipé d'un compartiment de stockage réfrigéré. Ce système de commande comprend un dispositif de commande électronique à mémoire. Ce système de commande utilise une ou plusieurs sondes thermiques et peut établir un jeu de données en extrayant des valeurs de variation de température provenant desdites sondes thermiques. Ce jeu de données est utilisé par le système de commande pour établir un modèle analytique capable d'identifier deux différents modes de fonctionnement de l'appareil, désignés par mode normal et mode économie d'énergie, le mode économie d'énergie étant défini comme une période de fonctionnement, de l'appareil, à une température supérieure à la température utilisée pendant le mode normal.
PCT/IB2013/002205 2012-10-08 2013-10-02 Système de commande pour équipement réfrigéré et appareil pourvu de fonctionnalités avancées d'économie d'énergie WO2014057331A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
BR112015007697A BR112015007697A2 (pt) 2012-10-08 2013-10-02 sistema de controle para equipamento refrigerado e aparelho com características avançadas de economia de energia
CN201380052416.1A CN104969137B (zh) 2012-10-08 2013-10-02 具有节能特征的用于冷藏设备和装置的控制系统
DKPA201570251A DK178891B1 (en) 2012-10-08 2015-04-29 Control system for refrigerated equipment and apparatus with advanced energy saving features

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
IT001677A ITMI20121677A1 (it) 2012-10-08 2012-10-08 Sistema di controllo per apparati e sistemi refrigerati con avanzate funzioni di risparmio energetico
ITMI2012A001677 2012-10-08

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2014057331A1 true WO2014057331A1 (fr) 2014-04-17

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PCT/IB2013/002205 WO2014057331A1 (fr) 2012-10-08 2013-10-02 Système de commande pour équipement réfrigéré et appareil pourvu de fonctionnalités avancées d'économie d'énergie

Country Status (5)

Country Link
CN (1) CN104969137B (fr)
BR (1) BR112015007697A2 (fr)
DK (1) DK178891B1 (fr)
IT (1) ITMI20121677A1 (fr)
WO (1) WO2014057331A1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN111076491B (zh) * 2018-10-22 2020-10-30 海尔智家股份有限公司 冰箱及其控制方法

Citations (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4932217A (en) * 1988-02-11 1990-06-12 Friedhelm Meyer Process for controlling a heater, in particular a defrost heater for refrigerating plants
US20070225871A1 (en) 2006-03-24 2007-09-27 Karstens Christopher K Managing predictable thermal environments
EP1540438B1 (fr) 2002-09-16 2008-12-10 The Coca-Cola Company Systemes et procede de regulation de temperature pour systemes de refrigeration et de chauffage
US20120059522A1 (en) 2010-09-08 2012-03-08 Engenharia Assistida Por Computador Ltda Method for controlling the temperature on cooling machines based on real and predicted patterns of use and internal/external temperatures
EP2474799A2 (fr) 2011-01-07 2012-07-11 B.D.G. el S.r.l. Systèmes de contrôle de la température

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
IT1292014B1 (it) * 1997-05-27 1999-01-25 Rc Condizionatori Spa Controllo dello sbrinamento dell'evaporatore in un impianto a pompa di calore ad aria
US7490477B2 (en) * 2003-04-30 2009-02-17 Emerson Retail Services, Inc. System and method for monitoring a condenser of a refrigeration system
US20050177282A1 (en) * 2004-01-16 2005-08-11 Mason Paul L.Ii Energy saving vending machine and control
CN1313790C (zh) * 2004-04-09 2007-05-02 广东科龙电器股份有限公司 一种冰箱分时段运行的控制系统及控制方法
US20060289553A1 (en) * 2005-06-27 2006-12-28 Ranco Incorporated Of Delaware Adaptive energy usage profile management and control system for vending devices and the like
PL2719978T3 (pl) * 2012-10-15 2015-10-30 Whirlpool Co Sposób sterowania domowym urządzeniem chłodniczym

Patent Citations (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4932217A (en) * 1988-02-11 1990-06-12 Friedhelm Meyer Process for controlling a heater, in particular a defrost heater for refrigerating plants
EP0328151B1 (fr) 1988-02-11 1993-09-29 MEYER, Friedhelm Procédé de commande pour chauffage en particulier pour un chauffage de dégivrage d'installations frigorifiques
EP1540438B1 (fr) 2002-09-16 2008-12-10 The Coca-Cola Company Systemes et procede de regulation de temperature pour systemes de refrigeration et de chauffage
US20070225871A1 (en) 2006-03-24 2007-09-27 Karstens Christopher K Managing predictable thermal environments
US20120059522A1 (en) 2010-09-08 2012-03-08 Engenharia Assistida Por Computador Ltda Method for controlling the temperature on cooling machines based on real and predicted patterns of use and internal/external temperatures
EP2474799A2 (fr) 2011-01-07 2012-07-11 B.D.G. el S.r.l. Systèmes de contrôle de la température

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
ITMI20121677A1 (it) 2014-04-09
DK201570251A1 (en) 2015-05-11
BR112015007697A2 (pt) 2017-07-04
CN104969137B (zh) 2017-05-17
CN104969137A (zh) 2015-10-07
DK178891B1 (en) 2017-05-01

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