A method is disclosed herein of managing a plurality of refrigerated containers (2), the method comprising the step of surveilling the insulation condition of said containers (2) by repeatedly determining an insulation parameter (Uact, Ucur) of each of the plurality of refrigerated containers (2). Furthermore is disclosed a method to determine an insulation parameter (U.sub.act) of a refrigerated container (2), the method comprising at least the steps of—determining a refrigeration effect (Q.sub.Ref) caused by a refrigeration unit refrigerating the container (2), —calculating an actual rate of energy loss of the container (2) due to heat ingress from the ambient surroundings, —determining an actual temperature difference (ΔT) between the interior (8) of the container (2) and the ambient air, and—determining the actual insulation parameter (U.sub.act) of the container (2) from the ratio of said actual rate of energy loss and said actual temperature difference.

A refrigerated device includes a compartment including an access door. A refrigeration circuit for cooling the compartment includes an evaporator coil with an associated evaporator fan and a condenser with an associated condenser fan. A temperature sensor is provided for indicating a compartment temperature within the compartment. A controller is configured to: (i) monitor the compartment temperature in order to approximate a number of door openings, (ii) compare the approximated number of door openings to a data point and (iii) take a control action based upon a certain result of the comparison.

A set temperature calculating apparatus, a low temperature treatment system, a set temperature calculating method, and a set temperature calculating program are provided for realizing a low temperature treatment. The set temperature calculating apparatus includes: a first obtaining unit configured to obtain data correlating with a heat load in a container storage; a second obtaining unit configured to obtain a set temperature when performing temperature control in the container storage; and a learning unit configured to learn a cargo core temperature in the container storage according to a data set including a combination of the data correlating with the heat load and the set temperature.

A refrigerator management method according to one aspect of the present invention includes: obtaining log information including temperature information indicating an interior temperature of a refrigerator and opened and closed information indicating whether or not a door of the refrigerator has been opened and closed; calculating, based on the log information, a timewise change in the interior temperature for when the door is opened and closed in a predetermined period and for when the door is not opened and closed in the predetermined period; and outputting result information indicating a calculation result calculated in the calculating.

A method of controlling a refrigerator includes: controlling a cooling unit such that an output of the cooling unit becomes a first reference output for a first reference time previously determined; controlling the cooling unit such that the output of the cooling unit becomes a second reference output for a second reference time previously determined; calculating a representative value of a temperature of a storage compartment for an operating period, which is made by a sum of the first reference time and the second reference time, and comparing the calculated representative value with a specific temperature in a temperature satisfying range of the storage compartment; and varying, by a control unit, at least one of the first reference time and the second reference time depending on a comparison result between the specific temperature and the representative value and controlling operating of the cooling unit based on a varied reference time.

A refrigerator includes a storage compartment, a door, an air outlet, an imaging unit, and a determination unit. The storage compartment has a storage region that stores a stored object. The door opens and closes the storage compartment. The air outlet is provided in a rear wall of the storage region and blows cold air into the storage region. The imaging unit is provided at an inner side of the door at a position higher than or equal to a height of the air outlet and acquires an image of the storage region from the door. The determination unit determines an arrangement state of the stored object stored in the storage region based on the image acquired by the imaging unit.

An abnormality determination device for a transporting refrigeration apparatus includes a determination unit that determines an abnormality of the transporting refrigeration apparatus installed on a container. In pre-trip inspection that is conducted before the container is loaded on a transporting device, a test operation is performed for test operating modes. The pre-trip inspection is conducted multiple times. The abnormality determination device is configured to obtain at least part of time series test data related to a same one of the test operating modes in the pre-trip inspection. The determination unit is configured to determine whether the transporting refrigeration apparatus has an abnormality based on a change trend of the time series test data related to a same one of the test operating modes when the pre-trip inspection is conducted multiple times, and when there is no abnormality, estimate an abnormality occurrence time.

A temperature-context-aware refrigerator according to an embodiment comprises: a temperature context awareness unit for sensing a temperature of at least one storage compartment, and when the difference between the sensed temperature and a temperature set for the corresponding storage compartment is equal to or greater than a predetermined level, generating load-responsive operation information including a target temperature lower or higher than the set temperature; a temperature control unit for controlling a temperature sensor and the temperature context awareness unit, and performing a load-responsive operation for controlling the temperature of the storage compartment by using the load-responsive operation information; and a database unit which used by the temperature context awareness unit to generate the load-responsive operation information.

An illustrative example method of controlling use of a portable cooling container includes determining at least one characteristic of an amount of use of the cooling container. The at least one characteristic is determined by at least one of a processor at a location remote from the cooling container and a container controller of the cooling container. A relationship between the at least one characteristic and continued use of the cooling container is determined. An indication to a user of the cooling container is provided regarding continued use of the cooling container based on the determined relationship.

Provided is a method for adaptive control of a refrigeration system, the method including calculating a Number of Transfer Units (NTU) rate or an indicator representing the ease of variation of temperature (FVT) of an evaporator of the refrigeration system, to detect a frost level in the evaporator, to define the most suitable defrosting time, the energization of the drainage resistors and the adaptive management of the evaporator fan combining different operating modes, including an ice-free mode that uses only the cooling capacity of the refrigerant, and different modes with ice, which take advantage of the latent heat stored in the ice to save energy, depending on the frost level in the evaporator.