Water-treatment, descaling, and monitoring system

Abstract

The present document discloses water-treatment, descaling, and monitoring systems that include components selected from among: (1) water-treatment components; (2) a component that protects system components, plumbing, and appliances from limescale build-up by generation of a pure sine-wave descaling signal that passes FCC requirements; (3) a component that generates an electrolysis-inhibiting signal; (4) components that monitor propagation and the strength of the descaling signal within the plumbing system; (5) probe and sensor components that monitor water quality, the operational status of other components, and system characteristics; (6) components that prevent the descaling signal from interfering with probes, sensors, and water-treatment-system components; (7) a component that generates UV radiation for eliminating biological contaminants within water heaters and other appliances; and (8) wireless-communications components that facilitate transmission of alerts regarding operational status and water quality, remote control of system components in response to alerts, receiving system firmware and parameter updates, and transmitting status and monitoring data.

1 . A monitoring and control system that remediates and inhibits deposition of solid carbonates of calcium and magnesium within plumbing and appliances of a monitored water system and that processes water input to the monitored water system, the monitoring and control system comprising:
 water-processing components;   a carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition module that includes
 a signal-generation component that receives a time-varying carbonate control signal and, in response, outputs a carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal, and 
 a carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition-signal-monitor that outputs a carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition-signal-strength signal: 
   a coupler that couples the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal to the monitored water system; and   a control unit that includes
 a processor, and 
 stored instructions that, when executed by the processor, control the processor to
 determine time intervals for application of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal, 
 during determined time intervals for application of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal,
 output the time-varying carbonate-control signal, and 
 receive and process the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition-signal-strength signal, 
 
 determine monitoring time intervals, and 
 during monitoring time intervals, receive and process one or more probe and/or sensor signals. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the water-processing components include one or more of:
 an electronically-adjustable water filter that is controlled, by certain of the component-control signals output by the control unit, to filter selected metal ions from the water input to the monitored water system; 
 an electronically-adjustable water filter that is controlled, by certain of the component-control signals output by the control unit, to filter selected types of small-molecule contaminants the water input to the monitored water system; 
 a pressure-adjusting component that is controlled, by certain of the component-control signals output by the control unit, to maintain a selected water pressure within one or more monitored-water-system components; 
 a temperature-adjusting component that is controlled, by certain of the component-control signals output by the control unit, to maintain a selected temperature within one or more monitored-water-system components; and 
 a UV source that is monitored by the control unit and that emits UV radiation to kill various types of microorganisms in the water input to the monitored water system. 
 
     
     
         3 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition module comprises:
 a gain-control amplifier that receives the time-varying carbonate control signal from the control unit and outputs an amplitude-adjusted time-varying carbonate control signal; 
 a multi-pole filter which receives the amplitude-adjusted time-varying carbonate control signal and outputs a smooth sinusoidal output signal; and 
 a power amplifier that receives the smooth sinusoidal output signal and outputs the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal. 
 
     
     
         4 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 3  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal smooth sinusoidal output signal is a sine-wave-like radio-frequency signal with a frequency of between 50 Hz and 148 kHz and a peak-to-peak voltage of between 5V and 50V. 
     
     
         5 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 4  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal has a single prominent frequency, with the amplitudes of harmonic frequencies reduced by multi-pole filtering. 
     
     
         6 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition module comprises:
 a digital signal processor that receives the time-varying carbonate control signal from the control unit and outputs oscillating signals with particular amplitudes and frequencies; 
 a multi-pole filter which receives the oscillating signals with particular amplitudes and frequencies and outputs smooth sinusoidal output signals with particular amplitudes and frequencies; and 
 a power amplifier that receives the smooth sinusoidal output signals with particular amplitudes and frequencies and outputs corresponding carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signals. 
 
     
     
         7 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 6  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signals are sine-wave-like radio-frequency signals with a frequency of between 50 kHz and 550 kHz. 
     
     
         8 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 7  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signals each has a single prominent frequency, with the amplitudes of harmonic frequencies reduced by multi-pole filtering, at each point in time. 
     
     
         9 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition-signal-strength signal is generated by comparison of a first signal output by a first precision-peak-detection circuit to the control unit and a second signal output by a second precision-peak-detection circuit to the control unit, the first precision-peak-detection circuit receiving the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal output by the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition module and the second precision-peak-detection circuit receiving the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal output by a resistor that receives the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition module output by the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition module. 
     
     
         10 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more probe and/or sensor signals includes one or more of:
 a UV sensor that outputs a UV-sensor signal; 
 a water-pressure sensor that outputs a water-pressure signal; 
 a differential-water-pressure sensor that outputs a differential-water-pressure signal; 
 a water-flow-rate probe that outputs a water-flow-rate signal; 
 a total-dissolved-solids probe that outputs a total-dissolved-solids signal; 
 a pH sensor that outputs a pH signal; 
 a total-organic-carbon probe that outputs a total-organic-carbon signal; and 
 an oxidation-reduction-potential sensor that outputs an oxidation-reduction-potential signal. 
 
     
     
         11 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the time intervals for application of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal and the monitoring time intervals do not overlap. 
     
     
         12 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 11  wherein, at the end of a time interval for application of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal, output of the time-varying carbonate-control signal is terminated in less than 1 millisecond in order to start a next monitoring time interval. 
     
     
         13 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein, at the end of a monitoring time interval, output of the time-varying carbonate-control signal is restarted in less than 1 millisecond in order to start a next time interval for application of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal. 
     
     
         14 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the control unit modulates the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal by cycling output of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal by rapidly terminating output of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal and restarting output of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal in order to in order to use the descaling signal as a modulated carrier wave that carries an audio-frequency signal of between 1.0 kHz and 2.2 kHz. 
     
     
         15 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 14  wherein the audio-frequency signal is received by a capacitively or inductively coupled carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition-signal probe that produces a corresponding audio output. 
     
     
         16 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the control unit additionally includes one or more:
 relay controllers; and 
 relay-controller interfaces. 
 
     
     
         17 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 16  wherein the control unit activates and deactivates, via one or more of the relay controllers and/or relay-controller interfaces, one or more:
 garage doors; 
 physical audio and/or light-emitting alarms; 
 lights; 
 well pumps; 
 automatic doors; and 
 circuit breakers. 
 
     
     
         18 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the control unit generates alarms by using one or more of:
 Bluetooth communications; 
 Wi-Fi communications; 
 ioT communications; 
 smart-phone communications via the cellular network; 
 network communications; and 
 electrical signals input to conductive signal paths connecting the control unit with audio-emitting, light-emitting, and information-display devices. 
 
     
     
         19 . The monitoring and control system of  claim 1  wherein the control unit manages temperatures within the monitoring and control system by one or more of:
 changing an output voltage of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal; 
 intermittently terminating and subsequently restarting output of the carbonate-remediation-and-inhibition signal; and 
 intermittently placing the processor into a low-power sleep mode.