Method and apparatus for controlling the temperature of a liquid

摘要

A liquid temperature controlling method and apparatus are provided in which on/off valves are utilized. The on/off valves are housed in a compact manifold assembly having a number of channels through which hot and cold water flows to and from the valves. Each of the valves communicates with an orifice, with each orifice communicating with the hot water valves being of a different size to produce binary flow patterns of water exiting the hot water associated orifices and valves. Similarly, each of the orifices communicating with a cold water valve is of a different size so that the flow rate of water from each cold water associated orifice is related in a binary manner to the flow rates through the other cold water associated orifices and valves. Because of the greater viscosity of the hot water, it is preferable that the hot water associated orifices be of a smaller size than corresponding cold water orifices. The opening/closing of the valves is controlled using information stored in memory. The programmed information correlates valve openings with information relating to water temperature. When there is a difference between actual and desired temperatures, one or more different combinations of valves can be opened in a predetermined manner without cycling through all possible valve combinations defined between the current combination of valve openings and the next combination of valve openings whereby the difference between the actual and desired temperatures is rapidly reduced.