Patent ID: 7883229

Claim:
A method for controlling an illumination lamp of a refrigerator, comprising: calculating an accumulative sum of time periods that the lamp is turned on as a door of the refrigerator is repeatedly opened and closed and after said calculating: detecting closing of the door by a detector; turning off the lamp in response to detection of the door closing; detecting opening of the door after detection of the door closing; calculating a time interval from a time that at least one of the door was detected to be closed or the lamp is turned off to a time that the door was detected to be opened; keeping the lamp off after the door was detected to be opened if the time interval does not exceed a predetermined time interval and the accumulative sum exceeds a predetermined accumulative sum; and turning the lamp on after the door was detected to be opened if the time interval exceeds the predetermined time interval or the accumulative sum does not exceed the predetermined accumulative sum.