temperature, the bimetallic strip moves into the on position and the
heater is switched on. The controller output can thus be just on or off
and the correcting signal on or off (Figure 7.2).
Because the control action is discontinuous and there are time lags in
the system, oscillations of the controlled variable occur about the
required condition. Thus, with temperature control using the bimetallic
thermostat, when the room temperature drops below the required level
there is a significant time before the heater begins to have an effect on
the room temperature and, in the meantime, the temperature has fallen
even more. When the temperature rises to the required temperature,
since time elapses before the control system reacts and switches the
heater off and it cools and stops heating the room, the room temperature
goes beyond the required value. The result is that the room temperature
oscillates above and below the required temperature (Figure 7.3).
There is also a problem with the simple on--off system in that when
the room temperature is hovering about the set value the thermostat
might be reacting to very slight changes in temperature and almost
continually switching on or off. Thus, when it is at its set value a slight
draught might cause it to operate. This problem can be reduced if the
heater is switched on at a lower temperature than the one at which it is
switched off (Figure 7.4). The term dead band is used for the values
between the on and off values. For example, if the set value on a
thermostat is 20~ then a deadband might mean it switches on when the
temperature falls to 19.5 ~ and off when it is 20.5 ~ . The temperature has
thus to change by one degree for the controller to switch the heater on or
off and thus smaller changes do not cause the thermostat to switch. A
large dead band results in large fluctuations of the temperature about the
set temperature; a small dead band will result in an increased frequency
of switching. The bimetallic thermostat shown in Figure 7.1 has a
permanent magnet on one switch contact and a small piece of soft iron
on the other; this has the effect of producing a small dead band in that,
when the switch is closed, a significant rise in temperature is needed for
the bimetallic element to produce sufficient force to separate the
contacts.
On--off control is not too bad at maintaining a constant value of the
variable when the capacitance of the system is very large, e.g. a central
heating system heating a large air volume, and so the effect of changes
in, say, a heater output results in slow changes in the variable. It also
involves simple devices and so is fairly cheap. On-off control can be
implemented by mechanical switches such as bimetallic strips or relays
with more rapid switching being achieved with electronic circuits, e.g.
thyristors or transistors used to control the speed of a motor.