Remote Icemaker Thermoelectric Cooling Using Fresh Food Air
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Solution Overview
Problem
Refrigerators with icemakers located remotely from the freezer compartment face difficulties in heat removal from the ice mold, making it challenging to form ice efficiently.
Innovation Solution
Incorporation of a thermoelectric device with a warm side and a cold side, connected via a fluid loop and air pathways, to facilitate heat extraction from the ice mold, using a fan to move air across the warm side and a pump to supply cold fluid to the ice mold, ensuring effective ice production even when the icemaker is not in the freezer compartment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the icemaker is located remotely from the freezer compartment, then the refrigerator design flexibility is improved, but the heat removal efficiency from the ice mold deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
A thermoelectric device is introduced as an intermediary between the remote icemaker and the freezer compartment cooling system. The device includes a cold side that contacts the ice mold and a warm side that interfaces with air from the freezer compartment, enabling heat removal without direct thermal connection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical refrigeration components (compressor, condenser, evaporator) with a solid-state thermoelectric device. This substitution allows for compact, remote icemaker placement while maintaining effective heat removal through electrical-to-thermal energy conversion.
2Temperature
If a thermoelectric device is used for cooling the ice mold, then the heat removal capability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The thermoelectric device serves multiple functions simultaneously: it cools the ice mold through its cold side, dissipates heat through its warm side to freezer air, and provides a compact integrated structure that eliminates the need for separate refrigeration components.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes the freezer compartment's existing cold air to cool the thermoelectric device's warm side, and the thermoelectric effect itself to generate the cold side temperature needed for ice formation, creating a self-sustaining cooling cycle.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enables efficient ice production by maintaining the cold side of the thermoelectric device at sub-freezing temperatures, allowing for effective heat removal from the ice mold, regardless of its location, thus overcoming the challenge of remote icemaker placement.
Implementation Method 1
A thermoelectric device is provided that has a cold side and a warm side
Implementation Method 2
a fan is positioned to move air from the fresh food compartment across the warm side of the thermoelectric device
Implementation Method 3
A pump is positioned to move fluid from the cold side of the thermoelectric device to the icemaker
Data Source
AI summary
An icemaker is mounted remotely from a freezer compartment. The icemaker includes an ice mold. A thermoelectric device is provided and includes a warm side and an opposite cold side. A flow pathway is connected in communication between the cold side of the thermoelectric device and the icemaker. In one aspect, a fan is operatively positioned to move air from the fresh food compartment across the warm side of the thermoelectric device and a pump moves fluid from the cold side of the thermoelectric device to the icemaker. Cold air, such as from a refrigerator compartment, may be used to dissipate heat from the warm side of the thermoelectric device for providing cold fluid to and for cooling the ice mold of the icemaker.