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US 12,546,528 B2Granted
Refrigerator and control method thereof
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsYoungseung Song, Yun Su Cho
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerator and a control method thereof of the present disclosure allows a controller to perform a load operation when the load operation start condition is satisfied when a door is opened, and when an operation release condition is satisfied, the load operation is controlled to be released and switched (or maintained) to a normal storage operation.
Claims16
A refrigerator comprising:
- a storage compartment;
- a door for opening and closing the storage compartment;
- a temperature sensor for measuring a temperature inside the storage compartment;
- a cooling source for generating cold air that is supplied to the storage compartment;
- and
- a controller configured to control an amount of the cold air supplied to the storage compartment to increase when an operation start condition of a load operation for the storage compartment is satisfied,
- wherein the controller is configured to control the load operation to start when the temperature inside the storage compartment rises above an input temperature range (ΔT) from a time the door is opened in which the operation start condition is satisfied,
- wherein the input temperature range (ΔT) is set having a different range from a case where the temperature inside the storage compartment at the time the door is opened is in a dissatisfaction region above an upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff) of a satisfaction region that is between the upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff) and a lower limit notch temperature (NT−diff) based on a set notch temperature (NT) and in a case where the temperature is lower than the upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff).
5 more elements
A control method of a refrigerator, the method comprising:
- a temperature measurement step to measure a temperature inside a storage compartment;
- a door open confirmation step to check whether a door is open;
- a condition determination step to determine whether an operation start condition of a load operation is satisfied based on the temperature inside the storage compartment;
- and
- an operation execution step to perform the load operation in response to the operation start condition being satisfied,
- wherein in the condition determination step, it is determined that the operation start condition of the load operation is satisfied in response to a condition for an elapsed time from a time of opening the door is satisfied, and the temperature inside the storage compartment rises above an input temperature range (ΔT), or in response to the
- temperature inside the storage compartment is in a dissatisfaction region above an upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff) of a satisfaction region that is between the upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff) and a lower limit notch temperature (NT−diff) based on a set notch temperature (NT),
- wherein in the operation start condition in the condition determination step,
- in response to the temperature inside the storage compartment is in the satisfaction region at the time the door is opened, a temperature rise amount for starting the load operation is set as ΔT1, and in response to a condition for the elapsed time from the time of opening of the door is satisfied and the temperature rises above ΔT1, the load operation starts;
- and
- in response to the temperature inside the storage compartment is in the dissatisfaction region higher than NT+diff at the time the door is opened, a temperature rise amount for starting the load operation is set as ΔT2, and in response to the condition for the elapsed time from the time of opening of the door is satisfied and the temperature rises above ΔT2, the load operation starts,
- wherein the ΔT2 is set lower than the ΔT1.
9 more elements
A control method of a refrigerator, the method comprising:
- a temperature measurement step to measure a temperature inside a storage compartment;
- a door open confirmation step to check whether a door is open;
- a condition determination step to determine whether an operation start condition of a load operation is satisfied based on the temperature inside the storage compartment;
- and
- an operation execution step to perform the load operation in response to the operation start condition being satisfied,
- wherein in the condition determination step, it is determined that the operation start condition of the load operation is satisfied in response to a condition for an elapsed time from a time of opening the door is satisfied, and the temperature inside the storage compartment rises above an input temperature range (ΔT),
- wherein the condition determination step includes:
- a process of counting elapsed time after the door is opened in which the temperature of the storage compartment is equal to or higher than an upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff) of a satisfaction region that is between the upper limit notch temperature (NT+diff) and a lower limit notch temperature (NT−diff) based on a set notch temperature (NT);
- and
- a process of determining that the operation start condition is satisfied in which the counted elapsed time reaches a first reference time,
- wherein, based on the temperature of the storage compartment≥((NT+diff)+set upper limit temperature)/2 is satisfied after the door is opened, the counted elapsed time is reset to a second reference time, and the second reference time is set to a time shorter than the first reference time.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.