Ice-making equipment and its control method

Abstract

The present invention belongs to the technical field of ice-making equipment, and specifically provides an ice-making equipment and its control method. The control method of the present invention includes: obtaining the daily ice production amount of the ice-making equipment; determining the ice-making time of the ice-making equipment according to the daily ice production amount; determining the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period; controlling the ice-making equipment to make ice during the ice-making period. The ice-making equipment of the present invention not only reduces the electricity consumption load of the entire power grid during peak electricity consumption periods, but also reduces the electricity bill expenses of users.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the technical field of ice-making equipment, and specifically provides an ice-making equipment and a control method therefor. Background Art

[0002] With the development of technology and the increasing demands of users, some refrigerators now have an ice-making function. Specifically, some refrigerators with an ice-making function include a water tank, a water pump, a water pipe, an ice-making tray, a driving device, and an ice storage box. Among them, the water tank is used to store water. One end of the water pipe is connected to the water tank, and the other end of the water pipe is located above the ice-making tray. The water pump is used to pump the water in the water tank into the water pipe, so that the water pipe transports the water into the ice-making tray. The ice-making tray is used to cool the water therein into ice. The ice storage box is located below the ice-making tray and is used to store ice cubes. The driving device is used to drive the ice-making tray to flip, so as to pour the ice cubes in the ice-making tray into the ice storage box.

[0003] Currently, refrigerators with an ice-making function usually make ice when the ice cubes in the ice storage box are not full, and the periods when users use ice are usually concentrated in peak electricity consumption periods. This results in the refrigerator making ice during peak electricity consumption periods, which not only increases the electricity load of the entire power grid but also increases the electricity cost of users. Summary of the Invention

[0004] An object of the present invention is to provide an ice-making equipment and a control method therefor, so that the ice-making equipment can fully utilize the low electricity consumption period to make ice that meets the daily usage of users.

[0005] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a control method for an ice-making equipment, including:

[0006] Obtaining the daily ice consumption of the ice-making equipment;

[0007] Determining the ice-making time of the ice-making equipment according to the daily ice consumption;

[0008] Determining the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period;

[0009] Controlling the ice-making equipment to make ice during the ice-making period.

[0010] Optionally, the determining the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period includes: if the ice-making time is not greater than the low electricity consumption period, making the ice-making period be within the low electricity consumption period.

[0011] Optionally, the determining the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period further includes: making the end time of the ice-making period be the same as the end time of the low electricity consumption period.

[0012] Optionally, determining the ice-making period of the ice-making device according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period includes: if the ice-making time is greater than the low electricity consumption period, making the ice-making period completely cover the low electricity consumption period.

[0013] Optionally, determining the ice-making period of the ice-making device according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period further includes: making the low electricity consumption period be in the latter stage of the ice-making period.

[0014] Optionally, the control method further includes:

[0015] Detecting the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device to determine the low electricity consumption period.

[0016] Optionally, detecting the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device to determine the low electricity consumption period includes:

[0017] If the voltage of the power supply does not reach the preset threshold, it is determined that the current moment is a low electricity consumption moment, and the set of all consecutive low electricity consumption moments is recorded as the low electricity consumption period; and / or,

[0018] If the voltage of the power supply reaches the preset threshold, it is determined that the current moment does not belong to the low electricity consumption period.

[0019] Optionally, detecting the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device to determine the low electricity consumption period further includes:

[0020] Recording the low electricity consumption period determined by the ice-making device itself as the first low electricity consumption period;

[0021] Recording the low electricity consumption period received by the ice-making device as the second low electricity consumption period;

[0022] Determining the intersection of the first low electricity consumption period and the second low electricity consumption period, and taking the intersection as the final low electricity consumption period.

[0023] Optionally, the ice-making device is a refrigerator, the refrigerator includes an ice-making module, and the refrigerator makes ice through the ice-making module.

[0024] In addition, the present invention further provides an ice-making device, including a processor, a memory, and execution instructions stored on the memory, and the execution instructions are configured to enable the ice-making device to execute the control method described in any one of the foregoing technical solutions when executed by the processor.

[0025] Based on the foregoing description, those skilled in the art can understand that in the foregoing technical solution of the present invention, the daily ice consumption of the ice-making device is obtained to determine the ice consumption of the user throughout the day; the ice-making time of the ice-making device is determined according to the daily ice consumption, and then the ice-making time of the ice-making device is determined according to the daily ice consumption, and the ice-making device is controlled to make ice during the ice-making period, so that the ice-making device can fully utilize the low-power consumption period to make ice that meets the daily consumption of the user. Therefore, the ice-making device of the present invention not only reduces the power consumption load of the entire power grid during the peak power consumption period, but also reduces the electricity bill expenditure of the user.

[0026] Further, when the ice-making time is not greater than the low-power consumption period, by making the ice-making period fall within the low-power consumption period and making the end time of the ice-making period the same as the end time of the low-power consumption period, not only can the ice-making device of the present invention fully utilize the low-power consumption period to make ice, but also the freshness of the ice when the user uses it is ensured.

[0027] Furthermore, since the current low-power consumption period (from 23:00 at night to 08:00 the next morning) is generally defined by the power consumption management department and is relatively fixed, this value is not accurate enough. For example, during a certain period from 23:00 to 24:00, it may still be the peak power consumption period. Therefore, to overcome this problem, the present invention also detects the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device, and when the voltage of the power supply reaches the preset threshold, determines that the current time is the low-power consumption time, and records the set of all consecutive low-power consumption times as the low-power consumption period, so that the ice-making device of the present invention can independently determine the actual low-power consumption period of the entire power grid. In other words, the ice-making device of the present invention can avoid making ice during the pseudo low-power consumption period as much as possible, effectively reducing the power consumption load of the entire power grid.

[0028] Optionally, the low-power consumption period determined by the ice-making device itself is denoted as the first low-power consumption period, the low-power consumption period received by the ice-making device is denoted as the second low-power consumption period, and the intersection of the first low-power consumption period and the second low-power consumption period is determined, and then this intersection is used as the final low-power consumption period, so that the ice-making device can not only make ice during the actual low-power consumption period, but also reduce the electricity bill expenditure of the user.

[0029] Those skilled in the art will become more clear about the above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention according to the following detailed description of the specific embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Brief Description of the Drawings

[0030] To more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, some embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art should understand that the components or parts denoted by the same reference numeral in different drawings are the same or similar; the drawings of the present invention are not necessarily drawn to scale with each other.

[0031] In the accompanying drawings:

[0032] Figure 1 is a flowchart of the main steps of the control method of the ice-making device in some embodiments of the present invention;

[0033] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the partial structure of the ice-making device in some embodiments of the present invention;

[0034] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the ice-making module in some embodiments of the present invention;

[0035] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the effect of the ice-making device in some other embodiments of the present invention. Detailed Embodiments

[0036] Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments described hereinafter are only some embodiments of the present invention, rather than all embodiments of the present invention. These some embodiments are intended to explain the technical principle of the present invention, rather than to limit the protection scope of the present invention. Based on the embodiments provided by the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts shall still fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0037] It should be noted that in the description of the present invention, the terms indicating directions or positional relationships such as "center", "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", etc. are based on the directions or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings. This is only for the convenience of description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, it should not be construed as a limitation to the present invention. In addition, the terms "first", "second", "third" are only used for descriptive purposes and cannot be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

[0038] Further, it should be noted that in the description of the present invention, unless otherwise clearly specified and limited, the terms "installation", "connection", and "coupling" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, it can be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; it can be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; it can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and it can also be the communication inside two components. For those skilled in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood according to specific situations.

[0039] In addition, it should be noted that in the description of the present invention, each functional module can be a physical module composed of multiple structures, components or electronic components, or a virtual module composed of multiple programs; each functional module can exist independently of each other, or can be a module divided from an overall module according to functions. Those skilled in the art should understand that on the premise of being able to implement the technical solutions described in the present invention, no matter how the composition method, implementation method, and positional relationship of each functional module change, they will not deviate from the technical principle of the present invention, and therefore should fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0040] As Figure 1 shown, in some embodiments of the present invention, the control method of the ice-making device includes:

[0041] Step S110, obtaining the daily ice production of the ice-making device.

[0042] Among them, the ice-making device is an ice maker or a refrigerator. When the ice-making device is a refrigerator, the refrigerator has an ice-making function. For the convenience of description and to enable those skilled in the art to quickly understand the technical solutions of the present invention, only the technical features that are more strongly related (directly or indirectly) to the technical problems and / or technical concepts to be solved by the present invention will be described later, and the technical features that are less related to the technical problems and / or technical concepts to be solved by the invention will not be elaborated. Since these less-related technical features are common knowledge in the art, even if the present invention does not describe these less-related features, it will not result in insufficient disclosure of the present invention.

[0043] As Figure 2 shown, in some embodiments of the present invention, the refrigerator includes a box body 1 and an ice-making module 2, and the refrigerator makes ice through the ice-making module 2.

[0044] As Figure 3As shown, in some embodiments of the present invention, the ice-making module 2 includes a water tank 21, a water pipe 22, a water pump 23, an ice-making tray 24, a driving device 25, and an ice storage box 26. Among them, the water tank 21 is detachably installed on the box body 1 and is used for storing water. The water pipe 22 is fixedly installed on the box body 1. One end of the water pipe 22 is connected to the water tank 21, and the other end of the water pipe 22 is located above the ice-making tray 24. The water pump 23 is fixedly installed on the box body 1, and the water pump 23 is used to pump the water in the water tank 21 into the water pipe 22, so that the water pipe 22 conveys the water into the ice-making tray 24. The ice-making tray 24 is rotatably installed on the box body 1, and the ice-making tray 24 is used to cool the water therein into ice. The driving device 25 is fixedly installed on the box body 1 and is used to drive the ice-making tray 24 to flip. The ice storage box 26 is installed on the box body 1 and is located below the ice-making tray 24. The ice storage box 26 is used to store ice cubes.

[0045] In an example of the present invention, the driving device 25 includes a motor. The housing of the motor is fixedly connected to the box body 1, and the rotating shaft of the motor is drivingly connected to the ice-making tray 24. Optionally, a gear set can also be provided between the rotating shaft of the motor and the ice-making tray 24 to achieve the function of deceleration through the gear shaft.

[0046] In some embodiments of the present invention, when the ice-making module 2 makes ice, first control the water pump 23 to pump the water in the water tank 21 into the ice-making tray 24, and then the ice-making tray 24 cools the water therein into ice. After the ice-making tray 24 cools the water therein into ice, the driving device 25 drives the ice-making tray 24 to flip, so that the ice cubes in the ice-making tray 24 fall into the ice storage box 26.

[0047] In some embodiments of the present invention, the daily ice consumption is the maximum or average amount of ice used by the user every day. The daily ice consumption can be input by the user into the ice-making device or obtained by the ice-making device itself through calculation.

[0048] If the daily ice consumption is input by the user into the ice-making device, a touch screen can be set on the ice-making device so that the user can input the daily ice consumption to the ice-making device through the touch screen.

[0049] If the daily ice consumption is obtained by the ice-making device itself through calculation, the ice-making device can count the number of times the ice-making tray 24 makes ice every day and determine the user's daily ice consumption accordingly. Exemplarily, the ice-making device can take the ice made by all the ice-making times of the ice-making tray 24 the previous day as the user's daily ice consumption; it can also take the ice made by the average daily ice-making times of the ice-making tray 24 in the previous n days as the user's daily ice consumption. Among them, n is a natural number and is not less than 2.

[0050] Step S120, determine the ice-making time of the ice-making device according to the daily ice consumption.

[0051] Specifically, according to the daily ice consumption and the ice-making power of the ice-making equipment, the ice-making time of the ice-making equipment is determined.

[0052] More specifically, according to the daily ice consumption and the ice-making amount of the ice-making tray 24 each time, the number of times (number of trays) that the ice-making tray 24 needs to make ice is determined. Then, according to the ice-making time of the ice-making tray 24 each time, the total time for the ice-making tray 24 to make the daily ice consumption is determined. This total time is the ice-making time of the ice-making equipment.

[0053] Step S130: Determine the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period.

[0054] Among them, the low electricity consumption period is the period received by the ice-making equipment, and it can be obtained at least by any one of the following methods:

[0055] Method 1: When the ice-making equipment is manufactured, the manufacturer stores this low electricity consumption period on the ice-making equipment.

[0056] Method 2: Manually input by the user through the touch screen or operation buttons set on the ice-making equipment, and the ice-making equipment stores the information input by the user after receiving it.

[0057] Method 3: Obtained by the communication module of the ice-making equipment itself through the Internet.

[0058] In some embodiments of the present invention, if the ice-making time is not greater than the low electricity consumption period, the ice-making period is made to be completely within the low electricity consumption period to reduce the electricity load of the entire power grid and the electricity cost of the user. Preferably, the end time of the ice-making period is the same as the end time of the low electricity consumption period to ensure that the ice used by the user the next day is fresh enough.

[0059] In some embodiments of the present invention, if the ice-making time is greater than the low electricity consumption period, the ice-making period is made to completely cover the low electricity consumption period to reduce the electricity load of the entire power grid and the electricity cost of the user. Preferably, the low electricity consumption period is located in the latter part of the ice-making period. In other words, the ice-making equipment starts to make ice before entering the low electricity consumption period. Further preferably, the end time of the ice-making period is the same as the end time of the low electricity consumption period, so as to ensure that the ice used by the user the next day is fresh enough while also ensuring that the user can use the ice in time the next day.

[0060] Of course, in other embodiments of the present invention, those skilled in the art can also, according to needs, make the low electricity consumption period be located in the former part of the ice-making period. In other words, the ice-making equipment continues to make ice after the low electricity consumption period ends.

[0061] Step S140: Control the ice-making equipment to make ice within the ice-making period.

[0062] Specifically, after determining the ice-making period, the ice-making device is controlled to make ice during this ice-making period.

[0063] Based on the foregoing description, those skilled in the art can understand that in some embodiments of the present invention, the daily ice consumption of the ice-making device is obtained to determine the ice consumption of the user throughout the day; by determining the ice-making time of the ice-making device according to the daily ice consumption, and then determining the ice-making time of the ice-making device according to the daily ice consumption, and controlling the ice-making device to make ice during the ice-making period, so that the ice-making device can fully utilize the low-power-consumption period to make ice that meets the user's daily consumption. Therefore, the ice-making device of the present invention not only reduces the power consumption load of the entire power grid during the peak power consumption period, but also reduces the electricity bill of the user.

[0064] It should be noted that some of the embodiments described above in the present invention are only some basic embodiments that can achieve the purpose of the present invention. In other words, the control method of the ice-making device to be protected by the present invention is not limited to some of the embodiments described above, and it also includes any other feasible embodiments, such as some other embodiments to be described later.

[0065] Although not shown in the figure, in some other embodiments of the present invention, before step S130, the control method of the ice-making device further includes: detecting the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device to determine the low-power-consumption period. Specifically as follows:

[0066] As Figure 4 shown, the ice-making device further includes a voltage detection module 3, which is electrically connected to the power line 4, and the voltage detection module 3 is used to detect the voltage of the power supply 5 of the ice-making device.

[0067] As an example 1, if the voltage of the power supply 5 does not reach the preset threshold, it is determined that the current moment is a low-power-consumption moment, and the set of all consecutive low-power-consumption moments is recorded as the low-power-consumption period. If the voltage of the power supply 5 reaches the preset threshold, it is determined that the current moment does not belong to the low-power-consumption period.

[0068] Among them, the preset threshold can be obtained through multiple tests. Specifically, the voltage of the power supply 5 is detected during the low-power-consumption period and the peak power consumption period respectively, and a voltage value is selected therefrom. This voltage value is less than or equal to the voltage value of the power supply 4 during the peak power consumption period, and greater than the voltage value of the power supply 5 during the peak power consumption period. The preset threshold can be any feasible value, such as 200V, 205V, 218V, etc.

[0069] Those skilled in the art can understand that since the current low electricity consumption period (from 23:00 at night to 08:00 the next morning) is generally designated by the electricity management department and is relatively fixed, this value is not accurate enough. For example, during a certain period from 23:00 to 24:00, it may still be a peak electricity consumption period. Therefore, the first example enables the ice-making equipment to autonomously determine the actual low electricity consumption period of the entire power grid. In other words, the first example enables the ice-making equipment to avoid making ice during the pseudo low electricity consumption period as much as possible, effectively reducing the electricity load of the entire power grid.

[0070] As a second example, the low electricity consumption period determined by the ice-making equipment itself is denoted as the first low electricity consumption period, that is, the low electricity consumption period obtained in the first example is denoted as the first low electricity consumption period. The low electricity consumption period received by the ice-making equipment is denoted as the second low electricity consumption period. Determine the intersection of the first low electricity consumption period and the second low electricity consumption period, and use the intersection as the final low electricity consumption period. So that the ice-making equipment can not only make ice during the actual low electricity consumption period, but also reduce the electricity bill expenditure of users.

[0071] Among them, the low electricity consumption period received by the ice-making equipment can be obtained at least by any one of the following methods:

[0072] Method 1, when the ice-making equipment is manufactured, the manufacturer stores this low electricity consumption period on the ice-making equipment.

[0073] Method 2, manually input by the user through the touch screen or operation buttons set on the ice-making equipment, and the ice-making equipment stores the information input by the user after receiving it.

[0074] Method 3, obtained by the communication module of the ice-making equipment itself through the Internet.

[0075] In addition, although not shown in the figure, in some other embodiments of the present invention, the ice-making equipment further includes a processor, a memory, and execution instructions stored on the memory, and the execution instructions are set to enable the ice-making equipment to execute the control method described in any of the foregoing embodiments when executed by the processor.

[0076] Among them, the memory is used to store the execution instructions, and the execution instructions are specifically computer programs that can be executed. Further, the memory may include a memory and a non-volatile memory, and provide the execution instructions and data to the processor. Exemplarily, the memory may be a high-speed random access memory (Random-Access Memory, RAM), and the non-volatile memory may be at least one disk memory.

[0077] Those skilled in the art can understand that the above control method can be applied to a processor or implemented with the aid of a processor. Exemplarily, a processor is an integrated circuit chip with the ability to process signals. During the execution of the above control method by the processor, each step of the above control method can be completed by an integrated logic circuit in hardware form or an instruction in software form in the processor. Further, the above processor can be a general-purpose processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, a microprocessor, and any other conventional processor.

[0078] So far, the technical solutions of the present invention have been described in combination with multiple embodiments above. However, those skilled in the art can easily understand that the protection scope of the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments. Without departing from the technical principle of the present invention, those skilled in the art can split and combine the technical solutions in the above various embodiments, and can also make equivalent changes or replacements to the relevant technical features. Any changes, equivalent replacements, improvements, etc. made within the technical concept and / or technical principle of the present invention will fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for controlling an ice-making device, comprising: Obtaining the daily ice consumption of the ice-making equipment; determining the ice making time of the ice making equipment according to the daily ice consumption; Determining the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period; Controlling the ice-making device to make ice within the ice-making period; Wherein, determining the ice-making period of the ice-making equipment according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period includes: If the ice-making time is less than or equal to the electricity off-peak period, the ice-making period is set to be within the electricity off-peak period and the end time of the ice-making period is set to be the same as the end time of the electricity off-peak period.

2. The control method of ice making equipment according to claim 1, wherein: Determining the ice-making period of the ice-making device according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period includes: If the ice-making time is longer than the electricity low-consumption period, the ice-making period is made to completely cover the electricity low-consumption period.

3. The control method of ice making equipment according to claim 2, wherein: The step of determining the ice-making period of the ice-making device according to the ice-making time and the low electricity consumption period further includes: The low electricity consumption period is located at the latter part of the ice making period.

4. The control method for ice making equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The control method further includes: The voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device is detected to determine a low power consumption period.

5. The control method of ice making equipment according to claim 4, wherein: Detecting the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device to determine the low-power consumption period includes: If the voltage of the power supply does not reach the preset threshold, the current moment is determined to be a low-power consumption moment, and the set of all consecutive low-power consumption moments is recorded as a low-power consumption period; and / or, If the voltage of the power supply reaches the preset threshold, it is determined that the current moment does not belong to the low electricity consumption period.

6. The control method of ice making equipment according to claim 5, wherein: The detecting the voltage of the power supply of the ice-making device to determine the low power consumption period further includes: Recording the low electricity consumption period determined by the ice-making device itself as a first low electricity consumption period; Recording the low electricity consumption period received by the ice-making device as a second low electricity consumption period; An intersection of the first electricity consumption valley period and the second electricity consumption valley period is determined, and the intersection is used as a final electricity consumption valley period.

7. The control method for ice making equipment according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein: The ice-making device is a refrigerator, which includes an ice-making module. The refrigerator makes ice through the ice-making module.

8. An ice-making device, comprising a processor, a memory, and an execution instruction stored in the memory, wherein the execution instruction is configured to enable the ice-making device to execute the control method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 when executed by the processor.

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