Refrigerator
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsJun Yamashita, Yasushi Takagi, Susumu Saruta, Munehiro Horie, Tsutomu Sakuma
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Abstract
A refrigerator has a refrigerating cycle sequentially connecting a compressor, a condenser, a drawing mechanism, and evaporator, an accumulator, an inlet temperature sensor and an outlet temperature sensor for detecting the temperatures of the inlet and outlet of the evaporator, and a cooling fan for cooling the compressor. When the difference between the temperature detected by the inlet temperature sensor and the temperature detected by the outlet temperature sensor is a predetermined value or more, the cooling fan is stopped.
Claims5
A refrigerator system using a hydrocarbon-based cooling medium, the system comprising:
- a compressor, a condenser, and at least one evaporator operatively coupled together and containing the hydrocarbon-based cooling medium and a machine oil therein;
- a cooling fan arranged to cool said compressor;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- operate said compressor at an operational speed;
- control an ON/OFF state of said cooling fan;
- evaluate an air temperature of an environment in which the refrigerator system is arranged and, responsive to a determination that the air temperature is less than a first temperature, stop the cooling fan;
- and
- responsive to a determination that the air temperature is equal to or greater than the first temperature and that a temperature difference between an inlet and an outlet of said at least one evaporator is less than a predetermined value, start said cooling fan,
- wherein said control of the ON/OFF state of said cooling fan operates to heat the hydrocarbon-based cooling medium at least to a temperature that reduces an amount of the hydrocarbon-based cooling medium dissolved in the machine oil at least to a level that reduces a sleeping phenomenon of the hydrocarbon-based cooling medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.