An outdoor gas cooking system having multiple burners in which, if the individual manual control valves for all of the burners are placed on a high heat setting or some other specified or recognized activation position, a single electronic master control valve can be activated to control the total gas fuel rate to all of the burners in the cooker based, for example, upon a cooking or operational control set point or upon a target flow rate equaling the sum of the design flow rates of all of the burners at the current operating set points of the manual valves.

A method of improving an endothermic process in a furnace utilizing steps a) calibrating the simplified physical model of step c3) by measuring one or more tube temperature for at least a tube impacted by the throttling of a burner in standard and in throttled state, b) acquiring information on a tube temperature for the tubes present in the furnace with all the burners present in the furnace under standard non-throttled conditions, c) getting a map of burners to throttle including c1) choosing at least one parameter representative of the performances of the furnace with a target of improvement, c2) choosing at least one or more power ratio for the burner throttling; c3) utilizing the information of step b) and a simplified physical model of the impact of throttling a burner on the tube temperature, c4) getting a map of burners to throttle, step d) throttling the burners.

A fuel control device includes a stem fuel valve opening degree determination unit, a branch line flow rate determination unit, and a correction value determination unit. The stem fuel valve opening degree determination unit is configured to determine an opening degree of a flow rate adjustment valve of a stem fuel supply line. The branch line flow rate determination unit is configured to determine an opening degree of a flow rate adjustment valve of at least one branch line. The correction value determination unit is configured to determine a correction value of the opening degree of the flow rate adjustment valve of the at least one branch line based on a value of a pressure difference between a fuel pressure upstream of a nozzle connected to the at least one branch line and a corrected fuel pressure for a fuel pressure at an outlet.

A pre-startup control method for a boiler or water heater includes: providing a controller operatively coupled to a boiler or water heater unit; performing a unit shutdown operation; enabling a pre-start up mode; at about a same time or in any order, moving an air fuel valve by a controller to a non-off position with a gas supply to the water heater or boiler turned off, wherein the controller turns on a blower at an operational level, and causes an ignitor to spark; and displaying parameters which allow an affirmation of a safe and reliable ignition prior to a gas turn on of the boiler or water heater unit. A flow balancing method and a programmed auto run method are also described.

A multi-burner gas oven control system is used in a cooking appliance to control multiple gas burners disposed in one or more cooking cavities of the cooking appliance. Each gas burner has an associated dedicated gas valve that is coupled to a gas supply through a common, shared gas valve, as well as an igniter that is used to ignite the gas supplied to the gas burner. During activation of a selected gas burner, all igniters are activated in connection with activating the shared gas valve and the dedicated gas valve for the selected gas burner. In addition, in some instances individual ignition sensors may be used to both confirm ignition of the selected gas burner and detect ignition of any unintended gas burner.

A cooking appliance and system therefor utilize a burner group capable of operating in multiple modes such that gas cooktop burners disposed in the burner group may be collectively or individually controlled in different modes.

A method for continuous firing of combustion chambers with at least three regenerative burners, wherein a first regenerative burner cyclically in the combustion mode conveys supply air and a second regenerative burner in the exhaust mode conveys exhaust air. To avoid escape of hazardous process gases from the combustion chamber into the environment and high carbon monoxide emissions, and to provide energy-efficient firing operation despite use of compact regenerators, the volume flow of the supply or exhaust air through the first or second regenerative burner is reduced continuously and in counter-cycle mode to the volume flow of supply or exhaust air through a third regenerative burner at constant combustion chamber pressure until the first or second regenerative burner is flow-free.

Systems and methods for multi-variable flare control include receiving, at a flare controller, a plurality of flare characteristics from a flare monitor. The flare monitor may be an optical flare monitor. The plurality of flare characteristics may include, but are not limited to, Combustion Efficiency (CE), Smoke Index (SI), Flame Stability (FS), Flame Footprint (FF), and Heat Release (HR). The flare controller analyzes a plurality of the flare characteristics and outputs a control signal to control an operating condition of the flare, such as an amount of assist media being fed to the flare. Iterations of the control signal may be bounded by a step value defining a maximum increase or decrease in the control value as compared to the previous control value.

A temperature display and/or control system is disclosed for a cooing apparatus, such as a grill, comprising a plurality of individual zones to provide individual zone temperatures. Each zone of the grill is associated with a temperature sensor, such as a thermocouple, and a visual indicator to indicate the zone temperature, such as control knob bearing a multi-color LED. A controller obtains a signal from the temperature sensor indicating a raw temperature and converts the raw temperature to an actual zone temperature based on a temperature profile selected for the zone. The temperature profile is configurable for each zone based on a configuration of the zone in order to maintain an accurate temperature conversion despite alterations to an environment.

A pre-startup control method for a boiler or water heater includes: providing a controller operatively coupled to a boiler or water heater unit; performing a unit shutdown operation; enabling a pre-start up mode; at about a same time or in any order, moving an air fuel valve by a controller to a non-off position with a gas supply to the water heater or boiler turned off, wherein the controller turns on a blower at an operational level, and causes an ignitor to spark; and displaying parameters which allow an affirmation of a safe and reliable ignition prior to a gas turn on of the boiler or water heater unit. A flow balancing method and a programmed auto run method are also described.