Refrigerator, home appliance, and method of operating the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9746225-B2
Application number	US-201414146483-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 2, 2014
Priority date	Jan 2, 2013
Publication date	Aug 29, 2017
Grant date	Aug 29, 2017

Abstract

A refrigerator includes a motor to drive a compressor, an output current detector to detect an output current flowing to the motor, a compressor controller to calculate a power consumed in the compressor based on the detected output current, a plurality of power consuming units, and a main controller to receive the calculated compressor power consumption information, and when the plurality of power consuming units operate, to calculate a final power consumption using power consumption information stored for each power consuming unit and the calculated compressor power consumption information. Accordingly, computation of a power consumption may be simply performed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigerator comprising:
a motor to drive a compressor;
a converter to convert an input AC power into a DC power;
a capacitor to store the DC power from the converter;
an inverter to convert the DC power into an output AC power and to output the AC power to the motor to drive the compressor;
a DC-terminal detecting unit to detect a DC terminal voltage at both terminals of the capacitor;
an output current detector to detect an output current flowing to the motor;
a compressor controller to output a switching control signal to the inverter for driving the compressor based on the detected output current, and to calculate compressor power information consumed in the compressor based on the detected output current;
a communication unit that performs a wired communication or a wireless communication;
a plurality of power consuming units including a defrosting heater and a freezing compartment fan motor;
a memory to store power consumption information for each of the plurality of power consuming units and to output corresponding power consumption information, when the plurality of power consuming units operate; and
a main controller to receive the calculated compressor power consumption information, and when the plurality of power consuming units operate, to calculate a final refrigerator power consumption using power consumption information stored for each power consuming unit operated and the calculated compressor power consumption information,
wherein at least one of items of power consuming units in the memory or at least one of magnitude of the power consumption information for each corresponding item is updated through the communication unit,
wherein in case the defrosting heater operates, the main controller compensates power consumption stored in the memory with respect to the defrosting heater based on a gap between average value of the DC-terminal voltage and instantaneous value of the DC-terminal voltage from the DC-terminal detecting unit,
wherein the main controller, in case no output current is detected flowing through the freezing compartment fan motor or an output current is lower than a reference value, determines that freezing compartment fan motor is disconnected and excludes the power consumption of the freezing compartment fan motor from the final refrigerator power consumption.

2. The refrigerator of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of power consuming units include a circuit unit, a mechanical fan motor, and an illuminating unit and further includes at least one of a blast chiller, an ice bank vibrator, a home bar heater, or a pillar heater.

3. The refrigerator of claim 1 , further comprising an output voltage detector to detect an output voltage supplied to the motor,
wherein the compressor controller calculates the compressor power consumption based on the detected output current and the output voltage.

4. The refrigerator of claim 1 , wherein the main controller compensates for power consumptions of at least some power consuming units that are in operation among the plurality of power consuming units and calculates the refrigerator power consumption based on the compensated power consumptions and the calculated compressor power consumption information.

5. The refrigerator of claim 4 , wherein when the at least some power consuming units are operated by AC power, the main controller performs the power compensation based on an instantaneous value of the AC power.

6. The refrigerator of claim 4 , wherein when the at least some power consuming units are operated by AC power, the main controller compensates for the power consumptions of the at least some power consuming units stored in the memory using a difference value between a value of the DC power and a DC reference value and calculates a refrigerator power consumption in the refrigerator based on the calculated compressor power consumption information and the compensated power consumption information.

7. The refrigerator of claim 1 , further comprising a display to display the refrigerator power consumption information or accumulated refrigerator power consumption information based on the refrigerator power consumption.

8. The refrigerator of claim 7 , further comprising at least any one of:
a display controller to control the display;
an ice maker controller to control an ice maker; and
a communication controller to control the communication unit,
wherein the main controller receives at least one of operating information of the display, operating information of the ice maker, operating information of the communication unit, and operating information of an ice bank for ejecting ice made in the ice maker from at least one of the display controller, the ice maker controller, and the communication controller.

9. The refrigerator of claim 1 ,
wherein the main controller compensates for a power consumption in each power consuming unit based on the part variations of the plurality of power consuming units and whether the plurality of power consuming units operate and calculates the refrigerator power consumption using the compensated power consumption information and the calculated compressor power consumption.

10. The refrigerator of claim 1 , wherein when the DC power exceeds an allowable value for a predetermined time, the main controller compensates for power consumptions of at least some power consuming units that are in operation among the plurality of power consuming units using a difference value between the allowable value of the DC power and an instantaneous value of the DC power and calculates the refrigerator power consumption based on the compensated power consumption information and the calculated compressor power consumption information.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Eom Yonghwan
• Lee Kibae
• Choi Sangbok
• Lee Namki
• Lee Chungill

Classifications

• F25B49/02 Primary

  for compression type machines, plants or systems · CPC title

• F25B2700/151

  of the compressor motor · CPC title

• F25B5/02

  arranged in parallel · CPC title