Refrigerator-freezer controller of refrigenator-freezer, and method for determination of leakage of refrigerant
First Claim
1. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
- a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant;
a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by said evaporator in said refrigerator-freezer; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to detect leakage of said flammable refrigerant, wherein said refrigerant leakage detection system is provided with a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of a refrigerant conduit of said evaporator and judges that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the low pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the temperature is detected by said temperature sensor with said compressor being halted is no lower than a predetermined temperature.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A refrigerator-freezer is described, in which refrigerant leakage from the refrigeration cycle can be safely detected. The refrigerator-freezer comprises: a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant; a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by the evaporator in the refrigerator-freezer; and a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to detect leakage of the flammable refrigerant, wherein the refrigerant leakage detection system is provided with a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of a refrigerant conduit of the evaporator and judges that the flammable refrigerant is leaking in the low pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the temperature is detected by the temperature sensor with the compressor being halted is no lower than a predetermined temperature.
61 Citations
54 Claims
-
1. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant;
a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by said evaporator in said refrigerator-freezer; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to detect leakage of said flammable refrigerant, wherein said refrigerant leakage detection system is provided with a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of a refrigerant conduit of said evaporator and judges that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the low pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the temperature is detected by said temperature sensor with said compressor being halted is no lower than a predetermined temperature.
-
-
7. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant;
a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by said evaporator in said refrigerator-freezer; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to detect leakage of said flammable refrigerant, wherein said refrigerant leakage detection system is provided with a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of a refrigerant conduit of said evaporator and judges that said flammable refrigerant is leaking from the high pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the temperature detected by said temperature sensor with said compressor being operated is no higher than a predetermined temperature. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant;
a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by said evaporator in said refrigerator-freezer; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to detect leakage of said flammable refrigerant, wherein said refrigerant leakage detection system is provided with a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of a refrigerant conduit of said evaporator and judges that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the high pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the temperature detected by said temperature sensor is no lower than a predetermined temperature while the input power to said compressor is decreasing, and that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the low pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the temperature detected by said temperature sensor is no higher than a predetermined temperature while the input power to said compressor is increasing. - View Dependent Claims (14)
-
-
15. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant;
a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by said evaporator in said refrigerator-freezer; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to detect leakage of said flammable refrigerant, wherein said refrigerant leakage detection system is provided with temperature sensors configured to measure the temperatures of refrigerant conduits in the inlet and outlet port sides of said evaporator and judges that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the high pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the differential temperature between temperatures detected by said temperature sensors is no lower than a predetermined temperature while the input power to said compressor is decreasing, and that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the low pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the differential temperature between temperatures detected by said temperature sensors is no higher than a predetermined temperature while the input power to said compressor is increasing. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a capillary, an evaporator and an accumulator connected in series, and filled with a flammable refrigerant;
a cooling fan configured to blow the cold air cooled by said evaporator in said refrigerator-freezer; and
a temperature sensor configured to measure the temperature of said flammable refrigerant flowing in said evaporator; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to monitor the temperature change of said flammable refrigerant by said temperature sensor and judge leakage of said flammable refrigerant on the basis of the temperature change with reference to the state transitions of said refrigerator-freezer. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 25, 29)
-
-
24. A refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a thermal insulated cabinet in which a fresh-food compartment and a freezer compartment are defined;
a fresh-food compartment evaporator configured to cool said fresh-food compartment;
a fresh-food compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said fresh-food compartment evaporator;
a freezer compartment evaporator configured to cool said freezer compartment;
a freezer compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said freezer compartment evaporator;
a refrigerant path switch mechanism located in the upstream side of said fresh-food compartment capillary and said freezer compartment capillary and configured to switch the refrigerant path for selectively supplying said flammable refrigerant to said fresh-food compartment evaporator and said freezer compartment evaporator;
a compressor constituting a circulation path of said flammable refrigerant including two routes for cooling said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment as a cooling cycle of said refrigerator-freezer together with said fresh-food compartment evaporator, said freezer compartment evaporator, said fresh-food compartment capillary, said freezer compartment capillary and said refrigerant path switch mechanism and configured to compress said flammable refrigerant;
a temperature sensor located configured to detect the temperature of said flammable refrigerant flowing in at least one of said fresh-food compartment evaporator and said freezer compartment evaporator; and
a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to monitor the temperature change of said flammable refrigerant by said temperature sensor and judge leakage of said flammable refrigerant on the basis of the temperature change with reference to the state transitions of said refrigerator-freezer. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
-
-
39. A control device for a refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a thermal insulated cabinet in which a fresh-food compartment and a freezer compartment are defined;
a fresh-food compartment evaporator configured to cool said fresh-food compartment;
a fresh-food compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said fresh-food compartment evaporator;
a freezer compartment evaporator configured to cool said freezer compartment;
a freezer compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said freezer compartment evaporator;
a refrigerant path switch mechanism located in the upstream side of said fresh-food compartment capillary and said freezer compartment capillary and configured to switch the refrigerant path for selectively supplying said flammable refrigerant to said fresh-food compartment evaporator and said freezer compartment evaporator;
a compressor constituting a circulation path of said flammable refrigerant including two routes for cooling said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment as a cooling cycle of said refrigerator-freezer together with said fresh-food compartment evaporator, said freezer compartment evaporator, said fresh-food compartment capillary, said freezer compartment capillary and said refrigerant path switch mechanism and configured to compress said flammable refrigerant;
a controller configured to calculate the frequency of said compressor on the basis of a PID calculation with reference to the inner temperatures of said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment, and control said compressor and said refrigerant path switch mechanism in accordance with the frequency as calculated in order to alternately cool said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment, wherein said control device is provided with a refrigerant leakage detection system configured to judge refrigerant leakage on the basis of the rate of change of the duty ratio of said compressor. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
-
-
48. A method of judging refrigerant leakage for a refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a thermal insulated cabinet in which a fresh-food compartment and a freezer compartment are defined;
a fresh-food compartment evaporator configured to cool said fresh-food compartment;
a fresh-food compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said fresh-food compartment evaporator;
a freezer compartment evaporator configured to cool said freezer compartment;
a freezer compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said freezer compartment evaporator;
a refrigerant path switch mechanism located in the upstream side of said fresh-food compartment capillary and said freezer compartment capillary and configured to switch the refrigerant path for selectively supplying said flammable refrigerant to said fresh-food compartment evaporator and said freezer compartment evaporator;
a compressor constituting a circulation path of said flammable refrigerant including two routes for cooling said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment as a cooling cycle of said refrigerator-freezer together with said fresh-food compartment evaporator, said freezer compartment evaporator, said fresh-food compartment capillary, said freezer compartment capillary and said refrigerant path switch mechanism and configured to compress said flammable refrigerant;
a controller configured to calculate the frequency of said compressor on the basis of a PID calculation with reference to the inner temperatures of said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment, and control said compressor and said refrigerant path switch mechanism in accordance with the frequency as calculated in order to alternately cool said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment, wherein refrigerant leakage is judged by comparing the duty ratio in the current cycle of a cooling mode with the duty ratio in the previous cycle of the same cooling mode. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
-
-
54. A method of judging refrigerant leakage for a refrigerator-freezer comprising:
-
a thermal insulated cabinet in which a fresh-food compartment and a freezer compartment are defined;
a fresh-food compartment evaporator configured to cool said fresh-food compartment;
a fresh-food compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said fresh-food compartment evaporator;
a freezer compartment evaporator configured to cool said freezer compartment;
a freezer compartment capillary located in the inlet port side of said freezer compartment evaporator;
a refrigerant path switch mechanism located in the upstream side of said fresh-food compartment capillary and said freezer compartment capillary and configured to switch the refrigerant path for selectively supplying said flammable refrigerant to said fresh-food compartment evaporator and said freezer compartment evaporator;
a compressor constituting a circulation path of said flammable refrigerant including two routes for cooling said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment as a cooling cycle of said refrigerator-freezer together with said fresh-food compartment evaporator, said freezer compartment evaporator, said fresh-food compartment capillary, said freezer compartment capillary and said refrigerant path switch mechanism and configured to compress said flammable refrigerant;
a controller configured to calculate the frequency of said compressor on the basis of a PID calculation with reference to the inner temperatures of said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment, and control said compressor and said refrigerant path switch mechanism in accordance with the frequency as calculated in order to alternately cool said fresh-food compartment and said freezer compartment, wherein, while the duty ratio in the current cycle of a cooling mode is compared with the duty ratio in the previous cycle of the same cooling mode and the differential temperature between the inlet port and the outlet port of the freezer compartment evaporator is measured, it is judged that said flammable refrigerant is leaking in the low pressure side of the refrigeration cycle when the differential temperature of said flammable refrigerant between the inlet port side and the outlet port side of said freezer compartment evaporator exceeds a predetermined value while the increase of the current duty ratio exceeds a predetermined value.
-
Specification