A cooking appliance and method generate an audible and/or visual indication to a user when a user control for a gas burner is in a position within which an igniter is active and a gas valve is supplying sufficient gas flow to the gas burner to support ignition and thereby assist a user in properly positioning the user control during ignition of the burner.

For monitoring burner operation, such as in a refinery, boiler or the like, an acoustic sampler such as a piezo-electric microphone is located in a position to record an acoustic sample of the burner operation. The acoustic sample can be processed to determine whether the burner is operating normally or has suffered a flame out condition. Remedial actions can be undertaken to control the fuel supply to the burner if a flame out condition has been detected.

A combustion controlling system according to the present invention provides a signal path for transmitting an ignition preparation signal SA output from a master device to a transmission line through cascade-connected slave devices. Then, each of the slave devices determines whether each of the slave devices outputs the ignition preparation signal to a subsequent device, or not, based on whether there is a flame of the corresponding burner, or not, at the time of igniting the burners, and the master device opens a safety shutoff valve on the condition that an ignition preparation signal SAo has been input from the transmission line.

The method allows to detect flameout in a combustor of a turbine system; it includes the steps of: A) measuring angular acceleration of a shaft of the or each turbine of the turbine system, B) calculating a flameout indicator as a function of the angular acceleration, and C) carrying out a comparison between the flameout indicator and at least one threshold.

Burner (10), in particular for a vehicle heater (12), having an orifice plate (14) separating an inner combustion region (16) from an outer region (18), wherein a photosensitive sensor (20) is arranged in the outer region (18), wherein at least two separate air inlet openings (22, 24, 26, 28) are being provided in the orifice plate (14), wherein one of the at least two air inlet openings (22, 24, 26, 28) is additionally formed as a light opening (28) which also allows light to pass from the inner combustion region (16) to the photosensitive sensor (20) that is arranged in the outer region (18), wherein the at least two air inlet openings (22, 24, 26, 28) are being shaped such that the same combustion air quantities flow into the internal combustion region (16) per unit time, respectively, and wherein the orifice plate (14) is transparent and/or the light opening (28) has a shape different from the air inlet openings (22, 24, 26) that are not formed as light opening such that an illumination area defined by the light opening (28) is larger than a reference illumination area defined by one of the at least two air inlet openings (22, 24, 26) that are not formed as light opening (28).

A cooking appliance and method generate an audible and/or visual indication to a user when a user control for a gas burner is in a position within which an igniter is active and a gas valve is supplying sufficient gas flow to the gas burner to support ignition and thereby assist a user in properly positioning the user control during ignition of the burner.

A cooking appliance is disclosed that according to one embodiment includes a plurality of gas burners, an electrode associated with each burner for igniting the flame, a flame sensor associated with each burner for monitoring the flame and at least one electric switch associated with an actuator that is transitional between open and closed positions. The cooking appliance also includes a control unit electrically connected to the electrodes, the flame sensors, and the switch. When the switch assumes the closed position, the control unit is activated and then in turn powers the electrodes and the flame sensors. Thereafter, the control unit sequentially monitors the presence or absence of flame in the burners during repeated time cycles.

A control system of a water heater apparatus with a combustible gas burner is presented where the apparatus includes a pilot burner with an intermittent-type pilot flame, a main burner, a pilot valve and a main valve, a control unit, a flame detection electrode, introduced into the flame of the pilot burner, and which is configured to conduct an ionization current. The control unit is configured to measure/detect a variation involving increase/decrease of the intensity of ionization current detected, the variation in intensity of ionization current being generated during the change between a first condition, in which the ionization current identifies the ignition state of only the pilot burner, and a second condition, in which the ionization current identifies the simultaneous ignition state of the pilot burner and the main burner so that, by detection of the measurement/variation of ionization current, the effective ignition of the main burner is recognized.

Example furnaces and methods related thereto are disclosed herein. In an embodiment, the furnace includes a burner box including at least one burner configured to combust a fuel/air mixture. In addition, the furnace includes a first blower including an inlet nozzle having an air inlet and fuel inlet. The inlet nozzle is configured such that operation of the first blower is to pull air and fuel into the inlet nozzle to produce the fuel/air mixture at a fuel/air ratio that is configured to produce flue products having less than 14 Nano-grams per Joule of nitrogen oxides when combusted. Operation of the first blower is configured to push the fuel/air mixture into the burner box. Further, the furnace includes a heat exchanger assembly fluidly coupled to the burner box through a vestibule, and a second blower configured to pull the flue products through the heat exchanger assembly.

A cooking gas safety apparatus is shown and described. The apparatus includes a cooking gas safety valve assembly that supplies cooking gas to one or more burners. The cooking gas safety assembly includes at least one coil that is energizable to hold the valve assembly in an open position when subjected to a current that exceeds a threshold value and a hold open circuit. The hold open circuit comprises the coil and a hot surface igniter that is in electrical communication with the coil. The valve assembly is actuated by manually opening the valve and energizing the igniter such that it receives a threshold current that corresponds to an autoignition temperature of the gas. At the threshold current, an electromagnet in the cooking gas safety valve assembly holds the valve open so that it remains open without user intervention. In the event of an igniter failure, the current flow to the coil ceases, causing the valve to shut and cease gas flow to the burner. In certain examples, hold open circuit allows the igniter to operate off of alternating current while the coil receives a time-varying, direct current.