Patent ID: 8780038

Claim:
A refrigerator, comprising: a thermally insulating housing; and a function display panel fitted to the housing for displaying functional states and/or operating parameters of the refrigerator; said function display panel including electrically charged pigment carriers movably disposed under an influence of an electric field; and a printed circuit board including: a plurality of electrodes each associated with a display element of said function display panel, the plurality of electrodes configured to apply an electric field to said pigment carriers, wherein at least a first portion of the plurality of electrodes includes a first pattern of electrodes forming a static graphical element identifying one of a particular model of the refrigerator and a particular manufacturer of the refrigerator, and wherein at least a second portion of the plurality of electrodes includes a second pattern of electrodes forming a non-static graphical element that can be changed to display a value of a parameter of the refrigerator that changes based on a functional state of the refrigerator or an operating state of the refrigerator, a control circuit configured to receive a supply voltage and to provide the voltage to the plurality of electrodes, and a main switch configured to remove the supply voltage from the control circuit, wherein removal of the supply voltage removes the electric field, said pigment carriers maintaining their position when the electric field is removed, wherein the main switch connects the control circuit to the supply voltage to connect the plurality of electrodes to respective supply voltages to change an appearance of the non-static graphical element under the influence of the electric field when control electronics of the refrigerator detect a change in the value of the parameter of the refrigerator, and to refresh the static graphical element under the influence of the electric field without changing an appearance of the static graphical element, and wherein the main switch disconnects the control circuit from the supply voltage and the plurality of electrodes from the respective supply voltages to eliminate a power consumption of the display panel during times when the control electronics do not detect the change in the value of the parameter of the refrigerator wherein said first pattern of electrodes are only connected to a positive supply voltage when supplied with power and said second pattern of electrodes are switchably connected to a positive supply voltage and a negative supply voltage when supplied with power.