Power Controller for Electric Convector Heaters By Gérard Guiheneuf (France) In Autumn or Spring, the weather may be warm enough that we'dlike to save money by shutting down the main heating system in courhome and just use supplementary heat- ingbased onone ormore electric convector heaters Even though these convectorsare quite heavy consumers of electricity this can be reduced by fitting a power controller between the heatersand the AC power outlet, which will affectthe effective power consumption of the convectors, The circuit diagramis based around the use of the emblematic NE5SSIC, used here as an astable multivibrator with variable duty cyde (D~ tysh/ 7), but at a fixed operating frequency, given by: 1(0.693xP1 x6) ‘The duty cydeD of the signal at the output (0in 3) of IC2 will change depending on the position of the wiper of potentiometer PI + Ifthe wiperis at mid-travel, the duty cycle Dwillbeo 5; + Ithewiperisat the +12 Vend, the cz ‘output signaliszeroand hence D=0; + Ifthe wiper position takes it down to the voltage on, IC2's outputsupplies 2 constant voltage of around 11 V and D= debtor 7/2200 aimed at reducing heating in the twocompo nents and reducing the bulk of the heatsinks cempbyed. Experimentally, thi solution gives rise to low heating of the heatsinks when the controlleris powering a2 kW-ated convector constanthy (duty cycle D = 1) ‘The power consumed by the convector with controller is easy to calculate from the sim= ple formula By way of transistor T1, 1€2 drives two MOC3021 phototriacs (IC3 & IC4) which provide the isolation between the circuit's “driver section and the ‘power’section, which isdirectly connected to the AC povreitines Each phototriac drives a power triac (TRN & W=PxtxD where We power consumed in watt-hours (Wh) P=rated convector power in watts (W) erating time of the convector{controller unit in hours (i); D=duty cycle setby potentiometer PI TRI). These two triacs are fitted in parallel and share thetask of supplying the convector (®)-onetriac supplies the postive hal-cycle while the other triac supplies the negative halfscycle. The overeating ofthe triacs (high rmscurrent rating: 16 4) combined with their sein parallel and the alternating switching is 45 Example: fora duty cydeD of Sand anoper ating time of one hour, a2 kW convector will consume 1 kWh (ows Internet Link [1] wwacelektor.comj1 10185