JP4278637B2 - Refrigerator with foot light - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a small refrigerator that is stored in a floor-top base or the like disposed near a hospital bed.

Conventionally, in a hospital or the like, a floor head stand is usually arranged in the vicinity of the bed, a television is stored in the upper shelf or top plate (upper) of the floor head base, and a small refrigerator is stored in the lower shelf (lower). (For example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).
In these refrigerators, for example, as shown in Patent Document 3, an interior lamp is usually installed in the interior of the warehouse, but when opening the door and taking in and out beverages etc. in the warehouse, the door The interior light that illuminates the interior of the refrigerator is turned on by a limit switch that senses the opening and closing of the refrigerator.
As this interior light, it is also known as Patent Document 4 that is installed not on the interior but on the front upper part outside the refrigerator and illuminates the interior of the refrigerator with a limit switch or a micro switch that senses opening and closing of the door.
On the other hand, an emergency light device that has a battery and a charging circuit, detects ambient brightness at the time of a power failure, and lights up is already known as Patent Document 5 or the like.
JP-A-8-322871 Japanese Utility Model Publication No.59-119 Utility Model No. 2532914 Publication Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-103589 JP-A-62-76284

By the way, when the patient gets out of bed at night, such as in a hospital room, when searching for or operating an object near the bed, or when trying to use a refrigerator, switch on the nearby lighting. It had to be operated and lit.
However, it is troublesome to find a lighting switch when the light is turned off, and it is particularly troublesome for a person with a physical disability.
In an emergency such as a power outage, it is necessary to turn on an emergency light provided in the room, but it does not necessarily illuminate the floor near the bed and is inconvenient for getting out of the bed.
The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and a footlight is provided in a small refrigerator that is usually arranged in the vicinity of a bed in a hospital or the like so that the footlight can be turned on without a person performing a lighting switch operation. Further, the present invention provides lighting that can be used as an emergency light in the event of a power failure, and that can be used as an interior light that illuminates the interior of a refrigerator.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention of claim 1 is provided with a footlight that illuminates the floor surface on the front portion, and the footlight is a refrigerator that is an interior light that illuminates the interior of the refrigerator when the door is opened. The front upper portion of the refrigerator door that is close to the footlight is provided with a concave reflecting portion that reflects the footlight outward, and the refrigerator is provided with a human sensor and timer means. The refrigerator is characterized in that the footlight is turned on, the timer of the timer means is operated with the lighted once as a trigger, and the lighting power supply is turned off within a predetermined time. is there.
The invention of claim 2, wherein the refrigerator illuminance sensor provided in the state surrounding a bright of the refrigerator is a refrigerator according to claim 1, characterized in that turns off the footlights by illumination sensor.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the refrigerator is provided with a rechargeable battery, charged in an energized state while avoiding overcharging, and discharged by the battery so that the footlight can be activated during a power failure. It is a refrigerator of Claim 1 thru | or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
A fourth aspect of the present invention is the refrigerator according to any one of the first to third aspects , wherein the footlight is provided at an upper part on the front side of the top plate adjacent to an upper frame of the refrigerator door.
A fifth aspect of the present invention is the refrigerator according to the fourth aspect, wherein the footlight has a bowl-like shape that extends forward, and has a shape that is integrated with the top plate.
A sixth aspect of the present invention is the refrigerator according to any one of the first to fifth aspects , wherein the refrigerator is housed in a lower part of a floor-top base disposed in the vicinity of a bed and illuminates a foot with the footlight. is there.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the footlight that illuminates the floor surface on the front part of the refrigerator is combined with the interior light, so there is no need to install a footlight separately, parts can be saved, and the power cord is also There is no entanglement, space saving is possible, and the presence sensor is provided, so that when a person's foot or hand approaches the refrigerator, the footlight can be turned on automatically. The upper front part close to the footlight of the door is provided with a concave reflecting part that reflects the footlight outward, so that the light of the footlight can be illuminated more effectively on the floor near the refrigerator, There is no need to provide a separate lighting switch, and no switch operation is required. Furthermore, the timer means is provided and the lighting time of the footlight is controlled by the timer. The footlight does not repeatedly turn on and off in fine time, does not obstruct the eyes, and stays on for a certain time even if it is slightly away from the footlight, so that people can do other work around the bed. In such a case, the footlight is automatically turned off after a predetermined time, so that it is possible to prevent forgetting to turn it off and useless power is not consumed.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect , the illuminance sensor is provided and the footlight is automatically turned off when the periphery of the refrigerator is bright, so that power is not consumed unnecessarily.
According to the invention of claim 3 , in addition to the effects of claims 1 and 2 , the refrigerator is provided with a rechargeable battery so that the battery is discharged so that the footlight can be operated in the event of a power failure. Because the footlight functions as an emergency light in the event of a power failure due to a disaster such as an earthquake, it is not necessary to install an emergency light separately, and space can be saved.
According to the invention of claim 4 , in addition to the effects of claims 1 and 3, since the footlight is provided on the upper front side of the top plate close to the upper frame of the refrigerator door, Can fully illuminate the refrigerator.
According to the invention of claim 5 , in addition to the effect of claim 4 , the footlight has a bowl-like shape that is attached to the front and is integrated with the top plate. It becomes a neat design, and it can illuminate the inside of the refrigerator sufficiently as an interior light, and can sufficiently illuminate the floor near the refrigerator as a footlight.
According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effects of the first to fifth aspects, since the refrigerator is housed in the lower part of the floor head stand arranged in the vicinity of the bed, the feet when getting off the bed are surely secured. Can be illuminated.

Here, the Example of the refrigerator suitable for this invention is described along drawing.
FIG. 1 shows a refrigerator 1 stored in a lower shelf (lower stage) of a floor head (not shown) placed near a bed in a hospital or the like, where the overall height is below the position of a person's waist. It is a perspective view of the small refrigerator 1 whose height of a top plate is also low.
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the refrigerator 1 is a one-door type small refrigerator with a door housed in a space below the floor head, etc., and a door 2 is provided on the front surface, as shown in FIG. 2. In addition, by pulling the grip portion 21 provided at the upper left portion of the door 2 toward the front, it opens around the rotation shaft provided at the right hinge portion 22 and is provided in the interior 3 or the back of the door 2. The drinking water stored in the storage part of the heel part 31 is taken out or stored.
A refrigeration drive unit 5 that drives the refrigerator to a low temperature with a commercial power supply (AC 100 V) is provided in the heat exchange unit 32 and the back unit 4 at the back of the refrigerator 1. Further, a fixing member 41 is provided at the lower end of the back surface portion 4 and is fixed to a storage shelf or the like below the floor head base (not shown) with a wood screw or the like as necessary. To prevent it from falling.
As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, the top plate 6 is provided on the upper surface portion of the refrigerator 1, and the front end 61 is a bowl-like shape that sticks out to the front. Is substantially the same as the thickness portion Y of the door 2 in a closed state. Since the top plate 6 is a small refrigerator as shown in FIG. 1 and the like, it is in a relatively low position even when housed in the floor head (lower stage). Since it is in the same position as the top plate 6, it is possible to reliably illuminate the feet and the floor surface when getting off the bed.
Further, as shown in FIG. 1, a footlight portion 7 including a footlight 71 is provided on the front upper portion of the top plate 6 on the side of the gripping portion 21 adjacent to the upper frame of the door 2 of the refrigerator 1. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the footlight portion 7 has a shape integrated with a front end portion 61 of a bowl shape (projecting width X) that sticks out in front of the top plate 6. The shape is comfortable.

On the other hand, the front upper part 23 which is a front part close to the footlight 71 of the door 2 of the refrigerator 1 is provided with a concave reflecting part 24 that reflects the footlight 71 outward.
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the footlight portion 7 has a bowl shape, and the front half of the front surface and the bottom surface is formed of a transparent acrylic transparent frame 72, and the rear half. The storage frame body 73 storing the electronic circuit and the like, and the upper surface cover frame body 74 are formed of ordinary synthetic resin, and are fixed to a fixing portion of the storage frame body 73 by cover fixing screws 741.
In the front halves of the frames 72 and 74, a footlight 71 composed of three LEDs is in the center, and on the right side (FIG. 4) is an infrared human sensor 75 that reacts to heat radiation from the human body, and a left side. The illuminance sensor 76 for detecting the illuminance is housed, and in the rear halves of the frames 73 and 74, the electronic circuit unit 8 for driving them is housed.
The configuration of the electronic circuit unit 8 is basically a circuit configuration as shown in FIG. 6, but in the flowchart described later, a necessary circuit is selected from the circuits configuring the electronic circuit unit 8. Use it.

Therefore, the circuit configuration of the electronic circuit unit 8 will be described. First, the commercial power supply (AC100V) is supplied to the power supply circuit 81 that generates DC12V to be supplied to the lighting and each electronic circuit, and a part of the power supply circuit 81 is The rechargeable battery 82 is supplied to a charging circuit 821, and this charging circuit 821 is provided with an overcharge protection circuit 822 for preventing overcharging, the commercial power supply (AC 100 V) is cut off, and the power supply circuit 81 is supplied with power. When the supply stops, a power failure detection circuit 823 that detects this is activated, and the battery 82 is switched from charging to discharging via the battery discharging circuit 824.
The circuit power supply from the power supply circuit 81 and the battery 82 is detected by the illuminance detection circuit 83 based on a signal from the illuminance sensor 76, and the brightness on the floor surface, actually the footlight unit 7, is detected. The illumination power supply is cut off by turning off the illuminance detection circuit 83, and the illumination power supply is energized by turning on the illuminance detection circuit 83 if the surroundings of the footlight unit 7 are dark and below a predetermined illuminance.

Next, the human detection circuit 84 has a predetermined sensitivity (thermal radiation from a person) by a signal from the infrared human sensor 75 that reacts to heat radiation from the human body in the vicinity of the footlight 7, that is, in the vicinity of the human sensor 75. ) When the movement of a person (user) is sensed, the person detection circuit 84 is turned on and the illumination power source is energized. The human detection circuit 84 is turned off to cut off the illumination power supply.
In this embodiment, the infrared human detection sensor 75 is used, and both the heat detection and the object movement detection are adopted. The reason is that only the heat detection of the infrared human detection sensor 75 is used. It turns on when a person is detected, but after a certain amount of time has passed, the temperature difference becomes difficult to detect, and at that time, the footlight function may not work when moving, so a stationary person When the (user) moves 0.5 m / s or more, the movement is detected and turned on so that the person is not turned off even if the person is in the vicinity of the footlight 71.
In addition, the illumination sensor 76 and the human sensor 75 may be disturbing if the circuit frequently repeats ON-OFF because the brightness changes due to the human shadow or the sensitivity changes depending on the state of clothes even in the case of a person. Therefore, the timer circuit 85 may be provided so that the illumination power supply is not cut off for a predetermined time so as to continuously illuminate.

In addition, even when the door 2 of the refrigerator 1 is opened, when the human hand or foot is in the vicinity of the footlight unit 7 and the footlight unit 7 is dark, the footlight 71 is lit to illuminate the interior. Even if the footlight unit 7 does not react, when a partially dark case occurs, if the door 2 is opened, a door open / close detection circuit 86 such as a limit switch is provided to light the footlight 71. What should I do?
In this way, the footlight (illuminator) 71 in which three LDEs are arranged is in the vicinity of a bed in a hospital or the like, and the human sensor turns on the footlight when there is a person even if the person does not operate the lighting switch. Even in this case, when the surroundings are bright, the light is turned off to save energy.
Further, even in the event of a power failure due to a normal power failure or a disaster such as an earthquake, the footlight 71 is lit by the electronic circuit unit 8 (power failure detection circuit 823) described above. 7, the state of the room may be grasped. In this case, the battery discharge circuit 824 is directly energized to the footlight 71 without passing through the illuminance detection circuit 83 and the human detection circuit 84 ( (A solid line from the battery discharge circuit 824 in FIG. 6 to the footlight 71).

Next, the operations of the first to third embodiments having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to flowcharts 1 to 3. The common feature is that a human sensor 75 and an illuminance sensor 76 are provided and automatically turned on and off. It is characterized by operating a footlight that also serves as an interior light.
[Example 1 (Flowchart 1)]
First, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 7 of the flowchart 1 and FIG. 6 of the circuit configuration for this purpose.
In the first embodiment, the circuit configuration in which the present invention is simplified is provided, and the footlight 71, the human sensor 75, and the illuminance sensor 76 are provided in the refrigerator 1, and the electronic circuit unit 8 in FIG. Is.
First, in step 11, the commercial power supply AC100V is supplied to the refrigerator 1, converted into DC12V by the power supply circuit 81 in step 12, and the illuminance sensor 76 detects the illuminance near the footlight unit 7 in step 13, If the surroundings are bright, the process proceeds to step 14. In this case, it is not necessary to turn on the footlight 71, and the power to the footlight 71 is cut off from the viewpoint of energy saving to keep the light off.
On the contrary, if the illuminance sensor 76 detects that the illuminance is low and dark at step 13, the process proceeds to step 15 to activate the human detection circuit 84 for detecting whether or not there is a person in the vicinity of the footlight unit 7 and If there is no person in the sensation sensor 75, the process proceeds to step 14. In this case as well, there is no need to turn on the footlight 71, and the power to the footlight 71 is cut off from the viewpoint of energy saving to keep the light off. .
On the other hand, if it is determined in step 15 that the presence sensor 75 reacts to the surroundings, the process proceeds to step 16 where the footlight 71 is turned on to illuminate the refrigerator 1 or the floor of the bed. When the door 2 is opened, the footlight 71 functions as an interior lamp and illuminates the interior of the refrigerator 1.
Therefore, in the first embodiment, the surroundings of the footlight unit 7 are always bright, and if there is no person, the footlight 71 does not automatically turn on, so that useless power is not consumed. Further, since the footlight 71 is automatically turned on simply by bringing a person's limb closer to the footlight unit 7, it is not necessary for the person to operate the illumination switch.

[Example 2 (Flowchart 2)]
First, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 8 of the flowchart 2 and FIG. 6 which is a circuit configuration.
In the second embodiment, an emergency light function is added to the footlight 71 of the first embodiment. The refrigerator 1 includes a footlight 71, a human sensor 75, an illuminance sensor 76, and a battery 82 that can be charged and discharged. The electronic circuit unit 8 in FIG. 6 has a circuit configuration corresponding to this.
At step 21, the commercial power supply AC100V is supplied to the refrigerator 1. First, at step 22, the power failure detection circuit 823 detects whether the commercial power source AC100V is in an energized state or a power failure state.

[Energized state]
If it is energized at step 22, the process proceeds to step 221. If the battery 82 (FIG. 6) is sufficiently charged and charging is not necessary, the process returns to the original state. When the circuit 821 functions to charge the battery 82 and the charging is completed, the circuit 821 returns to the original state. That is, the battery 82 is charged in preparation for a power failure.
On the other hand, the lighting / extinguishing of the footlight 71 from step 23 to step 27 is the same flow as S12 to S16 of the first embodiment except for the timer operation of step 261, and thus the description is omitted here. Only the timer operation 261 will be described.
When the surroundings of the footlight unit 7 are dark in step 24 and a person is present, the footlight 71 is powered on in steps 24 and 26, and the footlight 71 is turned on. When the illuminance sensor 76 and the human sensor 75 change the brightness depending on the scene, or the sensitivity changes depending on the state of the clothes of the person, the lighting of the footlight 71 is frequently turned on and off each time. On the contrary, since the illuminance sensor 76 and the human sensor 75 are activated and the footlight 71 is once turned on as a trigger, the timer of the timer circuit 85 is activated and the timer operation time is determined in advance. The illumination power supply is not cut off for a predetermined time. During this time, even if the illuminance detection circuit 83 and the human detection circuit 84 are turned off, the footlight 7 The power to be supplied continuously.
As shown in FIG. 6, even if the timer circuit 85 forms a power supply closed circuit as shown in FIG. 6, the functions of the illuminance detection circuit 83 and the human detection circuit 84 are deactivated and the power supply is always turned on. In short, the timer circuit 85 may be provided so that once the lamp is lit, the footlight 71 may be lit for a set predetermined time. And after predetermined time passes, an illumination power supply is interrupted | blocked and the footlight 71 is extinguished.

[Power failure state]
Next, when the power failure detection circuit 823 in step 22 detects that the AC 100V of the commercial power supply is in a power failure state, the battery 82 as shown by the dotted line from the battery discharge circuit 824 in FIG. Through the battery discharge circuit 824, the footlight 71 is turned on to function as an emergency light. Of course, even when functioning as an emergency light, the battery 82 is supplied from the battery discharge circuit 824 to the illuminance detection circuit 83 and the illuminance detection circuit 83 and the human detection circuit 84 are operated, and the battery 82 is operated to save energy. Also good.

  Therefore, in the second embodiment, the operation of the first embodiment, that is, if the surroundings are bright and there is no person, the footlight 71 does not automatically turn on, so that wasteful power is not consumed. Since the footlight 71 is automatically turned on simply by bringing a person's limb closer to the footlight section 7, in addition to the effect that the person does not need to operate the light switch, the footlight can be used even during a power outage such as a disaster. Functions as an emergency light and illuminates the surroundings of the refrigerator 1 arranged in the vicinity of each bed in a hospital or the like, so that each person can grasp the surrounding situation.

[Example 3 (Flowchart 3)]
First, the operation of the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 9 of the flowchart 3 and FIG.
In the third embodiment, an emergency light function is added to the footlight 71 of the second embodiment. The footlight 7, the human sensor 75, the illuminance sensor 76, the mimer circuit 85, and the battery 82 that can be charged and discharged are added to the refrigerator 1. In addition to the emergency light function provided with the door opening / closing state detection function, the footlight 71 is turned on regardless of the operation of the human sensor 75 and the illuminance sensor 76 in the open state. The electronic circuit unit 8 also has a circuit configuration corresponding to this.
The difference between the third embodiment and the second embodiment is that the third embodiment is different from the third embodiment in that the door in the step 331 is in an open state, for example, when the conventional micro switch is used to detect the door. The footlight 71 in step 37 is always turned on.
Of course, if the vicinity of the footlight unit 7 is bright and it is not necessary to illuminate with the interior light, the human sensor 75 and the illuminance sensor 76 and their circuits may be operated. In this case, the door opening / closing detection circuit 86 or There is no need for a microswitch or the like for the door opening / closing detection means.
Except for step 331, the flow is the same as that in the second embodiment, step 31 in the third embodiment corresponds to step 21 in the second embodiment, step 32 corresponds to step 22,... Step 35 corresponds to step 25, Since the operation is the same, the description of the second embodiment is adopted, and the detailed description of each step of the third embodiment is omitted.

  Of course, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as long as the characteristics of the present invention are not impaired. For example, the human sensor 75 uses infrared rays, but uses ultrasonic waves. It may be a thing. Also, in the small refrigerator of the example, the height of the top plate is low, so the footlight that illuminates the floor is installed at the same position as the height of the top plate of the refrigerator. If it is provided on the front side surface of the side frame, the floor surface can be illuminated more effectively. In addition, although three LDEs are used for the illumination member, the type and number of LDEs may be appropriately changed as necessary. Of course, a conventional incandescent bulb or jujube bulb may be used.

It is a perspective view from the front of the refrigerator of the Example of this invention. In the refrigerator of FIG. 1, it is a perspective view of the state which opened the door. It is a sectional side view in the AA of FIG. It is an expansion perspective view of the state which removed the upper surface cover frame of the footlight part of FIG. FIG. 4 is an enlarged side cross-sectional view in the vicinity of the footlight part of FIG. 3. It is a block diagram of the electronic circuit part of the Example of this invention. It is a figure of the flowchart 1 of Example 1 of this invention. It is a figure of the flowchart 2 of Example 2 of this invention. It is a figure of the flowchart 3 of Example 3 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 ... refrigerator,
2 ... door, 21 ... gripping part, 22 ... hinge part, 23 ... front upper part, 24 ... reflection part,
Y ... the thickness of the door,
3 ... inside of the cabinet, 31 ... saddle, 32 ... heat exchange part,
4 ... Back part, 41 ... Fixing member 5 ... Refrigeration drive part,
6 ... top plate, 61 ... front end, X ... width of bowl-shaped part,
7 ... footlight part, 71 ... footlight (illuminator: LDE), 72 ... transparent frame,
73 ... Storage frame, 74 ... Top cover frame, 741 ... Cover fixing screw,
75 ... Human sensor, 76 ... Illuminance sensor,
8 ... Electronic circuit part, 81 ... Power supply circuit, 82 ... Battery, 821 ... Charging circuit,
822 ... Overcharge protection circuit, 823 ... Power failure detection circuit,
824 ... battery discharge circuit, 83 ... illuminance detection circuit, 84 ... human detection circuit,
85 ... Timer circuit, 86 ... Door open / close detection circuit,

Claims (6)

In the refrigerator that serves as an interior light that illuminates the interior of the refrigerator when the door is opened, the footlight is provided with a footlight that illuminates the floor surface on the front portion.
The upper front part close to the footlight of the refrigerator door is provided with a concave reflecting portion that reflects the footlight outward,
The refrigerator is provided with a human sensor and a timer means, and the foot sensor is turned on by the human sensor, and the timer of the timer means is operated by using the human light sensor as a trigger, within a predetermined time period. The refrigerator is characterized in that it is turned on without turning off the illumination power supply . The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein an illuminance sensor is provided in the refrigerator, and the footlight is turned off by the illuminance sensor when the periphery of the refrigerator is bright. Wherein in the refrigerator provided a rechargeable battery, the conduction state to charge it while avoiding overcharging, during a power outage to claim 1, characterized in that said foot light is discharged by the battery so as to be operated The refrigerator according to claim 2 . The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the footlight is provided on an upper front side of a top plate close to an upper frame of the refrigerator door. The refrigerator according to claim 4 , wherein the footlight has a bowl-like shape that is attached to the front and is integrated with the top plate. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the refrigerator is housed in a lower part of a floor-top base arranged in the vicinity of a bed and illuminates a foot with the footlight .

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