CONTROL METHOD FOR PREVENTING HIGH TEMPERATURES OF ELECTRICAL HEATING DEVICES OF COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATOR

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of Taiwan Patent Application No. 113141945, filed on Nov. 1, 2024, titled “CONTROL METHOD FOR PREVENTING HIGH TEMPERATURE OF ELECTRICAL HEATING OF COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATOR”, and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present application relates to the field of commercial refrigerators, and more particularly, to a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Commercial refrigerators (also known as commercial refrigerated/frozen cabinets) commonly found in stores and hypermarkets usually have heating wires installed on the glass panels of the doors, and the heating wires run all the time to heat the glass panels, thereby keeping the temperature of the glass panel above the temperature of the dew point to defog.

However, turning on the heating wires, all the time damages the glass panel of the commercial refrigerator, and turning on the heating wires all the time consumes a lot of electricity. In addition, there are multiple commercial refrigerators in stores/supermarkets/hypermarkets which open 24 hours a day, therefore the power consumption of the stores/hypermarkets is quite large. Furthermore, prolonged and uninterrupted heating increases the temperature of the glass panel, which depletes the cooling capacity in the commercial refrigerator, thereby increasing energy consumption of the compressor and increasing the power consumption of the commercial refrigerator.

Therefore, it is necessary to provide a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerators solve the problems in the conventional technology.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

An objective of the present disclosure is to provide a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator, which can operate the heating wire according to the operating condition of the commercial refrigerator. When the operation of the commercial refrigerator is in a normal condition, the heating wire arranged on the glass door of the commercial refrigerator is periodically turned on and turned off, which not only can prevent the glass panel from fogging up, but also can reduce the power consumption of the commercial refrigerator and avoid the damage to the glass panel.

In order to achieve the above objectives, the present disclosure provides a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator, which includes the following steps: turning on a commercial refrigerator; detecting an operating condition of the commercial refrigerator; in response to the operating condition being a normal condition, turning on and turning off a heating wire provided on the commercial refrigerator according to a defogging operating parameter table of the commercial refrigerator; periodically detecting the operating condition of the commercial refrigerator; and in response to the operating condition changing from the normal condition to a fault condition, turning off the heating wire.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the fault condition includes: a failure of refrigerator chamber temperature sensing, a failure of evaporator temperature sensing, an excess of compressor operating power, an excess of intelligent power module (IPM) temperature, an excess of compressor outlet temperature, a shortage of compressor inlet temperature, an excess of condenser temperature, and a shortage of condenser temperature.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the defogging operating parameter table includes: a first temperature in the commercial refrigerator, an ambient temperature, a threshold value, a first time period, and a second time period, and in response to a difference between the ambient temperature and the first temperature being greater than the threshold value, turning on the heating wire and keeping for the first time period, and turning off the heating wire and keeping for the second time period.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the threshold value is between 1 and 40.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the first time period is between 0 and 20 minutes.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the second time period is between 0 and 60 minutes.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the heating wire is arranged on a glass panel of a glass door.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the heating wire is arranged on a frame of the commercial refrigerator corresponding to a glass door frame.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator further includes: creating the defogging operation parameter table through manual input.

In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator further includes: automatically creating the defogging operation parameter table through a database.

As described above, the control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator provided by the present disclosure immediately detect the operating condition of the commercial refrigerator during initiation and operation. When the operation of the commercial refrigerator is in the normal condition, the heating wire arranged on the commercial refrigerator is turned on and off to defog according to the defogging operation parameter table. If a fault condition is detected, the heating wire is turned off. In this way, the present disclosure not only can prevent the glass panel from fogging up but also can reduce the power consumption of the commercial refrigerator (saving 30% to 40% of the electric power required for defogging operation) and avoid the damage to the glass panel.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or the prior art, the following drawings, which are intended to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art, will be briefly described. It will be apparent that the drawings and the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art may, without creative efforts, derive other drawings from these drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the steps of a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a commercial refrigerator employing the embodiment of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. In this regard, directional terminology, such as “top”, “bottom”, “front”, “back”, “left”, “right”, “inside”, “outside”, “side”, etc., is used with reference to the orientation of the figure(s) being described. As such, the directional terminology is used for purposes of illustration and is in no way limiting. Throughout this specification and in the drawings like parts will be referred to by the same reference numerals.

Please refer to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the steps of a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator. An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator, which includes the following steps:

• • Step S110, turning on a commercial refrigerator.
  • Step S120, detecting an operating condition of the commercial refrigerator.
  • Step S130, in response to the operating condition being a normal condition, turning on and turning off a heating wire provided on the commercial refrigerator according to a defogging operating parameter table of the commercial refrigerator. The defogging operating parameter table may include: a first temperature in the commercial refrigerator, an ambient temperature, a threshold value, a first time period, and a second time period, and in response to a difference between the ambient temperature and the first temperature being greater than the threshold value, turning on the heating wire and keeping for the first time period, and turning off the heating wire and keeping for the second time period. Specifically, the threshold value is between 1 and 40, or the threshold value is between 10 and 35. In addition, the control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator further includes creating the defogging operation parameter table through manual input or automatically creating the defogging operation parameter table through a database. It should be noted that the first time period is between 0 and 20 minutes, such as 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes. The second time period is between 0 and 60 minutes, such as 6 minutes, 15 minutes, or 30 minutes. The heating wire may be arranged on a glass panel of a glass door. Furthermore, the heating wire may be arranged on a frame of the commercial refrigerator corresponding to a glass door frame. Since the glass panel, the glass door frame, and the frame of the commercial refrigerator corresponding to a glass door frame are locations where fog/condensation is easily generated, arranging the heating wire at the above-mentioned locations can remove the fog more efficiently.
  • Step S140, periodically detecting the operating condition of the commercial refrigerator.
  • Step S150, in response to the operating condition changing from the normal condition to a fault condition, turning off the heating wire. Specifically, the fault condition may include: a failure of refrigerator chamber temperature sensing, a failure of evaporator temperature sensing, an excess of compressor operating power, an excess of intelligent power module temperature, an excess of compressor outlet temperature, a shortage of compressor inlet temperature, an excess of condenser temperature, and a shortage of condenser temperature. In other words, if the commercial refrigerator has at least one of the following fault conditions: the failure of refrigerator chamber temperature sensing, the failure of evaporator temperature sensing, the excess of compressor operating power, the excess of intelligent power module temperature, the excess of compressor outlet temperature, the shortage of compressor inlet temperature, the excess of condenser temperature, and the shortage of condenser temperature, the commercial refrigerator is considered as non-functional. Then, the heating wire is turned off, which can reduce the electric power for defogging operation and prevent the glass panel and the frame of the commercial refrigerator from being damaged due to long-term heating.

Now, please refer to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a commercial refrigerator employing the embodiment of FIG. 1. The commercial refrigerator 200 in FIG. 2 includes: a glass door 210, a glass panel 212, a heating wire 214, a glass door frame 216, a main body 220, a frame 222, and a control panel 230. The heating wire 214 is arranged on the glass panel 212 of the glass door 210. In addition, the heating wire 214 also can be arranged on the frame 222 of the main body 220 of the commercial refrigerator 200, wherein the frame 222 corresponding to a glass door frame 216. For clarity, the heating wire arranged on the frame 222 is not shown in the figures. An ambient temperature can be obtained by a temperature sensor disposed outside the main body 220. A user can set defogging operation parameters, such as a threshold value, a first time period, and a second time period, through the control panel 230. For example, a customer (user) can set the threshold value to 10, the first time period to 6 minutes, and the second time period to 3 minutes, when the threshold value is less than 10 (that is, the temperature difference between the ambient temperature and the first temperature is less than 10), the heating wire 214 will not be turned on, and when the threshold value is 10 (that is, the temperature difference between the ambient temperature and the first temperature is greater than 10), the heating wire 214 will turn on (heating) for 6 minutes and then turn off for 3 minutes according to the setting, and periodically defogging according this setting. In addition, the commercial refrigerator 200 detects the operating condition of the commercial refrigerator 200 during initiation and operation, if the commercial refrigerator 200 has at least one of the following fault conditions: the failure of refrigerator chamber temperature sensing, the failure of evaporator temperature sensing, the excess of compressor operating power, the excess of intelligent power module temperature, the excess of compressor outlet temperature, the shortage of compressor inlet temperature, the excess of condenser temperature, and the shortage of condenser temperature, the heating wire will be turned off, thereby reducing the electric power for defogging operation and preventing the glass panel and the frame from being damaged due to long-term heating. Compared with existing commercial refrigerators with full-time heating wires, the embodiment of the present disclosure not only can save 30% to 40% of the electric power for defogging operation but also can prevent the temperature of the glass panel from rising and consuming the cooling capacity in the commercial refrigerator, and further avoid additional power consumption from the compressor.

As described above, the control method for preventing high temperatures of electrical heating devices of commercial refrigerator provided by the present disclosure immediately detect the operating condition of the commercial refrigerator during initiation and operation. When the operation of the commercial refrigerator is in the normal condition, the heating wire arranged on the commercial refrigerator is turned on and off to defog according to the defogging operation parameter table. If a fault condition is detected, the heating wire is turned off. In this way, the present disclosure not only can prevent the glass panel from fogging up but also can reduce the power consumption of the commercial refrigerator (saving 30% to 40% of the electric power required for defogging operation) and avoid the damage to the glass panel.

In view of the above, although the present invention has been disclosed by way of preferred embodiments, the above preferred embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and one of ordinary skill in the art, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the scope of protection of the present invention is defined by the scope of the claims.