ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES
First Claim
1. A refrigerator comprising:
- a fresh food compartment;
a freezer compartment;
one or more power consuming features/functions including a refrigeration system for cooling the fresh food compartment and freezer compartment; and
a controller operatively connected to the one or more power consuming features/functions, the controller being configured to receive and process a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility, the controller operating the refrigerator in one of plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, in response to the received signal, the controller being configured to at least one of selectively schedule, delay, adjust and deactivate at least one of the one or more power consuming features/functions to reduce power consumption of the refrigerator in the energy savings mode.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A refrigerator comprises a fresh food compartment and a freezer compartment and one or more power consuming features/functions including a refrigeration system for cooling the fresh food compartment and the freezer compartment. A controller is operatively connected to the one or more power consuming features/functions. The controller is configured to receive and process a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility. The controller operates the refrigerator in one of plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, in response to the received signal. The controller is configured to at least one of selectively schedule, delay, adjust and deactivate at least one of the one or more power consuming features/functions to reduce power consumption of the refrigerator in the energy savings mode.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A refrigerator comprising:
-
a fresh food compartment; a freezer compartment; one or more power consuming features/functions including a refrigeration system for cooling the fresh food compartment and freezer compartment; and a controller operatively connected to the one or more power consuming features/functions, the controller being configured to receive and process a signal indicative of current state of an associated energy supplying utility, the controller operating the refrigerator in one of plurality of operating modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an energy savings mode, in response to the received signal, the controller being configured to at least one of selectively schedule, delay, adjust and deactivate at least one of the one or more power consuming features/functions to reduce power consumption of the refrigerator in the energy savings mode. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A refrigerator control method, comprising:
-
determining a 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 the 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 features/functions of the refrigerator to reduce power consumption of the refrigerator in the energy savings 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. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. 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 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 signal being in the first and second states respectively, wherein the controller is configured to increase the setpoint temperature of at least one of fresh food compartment and the freezer compartment in the energy savings mode, and wherein the controller is configured to delay activation of the defrost cycle if the scheduled on-time occurs in the energy savings mode unless performance degradation of the refrigerator is detected. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
Specification