US2212285A

US2212285A - Temperature controlled heating apparatus

Info

Publication number: US2212285A
Application number: US186701A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ayers William
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1938-01-24
Filing date: 1938-01-24
Publication date: 1940-08-20
Anticipated expiration: 1957-08-20

Description

- Allg. 20, 1940. W AYERS 2,212,285

TEMPERATURE CONTROLLED HEATING APPARATUS Fi'led Jan.- 24, 1938 Patented Aug. 20, 1940 TEMPERATURE CONTROLLEDI HEATING APPARATUS -Williarn Ayers, Evanston, Ill. application Januaryk 24, icas, serial Ne.. 186,701

2 Claims.

My main object is to provide improvements in heating apparatuses to the end of more satisfactorily controlling the operation of the apparatus and produce vmore uniform heating of the space to be heated. v i

Another object is to provide for the nearest approach possible to such regulation of the heater as to compensate at all times for the leakage of the heat units from the space to be heated, regardless of the outdoor temperature.

Another object is to provideimprovements in heaters in Which a heating medium is generated, by' any suitable means, as for example gas or oil, or electricity, all of which, for the purpose of this application will be treated as fuel heaters, to the end of rendering the supply of fuel to the heater controllable automatically from temperature conditions, to increase the iiow of fuel to theheater as the temperature lowers and decrease the flow of the fuel to the heateras the temperature rises; the fuel iiow changing responsive to each change in temperature conditions,

as distinguished from a condition in which the fuel supply to thev heater is either fully open, or fully closed, or in addition at a few selected temperatures, a retarded flow of fuel to the heater is provided for; and other objects as will be manifest from the following description.

Referring to the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a view in elevation, partly diagrammatic, of apparatus vembodying my invention; and

:Figure 2, an enlarged sectional View of the heater element of the installation.

I have chosen to illustrate my invention as applied to a gas heater the operation of which is controlled responsive to changes in the outdoor temperature. The gas heater shown at 3 may be utilized to heat the room or rooms to be heat- 40 ed, in any desirable way and by any desirable medium.` The gas heater, by Way of example, may form a part of a hot water boiler in a hot water heating system.

The burner of the heater isrepresented at '4 and is shown as located in a re box 5 the inlet end 6 of the burner, as is customary, flaring outwardly. r A pipe 1 for supplying gas to the burner extends through the front wall 8 of the re box and into the inlet 6 of the burner and in spaced relation thereto.

The front wall 8 of the fire box contains a circular series of openings 9 surrounding the pipe 'l and communicating with the burner inlet 6 to supply thereto primary combustion supporting air, and a second circular series of openings lil for` supplying secondary combustion supporting air to the discharge from the burner 4. A circular shutter il is rotatably mounted onv the front wall 8 of the fire box concentric with the :series of openingsr Si and i!) and contains seg` mental slotsv i2 spanning the openings 9 and l0, whereby upon rotating the vshutter the effective sizes of the openings 9 and ilmay be varied from substantially zero to a maximum, to thereby provide for thesupplying to the heater ofthe proper amount of prirnaryqand` secondary air to be supplied to the gas flowing into the burner as hereinafter described.

Itis the more usual'practice in service gas installations to vprovide each building to be supplied with gas, with a gas pressure regulator located within the building and serving to insure the delivery of the gasto its point of use at a pressure not exceeding a predeterminedpressure regardless of the pressure in the mains.v Such a regulator, modified, however, as hereinafter explained, is shown at I3. It comprises a casing i4 havinga partition l5 ,and a movable diaphragm I6 vdividing it into a high pressure chamber Il, an inter-mediate low pressure chamber ES y `and an upper chamber I9 the partition l5 having an opening 20 providing a valve seat-2l for-a Valve 22 connected with the diaphragm I6. vThe regulator I3 is interposed in the service line 'l ahead of the burner 4 whereby the burner-re-; ceives its gas supply from the low pressure chamber I8.

The diaphragm i6, and therefore the valve 22, are spring loaded as by the compression" spring shown at 23 as customarily provided, whereby'it.. is necessary that a certain pressure yof gas vb-uild up in chamber I8, depending upon the resistance of the spring 23, before the valve 22 -will close, the greater the pressure permitted Ito buildup in chamber I8 the greater the flow of gasto the,

burner. y

In accordance with my invention,considering this particular `embodimentthereof, Ifautomatically regulate the amount of vpressure which may be built upin chamber I8 and thus the rate of; flow of gas to the burner, responsive'to changes in theoutdoor temperature. As *the loutdoor temperature lowers the resistance-'of spring 23 is caused to be increased requiring the attainment of a higher pressure of gas in the chamber i3 before the valve 22 will close; and as the outdoor temperature `rises, the resistance of the spring 23 is caused to be decreased requiring the attainment of a lower pressure of gas in the chamber i8 before the valve 2,2 Will close.

In the arrangement shown I provide a spring tensioning member 24 comprising a rod 25 slidable in the casing I4 and having a head 26 which bears against the upper end of the spring 23. 'I'he rod 25 presses against the underside of a lever 21 hinged at 28 to an upright 29 on a bracket 30 secured to the casing I4. A tension spring 3I connected with the bracket 30 and adjustably with the lever 21 and of greater strength than the spring 23, forces the lever 21 against the rod 25 and thus compresses the spring 23, except as restrained by the controlling mechanismvnow to be described.

Interposed between the bracket 30 and the lever 21 is a bellows-like expansible and contractible member 32 closed except for connection with a tube 33 which leads to a point outside of the building in which the heater is located and is there provided with a bulb 34 exposed to the outdoor temperature.

The bulb 34, tube 33, and member 32, constituting a thermostat device, are closed to the atmosphere and contain any suitable fluid which, in contracting and expanding under variations in the outdoor temperature, controls, through the member 32, the position of the lever 21 and consequently the degree to which the diaphragm I6 is spring loaded.

In practice it will be found desirable to so condition the mechanisms described that at say 72 F. outdoor temperature, the member 32 will be expanded by the actuating fluid to such an extent that the loading of the spring 23 is negligible and thus no, or practically no, gas is supplied to the burner; but as the outdoor temperature decreases the fluid in the thermostat device contracts permitting the spring 3I to lower the lever and increase the spring load on the diaphragm I6 c and the valve 22, thus opening the latter and setting the regulator for the maintaining at this temperature of a high degree of gas pressure; and as the outdoor temperature rises the iluid expands, thus lifting the lever 21 and reducing the spring load on the valve 22.

'Ihe pressure of the gas flowing to the burner 4 will be varied whenever a temperature change in the outdoor atmosphere occurs, `the parts of the apparatus being so proportioned and arranged that there will be supplied .tothe burner automatically approximately that amount of gas necessary to maintain a predetermined temperature, say 12 F. in the building to'be heated regardless of the outdoor temperature, the varying of the pressure of gas being directly responsive to each atmospheric change, approximately uniformity of heating is effected.

As the air supplied to the heater for primary and secondary combustion should Vary with the pressure of the gas, less air being supplied to the burner as the gas pressure to the burner decreases, and vice versa, provision is made for automatically accomplishing such control of the air. This is eiected by connecting an arm 35 on the shutter II with the lever 21, as by means of the adjustable link connection 36, the shutter II rotating in a direction to aord increased air entry to the heater as the lever 21 swings downward responsive to a drop in the outdoor temperature, and rotating in a reverse direction to reduce air entry to the heater as the outdoor temperature rises.

Sometimes a plurality of heaters, in practice, are connected with a single gas pressure regulator so located as to be subject to the temperature of the outdoor atmosphere. My invention may also be applied to such installations, in which case the outlet 1 of the described structure would. be branched to lead the gas to the plurality of heaters.

While I have illustrated and described a particular embodiment of my invention and have also described a modication thereof, I do not wish to be understood as intending to limit it thereto, as the same may be variously modified and altered and the invention embodied in other forms of structure without departing from the' spirit thereof. Thus by way of example, any other suitable form of temperature controlled means may be used if desired to regulate thev fuelflo-w controller.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. In combination with a gas-red heater in anl enclosure, a conduit for conducting gas to the heater, a gas-pressure regulator for controlling the gas pressure in said conduit having a springloaded valve-operating diaphragm and temperature-controlled means for controlling the loading of said diaphragm operative, upon each temperature decrease exterior to said housing to increase the load on said diaphragm to increase the pressure of gas in the conduit and upon each tem perature rise to decrease the load on the diaphragm to decrease the pressure ot gas in said conduit, said means comprising a movable member for controlling the loading of the diaphragm, a spring urging said member in a direction to increase the load on the diaphragm, and amovable element controlled by the temperature exterior of said enclosure acting on said member in'opposition to said last-reierred-to spring.

2. In combination `with a gas-red heater in an enclosure, a conduit for conducting gas to the heater, a gas-pressure regulator for controlling the gas pressure in said conduit-having a springloaded valve-operating diaphragm and temperature-controlled means for controlling the loading of said diaphragm operative, upon each temperature decrease exterior of said enclosure to increase the load on said diaphragm to increase the pressure of gas inthe conduit and upon eachtemperature rise to decrease the load on the diaphragm to decrease the pressure of gas in said conduit, said means comprising a movable member for controlling the loading of the diaphragm,

v a spring urgingsaid member in a direction to the expansion of said fluid to move said movable' member in opposition to said last-referred-to spring. v

WILLIAM AYERS.