POWER HARVESTING CIRCUIT

Abstract

A power harvesting system employs a saturable core transformer having two primary windings and at least one secondary winding. One of the primary windings is a high impedance winding, and the other primary winding is a low impedance winding. The two primary windings are connected with the load (motor). The secondary winding provides power to the circuit components of a replacement electronic thermostat. Relay contacts connects A/C power to either the high impedance primary winding or to the low impedance primary winding. When the relay is de-energized, A/C power is applied to the high impedance winding so that a relatively small amount of current flows through both the high impedance winding. This current is low enough that it does not energize the motor but is sufficient to generate the required voltage to transfer power to the secondary winding and is used to power the electronic thermostat. When the relay is energized, A/C power is applied directly to the low impedance primary winding, energizing the motor. At the beginning of each A/C cycle, the current through the low impedance winding builds up rapidly until the core saturates. The result is that a short pulse is generated in the secondary on both the positive and negative A/C cycle. This pulse has an amplitude determined by the turns ratio of the low impedance winding to the secondary winding and is used to power the electronic thermostat. After the core saturates, the impedance of the low impedance winding is only the resistance of the wire of the winding which is very small and results in negligible impact on the motor operation and also results in very low power dissipation.

Claims

1. A power harvesting system comprising: at least one transformer having first and second primary windings and at least one secondary winding, the first primary winding being a high impedance winding with a large number of turns and the second primary winding being a low impedance winding with a small number of turns, the first and second primary windings adapted to be connected with a load; and a relay having first and second contacts, the first contact being connected to the first primary winding and the second contact being connected to the second primary winding, the relay being operable in a first state to connect A/C power to the first primary winding and in a second state to connect A/C power the second primary winding, whereby when A/C power is connected to the first primary winding, a small current flows in the first primary winding which is insufficient to activate the load but sufficient to transfer sufficient power to the secondary winding, and when A/C power is connected to the second primary winding, a larger current flows in the second primary winding sufficient to activate the load and to transfer sufficient power to the secondary winding.

2. The power harvesting system of claim 1, wherein the first and second primary windings are connected in series with the load so that when the relay connects A/C power to the first contact, current flows through both the first and second primary windings of the transformer, and when the relay connects A/C power to the second contact, current flows only in the second primary winding.

3. The power harvesting system of claim 1, wherein the first and second primary windings are separately connected with the load so that when the relay connects A/C power to the first contact, current flows through only the first primary winding of the transformer, and when the relay connects A/C power to the second contact, current flows only in the second primary winding.

4. The power harvesting system of claim 1, wherein the relay is a solid state relay.

5. The power harvesting system of claim 3, further comparing: a power supply connected to a secondary winding of the transformer, the power supply providing at least an unregulated output voltage; and means for sensing the unregulated output voltage as an approximate function of current flowing in a primary winding of the transformer to a load, said means further disconnecting the load when current flowing in the primary winding exceeds a predetermined value.

6. The power harvesting system of claim 3, wherein the second primary winding of the transformer has one or more taps and further comprising: a switch controlled to selectively short said one or more taps of the second primary winding; a power supply connected to a secondary winding of the transformer, the power supply providing at least an unregulated output voltage, and means for sensing the unregulated output voltage as an approximate function of current flowing in a primary winding of the transformer to a load, said means further controlling said switch to short said one or more taps of the second primary winding.

7. The power harvesting system of claim 3, further comprising: a switch controlled to selectively short said second primary winding of the transformer; a power supply connected to a secondary winding of the transformer producing relatively short pulses, the power supply providing at least an unregulated output voltage, and means for sensing the unregulated output voltage as an approximate function of current flowing in a primary winding of the transformer to a load, said means further controlling said switch to short said second primary winding.

8. The power harvesting system of claim 1, wherein said at least one transformer is a saturable core transformer and when a larger current flows in the second primary winding sufficient to activate the load, the larger current causes the core of the transformer to saturate producing relatively short pulses on the secondary winding on each cycle of the A/C power.

9. A replacement electronic thermostat for replacing a mechanical or mercury bulb type thermostat comprising: at least one transformer having first and second primary windings and at least one secondary winding, the first primary winding being a high impedance winding with a large number of turns and the second primary winding being a low impedance winding with a small number of turns, the first and second primary windings adapted to be connected with a load; a relay having first and second contacts, the first contact being connected to the first primary winding and the second contact being connected to the second primary winding, the relay being operable in a first state to connect A/C power to the first primary winding and in a second state to connect A/C power the second primary winding, whereby when A/C power is connected to the first primary winding, a small current flows in the first primary winding which is insufficient to activate the load but sufficient to transfer power to the secondary winding, and when A/C power is connected to the second primary winding, a larger current flows in the second primary winding sufficient to activate the load and transfer sufficient power to the secondary winding; a power supply for the electronic thermostat connected to the secondary winding of the saturable core transformer, said power supply rectifying, filtering and regulating current supplied by the secondary winding of the saturable core transformer, and an electronic thermostat connected to be powered by said power supply.

10. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 9, wherein the first and second primary windings of the saturable core transformer are connected in series with the load so that when the relay connects A/C power to the first contact, current flows through both the first and second primary windings of the transformer, and when the relay connects A/C power to the second contact, current flows only in the second primary winding.

11. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 9, wherein the first and second primary windings of the saturable core transformer are separately connected with the load so that when the relay connects A/C power to the first contact, current flows through only the first primary winding of the transformer, and when the relay connects A/C power to the second contact, current flows only in the second primary winding.

12. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 9, wherein the relay is a solid state relay.

13. The replacement electronic thermostat of 9, wherein the electronic thermostat includes a microcontroller programmed to control functions of the electronic thermostat.

14. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 13, wherein the power supply provides at least an unregulated output voltage, and wherein said microcontroller is connected to sense the unregulated output voltage as an approximate function of current flowing in a primary winding of the transformer to a load, said microcontroller further disconnecting the load when current flowing in the primary winding exceeds a predetermined value.

15. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 13, wherein the second primary winding of the transformer has one or more taps, the power supply provides at least an unregulated output voltage, and wherein said microcontroller is connected to sense the unregulated output voltage as an approximate function of current flowing in a primary winding of the transformer to a load, further comprising a switch controlled to selectively short said one or more taps of the second primary winding, said microcontroller further controlling said switch to short said one or more taps of the second primary winding.

16. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 13, wherein the power supply supplies at least an unregulated output voltage, and wherein said microcontroller is connected to sense the unregulated output voltage as an approximate function of current flowing in a primary winding of the transformer to a load, further comprising a switch controlled to selectively short said second primary winding of the transformer, said microcontroller is further controlling said switch to short said second primary winding.

17. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 13, further comprising a graphical display 18 controlled by said microcontroller to provide user input.

18. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 13, further comprising an RF transceiver in communication with said microcontroller to provide remote control.

19. The replacement electronic thermostat of claim 9, wherein said at least one transformer is a saturable core transformer and when a larger current flows in the second primary winding sufficient to activate the load, the larger current causes the core of the transformer to saturate producing relatively short pulses on the secondary winding on each cycle of the A/C power.

20. The power harvesting system of claim 1 wherein the relay is a solid state relay.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:

[0018] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment the power harvesting circuit according to the invention;

[0019] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the power harvesting circuit according to the invention;

[0020] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of an improvement to the first and second embodiments of the power harvesting circuit according to the intention;

[0021] FIG. 3A is a waveform diagram illustrating the current waveform when current flows in the high impedance winding of the power harvesting circuit and the core of the transformer is unsaturated;

[0022] FIG. 3B is a waveform diagram illustrating the current flow in the secondary winding when current flows in the low impedance winding of the power harvesting circuit and the core of the transformer is saturated;

[0023] FIG. 4 is a simplified circuit diagram of the power supply for the electronic thermostat;

[0024] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a third embodiment of the power harvesting circuit according to the invention;

[0025] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a fourth embodiment of the power harvesting circuit according to the invention; and

[0026] FIG. 7 is an alternative circuit diagram of a circuit for keeping the unregulated voltage within predetermined limits.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION THE INVENTION

[0027] Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a saturable core transformer 10 having two primary windings 11 and 12 and a single secondary win ding 13. Primary winding 11 is a high impedance winding having, for example, 2500 turns, and primary winding 12 is a low impedance winding having, for example, twelve turns. The secondary winding 13 has, in this example, 256 turns The two primary windings are connected in series with the load (motor) 14. The secondary winding 13 provides power the power supply 15 which, in turn, powers circuit components of the electronic thermostat. The electronic thermostat typically includes a microcontroller 16 that receives an input from a Thermister circuit 17 and controls relay contacts K1. Double throw relay contacts K1 connects A/C power to either the high impedance primary winding 11 or to the low impedance primary winding 12. Although an electro-mechanical relay is illustrated, those skilled in the art will recognize that the function of this relay can be performed by an equivalent solid-state drive. In some applications, the microcontroller 16 may communicate with a graphical display 18, which may be a touch screen display to provide user input. The microcontroller 16 may also communicate with an RF transceiver 19 to provide remote control or remote monitoring of important parameters such as set temperature and amount of time that the relay, and consequently the motor, are energized and de-energized. The transceiver 19 may be, for example, a WiFi or Bluetooth transceiver for local communication or a higher powered transceiver for distant communication.

[0028] When the relay K1 is de-energized, A/C power is applied to the high impedance winding 11 so that a relatively small amount of current, on the order of 10 to 15 mA, flows through both the high impedance winding 11 and the low impedance winding 12. This current is low enough that it does not energize the motor 14 and has negligible impact on the low voltage coil, but it is sufficient to generate the required voltage to transfer power to the secondary winding 13 and is used to power the electronic thermostat. When the relay K1 is energized, A/C power is applied directly to the low impedance primary winding, energizing the motor 14. At the beginning of each A/C cycle, the current through the low impedance winding builds up rapidly until the core of transformer 10 saturates. The result is that a relatively short pulse (about 2 milliseconds) is generated in the secondary winding 13 on both the positive and negative A/C cycle. This pulse has a current amplitude determined by the turns ratio of the low impedance winding to the secondary winding. This pulse is filtered and processed by the power supply 15 to power the electronic thermostat. After the core saturates, the impedance of the low impedance winding 12 is only the resistance of the wire of the winding which is very small. The voltage drop across primary winding 12 is very small, on the order of 1 to 2V peak and 0.7 to 1.4V RMS, which has a negligible impact on the motor operation.

[0029] FIG. 2 shows an alternate embodiment in which the two primary windings 11 and 12 are alternately connected to the A/C power with current flowing on only one or the other of the two primary windings. When the contacts of relay K2 are open, A/C current flows in only the high impedance winding 11. As a result, the current flowing through the high impedance winding is low enough that it does not energize the motor 14 but is sufficient to generate the required voltage to transfer power to the secondary winding 13 and is used to power the electronic thermostat as in the first embodiment. However, when the contacts of relay K2 are closed, A/C power is supplied directly to the low impedance winding 12 and, after the core of transformer 10 saturates, the impedance of the low impedance winding 12 is only the resistance of the wire of the winding which is very small. Since the impedance of this winding is very low, there is negligible effect on the operation of the motor 10.

[0030] FIG. 3A is a waveform diagram showing the current flow in the secondary winding 13 when relay contacts K1 supply A/C current to the high impedance winding 11 of the power harvesting circuit of FIG. 1 or the relay contacts K2 supplying A/C current only to the high impedance winding 11 of the power harvesting circuit of FIG. 2. Notice that this current waveform is substantially a sinusoidal waveform having an amplitude determined by the turns ratio of primary winding 11 to secondary winding 13.

[0031] FIG. 3B is a waveform diagram showing the current flow in the secondary winding 13 when relay contacts K1 supply A/C current only to the low impedance winding 12 of the power harvesting circuit of FIG. 1 or when relay contacts K2 supply A/C current directly to low impedance winding 12 bypassing the high impedance winding 11 of the power harvesting circuit of FIG. 2. In both these cases, the current waveform is a series of positive and negative going pulses due to the saturation of the core of the transformer.

[0032] From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the circuits of FIGS. 1 and 2 are able to handle varying loads since these circuits have minimal effect on the A/C current delivered to the load since the impedance of the saturable core transformer at saturation is essentially the resistance of the wire. Also, because the saturation characteristics of the transformer, the increase in the current transfer to the secondary with increasing current in the primary is minimized. This is a significant advantage as a larger number of installations can be handled by the same device and also because, due to maintenance and other factors, the load can change during the life of the product. The ability to work with variable loads is important if not critical when retrofitting existing systems with new electronic thermostats as the size of the motor (load) can vary and is not always known in advance and also due to the fact that motors have a finite live and are routinely changed, sometimes with a motor that presents a different load to the system.

[0033] FIG. 2A illustrates a modification of the FIG. 2 circuit. The modification consists of the addition of a scaling circuit 20 that feeds an A/D converter in the microcontroller 16. The voltage fed to the microcontroller A/D is the scaled down unregulated power supply voltage V.sub.UR. This voltage is roughly proportional to the current flowing through the primary of the transformer 10. Thus the microcontroller has an approximate analog to the current flowing in the primary of the transformer and this information is used to protect the circuit from a motor short and thus would make it possible to eliminate the fuse (not shown) currently used. This eliminates a problem in that momentary shorts in the motor blow the fuse and cause an equipment failure. Momentary motor shorts can occur when the load driven by the motor, which is usually a fan, gets momentarily mechanically stuck due to normal wear and tear or due to some momentary mechanical irregularity. With the microcontroller having a reference to the approximate current flow, an upper limit can be set at which the microcontroller will actuate the relay and remove the motor load. If this happens a few times, then the microcontroller can provide this information to management so that corrective action can be taken. And more importantly, a thermostat failure (due to a blown fuse) and subsequent costly service call has been prevented. This might not appear that critical but those familiar with the commercial realities of this application will consider this feature indeed a necessity.

[0034] FIG. 4 is a simplified circuit diagram of the power supply which is capable of rectifying, filtering and regulating the output of the secondary winding of either the first or the second embodiments of the power harvesting circuit according to the invention. Specifically, the secondary winding 13 of the power transformer 10 is split into two secondary windings 41 and 42 which are connected to a rectifier bridge 43. This rectifier bridge 43 is connected to a clamp circuit 44 and then to a low pass filter 45 composed, for example, of a series of parallel capacitors. The output of the low pass filter 45 is connected to a regulator 46, which may be, for example, a step-down switching regulator. The purpose of the clamp 44 is to limit surges or voltage spikes that might damage the regulator 46. These voltage surges might be caused by a malfunctioning motor drawing excessive current. The output of the regulator 46 is supplied to the electronic thermostat.

[0035] For power dissipation reasons, the power supply load for this thermostat application has to be a switching type power supply, as a pass type regulator would dissipate too much power and, as explained before, power dissipation in this application is a big concern. As the unregulated voltage from the transformer increases due to higher primary current when the low impedance winding is used, this switching power supply load acts as a negative resistance. This plus the fact that even in saturation the transformer output voltage will increase somewhat with increasing current limits the practical limit of the current range. Another factor that limits the upper limit of the current range is that since size is critical in this application the gauge of wire that one can use for the primary coil is limited as thicker wire occupies too much space. Thus with the maximum size of coil wire that can be used because of size limitations, power dissipation at upper end of the current range becomes an issue.

[0036] FIG. 5 shows a further modification of the basic circuit which expands the practical primary current range. In this implementation the power supply unregulated voltage Vur is monitored by the microcontroller. The microcontroller 16 is programmed so that if the voltage reaches a certain high threshold, say 25 VDC, the microcontroller will turn “on” transistor Q2 which is coupled through pbotocoupler 51 to turn on FET switch 52 which in turn shorts out a certain amount, say ½ of the input coil of the second primary winding 12. This causes the power supply 15 unregulated voltage to decrease by the proportion of coils shorted, in this example roughly by ½ or down to about 12.5V. Thus, by the use of this technique the amount of primary current that can be handled has essentially being doubled. Note that there could be more primary coil taps and more FET switches driven by the microcontroller, so this technique can be repeated and thus the primary current can be increased further as desired.

[0037] FIG. 6 illustrates a further modification of the basic circuit which operates fundamentally essentially the same as the circuit in FIG. 5. The only difference is that the FET switch function is accomplished differently and the FET switch is shown shorting the whole second primary winding rather than a portion of the winding. More particularly, the output of the photocoupler 51 is input to an FET gate driver 61 which is powered by a milliwatt DC/DC converter 62. The FET gate driver controls the FET switch 63 which, when turned on, shorts the entire second primary winding of the transformer. The main advantage of performing the FET switch function this way is that in this implementation the switching can be accomplished faster than the circuit of FIG. 5. Faster switching allows the shorting of the whole coil, thus the microcontroller will regulate the power supply unregulated voltage by switching the FET Switch “on” when a certain maximum threshold is reached (say 25V) and will turn it “off” when the power supply unregulated voltage reaches a certain minimum threshold, say 12.5V. The advantage of this approach is that no transformer taps are needed and that it is able to accomplish a wide input current range, this range depending only on how fast the Microcontroller can regulate the power supply unregulated voltage. Also, increasing the power supply capacitance will permit slower microcontroller operation of this regulating scheme. There are many trade-offs here as those skilled in the art will appreciate. As an example, a dedicated microcontroller could be used for this function only, thus reducing any time delays and allowing faster operation.

[0038] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the transformer 10 does not necessarily have to be a saturable core transformer. If both the microcontroller 16 and the solid state switches are fast enough, the circuit can operate fast enough to synch with the AC line and either cut whole cycles “on” and “off” or cutting a portion of each positive or negative cycles “off” as needed.

[0039] The embodiments of the invention described thus far employ one transformer with two primary windings and one secondary winding. The two primary windings are made up of one high impedance high voltage (i.e., 115 VAC) winding and the other one the very low impedance, very low voltage winding that is in series with the load. This is the preferred embodiment. However, one could split these two functions into two separate modules. One will be a transformer with the low voltage, low impedance winding only. This will provide power when the load is “on” and this winding is in series with the load. Then to provide power when the load is “off” one could use a separate transformer and separate module dedicated to this task. This could be a very high frequency transformer and power supply, similar to the “cubes” that one can buy to power smart phones. It will work from the 115 VAC but, as it is done with the smart phone chargers, the 115 VAC is chopped a very high frequency. This makes the transformer and the whole module small.

[0040] The circuit of FIG. 6 shows the microcontroller 16 and an A/D converter that is part of the microcontroller controlling the power Supply in order the keep the unregulated voltage within certain limits, for instance 12 VDC and 24 VDC. The circuit of FIG. 7 performs the same function using discrete electronic components. This circuit could be used as back up for the microcontroller 16 in which case the discrete component circuit will have wider voltage limits that the Micro. This would provide a safety measure in case that the microcontroller becomes disabled for any reason, including a software bug. Or the microcontroller could be used as the backup letting the circuit perform the regulation function. And in cases where there is no Micro, the circuit alone could perform the unregulated voltage control function. Note that transistor Q1 in FIG. 7 is the same transistor Q2 as in FIG. 6.

[0041] Under normal operation transistors Q2 and Q3 are either both “on” or both “off”. Assuming that unregulated voltage Vur is below the high limit, approximately 26 VCD and that both transistors are “off”, this state will remain until Vur increases to approximately 26 VDC. At this point and for any voltages higher than this threshold diode CR1 starts conducting and as the voltage increases the current flowing through diode CR1 is enough to turn “on” transistor Q2. When transistor Q2 is turned “on”, this in turn causes current to flow through resistor R4 which turns “on” transistor Q3. And when transistor Q3 turns “on” it supplies current to the base of transistor Q2 via diode CR2 and resistor R5, thus keeping transistor Q2 “on” regardless of the amount of current being supplied by diode CR1. Thus transistor Q2 is latched “on” and it remains “on” until the unregulated voltage Vur decreases to the low threshold level of approximately 12 VDC. At this point there is no current flowing through diode CR1 and Vur is low enough that there is not enough current flowing through diode CR2 to keep transistor Q2 “on”. Thus transistor Q2 turns “off” which turns “off” transistor Q3 until again Vur increases above the high threshold of approximately 26 VDC and the process repeats itself in this fashion. The net result is that Vur is thus kept between the low and high thresholds via transistor Q1, which performs the same function in FIG. 7 as it does in FIG. 6. Note that in FIG. 6, this transistor is labeled Q2. On input to transistor Q1, Vm is provided so that either the microcontroller or the circuit can drive transistor Q1. Thus, either the circuit or the microcontroller can perform the primary regulation function with the other one being the backup.

[0042] While FIG. 7 shows a specific discrete component circuit implementation to accomplish the desired result, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many variations of the same circuit concept possible using other components like FETs or SCRs or Integrated Circuits.

[0043] While the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.