Patent Grant
8126320
The present invention relates generally to control systems for use with hot water heaters, and more particularly to protection methods for such hot water heaters specifically directed to the prevention of a dry fire condition occurring therein.
A modern convenience enjoyed by most consumers is the ready availability of hot water for cooking, cleaning, and personal hygiene. To ensure an adequate supply of such hot water, many dwellings and commercial establishments utilize an electric water heater that includes a large water storage tank or reservoir in which are positioned electrical heating elements and temperature sensors. The water temperature to which the water heater heats and maintains the water temperature may be set by the consumer and is thereafter regulated by an onboard controller.
While smaller electric water heaters may only include a single heating element, many larger water heaters include two electrical heating elements vertically spaced apart from one another within the storage tank. To conserve space, most electric water heaters are configured as a cylindrical tank whose height greatly exceeds its diameter. In such a configuration, the electrical heating elements are typically spaced at two different vertical locations within the storage tank. In such a configuration, two temperatures sensors are typically used, and are placed above and proximate each heating element. As such, the individual temperature sensors can determine the localized temperature of the water proximate the individual heating elements.
Unfortunately, a significant problem that may occur with such electric water heaters is known as a dry fire condition. In a dry fire condition, the electrical heating elements are energized without being submerged in water, i.e. energized at a time when the water heater's storage tank is not filled. The design and construction of such electrical heating elements, however, can not withstand extended periods of energization without being submerged in water. Indeed, typically 10 seconds or longer of energization without being submerged will result in the electrical heating element reaching abnormally high temperatures that are significantly above standard operating temperatures experienced when the heating elements are submerged in water. These high temperatures are reached because no water is present to dissipate the heat generated by the heating elements as would occur when the hot water tank is filled with water.
As a result of these high temperatures, the electrical heating elements rapidly degenerate, and the useful life of the heating element is substantially reduced. It has been noted that energization in a dry fire condition for as little as 30 seconds may result in permanent failure of the heating element. Unfortunately, the occurrence of such situations is not uncommon, particularly during the installation of a new hot water heater if the installation personnel turns on the power to the hot water heater prior to completely filling the storage tank thereof.
In recognition of the serious nature of such a problem and the cost of replacing the heating elements, several approaches have been designed to preclude operation of the hot water heater if a dry fire condition would result. While water level sensors or other mechanisms could be employed to ensure the tank is full before energizing the electrical heating elements, the inclusion of such additional sensors and circuitry would drive up the cost of the hot water heater. This is unacceptable in the highly competitive consumer and commercial appliance market.
As such, many manufactures attempt to sense and prevent operation in a dry fire condition by utilizing the sensors required for normal operation of the hot water heater. These methods include utilizing the internal temperature sensors to sense the temperature proximate each heating element or temperature rise associated with each electrical heating element upon energization thereof. To limit the amount of damage that may be sustained to the electrical heating element until the onboard controller can determine that a dry fire condition exists, some methods utilize a pulse energization of the heating element. However, even in such systems damage to the electrical heating elements occur as the duration of energization must be sufficient to allow the temperature sensors to register a rise in temperature or other required parameter to allow the controller to differentiate a dry fire condition from a normal operating condition.
In view of the above, there exists a need in the art for a method of detecting a dry fire condition without stressing the electrical heating elements as part of the determination. Embodiments of the present invention provide such methods.
In view of the above, embodiments of the present invention provide new and improved methods of detecting the presence of a dry fire condition. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide methods of detecting a dry fire condition without requiring energization of the electrical heating elements. Still further, embodiments of the present invention provide such methods without requiring the installation of additional sensors or circuitry not required for normal operation of the hot water heater.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the hot water heater's controller utilizes fuzzy logic to access the likelihood that a dry fire condition exists based on normally sensed inputs required for normal operation of the hot water heater. Such determination may be made immediately after power up of the electronic control. Such a method is passive, using only sensor inputs, temperature set points, and the controller's history to determine the likelihood that a dry fire condition exists.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the determination of the likelihood of a dry fire condition relies on the upper and lower water tank temperatures, the temperature setting, and the ambient temperature. In one embodiment a fifth input, water inlet temperature, may also be used in the determination of the likelihood of a dry fire condition. A nonphysical input may also be used in this determination. In one embodiment this nonphysical input is the run time hours of the controller.
The inputs are then categorized through a process of fuzzification. This fuzzification converts the actual sensor and other inputs from crisp, well-defined inputs to fuzzy or loosely defined inputs whose value ranges from zero to one. These fuzzy values are then compared using various rules to determine whether a dry fire condition is likely or unlikely to be existing prior to energization of the electrical heating elements.
In one embodiment, the inputs are not characterized into fuzzy values ranging from zero to one, but instead are converted to logical values of zero or one. Boolean logic is then utilized to determine the likely existence of a dry fire condition.
Embodiments of the present invention also provide a hot water heater including an electronic controller, at least one heating element, at least one temperature sensor positioned in proximity to the heating element, and a controller that is programmed to determine the likelihood of a dry fire condition existing at power up without energizing the electrical heating element. In one embodiment the controller characterizes the sensor inputs in a process of fuzzification and applies fuzzy logic rules to determine the likelihood of the existence of a dry fire condition before energizing any of the heating elements contained therein. In another embodiment, the controller assigns logical values to the sensor inputs and utilizes Boolean logic to determine whether a dry fire exists without energizing any of the heating elements.
Other aspects, objectives and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:
While the invention will be described in connection with certain preferred embodiments, there is no intent to limit it to those embodiments. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Turning now to the drawings, there is illustrated in
The water heater 10 comprises an outer body 12, a layer of insulation 14, a tank 16, a controller 18, an upper heating element 20, a lower heating element 22, an upper temperature sensor 24 and a lower temperature sensor 26. Other, typically smaller water heaters may only include a single heating element and temperature sensor as is recognized by those skilled in the art. The outer body 12 protects and surrounds the layer of insulation 14 that prevents heat from dissipating from the tank 16. The layer of insulation 14 is preferably a layer of foam insulation, but it can be constructed from any other thermal insulator. The tank 16 holds the water to be heated and is typically constructed from a metal. The controller 18 selectively energizes the upper and lower heating elements 20, 22 in response to temperature information gathered from the upper and lower temperature sensors 24, 26 to maintain a desired, typically user set water temperature.
The outer body 12 of the water heater 10 is capped by a top pan 28 on a top end and capped by a bottom pan 30 at a bottom end. The water heater 10 includes an inlet 32 for cold water to enter the tank 16 and an outlet 34 for hot water to exit the tank 16. It will be appreciated that cold water generally exits the inlet 32 proximate the bottom of the tank 16 and the hot water will generally be drawn into the outlet 34 proximate the top of the tank 16. The water heater 10 further includes an anode rod 36 extending vertically within the tank 16 to help prevent corrosion of the tank 16. A spigot 38 at the lower end of the tank 16 allows the tank 16 to be drained.
The upper and lower heating elements 20, 22, which may be any commercially available heating elements, are vertically spaced apart from one another and mounted to the side of the outer body 12 and tank 16 by either bolting or threading. The upper heating element 20 has a corresponding upper temperature sensor 24 positioned vertically above the heating element 20 for sensing the temperature of the localized environment proximate the upper heating element 20. Likewise, the lower heating element 22 has a corresponding lower temperature sensor 26 positioned vertically above the lower heating element 22 for sensing the temperature of the localized environment proximate the lower heating element 22. The temperature sensors 20, 22 are preferably thermistors. The upper and lower heating elements 20, 22 and upper and lower temperature sensors 24, 26 are connected to the controller 18 by wires 40. The wires are located between an inner surface of the outer body 12 and the outer surface of tank 16. In other embodiments, not shown, the controller 18 can be in wireless communication with the temperature sensors 24, 26.
The controller 18 preferably incorporates electronic control circuitry for controlling operation of the water heater 10. Such circuitry may incorporate a number of electronic components, known to those of ordinary skill in the art, such as solid state transistors and accompanying biasing components, relays, and/or one or more equivalent, programmable logic chips. The electronic control circuitry may also incorporate programmable read only memory, or random access memory and a microprocessor. In a preferred embodiment, the controller 18 also includes an ambient temperature sensor (not shown), the use of which is later described. Such temperature sensors may be implemented from a number of electronic components, known to those of ordinary skill in the art, such as thermistors, thermocouples, diodes, etc. In one embodiment, the controller 18 also includes a reset switch (not shown). This reset switch may allow the operator to bypass the tests described in the following, or to recover from hard lockouts as described more fully below. Such reset switches may be implemented from a number of electronic components, known to those of ordinary skill in the art, such as jumpers, DIP switches, pushbuttons, etc.
With an understanding of one exemplary embodiment of a water heater to which methods of the present invention are particularly applicable, attention is now directed to
As illustrated in
Once the available sensor inputs have been read or otherwise become known, the illustrated embodiment then determines the likelihood of the existence of a dry fire condition should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized at functional block 54. If the method determines that a dry fire condition is not likely at decision block 56, the appliance control or controller may then energize the heating element or elements under normal operational control as illustrated at block 58 before the process ends 60. It should be noted that this energization at block 58 only occurs if decision block 56 determines that a dry fire condition is not likely to exist. In other words, and unlike prior methods, no energization of the heating elements is required to make the determination whether a dry fire condition exists or not. This provides a significant advantage over such prior methods that required one or more of the heating elements to be energized for a short period of time to determine whether or not a dry fire condition existed. As discussed above, such prior methods could result in damage or degradation of the life of the various heating elements as energization thereof was required before a determination of whether a dry fire condition existed or not. No such predetermination energization is required by the method illustrated in
Returning to decision block 56, if it is determined that a dry fire condition is likely to be in existence should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized, one embodiment indexes or otherwise counts this determination at block 62 as a control mechanism to allow a certain number of restart attempts before maintenance is required. As illustrated in
In the illustrated embodiment, if the number of restarts has not exceed the preset limit as determined by decision block 64, the system enters a soft lockout operation at block 66 before cycling to again read the sensor inputs at block 52. In one embodiment of the present invention, the soft lockout 66 flashes or displays an appropriate display pattern or message depending on the particular implementation of the controller 18 (see
This soft lockout operation may also include a delay period before allowing a restart attempt. This delay period may be particularly useful during the initial installation of the hot water heater when service personnel often energize the hot water heater before the hot water tank has had an opportunity to be completely filled. In such a case, waiting a predetermined period of time, e.g. 15 minutes, will give the hot water heater enough time to fill to a point where a dry fire condition is no longer likely to occur. This predetermined time may be varied as desired or based upon the hot water heater tank size, fill rate, etc.
In the embodiment illustrated in
Turning now to
From these various inputs, process block 72 calculates various parameters that will be utilized in later processing to determine the likelihood that a dry fire condition exists within the water heater should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized. These parameters may include a delta temperature between the two tank temperature sensor inputs, a delta temperature between each of the tank temperature sensors and the ambient temperature sensor as well as, in other embodiments of the present invention that utilize a power up delay or that have entered through a soft lockout process, a delta temperature between the initial tank temperature sensor reading and the current tank level temperature reading.
Once the temperature parameters have been calculated in block 72, a characterization of these temperature parameters as well as the sensor readings themselves occurs in functional block 74. This characterization or categorizing of the inputs is frequently called fuzzification. This is the process for converting crisp or well defined inputs to fuzzy or loosely defined inputs. An input that is fully in a category has a logical value of one. Similarly, an input that is fully out of the category produces an output of logical value zero. However, in between these two well defined points the input value is assigned a value between logical zero and logical one. As will be discussed more fully below, the range of the input is fully defined from a minimum to a maximum, which aids in normalizing the inputs.
To understand the rationale for providing such fuzzification, an example of consumer perception of what defines cold water will be discussed. One customer believes that the definition of cold water varies greatly by climate and season. As a generic, 61° to 63° Fahrenheit would be considered cold in summer and fall, while in winter and early spring water is perceived to be cold when it is 55° and 58° Fahrenheit. However, if the water under consideration is from a well or a northern climate, these ranges may be quite a bit colder. To another customer however, water is not viewed to be “cold” unless it is at approximately at 40° Fahrenheit.
As these responses illustrate, there is no exact temperature at which one could clearly determine if the tank is full of cold water. As such, in one embodiment of the present invention, the temperature range that determines cold water starts loosely at 72° Fahrenheit and decreases. Therefore, as illustrated in
It should be noted that while a linear relationship of segment 94 is illustrated in the embodiment of
While the embodiment of
Another temperature parameter that may be characterized is illustrated in
A similar but opposite characterization graph of the temperature parameter for determining whether the two temperature readings are far from one another is illustrated in
Returning to the process flow diagram of
In one such fuzzy rule, if the difference between the two tank temperatures indicates that they are close and they are not at room temperature and they are cold then a dry fire condition is unlikely. If, however, the two tank temperatures are merely close, then dry fire is likely should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized. If the two tank temperatures are close to freezing then dry fire is also determined to be likely should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized. However, if the two tank temperatures are close to the set point temperature then a dry fire is unlikely. If the upper, lower, and ambient temperatures are close then a dry fire is likely should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized because the tank is probably empty and at ambient temperature. If the run time hours is large, then a dry fire condition is unlikely based on the premise that the tank has been on and full and operating correctly for a long period of time, and therefore a dry fire condition at this point is unlikely. Similarly, if the two tank temperatures are close to the history then a dry fire is unlikely. A history requires a time of day clock including possibly a hardware RTC and a place to store data such as a memory element, e.g. an EEPROM. However, if the two tank temperatures are at room temperature then a dry fire is likely should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized.
Once the fuzzy rule or rules have been applied in functional block 76, this embodiment of the method of the present invention combines the rule outputs using defuzzification to determine the likelihood of a dry fire condition should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized at functional block 78. The process of defuzzification, that is the mathematical combination of the outputs of the above rules, is well known in the art of fuzzy logic, and will not be discussed in detail herein. For example, it is known that when using fuzzy logic the “and” function is replaced with set theory's intersection operation. Once the defuzzification process is complete, this process ends 80 and the output is passed to the decision block 56 of
In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, the operation preformed in functional block 54 of
Once the various temperature parameters have been calculated in functional block 84, functional block 86 assigns logical values to these temperature parameters. For example, as illustrated in
Once the logical values been assigned to the temperature parameters in functional block 86, functional block 88 applies the Boolean rules to determine the likelihood of a dry fire condition should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized before ending at block 90 to return this value to decision block 56 of
In one embodiment, block 88 includes an examination that is made on the first power up of the control after leaving the factory. Over a 15 minute period, if the lower temperature drops below the initial lower temperature by greater than 5° Fahrenheit and the upper temperature drops by 5° Fahrenheit from the initial upper temperature, then dry fire equals false, else dry fire equals true. This rule can only determine if the tank is full, not empty. Therefore, if after this check the dry fire equals true, then additional tests must be performed in view of the limitation of the proceeding rule only being able to determine if the tank is full. These subsequent examinations are also made during each subsequent power up delay, which in one embodiment is two minutes. In such cases, the rules start by assuming that dry fire equals false.
First, if the two tank temperatures are within plus or minus 5° and they are less than or equal to 72° and if the ambient temperature differs from these by greater than plus or minus 10° then dry fire equals false, else dry fire equals true. This rule can only prove that the tank is full of cold water not that it is empty. Second, if dry fire equals false and if the two tank temperatures and the ambient temperature are all within plus or minus 5° Fahrenheit and if the setting temperature differs from them by plus or minus 10° Fahrenheit then dry fire equals true. This rule, however, can only prove that the tank is empty, not full. Third, if dry fire equals false and if the two tank temperatures differ by greater than plus or minus 10° Fahrenheit then dry fire equals true. This rule can only prove that the tank is half full, a dry fire, not that it is okay. Finally, if the upper temperature is between the setting and the setting minus the upper differential and if the lower temperature is between the setting and the setting minus the lower differential and if the room temperature differs from the two temperatures by greater than plus or minus 5° Fahrenheit then dry fire equals false else dry fire equals true. This rule only proves that the tank is full of warm water. It cannot prove if it is empty. Once these rules have been applied, the determination is returned to functional block 56 of
As the proceeding makes clear, the above described embodiments are totally passive using only sensor inputs, the setting input, and possibility the controller's history to determine whether or not a dry fire condition is likely should at least one of the heating elements 20, 22 be energized. As such, no stressing of heating elements is performed as required by previous methods of detecting the presence of a dry fire condition. Both fuzzy logic and Boolean logic may be utilized to determining this likelihood recognizing that various definitions of temperature parameters as well as operating conditions exist in various installations of such an appliance. In either implementation, the methods provide a distinct advantage and enhanced lifetime of operation over previous methods that required energization of the heating elements before it could be determined whether a dry fire condition existed.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) is to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including,” and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning “including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.
Preferred embodiments of this invention are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. Variations of those preferred embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expect skilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, this invention includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
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