AN INFORMATIVE PROJECT ON

Automatic Heat Control Unit

By
Sandip Nair
sandipnair06@yahoo.com
sandipnair.hpage.com
 Application:
The circuit developed is assumed to be the basic of the one
used for controlling furnace in an industry.

Circuit diagram:

Part list:

i. Resistor(120 Ohm) – 2
ii. Pot (0-200 Ohm) – 1
iii. RTD – 1
iv. Opamp – 1
v. Relay (24V) – 1
vi. Diode (1N4007) – 1
vii. Connecting wires
viii. +12V and -12V power supply
ix. Multimeter
Working:

The circuit is analyzed in two parts: -

1. Bridge circuit
2. Opamp circuit

Bridge circuit:

A particular temperature is selected such that when the

temperature of water reduces from that temperature, heater is
on and when temperature of water increases slightly more than
the assumed; the supply to the heater is cut off.

Let us consider that water is to be heated up to 60oC and

has to maintain the temperature. At first we heat the water up
to 60oC by measuring the temperature using mercury
thermometer. RTD is kept inside the heater. Resistance of RTD
increases and reaches to a particular value for temperature
60oC.Now the resistance of the pot is varied such that the
potential difference between the terminals A&B becomes zero.
Now there are two cases which are generated:
• When temperature is greater than 60oC,( VB-VA) is
positive. (VB->potential at B,VA->potential at A).
• When the temperature is less than 60oC,(VB-VA) is
negative.

OPAMP CIRCUIT:

The opamp circuit below is a comparator circuit.

Now we analyze the above opamp circuit using the earlier two
cases.

• When the temperature is greater than 60oC potential at B

is greater than the potential at A, thus output of the
opamp is +12V which will drive the diode and energize
the coil of the relay. The contact of the switch is changed
and the supply to the heater is disconnected.
• When the temperature of water reduces from the 60oC
mark, potential at A is greater than potential of B, thus
output of the opamp is -12V, which won’t energize the
coil of the relay, and thus the switch remains at normally
closed terminal. And the supply to the heater is given and
temperature reaches 60oC mark and goes beyond that.

This case is the same when the water is heated from very
low temperature to 60oC.
Here as we consider the procedure for the 60oC
temperature, similar procedure is adopted for any temperature
to our desire. The resistance values (R1&R2) can be taken
according to our desire, but it’s highly recommended that it
should be such that R1=R2.The bridge can be theoretically
balanced by measuring the resistance of R.T.D for the desired
temperature and varying the resistance of the pot. In the bridge
circuit we can consider thermistor instead of the R.T.D, but the
pot selected should have resistance of the range. (But the error
due to the practical resistors, theoretical calculations may go
wrong).
CONCLUSION:

In this project the temperature sensor used is R.T.D, and it is

not mandatory that an R.T.D should only be used, but instead
anything like Thermister or Thermocouple can be used (but
suitable modifications is expected to be done to meet the
expected result), So in this way the scope of the project is also
very much high.

We would like to conclude by saying that, Even though this

project is a small scale thought, we hold this in the highest of
the regards. When it comes to the future applications for
temperature based instruments this information will be more
than sufficient for starters. Since this is the very basic
information for starters like us, it will do very much help as far
as the development of the future temperature based instruments
are concerned, like some of them as earlier mentioned, “THE
FURNACE INDUSTRY”. So in this way the core part of the
instrumentation is also exploited as it is desired for
instrumentation engineers like us.