EP2423604A1 - Domestic appliance and method for operating same - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves determining an optimal energy carrier e.g. gas, depending on a preset criterion during requirement of a household appliance by a user, where the criterion includes costs to be estimated during executing functions of a household appliance (100) using the energy carrier. A starting time point for the household appliance is determined. Energy costs are computed depending on the starting time point for estimating the costs. The energy costs are integrated over duration of the household appliance function. An independent claim is also included for a household appliance including functional units.

Description

Field of application and state of the art

The invention relates to a method for operating a household appliance and a household appliance.

Meanwhile, household appliances are on the market, which by means of a first energy source, such as electricity, and by means of a second energy source, such as gas, are operable. Such household appliances are also called "dual-fuel" or "bi-fuel" devices. For example, a hob can have electrically heated cooking zones and gas-heated cooking zones and / or an oven can be heated electrically and by means of gas.

Task and solution

The invention has for its object to provide a method for operating such dual-fuel household appliances and a dual-fuel household appliance available, allowing an optimized, in particular a cost-optimized, use of energy sources.

The invention solves this problem by a method according to claim 1 and a household appliance according to claim 6.

Preferred embodiments are the subject of the subclaims, the wording of which is hereby incorporated by reference into the content of the description.

In the method for operating a household appliance, which is operable by means of a first energy carrier and by means of at least one second energy carrier and in particular has a first connection for supplying the first energy carrier and a second connection for supplying the second energy carrier, is performed in a request of a household appliance function a user, for example, if the user makes a heating power setting for a hob or if he sets or preselects a set temperature of a baking oven, determined based on at least one predetermined criterion, an optimal energy source.

The first energy source is electricity and the second energy source is gas. As further sources of energy are, for example, wood pellets, oil and / or solar thermal in question.

The at least one criterion comprises the expected costs that arise when carrying out the requested household appliance function using the first energy carrier or the second energy carrier, wherein the expected costs may vary depending on the time of the request of the household appliance function, since the costs of the energy carriers For example, are dependent on the time of day. For this purpose, for example, the amount of energy required to carry out the requested domestic appliance function can be determined, for example, first of all for a particular energy source, and then the determined amount of energy carrier with the cost of the energy carrier per energy carrier quantity be multiplied. The cost of the energy carrier per amount of energy carrier can be stored permanently in the household appliance or can be retrieved at runtime, for example via an intelligent counter and / or via the Internet. If no duration is specified for the household appliance function, for example, the costs of the respective energy carrier relative to a set heating power can be used as a criterion. In this way, the most cost-effective energy source can be automatically selected and the household appliance function can be performed using this energy source.

In a further development, the requested household appliance function is carried out automatically using the energy source determined to be optimal. Execution may begin immediately or delayed.

In a further development, the costs incurred by the first energy carrier and the second energy carrier during the execution of the requested domestic appliance function are taken into account in order to calculate the expected costs. For longer durations of the household appliance function, for example, over a few hours, the current cost of the energy carrier per amount of energy carrier can change during the execution of the household appliance function. This is taken into account according to this embodiment by performing an integration of the time-dependent energy costs over the duration of the household appliance function.

In a further development, it is assumed or assumed for the calculation of the expected costs that the requested domestic appliance function is executed without delay. This is useful, for example, if the household appliance function is executed without delay must, for example, during a mid-day food preparation, which must be executed without delay.

Alternatively, if immediate execution is not necessary, such start time for the requested home appliance function may be determined, resulting in a minimum of the expected costs associated with performing the requested home appliance function using the first energy source or second energy source, respectively. This can be useful, for example, in a household appliance function in the form of a tumble dryer, since, for example, the electricity prices can vary over time, so it may be useful to wait here for a daytime with very low electricity prices.

The household appliance according to the invention is designed to carry out the method and comprises a household appliance functional unit with a first heating means, for example a current-driven heating means, which is operable by means of a first energy carrier, and a second heating means, for example a gas-powered heating means, which is operable by means of a second energy carrier, and an optimization unit, which is designed to determine an optimal energy source in a request of a household appliance function by a user based on at least one predetermined criterion.

In a development, the household appliance functional unit is an oven.

In a development, the household appliance functional unit is a hob. Preferably, the hob comprises electrically operated hotplates and gas fired hotplates.

Brief description of the drawing

Fig.1

ein erfindungsgemäßes Haushaltsgerät mit einem sowohl elektrisch als auch mittels Gas beheizten Kochfeld und einem sowohl elektrisch als auch mittels Gas beheizten Backofen und

Fig. 2

ein Flussdiagramm des Betriebs des in Fig. 1 gezeigten Kochfelds.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are shown schematically in the drawing and will be described below. This shows

Fig.1

an inventive household appliance with a both electrically and by gas heated hob and both electrically and by gas heated oven and

Fig. 2

a flow chart of the operation of in Fig. 1 shown hob.

Detailed description of the embodiments

Fig. 1 shows a dual-fuel household appliance 100 according to the invention with a first household appliance function unit in the form of both a heated electrically and by gas hob 20, a second home appliance function unit in the form of both a heated electrically and by gas oven 30, a network interface 40, a display 50 and a control unit 60, for example a microprocessor control, which controls the operation of the household appliance 100. The control unit 60 serves as an optimization unit which is designed to determine the most cost-effective energy source for carrying out the domestic appliance function when a user requests a household appliance function on the basis of a cost criterion.

The hob 20 includes, by way of example, an electrically operated cooking point 21 and a gas-operated cooking point 22, wherein a heating power setting for the cooking point 21 by means of an adjustment 21 a takes place and a heating power setting for the hotplate 22 by means of an adjustment 22a takes place.

A set temperature of the oven 30 is adjusted by means of an adjusting member 30a. It is understood that further, not shown, adjusting elements can be provided.

Operation of in Fig. 1 shown cooking field 20 is based on the flowchart of Fig. 2 described by way of example, which is processed by the control unit 60.

The illustrated program sequence begins with the fact that a user, not shown, requests a household appliance function to start, for example by setting a desired heating power for the hob 21 or 22 by means of the setting element 21a or 22a.

In a step S10, the control unit 60 first determines the current time and the date and the current costs of the energy carrier gas, for example in the form of cost / cubic meter, as well as the energy source electricity, for example in the form of cost / kilowatt hour. Depending on the date and time, these costs can be stored in a memory of the control unit 60 and / or can be queried by the interface 40 from a server, for example an intelligent counter.

In a step S20, the ascertained energy carrier costs are then compared with each other in a standardized manner.

The result of the comparison is then displayed in the display 50 in a step S30, ie when a user requests a household appliance function, a cost-optimal energy carrier is determined on the basis of the energy cost criterion and displayed on the display 50. When the user operates the electrically heated hob setting member 21 a and the comparison made in step S20 shows that electric operation is less expensive, which is checked in a branching step S40, the electric hotplate 21 is electrically heated in a step S50. However, if the comparison made in step S20 has shown that gas operation is more cost-effective, the user in the display 50 receives a recommendation to switch to gas operation in a step S60. The user can then operate the other setting member 22a to use the gas fired cooking station 22, which is checked in a branching step S70, whereupon the gas fired cooking station 22 is activated in a step S80. If the user makes no other adjustment within a predetermined period of time, for example 5 seconds, the electric cooking station 21 is used despite the higher energy costs.

The operation of the oven 30 will be described below without reference to a flow chart. Here it is assumed that the user can select by means of a suitable, not shown adjustment, whether the oven function should be executed immediately, if the oven function should be executed after a vorgebaren waiting time or if an automatic start time based on the criterion cost-effective operation should be calculated. Further, the user can specify a cooking time as well as functions / settings of the type of heating, such as top heat, bottom heat, etc.

After the user settings have been carried out, the control unit 60 first again determines the current time and the date and the current costs of the energy carrier gas and the energy source electricity.

To calculate the cost incurred by the first energy source and the second energy source during execution of the oven function, the energy costs are calculated in dependence on the user specified start time by integrating the time dependent energy cost over the set duration of the oven function. If the user has selected the option "automatic start time", the start time for the baking function is determined, which leads to a minimum of the expected energy costs, which result from carrying out the requested domestic appliance function using electricity or gas. This can be exploited, for example, that electricity in the night hours is relatively inexpensive, and / or a solar power surplus at high solar radiation power can be used.

The baking function is then carried out automatically using the energy carrier that causes the lowest energy costs.

The criterion for determining the optimum energy carrier are the energy costs in the embodiments shown. It is understood that alternatively or additionally, other criteria can be used, for example, the CO2 consumption, the time required to carry out the household appliance function, the current availability of a particular energy source depending on environmental conditions, such as sun, wind, hydropower, etc.

The household appliance shown in the illustrated embodiments includes a hob and an oven. It is understood that the household appliance can also be a tumble dryer, a washing machine, a dishwasher, etc., for which case hot water can be used as an energy carrier, which is heated by means of solar thermal feed. In this case, therefore, between a heating of the wash water by means of electricity or use a hot water supply can be selected, which is supplied solar thermal.

In addition to the energy sources shown gas and electricity, the invention is of course also suitable for other energy sources, such as wood pellets, oil and / or solar thermal or solar energy.

It is understood that the household appliance can also be operated with more than two different energy sources. Furthermore, for example, several household appliances can be operated together in an energy-optimized network.

Claims (9)

Method for operating a domestic appliance (100) which can be operated by means of a first energy carrier in the form of gas and by means of a second energy carrier in the form of electricity, wherein - When a request for a household appliance function by a user based on at least one predetermined criterion, an optimal energy source is determined, wherein the at least one criterion includes the expected costs incurred in carrying out the requested household appliance function using the first energy carrier or the second energy source. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the requested household appliance function is performed automatically using the energy carrier determined as optimal. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the costs incurred by the first energy source and the second energy source during the execution of the requested domestic appliance function are taken into account for the calculation of the expected costs. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is assumed for the calculation of the expected costs that the requested household appliance function is executed without delay. Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that such a start time for the requested household appliance function is determined, which leads to a minimum of the expected costs, when performing the requested Household appliance function using the first energy carrier or the second energy source arise. Household appliance designed to carry out the method according to one of claims 1 to 5, comprising: - A household appliance function unit (20, 30), with - A first heating means (21) which is operable by means of a first energy carrier in the form of gas, and - A second heating means (22) which is operable by means of a second energy carrier in the form of electricity, and an optimization unit which is designed to determine an optimum energy carrier when a user requests a household appliance function based on at least one predefinable criterion, wherein the at least one criterion comprises the expected costs that result from performing the requested household appliance function using the first household appliance function Energy carrier or the second energy source arise. Domestic appliance according to claim 6, characterized in that the household appliance functional unit is an oven (30). Domestic appliance according to claim 6, characterized in that the household appliance functional unit is a hob (20). Domestic appliance according to claim 8, characterized in that the hob comprises electrically operated cooking zones (21) and gas-operated cooking zones (22).

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