GB2216293A

GB2216293A - Radiator valve control apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2216293A
Application number: GB8903640A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Philip Reynolds; Anton Dupoy
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-03-01
Filing date: 1989-02-17
Publication date: 1989-10-04
Also published as: GB8903640D0; GB2216293B

Abstract

Radiator valve control apparatus (13) comprises electrical means such as a motor (14) operatively connectable to a radiator valve (12) to open or shut it, a re-chargeable electric power source (17) operatively connectable to said means (14), a thermocouple (19) connected to the re-chargeable electric power source (17), so as to recharge the source (17), and being adapted to be placed on, adjacent or in contact with the associated radiator (10), and a control unit (18) powered by the re-chargeable power source and incoporating a radio receiver for receiving transmitted control signals from, say, a central programmable control unit which signals are arranged to cause the unit (18) to operate said means (14) in dependence thereon. The system allows individual time and temperature control of the radiators in each room. <IMAGE>

Description

VALVES DESCRIPTION This inventions relates to valves. and concerns in particular the control of valves such as are found in central heating systems.

Conventional central heating system radiators all suffer from a basic design restriction in that, unless manually controlled, all the systems' radiators are supplied with hot water from a pump until either a time switch turns off the pump or a single thermostat located somewhere in the building turns off the boiler, so dictating the temperature of the building based upon the temperature in only one room.

The problem has been tackled in a number of ways. Thus, buildings that are occupied fully and regularly, both private and commercial premises, may be served by individual thermostats fixed to each radiator, allowing various room temperatures throughout the building. Time, however, is fixed by a master time clock, so the system as a whole is either on or ott. This does not normally cause a problem in commercial premises, as their opening and closing times are often fixed, but the situation in domestic premises is somewhat different. Although each room may be occupied in a predictable manner, this is often at different times for instance, the lounge and bedrooms are hardly ever occupied at the same time.So, although thermostatic radiator valves do provide a service in controlling individual room temperature (unless they are controlled manually), rooms are often heated unnecessarily.

Additionally, some of the more expensive private premises systems may be "zoned" - that is, two or three separate parts of the house are heated to a fixed temperature controlled by a corresponding number of separate thermostats. This type of system is relatively expensive to install, and, although it does offer additional flexibility over conventional systems, it does not fully satisfy the need for total control of the system.

It has become obvious that conventional domestic usage demands a simple heating system with a high degree of flexibility.

The best compromlse so far is thermostatic radiator valves, a seven day timer, and (possible) dual zoning, but this still does not deal with the very real need to control each room independently.

Moreover, there is in any case another problem with the conventional thermostatic radiator valves. Because they have a wide band of reaction, the room often feels either too warm or too cold before the valve adjusts itself.

What is needed is a system that controls each radiator independently by both time and temperature - specifically, one that can be fitted by an unskilled person without draining the heating system (which would enable the control system to be moved to another house if required).

The invention seeks to provide such a system, and so answer these criteria entirely, by proposing a radio-controlled arrangement wherein each radiator has its own valve control unit itself controlled by signals from a "programmable" central, master, control unit, and each of the individual units contains, as well as a radio receiver, electric means operatively connected to the valve to open or shut (or part way) it and powered by a re-chargeable battery which is charged up by the output of a thermocouple mounted on or in contact with the relevant radiator. In this way each radiator is remotely controlled (without the need for any wires or other physical connections) from a central control unit, but at the same time is individually settable according to the central control unit's programming.

In one aspect, therefore, this invention provides a radiator valve control apparatus comprising: electric means operatively connectable to the valve to open or shut it; a re-chargeable electric power source operatively connectable to said means; a thermocouple connected to the re-chargeable electric power source so as, when in operation, to recharge that source, which thermocouple is adapted to be placed on or in contact with the radiator; and a control unit powered by the re-chargeable power source and incorporating a radio receiver for receiving control signals, which signals cause the unit to operate said electric means (open or shut the valve) in dependence thereon.

In a second aspect, the invention provides a central heating system control apparatus comprising a plurality of radiator valve control apparatus of the invention, together with a programmable central, or master, control unit that incorporates a radio transmitter for transmitting control signals to each of the individual valve control apparatus, which signals are output by the central control unit in dependence upon its programming.

Said electric means may comprise a motor (electric) for rotatably driving a screw valve into its open or shut position.

Alternatively, said means may be in the form of a solenoid which is operable to open and close a valve in a linear manner, as in the case of a plunger-type valve.

The radiator valve control apparatus of the invention may be employed with any sort of central heating system, whether oil-, gas- or coal/coke-fired, and whether using metal or plastic pipes, etc. The valves may be of any type, usually screw valves, like ordinary taps, but others are possible, provided a suitable open/shut electric means can be connected thereto.

With an electric motor driving the valve, the latter need not be overly large, for it can easily be associated with a suitable reduction gear system. With a gearing of (say) 2000:1, almost any small motor can drive almost any valve, and will therefore be suitable (provided that the motor can be driven in both directions!).

Any such motor is "operatively connectable" to the valve, and may be so connected in any suitable way, as appropriate to the valve. In one such way applicable to screw-type valves the shaft of the motor is connected to a reduction gearbox, and the output shaft of the gearbox is itself connected to the valve spindle by a tight fitting rubber "pipe" or "sleeve" connector.

The electric motor is operatively connectable to, and powered from, a re-chargeable power source (a cell - or, more likely, a battery of cells). There are many such "batteries" commercially available, and there is no difficulty about finding one that matches the needs of the motor and of the control unit (see below), for example, as regards voltage and power.

Electrically connected (by wires) to the re-chargeable power source is a thermocouple whose output is fed to the power source to keep it charged up. There are many types of thermocouple available for this task, and matchable to the characteristics of the power source. A particular variety is that commercially available under the name FRIGICEIP.

Naturally, the thermocouple is very preferably connected to the power source via a one-way element (a diode, say) to prevent the power source discharging back through the thermocouple.

The use of a thermocouple to recharge the power source is perhaps the central feature of the invention, and the realisation that the thermocouple can be driven by the radiator itself (or by the pipe work leading to it, or even by the temperature of the valve itself} is possibly a crucial factor in putting the invention into operation. It would, of course, be possible to have a system in which the individual valve motors were driven from ordinary batteries, but then inevitably they would run down, and become flat unexpectedly, so marring the performance of the system as a whole.

Re-chargeable batteries, powered by an in situ thermocouple, solve that problem, and render the whole approach worthwhile.

Most conveniently, each thermocouple is positioned on the rear surface of the radiator (with the wires out of sight) adjacent its valve.

Naturally, the whole system will be so arranged that if it or any individual radiator apparatus "fails", it will "fail" with the valve open. This means, of course, that once the system is repaired, and comes back "on line", the or each radiator will get hot. As a result, any individual power source that has become discharged will be charged up again - and so the system returns to its normal state.

Each individual valve control apparatus includes a control unit that incorporates a radio receiver for receiving control signals to make the control unit operate the electric means to open or close the valve as appropriate. Conveniently, this control unit is placed in circuit between such means and the power source, and merely connects the two up, one way or the other, or disconnects them, as required. Essentially, therefore, the "control" section of the unit is little more than a three position switch, though in practice it may of course be somewhat more complex than this.

The radio receiver portion of the control unit may take any convenient form, and operate on any suitable frequency (one that does not interfere with, and is not interfered with by, neighbouring radios and television, etc; the 173.20 MHz band is usually suitable for this purpose). It wiN conveniently be a solid state device, preferably receiving and acting upon digitally encoded signals (from the central, master, control unit). Indeed, most preferably the valve control unit can tell which signals are addressed to it rather than to any other such units in the area, and respond only to those signals.

Like the electric means for opening and shutting the valve, the valve control unit is powered by the re-chargeable power source.

The central heating system control apparatus of the invention has a plurality - as many as required - of radiator valve control apparatus, together with a single central, or master, programmable control unit that incorporates a radio transmitter capable of transmitting control signals to each and all of the individual control units. The central unit is programmable in that, for each individual valve control unit, it can be set up to deliver on/off signals at appropriate times throughout the day. Using a digital system, each signal is prefixed by an identity portion that identifies one of the several valve units - and only that particular unit responds to that control signal.

Although one embodiment referred to above employs a rotatable, screw-type valve, it is to be appreciated that a linearly-operable valve may be used, in which case the associated electric means for operating it can be a solenoid-type arrangement.

An embodiment of the invention is now described, though only by way of illustration, with reference to the accompanying Drawings in which Figure 1 shows a schematic of a valve control unit and a valve and radiator (in part); and Figure 2 shows a block diagram of a heating system control apparatus Figure 1 shows a radiator (10; in part) fed by a pipe 11 via a screw valve 12. The valve has mounted on it a valve control apparatus indicated generally at 13. This apparatus consists of a motor 14 and a gearbox 15 operatively connected to the valve spindle 16, and a re-chargeable battery 17 powering the motor 14 via a control unit 18 and recharged by a thermocouple 19 connected thereto by wires 20 and mounted on and in contact with the back of the radiator 10.The control unit includes a radio receiver (not shown separately) which receives signals from a central, master control unit 21, as shown in Figure 2.

The heating system control apparatus in Figure 2 consists of the single central, master, control unit 21 linked by radio, it containing a radio transmitter (not shown separately), to a plurality of individual valve control apparatus 13, each of these being, of course, associated with an individual radiator valve (not shown separately but similar to that of Figure 1).

The overall heating system may be as follows:- A seven day timer in the form of the central, master, control unit 21, can be mounted either where an existing timer is, or, if that is not convenient, in the kitchen/hall area. The timer is mains powered, and allows the individual timing of up to 99 radiators or boilers, each over a seven day period broken down into 96 increments per day.

Each radiator can be set by using arrow keys along a single line L.C.D., putting spaces or blocks along the "time strip" to turn the radiator on and off. Additionally, a number of function keys can be pre-programmed for known special events, perhaps a "standard" Bank Holiday or guests staying over, etc.

The master control unit also has a thermostat, which can be set to 2-4 0C above freezing, allowing the boiler to be triggered should the temperature drop unexpectedly whilst the house is unoccupied. A battery back-up for memory is also included.

Each radiator is fitted with its own valve control apparatus as an add-on unit, which fits on top of the existing hand valve. It will fit without draining the system, and can be removed to another property if required. The unit contains a radio receiver operating in the 173.20 MHz, and a thermostat unit, a motor, and a power unit.

The uniqueness of the system is based upon the independence of the valve units from any wires, etc, as they are powered by a "FRIGICHIP" thermocouple adhered to the back of the radiator. As the radiator is heated the temperature difference will generate in the thermocouple a significant voltage to charge the re-chargeable battery in the unit. This will both enable the radiator to be turned on and off (as the room temperature demands) as well as receive a radio signal to turn the radiator on and off by time. The signal comes from the main control unit, which is aware of when there is boiler demand, so it can turn the boiler on and off as required.

It is to be appreciated that, in the embodiment described above with reference to the drawing, the radiators 10 are provided with screw-operable valves 12 but that "plunger" operable valves may be used, in which case, the electric motor 14 can be replaced by a linear operating means for the valve, for instance, a solenoid (not shown).

The system satisfies the criteria of an independently controllable system without any work installing or re-installing.

Each room will be heated to the desired temperature for the actual time period it is occupied. This will allow for any one room to be significantly warmer or cooler than any other room at differing times, ensuring that only heat that is needed is actually used.

The system offers everything that could be wanted of a central heating system. Its ease of installation significantly widens the choice of marketing methods, it appeals to the current desire for simple to operate but sophisticated electronic products, and it will show definite savings in fuel costs in most typical domestic situations.

Claims

1. Radiator valve control apparatus comprising: (a) electric means operatively connectable to a radiator valve to open or shut it; (b) a re-chargeable electric power source operatively connectable to said means; (c) a thermocouple connected to the re-chargeable electric power source so as, when in operation, to recharge that source, the thermocouple being adapted to be placed on, adjacent or in contact with the associated radiator; and (d) a control unit powered by the re-chargeable power source and incorporating a radio receiver for receiving control signals which are arranged to cause the unit to operate said electric means in dependence thereon.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said electric means comprises an electric motor for rotatably driving a screw valve into its open or shut position.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 including reduction gearing associated with the electric motor.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said electric means is arranged to drive a linearly-operable valve into its open or shut position.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said electric means comprises a solenoid.

6. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein the thermocouple is positionable on the rear surface of the associated radiator.

7. Radiator valve control apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

8. A central heating system control apparatus comprising a plurality of radiator valve control apparatii according to any preceding claim and a programmable central control unit incorporating a radio transmitter for transmitting control signals to each valve control apparatus, which signals are outputted by the central control unit in dependence upon its programming.