To solve a problem on shortening of a service life of LEDs when illuminance in a refrigerator is sufficiently ensured by increasing luminous intensity of the LEDs in the refrigerator using LEDs as illumination lamps inside of the refrigerator.
This refrigerator comprises a highest LED 100, an intermediate LED 101 and a lowest LED 102 disposed on a side face of a refrigerating compartment as the illumination lamps in the refrigerator, a highest proximity sensor 103, an intermediate proximity sensor 104 and a lowest proximity sensor 105, a luminous intensity variable means 111 for adjusting the luminous intensity of the LEDs 100-102, and a control means 110 for controlling the luminous intensity variable means 111 on the basis of inputs from the proximity sensors 103-105. The luminous intensity of the LED of each shelf is set to the optimum brightness by detecting the motion of a person 109 reaching over the shelf inside of the refrigerator, thus the visibility is improved so that the person can easily take out an object, and the service life of the LED can be kept long.
Hiroki Naito
Daisuke Nagano