GB2293194A

GB2293194A - Flow control sytem for a pipe network

Info

Publication number: GB2293194A
Application number: GB9518879A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kevin Shaun Malham
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1994-09-16
Filing date: 1995-09-15
Publication date: 1996-03-20
Also published as: GB9518879D0; GB9418685D0

Abstract

A system for monitoring and controlling the flow of water within a pipe network in a building to limit damage caused by leakage comprises a plurality normally open flow control valves within the network and manual switch means remote them which is operable to drive the valves closed. The valves are locatable within individual pipes of the network and are electrically drivable closed and manually resettable. One or more manual switches may provided at different locations spaced from the valves and each valve may be closed by the any of the switches. To provide protection when the building is unoccupied each valve has an associated flow sensor and the system provides that the output of any sensor may cause its associated valve and any or all of the valves to be closed. In one described arrangement the outputs of the sensors input to an OR gate the output of which forms one input to a two-input AND gate the other input to the AND gate being taken from a switch settable by a user. The output of the AND gate drives the valves closed. Another described arrangement provides the outputs of the sensors form first inputs to individually associated two input AND gates the second inputs to which are provided by a switch settable by a user, and that the output of each AND gate is used to control operation of the valve individually associated therewith. An LED display indicates that the system has functioned.

Description

MONITOR AND CONTROL SYSTEMS DESCRIPTION The invention relates to control systems particularly systems which may be used to monitor and control movement of water in a pipe network.

Buildings today are provided with water via pipe networks, including industrial and commercial buildings, hospitals, and domestic houses.

Very considerable damage can be caused to the fabric of a building if a pipe forming part of a water carrying network within that building bursts.

This damage is caused by leakage of water from the burst pipe. The volume of water which may be lost in this way from the pipe network and into the building can be very considerable. For example, if the mains water supply to the building remains connected to a pipe network in which there is a burst or leaking pipe an effectively infinite volume of water may be fed to the building.

To prevent this it is usual to provide one or more stop cocks in a pipe network, particularly at the point of entry of the mains water supply to the network.

It is possible using a stop cock to reduce the damage caused by feeding mains water into a network including a burst pipe, if, as soon as the leakage from the burst pipe is noted, the mains water supply is cut off.

Even if it is done, however, there is usually, a considerable volume of water which may leak out of the burst pipe - not simply the water within the pipes of the network but also water held in hot and cold water storage tanks, header tanks and the like which may be in the network within the building.

The presently known systems usually provide, in a domestic situation, a stop cock in the rising water main and, possibly, one or more additional stop cocks in the roof void, have two drawbacks.

First, an individual who notes a burst pipe must know where the various stop cocks are located if the damage is to be limited; and second, he or she is must have the means, strength and agility to access the stop cocks (e.g.

in the rising main and in the roof void) and close them so that further water supply to and in the building is stopped.

Thereafter, as noted above, damage to the building will be limited to damage caused by water held in various storage tanks within the network and in the pipes of the network itself which are physically above the level of the leak.

An object of the present invention is to provide a control system which is readily operable by an individual to substantially curtail the damage which may be caused to the fabric of a building which is in occupation and which includes a network of water carrying pipes one or more of which suffers a leak.

If the building is not in occupation there will, of course, not be an individual available to note the leak and manually close any stop cock provided in the rising water main. In these circumstances following a burst pipe water (both stored within the pipe network within the building and from the mains water supply) will continue to pass into the fabric of the building possibly causing very severe damage.

Ways of overcoming this if the building is to be unoccupied for a considerable length of time include closing the rising main stop cock and draining down the pipe network.

Such action cannot be taken, usefully, if a building is to be unoccupied for a relatively short period (say overnight, if an office or factory; or during the working day if the occupants leave the building to work) and even in these limited periods (say up to 12 hours) very considerable damage can be done if a pipe bursts.

It is a second object of the invention to provide a system operable to prevent significant levels of damage being caused to the fabric of a building left empty for a short period and including a water carrying network of pipes one or more of which begins to leak.

In one aspect the invention provides a system for monitoring and controlling the flow of water within a pipe network a building, the system comprising one or more normally open flow control valves located within the network and means for remotely controlling the or each flow control valve and operable to drive the or each said valve to a closed condition.

The system may include a plurality of flow control valves respectively locatable within individual pipes of said network.

Preferably the or each flow control valve is electrically drivable from an open to a closed position and is manually resettable.

Desirably, said means driving said flow control valves from an open to a closed condition are provided at one or more locations spaced from said valves.

Each flow control valve may be drivable to a closed condition by said driving means at the or each said location.

The driving means may comprise a manually closable switch.

The system may provide that each flow control valve has an associated flow sensor and further include means enabled by a user to allow the output of a flow sensor associated with any one of the flow control valves to cause that valve to be driven to a closed condition.

In such an arrangement the output of a flow sensor associated with any one of the flow control valves may be operable to close one or more of the other flow control valves included within the system.

An embodiment of the invention provides that the outputs of the flow sensors associated with each control valve are fed to a logical OR gate the output of which forms one input to a two-input AND gate the other input to the AND gate being taken from a switch settable by a user, and wherein the output of the AND gate is used to drive said flow control valves closed. The output of the AND gate with advantage causes illumination of an LED visible by a user.

Another embodiment of the invention provides that the outputs of the flow sensors form first inputs to individually associated two input logical AND gates the second inputs to which are provided by a switch settable by a user, and that the output of each AND gate is used to control operation of the flow control valve individually associated therewith. The outputs of the AND gates may cause illumination of individually associated LEDs whereby a user can see which flow control valve or valves have been closed.

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof now made with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 schematically illustrates a water carrying pipe network within a domestic building, and Figure 2 shows at A and B different embodiments of the control system provided by the invention.

With reference now to the drawings, Figure 1 schematically shows a water pipe network within a domestic building and in particular shows the mains water supply 10 to the building feeding water to a cold water storage tank 12, to a central heating header tank 14, and to a drinking water tap 16 provided within the building.

The output 18 of the central heating header tank 14 feeds water to a central heating system within the building (not shown in the Figure). The cold feed outlet 20 of the cold storage tank 12 is fed to taps in a bath 22 within the building and other domestic appliances (not shown), whilst the hot feed outlet 24 of the cold water tank is fed to a hot water tank 26. The outlet 28 of the hot water tank 26 passes hot water to various hot water taps (not shown) within the building.

The mains water supply 10, output 18 of the central heating header tank 14 and the cold and hot feeds 20 and 24 respectively of the cold water tank 12 all include flow control valves.

The flow control valve in the rising main 10 is shown at 30, that in the output 18 of the central heating header tank 14 is shown at 32, that in the cold feed from the cold water storage tank is shown at 34, and that in the hot feed from the cold water storage tank is shown at 36.

The valves 30 to 36 are preferably motorised zone control valves. The valves 30, 32, 34 and 36 are of a type which is normally open but which are electrically drivable to a closed position. Once driven to a closed condition the valves 30 to 36 must be manually re-set.

Each of the valves 30, 32, 34, and 36 is electrically coupled to a central control panel 40 including (depending upon the implementation) one or more lamps or LEDs 42, a setting switch 44 and a press button 46.

When switch 44 is in a first position (as shown in Figure 2A) pressing the button 46 will cause all the valves 30, 32, 34 and 36 to electrically be driven closed.

Thus depression of button 46 will immediately cut off the mains supply of water to the building and prevent water leaving the central heating header tank 14 and the cold water storage tank 12.

Thus if, while switch 44 is in this position, the occupant of the building discovers a burst pipe he or she can simply press button 46 to ensure that the damage to the building caused by water leaking from the pipe network is minimised.

It will be seen, for example, that should a leak in the main feed to the cold water storage tank 12 the maximum volume of water which can leak from the system, after the valves have been shut, will be that which is in the pipe connected to the rising main 10 above the level of the leak but below the inlets to the storage tanks 12 and 14.

If the leak is for example in the inlet to the hot water storage tank the maximum leakage which can occur will be limited to the volume of water within the pipe between valve 36 and the position of the leak.

It will be appreciated that by pressing the button 46 the user therefore very substantially limits the volume of water which can leak from the pipe network causing damage to the fabric of the building.

The pipe network will remain with the valves 30, 32, 34 and 36 in their closed condition until they are manually re-set which a plumber or technician brought to repair the leak in the pipe network will be able to do.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the system embodying the present invention is easily operable by a user by simply pressing switch 46 to minimise the damage caused to the fabric of the building by a leaking or burst water pipe.

To further enhance the utility of the invention there is provided associated with each valve 30, 32, 34 and 36 a flow sensor FS (see Figures 2A and 2B).

When switch 44 is in a second position (that shown in Figure 2B) the outputs of the flow sensors FS associated with each of the valves 30 - 36 are fed to the control panel 40 and are operable to cause the valves to be driven closed should any one of them provide an output indicating that there is a flow of water through the associated valve.

Thus it will be seen that when the building is empty (during the day for a domestic habitation or at night in an office or factory) switch 44 may simply be moved to its second position by a user allowing closure of the flow control valves should a leak occur in the system causing the flow of water through any one of those valves.

The arrangements shown in Figures 2A and 2B differ in the way the system operates.

In the arrangement of Figure 2A, for example, the outputs 50 of the flow sensors FS of the valve are fed to the control panel 40 and passed as inputs to a single OR gate 52. The output of OR gate 52 is fed as one input to an AND gate 54 the other input to which is sent high whilst switch 44 is in said second position. The output of the AND gate 56 is fed to each of the vales 30, 32, 34 and 36 and is operable to drive them from a normally open to a closed condition.

In this arrangement it will be appreciated that the AND gate 54 is enabled when switch 44 is in its second position and will pass to its output 56 the output of OR gate 52 which will go high should a signal be output from any one or more of the flow sensors FS associated with the valves 30, 32, 34 and 36.

It is to be noted also that the output 56 is fed to a latching circuit 58 which will power and hold powered a single LED 42 provided on the control panel 40. In this way the fact that the system has operated whilst the building was empty will be immediately apparent to anyone viewing the control panel.

In the arrangement of Figure 2B the outputs of the flow sensors FS associated with each of the valves 30, 32, 34 and 36 are passed to individual AND gates 30A, 32A, 34A and 36A each of which receives as its second input a high voltage level when switch 44 is in its second position.

The outputs of the AND gates 30A, 32A, 34A and 36A are each fed as individual inputs to the valves 30, 32, 34 and 36 driving that particular valve closed.

Again the outputs of the AND gates 30A, 32A, 34A and 36A are coupled to latches 30B, 32B, 34B and 36B each of which is operable to illuminate and hold illuminated an individual associated LED 30C, 32C, 34C and 36C provided on the control panel 40.

It will be appreciated that in this operation the individual valve associated with a flow sensor which provides an indication that fluid is flowing through it will be closed.

In the arrangement of Figure 2B the output of the button 46, when enabled by the switch 44 being in said first position, is fed to each of the inputs to the valves 30, 32, 34, and 36 so that each of those valves would be closed should an individual discover a leak and depress the button 46.

It will be appreciated that various other modifications may be made to the described arrangements without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring and controlling the flow of water within a pipe network a building, the system comprising one or more normally open flow control valves located within the network and means for remotely controlling the or each flow control valve and operable to drive the or each said valve to a closed condition.

2. A control system as claimed in Claim 1, including a plurality of flow control valves respectively locatable within individual pipes of said network.

3. A control system as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the or each flow control valve is electrically drivable from an open to a closed position and is manually resettable.

4. A control system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said means driving said flow control valves from an open to a closed condition are provided at one or more locations spaced from said valves.

5. A control system as claimed in Claim 4, wherein each flow control valve is drivable to a closed condition by said driving means at the or each said location.

6. A system as claimed in Claim 4 or Claim 5, wherein said driving means comprises a manually closable switch.

7. A control system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein each flow control valve has an associated flow sensor and wherein the system further includes means enabled by a user to allow the output of a flow sensor associated with any one of the flow control valves to cause that valve to be driven to a closed condition.

8. A control system as claimed in Claim 7, wherein the output of a flow sensor associated with any one of the flow control valves is operable to close one or more of the other flow control valves included within the system.

9. A control system as claimed in Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein the outputs of the flow sensors associated with each control valve are fed to a logical OR gate the output of which forms one input to a two-input AND gate the other input to the AND gate being taken from a switch settable by a user, and wherein the output of the AND gate is used to drive said flow control valves closed.

10. A system as claimed in Claim 9, wherein the output of the AND gate causes illumination of an LED visible by a user.

11. A system as claimed in Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein the outputs of the flow sensors form first inputs to individually associated two input logical AND gates the second inputs to which are provided by a switch settable by a user, and wherein the output of each AND gate is used to control operation of the flow control valve individually associated therewith.

12. A system as claimed in Claim 11, wherein the outputs of the AND gates cause illumination of individually associated LEDs whereby a user can see which flow control valve or valves have been closed.

13. A flow control system as claimed in Claim 1 and substantially as herein before described with reference to Figures 1 and 2A of the accompanying drawings.

14. A flow control system as claimed in Claim 1 and substantially as herein before described with reference to Figures 1 and 2B of the accompanying drawings.