Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
1995-09-13
2001-11-27
Lefkowitz, Edward (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S605000, C340S609000, C340S615000, C340S616000, C340S618000, C340S870020, C324S207110
Reexamination Certificate
active
06323774
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus or system to monitor inlet water usage, such as in a home, boat, RV or commercial well water or any type of water from a city water supply to determine if an excess amount of water is being expended due to a leak, pipe rupture, or over usage and to provide an alarm and to control excess water usage. In particular, the invention utilizes a portable inlet water control and alarm that can measure water usage (volume per unit time), determine that an excess amount per unit time has been exceeded, control the continued flow or stoppage of inlet water, and provide an alarm to a remote source through a telephone line to alert a responsible party.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of control and alarm systems for detecting leaks in gaseous or liquid pipes is known in the prior art. It is often desirable to monitor especially hazardous material, such as explosive gases or highly destructive liquids which have to be transported by pipe from one area to another, to insure that there is no underground leakage. U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,357, issued May 23, 1972 to Kreiss, shows a pipe line leakage detection method and installation which includes a means for sounding an alarm and a means for preventing further leakage of liquid in the pipeline. This is a complex system. U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,285, issued Jun. 6, 1972 to Wright et al., shows a system for detecting relatively small leaks in partially inaccessible pipelines having high throughputs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,220, issued Apr. 30, 1974 to Ottenstein et al., shows a pipeline system and method that can determine leakage of liquid from a pipeline that extends between two remote stations. U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,666, issued Jan. 10, 1989 to Baxter et al., shows a method and apparatus for monitoring fluid flow to accurately determine whether an abnormal flow condition or a catastrophic flow condition exists in such a supply system. Typically, the systems described herein are integrally built into the overall liquid/fluid transport systems, are fairly complex in design, and are costly. U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,653, issued Oct. 12, 1993 to Tucker et al., shows a control system for automatic fluid shutoff that detects unwanted flow. U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,884, issued Feb. 22, 1994 to Cohen, shows a water flow monitoring system for determining the presence of leaks and stopping flow impelling lines.
The present invention provides a portable, easily installed, fluid volume per unit time counter, control, and alarm system that can provide an alarm remotely through a telephone line when people are not at their home or business. In particular, the present invention would be useful in a vacation home or in a home where it is desired to keep the water supply on for normal activities such as adding water to a swimming pool and lawn watering, while at the same time allowing remote monitoring of the overall system.
An example of usage would be in areas where city or municipal water is quite expensive. Many of these areas have vacation or winter type homes in which the homeowners are not always present year-round in their homes. The Florida Keys would be an example. However, the homeowners may travel back and forth and require daily activities in the homes through caretakers and the like, where it is not desirable to shut the water supply off completely while the homeowner is absent. The systems can be used to reduce consumption by having available a visual display of current usage.
The present invention provides an easily installed, inexpensive device that will allow a homeowner to monitor the amount of water consumed for given periods of time and an alarm system to alert the homeowner at a remote location through the telephone lines if an excessive amount of water has been consumed. The system also provides for a control system to shut down the input of water if a particular volume of water per period of time has been exceeded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A system for counting the number of gallons of water usage per unit time, monitoring the volume of usage per unit time, providing an alarm for an excessive use of water per unit time, and controlling water usage, typically in a home, from a municipal water supply or well system.
The system is comprised of a mechanical electrical liquid volume counter that can measure gallons per minute of water flow through an inlet pipe that is permanently installed in the inlet water supply from a municipal water source (or well source) after the water meter. A pair of manually-actuated shutoff valves are mounted before and after the water volume measurement device. During normal operation, both manually-actuated valves would be in the “open” position.
The system also includes a central control box that includes a processor (computer processor unit or CPU) and a visual counter display, such as an LED, showing gallons per unit time. The processor acts in conjunction with and controls the entire system as described below. In general, the processor receives input information from the volume counter in the main inlet pipeline. The processor includes a timing unit that includes real time as measured from a particular starting point. The time measurement is combined with the volume counter input to give a volume per unit time. A reset button is also included to allow the system to be reset to zero, also as a function of real time.
The processor is powered by a low voltage power supply that emanates from a 12-volt transformer and rectifier. The transformer and rectifier receive power from a conventional 110-volt AC power supply. The volume counter also requires a low voltage power supply. Thus, the conventional power supply, when passed though the transformer and rectifier, can also power the counter to the pipeline.
The processor can also have a battery backup in case of main power failure so that the system will still continue to operate as far as sending an alarm out.
Also connected to the processor is a telephone dialer. The telephone dialer is connected to a typical home telephone system. The telephone dialer may include one or more preprogrammed telephone numbers that will be dialed in the event that the water inlet pipe's volume per unit time exceeds a predetermined threshold that has been preset into the system. The processor is also connected to a local audio and visual alarm in the home or business that can be triggered, again in the event the volume per unit time is exceeded in the flow through the inlet pipe.
The processor allows for setting the threshold values, which could be a function of the amount of anticipated water usage over a period of time as determined by whether or not the homeowners are in daily residence in the house or are temporarily at a remote location, whereby low volumes of water per unit time would be anticipated.
The processor may include counters that provide for a daily counter, a weekly counter, a monthly counter, or a yearly counter, that is displayed visually by a LED screen, or the like, mounted on the front of the central control box.
The processor will be programmable to allow the user to vary the threshold value of maximum water volume per unit hour based on the homeowner's particular situation. For example, if the home includes a sprinkler system that uses city water, then it could be anticipated that for short periods of time when the sprinklers are on, large volumes of water could be used. Water usage such as showers, dishwashers, washing machine, or the like could also use a maximum flow of water for short periods of time. The number of people living in a household will affect the volume of water usage per unit time and should be anticipated. Once the processor has been programmed with an acceptable amount of water volume per unit time and a threshold value, above which per unit time will cause an alarm circuit to be triggered, several different functions can be accomplished. A first function of the triggered alarm circuit would be to alert a telephone dialer which sends a signal t
Goins Davetta W.
Lefkowitz Edward
Malin Haley & DiMaggio, P.A.
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