Procedure for controlling a thermal installation

Claim 1

In a process for controlling the circulation of a heat exchange fluid through a fluid delivery conduit from thermal regenerating means to a plurality of separate apartments; each of said apartments provided with heat exchange means, a fluid supply pipe interconnecting said delivery conduit and an inlet of said heat exchange means, a return pipe fluidly interconnecting an outlet of said heat exchange means with a common return conduit for returning fluid to said regenerating means, a fluid circulation pump located in one of said supply and return pipes for circulating fluid through said heat exchange means, and a motor for driving said pump, said process including the step of independently controlling the circulation of heat exchange fluid in each of said apartments, the improvement comprising independently measuring the heat transferred in said heat exchange means of each apartment by the steps of: sensing the temperature of fluid in said return pipe and controlling said pump to restrict the flow of fluid through said heat exchange means if the sensed temperature of fluid in said return pipe deviates from a first set point, maintaining a selected substantially constant temperature difference between the flowing fluid in said supply and return pipes independently of temperature conditions inside and outside said apartment, providing a temperature-dependent value obtained independently of the temperatures in said supply and return pipes and controlling said pump to restrict the flow of fluid through said heat exchange means if said temperature-dependent value deviates from a second set point, and obtaining a measurement of the amount of heat transferred by said heat exchange means by measuring the amount of fluid circulating through said heat exchange means independently of the amounts of fluid circulating through the heat exchange means of the remaining apartments.