Electronic temperature controller for householding

Claim 1

An electronic controller for controlling the supply of electrical power to an electrically controlled device in order to modify an ambient temperature, said controller comprising: a thermal sensor for generating an electrical signal having at least one characteristic varying according to the ambient temperature; at least one detector selected from the group consisting of motion detectors capable of generating another electrical signal having at least one characteristic varying according to the presence or absence of motion in a detection field, and light detectors capable of generating a further electrical signal having at least one characteristic varying according to the luminosity in the detection field; a threshold detector associated with each motion detector, said threshold detector giving as output, a binary number indicative of the presence or absence of motion in the detection field of said motion detector; a hysteresis comparator assoicated with each light detector, said comparator giving an output, a binary number indicative the presence or absence of light in the detection field of said light detector; a programmable memory unit; means for loading the memory of said unit with a program of pre-selected temperatures which depend on the binary number given by the threshold detector associated with each motion detector and the binary number given by the hysteresis comparator associated with each light detector; means for receiving output electrical signals from said memory, said electrical signals being representative of temperatures corresponding to the binary number given by the threshold detector associated with each light detector; means for displaying on a display unit the ambient temperature and signals representative of the binary number given by the threshold detector associated with each motion detector and the binary number given by the hysteresis comparator associated with each light detector; means for receiving the electrical signals corresponding to the ambient temperature and those corresponding to the pre-selected temperatures in said memory and for generating, through a regulator unit, a control signal in order to control the duration of power supply to the temperature modifying device, said control signal being a width modulated pulse whose beginning and ending are synchronized to a zero crossing detector connected to the main power supply of the temperature modifying device; and means for limiting the minimum and the maximum values of said pre-selected temperatures.