Kimchi refrigerator and method for controlling the same

Abstract

A kimchi refrigerator having sensing devices to sense whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened. The kimchi refrigerator includes a main body forming an external appearance, and including storage chambers opened at one surface for storing food; doors to open and close the opened surfaces of the storage chambers; and sensing devices to sense whether the doors are opened. Since the sensing devices detect whether the doors are opened and the opening time of the doors, and lamps to illuminate the inner portions of the storage chambers and alarm devices to inform a user of the opening of the doors for a designated time or more are turned on and off based on the results detected by the sensing devices, the kimchi refrigerator compensates for the leaked cold air due to the opening of the doors.

1 . A kimchi refrigerator comprising: 
 a main body forming an external appearance, and including storage chambers each opened at one surface for storing food;    doors to open and close the opened surfaces of the storage chambers; and    sensing devices to sense whether the doors are opened.    
   
   
       2 . The kimchi refrigerator according to  claim 1 , wherein each of the sensing devices includes: 
 a magnetometric sensor installed on one of the main body and the corresponding one of the doors; and    a magnet installed on the other one of the main body and the corresponding one of the doors such that the magnet is distant from the magnetometric sensor according to the opening of the corresponding door.    
   
   
       3 . The kimchi refrigerator according to  claim 2 , wherein: 
 the storage chambers are opened to an upper surface of the main body, and the doors are hinged to a rear end of the upper surface of the main body and rotated to open and close the corresponding storage chambers;    the magnetometric sensors are installed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body; and    the magnets are installed on the doors such that the magnets are separated from a rotary center of the doors hinged to the main body.    
   
   
       4 . The kimchi refrigerator according to  claim 3 , wherein: 
 a first hinge unit having hinge protrusions formed on both ends thereof, is installed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body so that the doors are hinged to the hinge protrusions;    second hinge units, each having a hinge hole to receive the corresponding one of the hinge protrusions to hinge the doors to the main body, are respectively installed on the rear ends of the doors; and    the magnets are respectively installed in the second hinge units.    
   
   
       5 . The kimchi refrigerator according to  claim 3 , wherein lamps to illuminate inner portions of the storage chambers,-when the doors are opened at at least a designated angle, are respectively installed in the doors.  
   
   
       6 . The kimchi refrigerator according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 temperature sensors to sense temperatures of inner portions of the storage chambers respectively installed on designated side walls of the storage chambers.    
   
   
       7 . A method for controlling a kimchi refrigerator, the method comprising: 
 operating the kimchi refrigerator in a normal mode, wherein inner portions of storage chambers of the kimchi refrigerator are maintained at a designated temperature; and    detecting whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened; and    operating the kimchi refrigerator in a low temperature-compensating mode, when it is detected that the doors are opened, wherein the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature lower than the temperature of the storage chambers in the normal mode for a designated time.    
   
   
       8 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein: 
 when in the normal mode, the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature of −1° C.; and    when in the low temperature-compensating mode, the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature of −1.5° C. for a predetermined period of time.    
   
   
       9 . The kimchi refrigerator of  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 an alarm device positioned on each door to sound an alarm, wherein when the respective sensing device senses the respective door is opened for at least a predetermined period of time the respective alarm device sounds the alarm.    
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising: 
 sounding an alarm when it is detected that the doors have been opened for at least a predetermined period of time.    
   
   
       11 . The kimchi refrigerator of  claim 1 , wherein the sensing devices sense whether the doors are opened based on an angle of each door as detected by the sensing devices.  
   
   
       12 . A kimchi refrigerator comprising: 
 storage chambers to store food therein and having doors to open and close each of the storage chambers; and    sensing devices which correspond to each door and which detect the opening of the respective doors, wherein when it is detected that the respective door is opened, a temperature of an inner portion of the storage chamber is decreased to a temperature below that of a temperature of the storage chamber when the respective door is closed.    
   
   
       13 . An apparatus comprising: 
 storage chambers maintaining a predetermined temperature and having doors to open and close each of the storage chambers; and    sensing devices which correspond to each door and which detect the opening of the respective doors.    
   
   
       14 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , further comprising: 
 an alarm device positioned on each door to sound an alarm, wherein when the respective sensing device senses the respective door is opened for at least a predetermined period of time the respective alarm device sounds the alarm.    
   
   
       15 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein the sensing devices sense whether the doors are opened based on an angle each door as detected by the sensing devices.  
   
   
       16 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein when the sensing devices detect that the respective doors are opened, the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers decreases to a temperature below that of the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers when the respective doors are closed.  
   
   
       17 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers is equal to −1° C. when the respective doors are closed; and 
 the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers is equal to −1.5° C., when the respective doors are opened for at least a predetermined period of time.    
   
   
       18 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , wherein each of the sensing devices includes: 
 a magnet to generate a magnetic field; and    a magnetometric sensor to detect the intensity of the magnetic field,    wherein the magnet is positioned on one of an upper surface of the storage chamber and the respective door, and the magnetometric sensor is positioned on the other one of the upper surface of the storage chamber and the respective door.    
   
   
       19 . The apparatus of  claim 13 , further comprising: 
 lamps installed in the respective doors, to illuminate inner portions of the storage chambers when the respective doors are opened at at least a designated angle.    
   
   
       20 . The apparatus of  claim 19 , further comprising: 
 temperature sensors positioned on inner side walls of the storage chambers, to sense temperatures of the inner portions of the storage chambers.