FR2755997A1 - SUN PROTECTION INSTALLATION - Google Patents

Abstract

The installation includes a solar protection blind (1) which can be displaced between a retracted position and a deployed position and is supported on a roller (2). A motor (3) is provided to operate the blind and is associated with a control system (4,10). The control system has a detector (10) which senses the solar radiation and provides a signal when a threshold is exceeded. The sensor is linked to a logic processing unit (4) which includes a timer that enables the system to respond when the sun's intensity changes, but without responding to every temporary change. Further sensors (11,12) provide astronomical information and detect twilight conditions in order to provide more appropriate control of operation of the blind.

Description

The invention relates to a sun protection installation comprising a

  movable sun protection element between a raised position and a deployed position, a drive motor for this sun protection element and means for controlling this motor comprising a sunshine threshold detector delivering a signal, a logic processing unit of said motor control signal comprising means for delaying the sending of an order to the motor when the sun disappears,

  so-called "disappearance" delay.

  Such an installation is notably marketed by the applicant. It also includes an onset delay. The appearance and disappearance timers are intended to avoid unnecessary and disturbing untimely movements of the sun protection element during brief passages of clouds in front of the sun. The atmosphere is considered sunny if the sun is present for a defined time and darkened if the sun disappears for a defined time. These timers are fixed

in the factory.

  However, it turns out that such automatic installations do not provide the comfort desired by the user. In fact, in the event of a cloud-laden sky, the user is bothered by the unnecessarily frequent movements of the sun protection element and he is unhappy with the lack of immediate reaction when the sun first appears in the early morning. or its disappearance at dusk. In the first case, the timers are therefore considered too short and in the other cases too long. The user certainly has the possibility

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  to adjust the sunshine threshold, but he quickly realizes that whatever the setting of the triggering threshold of the automation, he has the same genes and, tired, he will prefer to give up the automation by disengaging it. The duration of the timers being a compromise, the correction of one of the genes will only increase the other and the possibility offered to the user to adjust the sunshine threshold does not

not solve the problem.

  The first step was therefore to identify and clearly pose the problem and the second to him

provide a solution.

  The problem to be solved consists in obtaining a rapid reaction from the automation, and starting from the sun protection element, when the sun first appears, a sufficiently long time delay during the day to avoid untimely movements in the event of sky. charged with clouds and a rapid reaction when the sun disappears for a duration

  prolonged, especially at the end of the day.

  In order to satisfy these contradictory requirements, the sun protection installation according to the invention is characterized in that the duration of the disappearance delay varies inversely with the amount of sunshine since the last passing

of the sunshine threshold.

  The appearance delay can be either deleted or kept. In the second case, it will be, from

  preferably less than 3 minutes.

  Thus, the automation will react almost immediately to the first appearance of the sun, for example on the morning of a sunny day or after the disappearance of morning fogs and the longer the continuous presence of the sun, the less the automation will wait before reacting to activate the sun protection element when the sun disappears. The consecutive passage of clouds, corresponding to relatively short periods of sunshine, would therefore have no effect on the sun protection element, which would then generally remain in the deployed position, while a long period of sunshine due to a sky without cloud and preceding the disappearance of the sun for the night will cause an almost lifting

  the sun protection element.

  The action can be a raising or lowering, depending on

the installation concerned.

  It is possible to further increase the comfort of the installation by providing it with means ensuring in all cases the immediate actuation of the element.

  sunscreen at sunset.

  According to one embodiment, the installation is associated with an astronomical clock and the logical processing unit comprises means for calculating the time of sunset and integrating this time in the calculation of the time delay of disappearance so as to introduce a correction of this delay as a function of the time, in particular to reduce, or even cancel, the disappearance delay when the time on the astronomical clock is close to the hour

of the sunset.

  According to another embodiment, the installation comprises a solar collector providing information on the height of the sun above the horizon and the logic processing unit comprises means for integrating the information delivered by the collector to make a correction to the value of the calculated time delay, in particular to reduce, or even cancel, the time delay when the sun is

  about to disappear or disappears.

  According to another embodiment, the installation comprises a twilight sensor delivering to the ULT a signal when the light reaches a value chosen as representing twilight and the ULT is programmed so as to control the immediate actuation of the sun protection element upon receipt

  of the twilight sensor signal.

  The accompanying drawing shows, by way of example, an embodiment, as well as variants, of the installation.

according to the invention.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the main embodiment of the installation, a view in which two variants are also shown and

  recognizable by arrows in broken lines.

  Figure 2 shows the program flowchart

  stored in the logical processing unit.

  FIG. 3 is a first example of a function of the variation of the disappearance delay.

  FIG. 4 is a second example of this same function. FIG. 1 schematically shows a canvas of solar blind 1 winding on a winding drum 2 driven by an electric motor 3. The motor 3 is controlled by a logic unit processing unit (ULT) 4 comprising a computer 5, a clock 6, a ROM memory 7 and a RAM memory 8 and an input / output interface 9. The installation also comprises a photosensitive probe 10. Such a probe is widely used in current facilities. It is used to determine a sunshine threshold, that is to say the presence of direct lighting of the probe by the sun. In the RAM memory 8 of the ULT 4, a program is recorded, the flowchart of which is shown in the

figure 2.

  In the program as shown, the timer

of appearance is zero.

  The program having been initialized, the ULT tests the presence of the sun, that is to say if the sunshine threshold has been reached. If so, the ULT immediately orders the deployment of the sun protection and simultaneously initiates a counting of the sunshine time. The presence of the sun continues to be tested. As soon as the sun disappears, the ULT calculates a disappearance delay according to a registered function, for example one of the functions shown in Figure 3 or 4. Whatever the registered function, in all cases the duration of the delay of disappearance varies inversely with the sunshine time elapsed since the last time the sunshine threshold was exceeded, that is to say the time measured by the counter. The calculated time delay is immediately initialized. During this time delay, the ULT continues to test for the presence of sunshine. As long as the sun is absent, the disappearance delay continues. On the other hand, if the sun returns during this time delay, the sunshine time counter, which had just been set to zero, starts again and the program resumes from this new initialization of the time counting

of sunshine.

  If the disappearance delay comes to an end without the sun having returned, the sun protection is raised and the program starts again at the beginning.15 It is possible to introduce an appearance delay in this program between the first detection of the presence of the sun (sunshine threshold) and the deployment of sun protection. On the other hand, this delay has no effect on the start of the counting of the sunshine time. The duration of the appearance delay is set at the factory. It is less than three minutes. As we have seen, it can be zero.25 The sunshine threshold can be either adjustable by

  the user is fixed at the factory. In the second case, its value is generally set at 10 klux.

  Functions giving the value of the disappearance delay as a function of the sunshine time

  measured since the last exceedance of the sunshine threshold shown in Figures 3 and 4 are only examples. Such functions are easily integrated into the ULT.

  For the user, these functions mean that the longer the presence of the sun, the less the automation will wait before reacting. During consecutive cloud passages, the disappearance delay will be relatively long, so that untimely movements of the sun protection are avoided. On the other hand, at the end of the day, after a long period of sunshine, the disappearance delay will be very short, so that the sun protection

  will be raised quickly after the sun disappears.

  The installation can be further improved by

  providing the ULT with additional information.

  According to a first improvement, the ULT 4 has access to an astronomical clock 11 which allows it to know the times of sunrise and sunset. The ULT can thus integrate, when calculating the duration of the disappearance delay, the actual time of the day. When calculating the disappearance delay according to one of the functions shown, if the time of day is close to the sunset time known to the astronomical clock, the disappearance delay is, for example, reduced to one value less than three minutes. On the other hand, in the middle of the day, when the sky is very bright, the user will be much less sensitive to a variation in the ambient light and will not want his sun protection to be removed and give him the impression of always moving. Therefore, in this case, the duration of the disappearance delay

will be increased.

  The information provided by the astronomical clock will also allow the automation to differentiate, at the end of the day, between the passage of a cloud and twilight. In addition, at dusk, the automation will be able to take into account the information received from the astronomical clock to precipitate the rise of sun protection whatever the season. According to another improvement, the ULT 4 is associated with a twilight sensor 12, as used, by

  example, to activate public lighting.

  The automation will thus be able to distinguish a cloud from twilight and immediately order the lifting of the sun protection at twilight determined by the

twilight sensor.

  The twilight sensor can be the probe

photosensitive 10 itself.

  The twilight sensor 12 can be replaced by a solar sensor capable of tracking the elevation of the sun. Such sensors are well known and provide information on the solar time which the ULT can take into account to modify the duration of the time delay.

of disappearance.

Claims (4)

  1. Solar protection installation comprising a solar protection element (1) movable between a raised position and a deployed position, a motor (3) for driving this solar protection element and control means (4, 10) for this motor comprising a sunshine threshold detector delivering a signal, a logic processing unit (ULT) (4) for said signal and motor control comprising means for delaying the sending of an order to the motor during the disappearance of the sun, so-called "disappearance" delay, characterized in that the disappearance delay starts from the instant when the sunshine threshold is crossed and that the duration of the disappearance delay varies inversely with the sunshine time elapsed since   last exceedance of the sunshine threshold.   2. Installation according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a time delay means delaying the sending of an order to the engine when the sun appears, so-called "appearance time delay", the duration of this time delay being less than 3 minutes.   3. Installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it is associated with an astronomical clock and that! 'ULT comprises means for calculating the time of sunset and integrating this time in the calculation of the disappearance delay so as to introduce a correction of this delay as a function of the time, in particular to reduce or even cancel the disappearance delay when the time on the astronomical clock is close to the hour of sunset.   4. Installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises a solar collector providing information on the height of the sun above the horizon and that the ULT comprises means for integrating the information delivered by the sensor to make a correction to the value of the calculated time delay, in particular to reduce, or even cancel, the time delay when the sun is about to disappear or disappears. : Installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises a twilight sensor delivering to the ULT a signal when the light reaches a chosen value, as representing twilight and that the ULT is programmed so as to control the immediate activation of the sun protection element at   reception of the twilight sensor signal.