After a long working day, everybody wants a soulful sleep in their sweet homes and here temperature and humidity play important role in your desirable relaxation time. Most probably you do not want a humid or hot and cold ambiance in your home during your relaxation period. Every person needs a particular temperature and humidity level to feel comfortable. Today we are going to discuss one more gadget that is going to control the temperature and humidity level inside your home. This is a “Thermostat”. Today every smart home contains this gadget to adjust the inside temperature level for end user. This unique gadget controls the heating and air-conditioning systems in your home. So, how does it going to do this? Let’s find out.

What is a Thermostat?

The thermostat is a device that controls the temperature and humidity in the house or office. This device is integrated with other important electronic components like relays, valves, switches, and more to generate a signal to control the humidity and temperature of the atmosphere. Nowadays there are many types of the thermostat are available in the market. These are ranging from smartphone apps to the traditional dial. All of them are forms of thermostats. You can set a preferred temperature and humidity level and the thermostat works to keep your entire home or room at this desired level to feel comfortable. If your home starts to drop in temperature then the thermostat switches the heating on to warm it up. After the interior temperature has reached the set point, the thermostat works to switch off the heating to prevent it from getting overheated. The reverse process is applied when your house starts to heat up.

Basic Principle:

Thermostat works on the principle of thermal expansion of solid materials. A traditionally designed thermostat has two pieces of different metals bolted together to form a bimetallic strip. This structure is also known as a bimetallic strip. The bimetallic strip works as a bridge in an electrical circuit connected to your temperature and humidity control system. Normally, the metallic strip carries electricity through the circuit, and the heating is ON.

When the strip temperature crosses a certain value, one of the metals expands more than the other so the entire strip bends very slightly. As of result, it bends so much that it breaks the electrical circuit or OFF the circuit. As a result, the heating cuts out, and the home or room starts to cool.

In the second case, as the room cools – the metallic strip cools too and bends back to its original shape. And circuit closes or turns ON again. This is the basic principle of thermostats whether it is traditional or advanced. Advanced thermostats are controlled by using smartphones or wirelessly.

Engineering Inside:

Home thermostats are electronic thermostats that can be controlled by wireless connection. Most of the manufacturers are providing a programmable home thermostat with LCD display with a control panel for an easy and better user experience. The main benefit of a programmable thermostat is that you can regulate temperature during different times of the day. These digital-type thermostats have fewer moving parts and with better efficiency. Some internal units of the electronic thermostat are given below:

1. Display unit
2. Control panel
3. Control board

Display unit:

It is a user interface to display current and configured values of temperature and humidity. From here, users can choose and select the desired values as per their comfort. Most manufacturers provide LCD display for a better user experience. Whatever input we provide to the electronic thermostat either using wireless connectivity or using control panels will display here.

Control panel:

This is a set of pushbuttons to select the desired value of temperature and humidity. The control panel comes with an integrated board of electronic thermostats. In the case of a wireless thermostat, the control panel becomes part of your smartphone. You can control your thermostat by using wireless connectivity like WiFi or Bluetooth.

Control board:

The control board of an electronic thermostat is a central point of input data processing. When the user enters the desired temperature value by using their smartphone or control panel of the thermostat, this board processes the input signal and generates a control signal to handle the temperature or humidity level of your home. The thermostat generally controls Air-Conditioners or Heaters of your home to make you comfortable. The control board is generally integrated with a wireless connectivity module, display unit, control panel, and dc power source (for its operation). In modern thermostats, heat and humidity sensors are present to detect the values and send them to the control board. After that control board sends these values to a display unit that will display the current values. These advanced thermostats are truly based on solid-state electronic components that provide fast and accurate operation.

Applications:

Thermostats are used in any device or system that heats or cools to the setpoint temperature. Electronic thermostats are widely being used in home automation systems. These thermostats have useful companion apps that let you do a number of things. One of the benefits of this gadget is the ability to let you set alerts, so you can be notified if your home gets too hot or cold. These notifications are sent to your smartphones as a text, or in an email. Your electronic home thermostat will also give you indoor as well as outdoor temperature details by communicating with outside sensors. In simple words, by using a thermostat you can control your Air-Conditioner as well as room heaters to provide you comfortable ambiance. Either your home is simple or fully automated; in both cases, this gadget plays its role perfectly. If you are already using this gadget inside your home or office then you may know its importance. By using this gadget in your office you can increase the productivity level of your employees because everybody wants to work in a perfect atmospheric ambiance.

Thanks for reading. See you soon with another exploration!