Mixture control for a water heater system
AssigneeBradford White Corporation
InventorsJohn Adams, Benjamin DeJager
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A water heater system includes a tank storing warmed water, a supply conduit providing supply water, and control circuitry configured to determine a setpoint temperature, receive an input indicative of a sensed temperature of a mixture of the warmed water and the supply water, apply an inverse transfer function to the input to determine a conditioned temperature, assign a control temperature as one of the sensed temperature and the conditioned temperature, compare the setpoint temperature to the control temperature, and generate an output to adjust the mixture based on the selection.
Claims20
A water heater system, comprising:
- a tank storing warmed water;
- a supply conduit providing supply water;
- and
- control circuitry configured to:
- determine a setpoint temperature;
- receive an input indicative of a sensed temperature of a mixture of the warmed water and the supply water;
- apply an inverse transfer function to the input to determine a conditioned temperature;
- assign a control temperature as one of the sensed temperature and the conditioned temperature;
- compare the setpoint temperature to the control temperature;
- and
- generate an output to control the mixture based on the selection.
A water heater system, comprising:
- a mixing valve configured to mix cold water with warmed water to achieve a setpoint temperature of a mixture of the cold water and the warmed water;
- a sensor that communicates a signal indicative of a sensed temperature of the mixture;
- and
- control circuitry that receives the signal, conditions the signal, determines a conditioned temperature based on the conditioning, assigns a control temperature as one of the sensed temperature and the conditioned temperature, and controls the mixing valve based on a first difference between the control temperature and the setpoint temperature.
A method for controlling a mixing valve of a water heater system, comprising:
- determining a setpoint temperature for a temperature of water exiting the mixing valve;
- processing a sensed temperature in an inverse transfer function to determine a conditioned temperature;
- selecting a control temperature as one of the sensed temperature and the conditioned temperature;
- and
- controlling the mixing valve based on the control temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.