Patent ID: 7775058

Claim:
A cooler and refrigerator configured to execute a controlled cooling operation for maintaining an inside temperature approximately at a set temperature by controlling a cooling capacity of a cooling device for cooling an inside of the cooler and refrigerator based on a comparison between the inside temperature measured by an inside temperature sensor and a set temperature set in advance, wherein the cooling device capable of controlling the cooling capacity comprises: a memory device storing a target temporal change mode of a cooling speed, in a temperature region in which the controlled cooling operation is carried out, as data; a controlled operation controller for calculating an actual cooling speed and changing the cooling capacity so that the actual cooling speed varies following the target temporal change mode; a high-temperature compensation controller for changing the target temporal change mode on the condition that the inside temperature becomes higher than the set temperature by a predetermined temperature; and an inverter compressor capable of controlling the cooling capacity, and the controlled operation controller includes: a temperature change calculation portion for detecting the inside temperature based on a signal from the inside temperature sensor per predetermined sampling time and calculating the actual cooling speed at each sampling time based on the inner temperature; a target cooling speed output portion for outputting a target cooling speed based on the target temporal change mode at each sampling time; a comparison portion for comparing the actual cooling speed with the target cooling speed; and a speed control portion for (i) increasing the cooling capacity, when the actual cooling speed is smaller than the target cooling speed and (ii) lowering the cooling capacity, when the actual cooling speed is higher than the target cooling speed, based on a comparison result of the comparison portion.