The present invention concerns a method and a device for energy control, in particular to make it possible to modify simply an existing heating system in a building for the more efficient use of supplied heat energy.

Many buildings with a hydronic heating system have a very simple control of the heat energy that is output in the heat- ing system, often based solely on the measured outdoor temperature. Such a system normally comprises a regulator that controls a shunt valve according to a predefined control curve, based on the measured outdoor temperature. Most buildings lack, however, equipment that takes other climate fac- tors than the outdoor temperature, such as, for example, wind conditions and incident sunshine, into consideration. Hydronic heating systems in buildings do, however, have a large thermal inertia and thus it takes time to correct for sudden changes in the outdoor temperature.

More sophisticated control systems for the regulation of a hydronic heating system based on weather forecasts have become available in recent years, and these systems can adapt the regulation of the heating system relative to the expected changes in outdoor temperature. However, such systems often require a major modification of the control and regulatory system of the heating system of the building.

The purpose of the present invention is to achieve a new method and a device that makes it possible for older existing control and regulatory systems in buildings to be upgraded very simply and to obtain a more efficient regulation of the heating system, particularly with respect to changes in climate factors. The purpose of the invention is achieved with the aid of a method in which an outdoor temperature sensor is influenced with the aid of an external control by a heating or cooling element to determine a temperature that may deviate from the actual outdoor temperature, whereby the outdoor temperature sensor is connected to an existing control and regulatory system for a heating facility in a building in order to transfer the determined temperature to the control and regu- latory system.

A device according to the invention comprises a heating element and a cooling element that are located relative to the outdoor temperature sensor of the regulatory system such that they can be caused by a control procedure to emit heat or cooling in order to cause the external temperature sensor to determine a temperature that may deviate from the actual outdoor temperature. It is appropriate that the external control for the method and the device according to the invention comprise a computer-based program that is arranged to receive regularly weather forecasts, and to be able to carry out a calculation of the value of the outdoor temperature at a certain time in the future based on the weather forecasts received and, with the guidance of this calculated value of the outdoor temperature in the future, to control a current to the heating element or the cooling element that causes the outdoor temperature sensor to determine a temperature that corresponds to the calculated value of the outdoor temperature in the future .

The invention will now be described in more detail in the form of an embodiment of how a method and a device according to the invention may function in practice, and it will be illustrated with the aid of a schematic figure of the device according to the invention, seen in Figure 1 from above and seen in Figure 2 from one end.

The device according to the invention thus comprises an outdoor temperature sensor 1 that is connected by a connecting cable 2 to an existing control and regulatory system for a heating facility in a building. This outdoor temperature sensor 1 may in practice be an unprotected existing outdoor thermometer for a heating facility. The outdoor temperature sensor 1 is arranged at a cooling element 3, that may be, for example, a Peltier element. Also a heating element 4 is arranged at the cooling element 3, which heating element is arranged such that it is in direct contact with the outdoor temperature sensor 1. The heating element 4 may be also a Peltier element. The unit consisting of the outdoor temperature sensor 1, the cooling element 3 and the heating element 4 is arranged inside a heating chamber 5.

In addition, a thermometer 6 is arranged inside the heating chamber 5, which thermometer is arranged to record the actual temperature inside the heating chamber 5. In order to monitor also the actual outdoor temperature, an outdoor thermometer 7 is arranged on the outer surface of the heating chamber 5, which thermometer is arranged to provide information about the actual outdoor temperature.

The cooling element 3 and the heating element 4 inside the heating chamber 5 are connected through connection cables 8, 9 to a source of power that can supply power to the cooling element and the heating element in order to cool or heat, respectively, the outdoor temperature sensor 1, inside the heating chamber 5. Also the thermometer 6 inside the heating chamber 5 is connected through a signal cable 10 to a connection box, not shown in the drawings, from which information about the temperature determined within the heating chamber 5 can be transferred onwards to a monitoring and regulatory arrangement .

Also the outdoor thermometer 7 is connected to the connection box through a signal cable 11, in order to transfer information about the actual outdoor temperature to the monitoring and regulatory arrangement.

By connecting a device according to the invention, i.e. a heat sensor 5, and allowing a previous outdoor temperature sensor for an outdoor thermometer to be controlled with the aid of the cooling element 3 and the heating element 4, it is possible to allow an existing control and regulatory system for a heating system in a building to continue to function, although its input data concerning the temperature against which regulation is to take place can be changed by an independent system.

Thus, with a method and a device according to the invention an existing control and regulatory system can be modernised without any major installation, and it can be caused to control the temperature in the building more accurately and more efficiently. It can base the control also on further factors than solely outdoor temperature.

As has been described above, the heating chamber 5 is connected to a computer system through a connection box, which computer system, naturally, does not need to be arranged in the building in which the temperature is to be regulated: this computer system can be located, in principle, anywhere. It is appropriate that the communication between the connec- tion box and the computer system take place through a web- based interface, and thus it is not necessary that this communication be through wired connections. Thus, the power to the cooling element 3 and the heating element 4 can be regu- lated by the computer system such that the outdoor temperature sensor 1 "determines" a temperature that differs from the actual outdoor temperature, in order to take into account expected changes in temperature or other expected changes in the heating requirements.

The computer system that controls the function of the heating chamber 5 may be, for example, fed with weather forecasts for the immediate future, and it can calculate a value that the outdoor temperature sensor should "determine" in order to adapt, given the inertia that is present in the system, the temperature in the heating system such that the temperature in the building is held as constant as possible, or at the required temperature. The computer system may, naturally, be programmed to take into account the heating requirements at different times of the day and night, and it may be programmed to take into account also various climate factors such as incident sunshine and the effects of wind. Also functions may be in- stalled in the computer system that controls the heating chamber, which functions take into account the microclimate at the location of the building, and thus can adapt the weather forecasts received to the differences expected at the building in question.

By measuring over a period of time the actual temperature in the building, it is possible to obtain also further factors that can influence the indoor temperature, and it is also possible by the analysis of these to influence the heating chamber using computer control such that also these factors are taken into account when adapting the temperature in the heating system.

Thus, the method and the device according to the invention provide the possibility of providing in a simple manner an existing heating system with better and more energy-efficient regulation, without the costs of the new energy control being unreasonably high.

The method and the device according to the invention can be used not only with hydronic heating systems, but also with both hot-air heating systems and heating systems using direct heating by electricity. The system in the first case may, quite simply, regulate the supply of hot air instead of hot water, while in the case of direct heating by electricity the method and the device according to the invention may be connected to control the supply of electricity to the electrical heating units.