Household appliance and method of operating a household appliance
AssigneeElectrolux Home Products, Inc.
InventorsGuiseppe DREOSSI, Bernd KRISCHE, Marie MINDE
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention in particular is directed to a household appliance, such as a washing machine or dishwasher, comprising a heat pump arrangement (3) with a heat pump (4, 5, 6) adapted to transfer heat to an operating medium (2) of the appliance (1, 3), with a closed storage tank (9) adapted to receive a phase change substance (10) and being heat exchangeably coupled with a process side (5) of the heat pump (4, 5, 6), with at least one sensor (11) adapted and arranged to detect an actual phase state of the phase change substance (10), and with a recovery unit (12) adapted and operable to actively recover the phase change substance (10) in dependence of a signal of the sensor (11).
Claims11
Household appliance comprising a heat pump arrangement with a heat pump adapted to transfer heat to an operating medium of the appliance, with a closed storage tank adapted to receive a phase change substance and being heat exchangeably coupled with a process side of the heat pump, with at least one sensor adapted and arranged to detect an actual phase state of the phase change substance, and with a recovery unit adapted and operable to actively recover the phase change substance in dependence of a signal of the sensor.
Method of operating a household appliance which comprises a heat pump arrangement with a heat pump adapted to transfer heat to an operating medium of the appliance, with a closed storage tank adapted to receive a phase change substance and being heat exchangeably coupled with a process side of the heat pump, with a sensor adapted and arranged to detect an actual phase state of the phase change substance, and with a recovery unit adapted and operable to actively recover the phase change substance in dependence of a signal of the sensor, wherein the method comprises the steps of detecting an actual phase state of the phase change substance and operating the recovery unit if a sensor signal is indicative of a predefined critical phase state of the phase change substance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.