Efficient energy usage for a laundry appliance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9447533-B2
Application number	US-201414470980-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2014
Priority date	Dec 21, 2011
Publication date	Sep 20, 2016
Grant date	Sep 20, 2016

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance has a rotatable drum at least partially defining a treating chamber for receiving a laundry load for treatment according to at least one cycle of operation and operated such that the extraction of liquid from the laundry load is controlled based on the inertia of the laundry load so that the total energy usage by the laundry treating appliance and a laundry drying appliance with which it is operably coupled may be minimized.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance configured to implement at least one cycle of operation to treat a laundry load, comprising:
a rotatable drum at least partially defining a treating chamber in which a laundry load is received for treatment;
a motor rotatably driving the drum;
a moisture sensor providing a moisture signal indicative of a remaining moisture content of the laundry load; and
a controller operably coupled to the motor and receiving the moisture signal, and configured to extract moisture from the laundry load by rotating the drum to apply a centrifugal force to the laundry load, determine at least one of an amount of energy or a cost of energy required to extract at least a portion of the remaining moisture content from the laundry load, and ending the at least one cycle of operation when the at least one of the amount of energy or the cost of energy to extract the at least a portion of the remaining moisture content satisfies a threshold.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the controller determines the at least one of an amount of energy or cost of energy to extract the at least a portion of the remaining moisture content based on the moisture signal.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the moisture sensor comprises an inertia sensor that provides a signal indicative of the inertia of at least one of the laundry load or the laundry load in combination with the drum.

4. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the threshold comprises the at least one of an amount of energy or cost of energy to remove the at least a portion of the remaining moisture content by drying.

5. A laundry treating appliance configured to implement at least one cycle of operation to treat a laundry load, comprising:
a rotatable drum at least partially defining a treating chamber in which a laundry load is received for treatment;
a motor rotatably driving the drum;
a moisture sensor providing a moisture signal indicative of a remaining moisture present in the laundry load; and
a controller operably coupled to the motor and receiving the moisture signal, and configured to extract a portion of moisture present in the laundry load from the laundry load by rotating the rotatable drum, by way of controlling the motor, to apply a centrifugal force to the laundry load, monitor the moisture signal during the extracting, determine, based on the moisture signal, at least one of an amount of energy or a cost of energy to extract at least a portion of the remaining amount of the moisture present during the extracting, and terminate the extracting when the at least one of the amount of energy satisfies a first threshold or the cost of energy satisfies a second threshold.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 5 wherein the moisture sensor provides a moisture signal indicative of a remaining amount of moisture by weight of the laundry load.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 5 , further comprising a communication connection configured to receive data from a laundry drying appliance, and wherein the controller is further configured to determine at least one of the first threshold or the second threshold based at least partially on the data received from the laundry drying appliance.

8. The laundry treating appliance of claim 5 , further comprising a communication connection configured to receive data from a power rate source, and wherein the controller is further configured to determine at least one of the first threshold or the second threshold based at least partially on the data received from the power rate source.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Ashrafzadeh Farhad
• Janke Brian P
• Zasowski Peter E

Classifications

• D06F2226/00

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F33/02 Primary

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F35/007

  for spin-drying only · CPC title

• D06F2204/065

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2202/10

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic