Ademco Inc.

Honeywell International Inc.

Other

John D Mitchell

Gregory Young

Rolf Lee Strand

Peter M Anderson

Donald J Kasprzyk

David Kucera

Timothy J Smith

Adam Myre

Willem Super

Jos Praat

Brian Zabel

Hans M Van Der Mei

Roelof Thiewes

Frederick R Hazzard

Adam Foley

Luke A Piram

Ryan Strassburg

Tony Khosla

A water heater control system comprising an energy storage system electrically connected to a pilot valve operator and electrically isolated from a main valve operator. The energy storage system may be electrically connected to an ignition circuit. A thermoelectric device is in thermal communication with the pilot flame and electrically connected to a main valve operator. The water heater system may include a microcontroller configured to establish electrical communications between the device and the energy storage system, the pilot valve operator, and the main valve operator. The microcontroller may be configured to recognize a call for main burner operation, and may also be configured to check an available voltage of the energy storage system against a setpoint. The microcontroller may establish pilot flame operation with or without main burner operation, depending on whether a call for heat or recharging of the energy storage system is required.

Control system for an intermittent pilot water heater

A burner control system for improving burner performance and efficiency may determine fuel and air channel or manifold parameters. Determination of parameters may be performed with a sensor connected across the air and fuel channels. A signal from the sensor may control the parameters which in turn affect the amounts of fuel and air to the burner via a controller. Parameter control of the fuel and air in their respective channels may result in more accurate fuel and air ratio control. One or more flow restrictors in fuel and/or air bypass channels may further improve accuracy of the fuel and air ratio. The channels may be interconnected with a pressure or flow divider. Byproducts of combustion in the exhaust, temperatures of gas and air, flame quality and/or other items may be monitored and adjusted with control of the fuel and air ratio for optimum combustion in the burner.

Burner control system

An illustrative HVAC controller may include a communication module for wirelessly communicating with a network and wiring terminals for receiving a wired connection to a remote temperature sensor that is situated remote from the HVAC controller and in a living space of the building. A controller may be operably coupled to the communication module and the wiring terminals and may be configured to implement a thermostat control algorithm to generate one or more control signals, wherein the one or more control signals are provided by a wired connection to the HVAC system to control one or more HVAC components of the HVAC system. The thermostat control algorithm may be configured to compare a sensed temperature received from the remote temperature sensor via the wiring terminals and a temperature setpoint received from the server via the network.

HVAC control with a remote user interface and a remote temperature sensor

A water heater may be configured to detect a possible main gas valve non-closure condition in which the sensed water temperature continues to rise while a thermopile signal reaches a stable state. When the possible main gas valve non-closure condition is detected, the controller may be configured to toggle the main gas valve ON and determine whether the thermopile signal from the thermopile changes from the stable state or not by at least a predetermined amount.

Method for detecting a non-closing water heater main gas valve

A remote water heater monitoring system is configured to communicate with a plurality of client water heaters over a network. The system processes received data related to the operation of the plurality of client water heaters and identifies one or more baseline trends over time related to water heater performance and/or water heater reliability using the received data from one or more of the client water heaters and identifies one or more abnormalities in the operation of a particular one of the client water heaters based on the baseline trends. An alert is generated for one or more of the abnormalities in the operation of the particular one of the client water heaters and is associated with a corresponding client account.

Cloud-based analytics for water heaters

A water heater having a monitoring mechanism, an appliance burner configured to heat water in a tank of a water heater, a water temperature sensor configured to detect a water temperature in the tank, a pilot device configured to ignite the appliance burner, and a thermopile having a tip and a base, and having an output voltage that represents a temperature difference between the tip and the base. The tip of the thermopile may be heated by the pilot device. The base of the thermopile may receive heat from the appliance burner when the appliance burner is turned on, and thus the voltage output of the thermopile may decrease. If the voltage output does not decrease and the water temperature exceeds a thermal cutout limit, then a warning about the water heater may be issued by the monitoring mechanism.

Water heater status monitoring system

A burner control system for improving burner performance and efficiency. The system may determine fuel and air channel or manifold parameters. Determination of parameters may be performed with a sensor connected across the air and fuel channels. A signal from the sensor may control the parameters which in turn affect the amounts of fuel and air to the burner via a controller. Parameter control of the fuel and air in their respective channels may result in more accurate fuel and air ratio control. One or more flow restrictors in fuel and/or air bypass channels may further improve accuracy of the fuel and air ratio. The channels may be interconnected with a pressure or flow divider. Byproducts of combustion in the exhaust, temperatures of gas and air, flame quality and/or other items may be monitored and adjusted with control of the fuel and air ratio for optimum combustion in the burner.

Luggage, having an audio recording and playing device within the luggage, housed in a pouch. The device is removable by the owner so that a message indicating where the owner is in his travels can be recorded on the recorder/player. An external plate includes indicia directing a luggage handler how to play the identifying message.

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Maple Grove, MN, United States of America

John D Mitchell