A method of controlling a refrigerator may include operating a first cooling cycle for a first storage compartment to drive a compressor and operating a first cooling fan for cooling the first storage compartment, and switching to a second cooling cycle for cooling a second storage compartment to drive the compressor and operating a second cooling fan for cooling the second storage compartment when a stop condition of the first cooling cycle is satisfied. The method may also include switching to a third cooling cycle for cooling the first storage compartment to drive the compressor and operating the first cooling fan when a stop condition of the second cooling cycle is satisfied.

A thermal management system that include an electronic circuit boards having at least two circuit boards with a space in between and further includes one or more air tubes or conduits. The electronic circuit board and air tubes are configured for drawing air into the space to facilitate cooling of the electronic circuit board concurrent with cooling of a heat sink of a heat pump connected with the electronic circuit board. The system can further include a partition to isolate airflow from the heat sink from airflow through the electronics circuit board, and can further include one or more interface components for maintaining isolation and control of air flow, improving air intake and/or supporting auxiliary components.

In an embodiment, a method of preventing evaporator coil freeze in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is performed by a controller in the HVAC system. The method includes determining a reference saturated suction temperate (SST) via a sensor disposed in relation to an evaporator coil in the HVAC system. The method also includes determining whether the reference SST is below a minimum SST threshold. The method also includes, responsive to a determination that the reference SST is below the minimum SST threshold, increasing a discharge air temperature (DAT) setpoint.

A performance degradation diagnosis system includes a determining unit, and control unit. A refrigeration cycle apparatus includes a refrigerant circuit having a compressor, heat-source-side heat exchanger, and use-side heat exchanger. The determining unit determines, based on an index indicating an operation state of the refrigeration cycle apparatus, performance degradation of the refrigeration cycle apparatus with respect to each of a plurality of performance degradation factors. In a case in which the determining unit determines performance degradation, the control unit grasps an operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus which is operating. In a case in which the operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus is not suitable to determine performance degradation with respect to a performance degradation factor of a determination target, the control unit controls the operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus so that the operation condition of the refrigeration cycle apparatus becomes an appropriate operation condition.

Disclosed is a method of controlling a refrigerator, including detecting outside temperature through an outside temperature sensor configured to detect ambient temperature of the refrigerator, performing a winter operation when the outside temperature detected by the outside temperature sensor is equal to or less than a set temperature, and determining a normal operation to be performed when the temperature detected by the outside temperature sensor is higher than the set temperature, wherein, during the winter operation, the compressor is operated with higher cooling power than in the normal operation.

A refrigerator fan device, comprising: a fan motor (10) which has a fan rotor (12) and which can be provided in an air duct between an air inlet (16), a refrigerator heat exchanger (15), and/or a refrigerator compressor (14) and an air outlet (18) on or in a refrigerator housing (20, 22), said fan motor (10) being connectable to a unit of the refrigerator, via electrical supply and/or control lines, wherein the fan motor (10) is realized as a brushless speed-controllable DC motor whose operating speed is or can be controlled as a function of an operating and/or used cooling space temperature signal of, the assigned or assignable refrigerator compressor.

A system for controlling or optimizing the performance of a vapor compression system by modifying the actuator commands via an output interface, that realizes thermofluid property functions and their derivatives as spline functions which are represented in a coordinate system that is aligned with a fluid saturation curve. The system includes an interface configured to receive measurement data from sensors, a memory configured to store thermofluid property data and computer-executable programs including a B-spline method, and a processor for performing the computer-implemented method. The processor is configured to take as input two thermofluid property variables, and compute a coordinate transformation in which one axis of the coordinates is aligned with the liquid and vapor saturation curves. In the saturation-curve aligned coordinates, a spline function represents the thermofluid property function, with coefficients and knots stored in memory. The spline function is constructed in a manner such that derivatives of the thermofluid property function may be discontinuous across the saturation curve.

In a refrigerator control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, a control unit intermittently turns on a temperature sensor on a predetermined cycle when a deep-freezing chamber mode is turned off, so that the temperature sensor senses the internal temperature of a deep-freezing chamber for a first set time, and the sensed internal temperature of the deep-freezing chamber is transmitted to the control unit so as to minimize power consumption.

A heat exchanger includes: a gas-refrigerant pipe; a header connected to the gas-refrigerant pipe; and heat transfer tubes connected to the header. The header includes: a first plate member; and a second plate member that is stacked on the first plate member in a plate-thickness direction. The first plate member includes a first opening that constitutes an internal space of the header. The second plate member includes a second opening that, together with the first opening, constitutes the internal space of the header. The internal space of the header communicates with the heat transfer tubes. A first direction is perpendicular to both the plate-thickness direction and a direction in which the heat transfer tubes are arranged. A width of a part of the first opening in the first direction is different from a width of the second opening in the first direction.

A domestic refrigerator has at least one refrigerated cabinet, to which a frost-free evaporator, which can be cooled under control, and a fan, which can be driven independently therefrom, are assigned and which is separated from a freezer compartment by a partition. A control method includes an evaporator cooling phase to cool the frost-free evaporator, which comprises phase the fan is switched off. The refrigerator has a control device, which is designed to cool the frost-free evaporator and to operate the fan. The control device is further configured to run an evaporator cooling phase for cooling the frost-free evaporator when the fan is switched off. The method is particularly advantageous for side-by-side refrigerators.