JPH068711B2 - refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a refrigerator capable of executing so-called automatic defrosting and rapid cooling operation.

(Prior Art) When a refrigerator operates a compressor to perform a cooling operation, frosting occurs in the cooler in an amount substantially proportional to the operation time of the cooling operation. Therefore, in the automatic defrosting of the cooler in the refrigerator, generally, the operating time of the compressor is integrated by the defrosting timer, and when the integrated operating time reaches a predetermined expiration value, the cooler is heated to melt the frost. The defrosting operation is performed.

On the other hand, there is a refrigerator that can perform a rapid cooling operation in which the inside of the refrigerator is cooled rapidly. This is a configuration in which when a user gives a quick cooling command, the compressor is continuously operated for a predetermined quick cooling operation time regardless of the temperature inside the refrigerator.

However, in a refrigerator that can perform both the automatic defrosting and the rapid cooling operation, the priority relationship between the two is a problem. If the configuration is such that the compressor operating time is uniformly accumulated by the defrost timer, the defrosting is performed when the accumulated operating time reaches the expiry value in the defrost timer while the compressor is operating due to the rapid cooling operation. This is because the operation is automatically started, and as a result, the defrosting operation raises the internal cold storage temperature even though the user gives a quick cooling command.

Therefore, conventionally, in order to prevent the occurrence of the above situation, the operation time of the compressor accompanying the rapid cooling operation is not integrated in the defrost timer, but only the normal cooling operation is integrated.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) However, in the above configuration, even if the rapid cooling operation is repeated many times, the defrost timer does not perform the time counting operation during that time, so that the compressor is actually used. However, the defrosting operation is not started even though it has been operated for a considerably long time, and there is a drawback that excessive frost is generated in the cooler and the cooling efficiency is significantly reduced.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to make it possible to reliably prevent the defrosting operation from being started during the rapid cooling operation, while also being able to sufficiently prevent excessive frost formation on the cooler. To provide.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving Problems) In the refrigerator of the present invention, in addition to the operation time of the compressor associated with the normal cooling operation, a predetermined value is obtained from the expiration value of the accumulated operation time of the compressor in the defrost timer. Except for the rapid cooling operation that starts after the spare time, the operating time of the compressor associated with the rapid cooling operation is not timed by the defrost timer, and the spare time is specified more than the rapid cooling operation time for one time. It has a feature that it is set to a long time.

(Operation) According to the above means, the defrost timer is provided with a margin time period in which it is prohibited to time the operation time of the compressor associated with the rapid cooling operation, and the margin time is a predetermined time period longer than one quick cooling operation time period. The defrosting operation is not started while the rapid cooling operation is being executed. In addition, for the rapid cooling operation that is started before the expiry time of the cumulative operating time in the defrost timer by the above-mentioned surplus time, the operating time is measured by the defrost timer, so it will be repeated many times. Even if the rapid cooling operation is executed, it is possible to prevent the defrosting operation from being easily executed and excessive frost formation on the cooler.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 2 schematically shows the electric configuration of the refrigerator according to the present embodiment, in which 1 is a control circuit including a microcomputer, and 2 is a temperature sensor provided in the freezing compartment. . When the internal temperature detected by the temperature sensor 2 rises above the target temperature set by the temperature setting circuit (not shown), the control circuit 1 sends a drive signal to a compressor (not shown) to execute the cooling operation, and as a result, When the internal temperature drops below the target temperature, the drive signal is cut off and the compressor is stopped. Reference numeral 3 denotes a quick cooling switch, and when a user turns it on to give a quick cooling command to the control circuit 1, the control circuit 1 drives the compressor for a predetermined quick cooling operation time (90 minutes in this embodiment). By outputting a signal, the compressor is continuously operated to execute a rapid cooling operation for forcibly cooling the freezing chamber regardless of the temperature inside the refrigerator. This rapid cooling operation is often used, for example, to store unfrozen food in the freezing compartment and freeze it at an early stage. Further, the control circuit 1 also has a function as a defrost timer that measures the operating time of the compressor associated with the normal cooling operation and the operating time of the compressor associated with the rapid cooling operation under the conditions described later. When the integrated operation time reaches a predetermined expiration value (12 hours in this embodiment), a defrosting operation command is given to a defrosting circuit (not shown) to execute the defrosting operation. In this defrosting operation, as is well known, the defrosting heater provided in the vicinity of the cooler (not shown) is energized with the compressor stopped, and the frost adhering to the cooler melts and This is performed by detecting that the temperature has risen to a predetermined temperature of ℃ or more and turning off the defrost heater.

Now, in the microcomputer constituting the control circuit 1, a subroutine program as shown in FIG. 1 is set for starting the rapid cooling operation, and the operation of this embodiment will be described based on this. When a quick cooling command is given by turning on the quick cooling switch 3, the main routine is interrupted, and the quick cooling operation timer is set on condition that the quick cooling operation has not been started yet (step a). When set, the rapid cooling operation is started (step b). Then, thereafter, the cumulative operating time of the compressor in the defrost timer is referred to, and it is determined whether or not the cumulative operating time is longer than the time obtained by subtracting a predetermined margin time from the expiration value (12 hours) (step. c). Here, in this embodiment, the margin time is set to a time longer than the one quick cooling operation time (90 minutes) by a predetermined time, for example, 10 minutes, that is, 100 minutes. Therefore, in step c, the quick cooling operation command is issued. Is given, it is determined whether or not the cumulative operating time of the defrosting timer is 10 hours and 20 minutes or more. When the integrated operating time is less than 10 hours and 20 minutes, the process immediately returns to the main routine and the defrosting timer integrates the operating time of the compressor as in the case of the normal cooling operation. Is 10 hours and 20 minutes or more, the defrosting timer stops counting (step d), and the operating time is not integrated by the defrosting timer even though the compressor is driven in accordance with the rapid cooling operation. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the cumulative operation time of the compressor in the defrost timer is less than 10 hours and 20 minutes, not only the normal cooling operation but also the operation time of the compressor accompanying the rapid cooling operation is performed by the defrost timer. The total operating time is 10 hours 20
When the quick cooling command is given to the control circuit 1 after the number of minutes or more, the operation time of the compressor associated with the quick cooling operation based on the command is not measured by the defrost timer. It should be noted that the elapsed time of the rapid cooling operation time is determined by a program (not shown), and the operation is terminated 90 minutes after the start of the rapid cooling operation, but after the integrated operation time reaches 10 hours and 20 minutes. When the normal cooling operation is executed after the rapid cooling operation started in 1 is finished, the operation time of the compressor associated with the operation is measured by the defrost timer.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
Even if the rapid cooling operation is started after the integrated operation time reaches 10 hours and 20 minutes, the operation time of the compressor accompanying the rapid cooling operation is not measured by the defrost timer, so it is excluded during execution of the rapid cooling operation. The frost operation is never started. On the contrary, before the integrated operation time reaches 10 hours and 20 minutes, for example, when the rapid cooling operation is started when the integrated operation time is 10 hours and 15 minutes as shown in FIG. Even after the rapid cooling operation was completed 90 minutes later, the accumulated operation time was 11 before the expiry value.
Since the time is 45 minutes, the defrosting operation is not started during the rapid cooling operation. In this case, thereafter, when the normal cooling operation is executed for 15 minutes, the integrated operation time becomes 12 hours and the defrosting operation is immediately started. Moreover, although the defrosting operation is surely prevented from being started during the rapid cooling operation as described above, the accumulated operation time is equal to the expiry value for a predetermined margin time (100 minutes in this embodiment). For the rapid cooling operation that starts before the previous time point, the defrost timer measures the operating time of the compressor that accompanies it, so the rapid cooling operation is repeated many times and the cumulative operating time of the compressor is actually The situation that the defrosting operation does not start even though it has reached a long time does not occur, and it is possible to sufficiently prevent the cooling efficiency from significantly decreasing due to excessive frost formation on the cooler. It is a thing.

In the above embodiment, the allowance time is set to 100 minutes, but this may be set appropriately in consideration of various conditions such as the expiration value of the integrated operation time in the defrost timer.
The time may be a predetermined time longer than one rapid cooling operation time. Further, the time counting method of the defrost timer is not limited to the addition method, and may be a subtraction method of down-counting according to the operation of the compressor from the predetermined expiration value. Furthermore, the expiration value of the defrost timer is limited to 12 hours. I can't
The present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention provides the defrost timer with a margin time during which it is prohibited to measure the operating time of the compressor associated with the rapid cooling operation, and the margin time is equivalent to one quick cooling operation. Since the predetermined time is set longer than the time, it is possible to reliably prevent the defrosting operation from being started during the execution of the rapid cooling operation. Moreover, for the rapid cooling operation that is started before the expiry time of the cumulative operating time in the defrost timer by the above-mentioned margin time, the operating time is measured by the defrost timer. Even if the rapid cooling operation is performed, the defrosting operation is not easily performed, and excessive frost formation on the cooler can be prevented, which is an excellent effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a subroutine at the start of the rapid cooling operation,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the main part, and FIG. 3 is a time chart showing the time counting operation of the defrost timer. In the drawing, 1 is a control circuit, 2 is a temperature sensor, and 3 is a rapid cooling operation switch.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A defrosting operation is started when the integrated operation time of the compressor measured by the defrosting timer reaches a predetermined expiration value, and only a predetermined rapid cooling operation time is given when a quick cooling command is given. In the one adapted to execute the rapid cooling operation for operating the compressor,
In addition to the operating time of the compressor associated with the normal cooling operation, the operating time of the compressor associated with the rapid cooling operation is also excluded from the expiration value except for the rapid cooling operation that is started after a predetermined margin time. A refrigerator characterized in that the time is set by a frost timer, and the margin time is set to be a predetermined time longer than the rapid cooling operation time for one time.