Energy management of household appliances

A refrigerator control method, comprising:

• determining a utility state for an associated energy supplying utility, the utility state being indicative of at least a peak demand period or an off-peak demand period;
• operating a refrigerator in a normal mode during the off-peak demand period;
• operating the refrigerator in an energy savings mode during the peak demand period;
• selectively scheduling, delaying, adjusting and/or deactivating any number of one or More power consuming devices of the refrigerator to reduce power consumption of the refrigerator in the energy sayings mode, including increasing a setpoint temperature of a freezer compartment to precipitate less compressor on time in the energy savings mode;
• and
• returning to the normal mode after the peak demand period is over.

A refrigerator comprising:

• a fresh food compartment having a targeted setpoint temperature;
• a freezer compartment having, a targeted setpoint temperature;
• a refrigeration system for cooling each of the fresh food compartment and the freezer compartment to its targeted setpoint temperature;
• an automatic defrost cycle having a scheduled on-time;
• and
• a controller configured to receive and process an energy signal, the energy signal having a first state indicative of a utility peak demand period and a second state indicative of a utility off-peak demand period, the controller operating the refrigerator in one of an energy savings mode and a normal operating mode based on the received energy signal being in the first state and the second state respectively,
• wherein the controller is further configured to increase the targeted setpoint temperature of at least one of fresh food compartment and the freezer compartment in the energy savings mode, and
• wherein the controller is further configured to delay activation of the automatic defrost cycle if the scheduled on-time occurs in the energy savings mode unless performance degradation of the refrigerator is detected.