WO2006009401A1

WO2006009401A1 - Building structures for positioning re¬ frigerators outside

Info

Publication number: WO2006009401A1
Application number: PCT/KR2005/002355
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sung-Soo Kim; Joung-Soo Kim; Dug-Keun Park; Jun-Hwa Hong
Original assignee: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute KAERI
Current assignee: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute KAERI
Priority date: 2004-07-23
Filing date: 2005-07-21
Publication date: 2006-01-26
Anticipated expiration: 2007-01-23
Also published as: EP1771628B1; KR20060007920A; CN1989307B; EP1771628A4; CN1989307A; JP2008507642A; KR100622265B1; EP1771628A1

Abstract

A building designed to reduce power energy used by a refrigerator by exposing the re¬ frigerator to the outside in a residential building or a commercial building, is provided. In a building that separates the indoor room from the outiside using a plurality of wall members, a through hole is formed in one of the wall members to allow a refrigerator's door to be disposed in the indoor room and the rest of the refrigerator to be disposed in the outside, so that power energy used by the refrigerator may reduce. The building reduces power consumed by the re¬ frigerator in half by exposing a portion except the door of the refrigerator to the outside, prevents inner temperature from rising by emitting heat of the refrigerator to the outside, and makes an indoor environment quiet and pleasant by preventing noise generated at the refrigerator from flowing into the indoor room space.

Description

BUILDING STRUCTURES FOR POSITIONING RE¬ FRIGERATORS OUTSIDE

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a building structure for reducing power consumed by a refrigerator and preventing heat emission to an indoor room and noise problem by exposing the refrigerator to an outside in a residential building and a commercial building. More particularly, the building structure for positioning a refrigerator outside of the invention can reduce power consumed by the refrigerator in half by fun¬ damentally stopping an operation of the refrigerator, when outside temperature is low as in winter and exposing a portion except the door of the refrigerator to the outside, prevent inner temperature from rising by emitting heat of the refrigerator to the outside in summer, and make an indoor environment quiet and pleasant by isolating noise generated at the refrigerator from the indoor space. Background Art

[2] In the above, the refrigerator commonly designates refrigerators (e.g., a general domestic refrigerator having both a freezing room and a cold room, a kimchi re¬ frigerator having a cold room only, a freezer having a freezing room), which maintain their inner temperature lower than their outer temperature, use a coolant so as to maintain the inner temperature, and can be generally used in home or commercial buildings. These refrigerators will be called just a refrigerator for simplification of de¬ scription.

[3] Referring to FlG. 1, in most of conventional buildings 100, an indoor room 120 is separated from an outside 130 by one or more wall members 110 and a refrigerator 140 is positioned in the indoor room 120.

[4] Referring to FlG. 2, the refrigerator 140 positioned in the indoor room 120 of the building 100 operates throughout a year so as to maintain the inner temperature of a cold room at a low temperature thereof even when the temperature of the outside is low as in winter, spring, or fall as well as in summer.

[5] That is, the temperature of the indoor room 120 of the building 100 should be maintained at a constant temperature suitable for a human body, but the refrigerator 140 should operate so that temperature of the refrigerator 140 may maintain a temperature set by a user regardless of the temperature of the indoor room 120.

[6] FlG. 2 is a graph illustrating an average temperature Tl of a residential space of an indoor room 120 and an average temperature T2 of the inside of a refrigerator. Referring to FlG. 2, the average temperature Tl of the residential space of the indoor room 120 is about 20-25°C but the average temperature T2 of the inside of the re¬ frigerator is about 5°C, which means that the refrigerator 140 should operate in the indoor room 120 almost all the year round. That is, the refrigerator 140 disposed in the indoor romm always operates all the year round, consuming power energy that corresponds to a difference between the average temperatures Tl of the indoor room and the average temperature T2 of the refrigerator.

[7] On the contrary, referring to FlG. 3, the refrigerator 140 is disposed in an outside

130 according to the present invention, energy emission that corresponds to a difference between the average temperature T3 of the outside and the average temperature T2 of the refrigerator 140 is required, and thus the refrigerator 140 consumes power energy that corresponds to a difference between the average temperature T3 of the outside and the average temperature T2 of the inside of the re¬ frigerator 140.

[8] That is, when the refrigerator 140 is disposed in the indoor room 120 as in the related art, heat energy emission that corresponds to a difference between the average temperature Tl of the indoor room and the average temperature T2 of the refrigerator 140 is required but when the refrigerator 140 is disposed in the outside 130 as in the present invention, only heat energy emission that corresponds to a difference between the average temperature T3 of the outside and the average temperature T2 of the re¬ frigerator 140 is required, so that energy consumed by the refrigerator 140 can be saved up to by half.

[9] Particularly, since the refrigerator 140 disposed in the indoor room 120 still emits heat thereof to the indoor room 120 even when the temperature of the indoor room 120 is high and thus gives unpleasant feeling in summer, the temperature of the indoor room 120 is raised even more, which increases the unpleasant feeling.

[10] Therefore, the present invention saves energy by half at the maximum compared to the case where the refrigerator 140 is disposed in the indoor room 120. Such an energy saving effect is most remarkable in winter when a temperature difference between the indoor room and the outside is large. Also, in summer, a temperature difference between the indoor room and the outside is small or the temperature of the outside is rather higher than the temperature of the indoor room, and most of power energy consumed by the refrigerator is converted into heat, so that the refrigerator is supposed to perform heating of about 4kwh everyday in summer assuming that the refrigerator disposed in the indoor room consumes power of 120kwh per month.

[11] When heating effect represented in summer is removed, the indoor environment gets pleasant. Also, in the case where an air conditioner is used in the indoor room, an about 1/3 (about 40kwh) of power consumption of the refrigerator is saved.

[12] In that case, when an air conditioner is used, the air conditioner should cool down again all of heat generated from the refrigerator 140 and emit the same using a heat pump, which increases power energy used in summer as described above. With con¬ sideration of the above, since the temperature rise of the indoor room 120 does not occur according to the present invention, it is expected that the maximum use value of power according to use of the air conditioner provides a direct advantage in solving or reliving the problem represented in every summer.

[13] FlG. 4 is an exemplary sectional view of a general domestic refrigerator 140.

[14] The refrigerator 140 includes a freezing room 142 and a cold room 144 mutually partitioned and disposed in the inside of the refrigerator 140, an evaporator 146, and a fan 148 installed therein. A freezing room temperature sensor and a cold room temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of an inside are installed in the freezing room and the cold room, respectively. Also, an outside air temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of the surroundings where the refrigerator 140 is installed is mounted.

[15] Also, a key input part for receiving an inner temperature to be set from a user is provided to a door 158 and a temperature set by a user who key-manipulates the key input part is compared to the inner temperature sensed by each of the temperature sensors to judge whether to perform cooling cycle for the freezing room 142 and the cold room 144. The refrigerator 140 includes a controller for on/off-operating a coolant compressor 170 according to the judgment results. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[16] As the refrigerator 140 becomes a necessity, the refrigerator is used in home and commercial places. Power consumption of the refrigerator 140 is marked to be 54kw per month in the case of a refrigerator of 499 liters by an L company but such power consumption means power consumption measured for a vacant state of a refrigerator. Actual measurement while the refrigerator filled with items is really used shows that the refrigerator consumes an enormous amount of power reaching 119kw.

[17] A general residential building maintains the average temperate Tl of an inside at about 20°C in winter and at about 25°C in summer. On the contrary, the refrigerator 140 should operate the coolant compressor 170 for condensing a coolant from a gas state to a liquid state and evaporating the coolant and a fan 148 for circulating cold air so as to maintain the inside thereof at low temperature and consume power energy as much as a difference between the temperature Tl of the indoor room 120 and the temperature of the inside of the refrigerator.

[18] During this process, heat is emitted from the compressor 170 and the fan 148, and particularly, intense heat is generated from the compressor 170. Since such heat is mostly emitted to the indoor room 120, such heat raises the temperature of the indoor room 120 particularly in summer, which increase power consumption of an air conditioner being used so as to lower the raised temperature of the indoor room 120.

[19] Also, the operations of the compressor 170 and the fan 148 generate noises, which makes the space of the indoor room 120 disturbed and unpleasant and increases unpleasant feeling.

[20] However, any solution for solving the above problems generated due to the re¬ frigerator has not been suggested in the related art. Technical Solution

[21] One object of the present invention is to provide a building structure for positioning a refrigerator in an outside, that can reduce power consumed by the refrigerator in half by fundamentally stopping an operation of the refrigerator when outside temperature is low as in winter and exposing a portion except the door of the refrigerator disposed in the inside space to the outside, prevent inner temperature from rising by emitting heat of the refrigerator to the outside, and make an indoor environment quiet and pleasant by isolating noise generated at the refrigerator from the inside space.

[22] In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a building structure for positioning a refrigerator in an outside, seperating an indoor room from the outside using a plurality of wall members, and having a refrigerator disposed in the inside, the building is characterized in that one of the wall members has a through hole to allow a refrigerator's door to be disposed in the indoor room and the rest of the re¬ frigerator to be exposed to outside air, so that power energy used by the refrigerator may reduce.

[23] In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a building for po¬ sitioning a refrigerator in an outside, seperating an indoor room from the outside using a plurality of wall members, and having a refrigerator disposed in the indoor room, the building is characterized by comprising: a refrigerator receiving room having a re¬ frigerator receiving space formed at a part of a space in the indoor room, for receiving the refrigerator, the refrigerator receiving space being separated from a rest space of the indoor room by partition walls; and a ventilation member formed in one of the partition walls of the refrigerator receiving room, for allowing outside air to flow into the inside of the refrigerator receiving room so that power energy used by the re¬ frigerator may reduce. Advantageous Effects

[24] According to the present invention, by modifying the structure of a building, it is possible to reduce power consumed by the refrigerator in half by fundamentally stopping an operation of the refrigerator when outside temperature is low as in winter, and exposing a portion except the door of the refrigerator to the outside.

[25] Therefore, the present invention basically reduces energy consumption by a user and is environment-friendly in an aspect of a global warming due to the energy consumption. Also, indirectly, the present invention reduces costs required for increasing an electricity generating equipment and reduces energy used in home so that energy may be utilized for an industrial purpose or other purposes.

[26] Also, the present invention prevents a noise generated due to the operation of the re¬ frigerator from flowing into the indoor room, so that a resident can secure a pleasant residential space where a noise is small. Therefore, the present invention is a useful solution that improves quality of life by liberating a resident from a noise pollution. Brief Description of the Drawings

[27] The above objects, other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[28] FlG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a building for positioning a refrigerator in an indoor according to the related art;

[29] FlG. 2 is a graph illustrating an average temperature of an indoor room and an average temperature of the inside of a refrigerator in the related art;

[30] FlG. 3 is a graph illustrating an average temperature of an indoor room, an average temperature of the inside of a refrigerator, and an average temperature of an outside, explaining that power energy consumed by the refrigerator is saved up to by half when the refrigerator is disposed in an outside;

[31] FlG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of a general domestic refrigerator;

[32] FlG. 5 is a schematic plan view of a building for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[33] FlG. 6 is a schematic plan view illustrating another arrangement of a building for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[34] FlG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating an arrangement of a refrigerator in a building for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[35] FlG. 8 is a vertical sectional view illustrating an arrangement of a refrigerator in a building for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

[36] FlG. 9 is a schematic plan view of a building for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

[37] FlG. 10 is a vertical sectional view illustrating a refrigerator arranged in the inside of a receiving room in a building for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the second embodiment of the present invention; [38] FlG. 11 is a view illustrating a drawer-type kimchi refrigerator according to the present invention;

[39] FlG. 12 is a view illustrating a drawer-type kimchi refrigerator and a general re¬ frigerator according to the present invention; [40] FlG. 13 is a view illustrating a kimchi refrigerator having a door openable upward, according to the present invention; and [41] FlG. 14 is a view illustrating the first and second embodiments of the present invention applied to a drawer-type kimchi refrigerator and a general refrigerator. [42]

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention [43] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. [44] Referring to FIGS. 5 to 8, according to a building 1 for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the first embodiment of the present invention, a through hole

10 is formed in one of wall members 110 to dispose a refrigerator 140 in an outside

130 and a refrigerator's door 158 is disposed in an indoor room 120 in the building that separates the indoor room 120 from the outside 130 using the plurality of wall members 110. [45] The through hole 10 is formed a little larger than the refrigerator 140 to be installed, exposes a most portion of the refrigerator 140 to the outside air, and exposes only the door 158 of the refrigerator 140 to the indoor room 120. [46] Also, the building 1 includes a shielding member 20 for isolating the indoor room

120 from the outside 130 by shielding a vacant space formed between the through hole

10 and the refrigerator 140. [47] The shielding member 20 not only isolates heat and noises of the refrigerator 140 from the indoor room 120 but also blocks inflow of outside air to the indoor room 120 or outflow of indoor room air to the outside 130. [48] Therefore, the shielding member 20, which seals a gap 25 formed between the through hole 10 and the refrigerator 140, has an adiabatic material such as a styrofoam having excellent adiabatic property in an inside thereof and has an outer skin formed of a cloth or a thin flexible synthetic plastic cover and enclosing the shielding member 20.

The shielding member 20 may fill the vacant space and finish the same using a silicon caulking or finish the vacant space (gap) by filling the space with rubber bellows. [49] In the case where the size of the refrigerator 140 is fixed in advance, the size of the through hole 10 is determined with consideration of the size of the refrigerator when the building is built and then the building is completed so that the vacant space with a predetermined gap 25 may remain. After that, the refrigerator 140 may be pushed into the vacant space and the predetermined shielding member 20 may only be used to finish the gap 25. Also, in the case where the refrigerator 140 is provided at the point of finishing an apartment, the gap 25 and the shielding member 20 may be formed ap¬ propriately for the size of the refrigerator 140 and the refrigerator 140 may be installed before the building is completed, and then finishing may be made.

[50] A power source supplied to the refrigerator 140 is connected from a power source socket of the indoor room 120 and an electric wire 30 for supplying the power source may pass through the through hole 10 without any trouble.

[51] In the case where the building of the present invention is a multi-family house(e.g., an apartment and a townhouse house), the through hole 10 can be formed in one of the wall members 110 that partitions a veranda and the indoor room 120. In that case, the shielding member 20 is required and any structure will do as far as it blocks air from the veranda 200 into the indoor room 120, but outside air is not blocked into the veranda 200 by an obstacle, such as a chassis.

[52] As described above, it is possible to reduce power consumed by the refrigerator 140 in half by fundamentally stopping an operation of the refrigerator 140 when outside temperature is low as in winter and exposing a portion except the door of the re¬ frigerator 140 positioned in the indoor room 120 to the outside. It is also possible to ef¬ fectively block inflow of heat and noises generated from the refrigerator 140 to the space of the indoor room 120 by changing the structure of the wall members 110 such that a heat or noise - generating source is exposed to the outside. Therefore, the present invention prevents a temperature rise of the indoor room 120 in summer to reduce an operation rate of an air conditioner and makes the indoor room 120 quiet and pleasant, thereby improving environments.

[53] FlG. 9 is a schematic plan view of a building 1 for positioning a refrigerator in an outside according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the second embodiment, a refrigerator receiving room 50 is formed at a part of the space of the indoor room 120 in the building that separates an indoor room 120 from an outside 130 using a plurality of wall members 110. The refrigerator receiving room 50 has a re¬ frigerator receiving space 55 in which a refrigerator 140 is disposed. The refrigerator receiving room 55 and the refrigerator 140 are shielded to allow outside air to reach the front side of the refrigerator 140. At this point, the refrigerator receiving space 55 is separated from the rest space of the indoor room 120 by partition walls 60. This concept can be well illustrated by FlG. 10, which is a vertical sectional view of the building. FlG. 10 is different from FlG. 9 in that it has a shelter structure at the rear wall spaced from the refrigerator 140. [54] Also, the door 65 should be provided to the refrigerator receiving room 50 and formed in one of the partition walls 60 that separates the refrigerator receiving room 50 from the indoor room 120 to selectively open/close the refrigerator receiving room 50. Therefore, when the door 65 is opened, a door 158 of the refrigerator 140 can be open in the indoor room 120.

[55] A ventilation member 70 is formed in one of the partition walls 60 of the re¬ frigerator receiving room 50 to allow outside air to flow into the inside of the re¬ frigerator receiving room 50. The ventilation member 70 may be a general grille or a window always opened and should have a structure such that outside air freely flows into the refrigerator receiving room 50.

[56] Also, in the case of a multi-family house, the refrigerator receiving room 50 can be more easily arranged when the partition wall 60 is formed and disposed in one side of a veranda 200.

[57] According to the second embodiment of the present invention having the above structure, the receiving space 55 is formed in the refrigerator receiving room 50 so that outside air freely flows and the receiving space 55 is closed by a hinge-opening/closing door or a sliding door. The refrigerator 140 is installed in the receiving space 55, so that the door 65 is opened only when the refrigerator 140 is used and closed when use of the refrigerator is finished.

[58] The door 65 for isolating the refrigerator receiving room 50 from the indoor room

120 may be made of a material having an excellent adiabatic property (e.g., pair glass, acryl, and lexan (transparent polymer material which is also used for a bullet-proof glass), so that flow of heat and noises of the refrigerator 140 into the indoor room 120 is blocked and heat loss of the indoor room 120 through the door 65 can reduce.

[59] Also, when a safety system such that the door 65 is opened manually or auto¬ matically and the door 65 is closed automatically is adopted, energy saving effect can be maximized.

[60] Since the kimchi refrigerator 140 has a door attached at the upper portion thereof, a structure of the refrigerator receiving room 50 and the door 65 would be effectively applied as in the second embodiment of the present invention.

[61] The present invention can be applied to a building including two embodiments at the same time, such that only the door 158 of the refrigerator 140 may be exposed to the indoor room 120 using the first embodiment and the refrigerator receiving room 50 and the door 65 may be installed using the second embodiment in the case of the kimchi refrigerator.

[62] In any of the first and second embodiments, the ventilation member 70 installed at the rear wall or the side wall spaced from the refrigerator 140 should allow swift air flow and have a crime-prevention function so that an outsider may not break into or a user may not fall down. Also, the building may be designed such that a marginal space of at least more than 10cm exists at the surroundings of the refrigerator 140 to make air flow swift, and constructed always to maintain shadow as in a shelter even when sunlight is illuminated thereon.

[63] Compared with the case where the refrigerator 140 is positioned in the indoor room

120 as in the related art, the present invention reduces power consumed by the re¬ frigerator in half by fundamentally stopping an operation of the refrigerator when outside temperature is low as in winter, prevents inner temperature from rising by emitting heat of the refrigerator to the outside, and makes an indoor environment quiet and pleasant by isolating noise generated at the refrigerator from the indoor room space.

[64] FlG. 11 is a view illustrating the present invention applied to a drawer-type kimchi refrigerator 140 and FlG. 12 is a view illustrating the present invention applied to a drawer-type kimchi refrigerator and a general refrigerator. Such application cases can be easily realized using the first embodiment of the present invention.

[65] FlG. 13 is a view illustrating the present invention applied to a kimchi refrigerator

140 having a door openable upward and FlG. 14 is a view illustrating the first and second embodiments of the present invention applied to a drawer-type kimchi re¬ frigerator and a general refrigerator. Such application cases can be easily realized using the first and second embodiments of the present invention.

[66] As described above, the present invention can alleviate power shortage in summer and raise a power reserve rate by changing the structure of a building and reducing energy consumed by the refrigerator 140.

[67] Though the present invention has been mainly described for a preferred structure thereof, the structure of the present invention can be modified in various ways by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, changes of the shapes and materials or physical specifications of the through hole 10, the shielding member 20, the door 65, and the ventilation member 70, and use of equivalent materials are all obvious to those skilled in the art and thus fall within the scope of the appended claims of the present invention.

[68] Also, the present invention can be applied to a commercial building and an office building as well as a residential building that uses the refrigerator 140.

[69] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purpose, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modi¬ fications, additions and substitutions can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims.

Claims

[1] In a building structure in which an indoor room (120) is separated from an outside (130) by a plurality of wall members (110) and a refrigerator (140) is disposed in the indoor room (120), the building structure being characterized in that one of the wall members (110) has a through hole (10) to allow a refrigerator's door (158) to be disposed in the indoor room (120) and the rest of the refrigerator (140) to be exposed to outside air, thereby reducing a power energy used by the refrigerator (140).

[2] The building structure of claim 1, wherein the through hole (10) is formed in one of the wall members (110) that has one side facing the indoor room (120) and the other side facing the outside (130) and the through hole (10) has a receiving space formed a little larger than the refrigerator (140) to be installed.

[3] The building structure of claim 1 or 2, further comprising a shielding member

(20) for isolating the indoor room (120) from the outside (130) by shielding a vacant space formed between the through hole (10) and the refrigerator (140) so as to block inflow of heat and noises of the refrigerator (140) from the outside (130) to the indoor room (120).

[4] The building structure of claim 1, wherein the through hole (10) is formed in one of the wall members (110) that partitions the builing structure into a veranda (200) and the indoor room (120) and the wall members (110) have a receiving space shielded from the veranda (200) and at least a ventilation hole (40) formed therein.

[5] The building structure of claim 3, wherein the shielding member (20) has an adiabatic material of a styrofoam having excellent adiabatic property in an inside thereof and an outer skin formed of a cloth or a thin flexible synthetic plastic cover to enclose the adiabatic material, or is comprised of rubber bellows.

[6] In a building structure in which an indoor room (120) is separated from an outside (130) by a plurality of wall members (110) and a refrigerator (140) is disposed in the indoor room (120), the building structure being characterized by comprising: a refrigerator receiving room (50) having a refrigerator receiving space (55) formed at a part of a space in the indoor room (120) for receiving the refrigerator (140), the refrigerator receiving space (55) being separated from a rest space of the indoor room (120) by partition walls (60); and a ventilation member (70) formed in one of the partition walls (60) of the re¬ frigerator receiving room (50) to allow outside air to flow into an inside of the re¬ frigerator receiving room (50), thereby reducing a power energy used by the re- frigerator (140).

[7] The building structure of claim 6, wherein the ventilation member (70) has a grille structure or a shelter structure such that outside air freely flows into the re¬ frigerator receiving room (50).

[8] The building structure of claim 6, further comprising a door (65) formed in one of the partition walls (60) that separates the refrigerator receiving room (50) from a space of the indoor room (120) such that heat and noises of the refrigerator (140) generated from the refrigerator receiving room (50) are isolated from the indoor room (120) and a refrigerator's door (158) is opened in the indoor room (120) when the door (65) is opened.

[9] The building structure of claim 8, wherein the door (65) is made of a material having an excellent adiabatic property and selected from the group consisting of pair glass, acryl, and lexan (transparent polymer material).

[10] The building of claim 6, wherein the refrigerator receiving room (50) is defined by forming the partition wall (60) on one side of a veranda (200).