Conditioning and/or heating plant and process of controlling the same plant

A conditioning and/or heating plant comprising:

• at least one circuit, of distributing a carrier fluid, having:
• at least one delivery line of the carrier fluid,
• at least one return line of the carrier fluid, and
• a plurality of channels directly or indirectly connected to said delivery line and said return line, and configured for supplying the carrier fluid to respective environments to be conditioned and/or heated,
• at least one heat treatment central group placed on the circuit,
• for each of said channels, the plant further comprising:
• at least one respective heat exchange unit operating on each of said channels and configured for supplying a respective environment to be conditioned and/or heated,
• at least one flow-rate regulator operating on each of said channels, configured for regulating a flow rate of a carrier fluid passing through the respective heat exchange unit, wherein each flow-rate regulator comprises at least one valve having a valve body exhibiting at least one inlet, at least one outlet connected by at least one passage which puts in fluid communication the inlet with the outlet, and at least one fluid intercepting element operating in said passage, said fluid intercepting element defining, cooperatively with the valve body, a fluid passage opening having a width variable as a function of positions taken by the fluid intercepting element in relation to the valve body,
• at least one control device communicatively connected to and active on each flow-rate regulator and on said heat treatment central group, the control device being configured for executing a controlling process which comprises:
• commanding the heat treatment central group to regulate at least one general parameter selected from the group consisting of:
• the hydraulic head imposed to the carrier fluid passing through the heat treatment central group,
• the heating imposed to the carrier fluid passing through the heat treatment central group,
• the cooling imposed to the carrier fluid passing through the heat treatment central group, and
• the flow-rate imposed to the carrier fluid on the delivery line,
• commanding the flow-rate regulator on each of said channels to impose a respective desired value of an operative parameter in relation to each channel where the respective flow-rate regulator is present, and
• executing a hydraulic optimization cycle comprising:
• commanding the heat treatment central group for reducing the value of said general parameter,
• controlling each flow-rate regulator by increasing the size of said fluid passage opening;
• verifying if—following the step of controlling each flow-rate regulator—the plant has reached a desired hydraulic efficiency condition where the passage opening of one or more flow-rate regulators exhibits a maximum opening, and
• following the verifying step, if it is determined that the plant has reached the desired hydraulic efficiency condition, interrupting the hydraulic optimization cycle.