Does This New Valve Design Have any HVAC Application?

[Dreyfus]

I have built and tested a new kind of flow operated alternating valve. It's existing competition is this Galcon manufactured product:

https://www.dripworks.com/galcon-alternator-valve

That valve is spring operated whereas mine has a single moving part with no metallic components needed. In a sense it is a binary version of the indexing valves used in pools and irrigation. They use water flow to force a cam against a spring and connect an inlet to an outlet. My device is totally different and can be manufactured as a sealed unit with 1 internal moving part. It resets either by gravity or flotation.

It is rock solid reliable and has been driving 2 arms of a sequence of sprays in my garden for over a year. A tap timer alternates between each bank of sprays.

See here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mExCA1pEQYc

I have focused on garden/irrigation applications with no real luck. No real demand for this device in this application.

Please see the following video which shows the valve driving a pair of domestic garden hoses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUK0OFJtKyY

The unit is much smaller than appears. The box is there to hide design features.

A second version of the design allows the valve to open on every SECOND instance of flow. That is, on the first instance the outlet is blocked.

On the second flow instance it opens. Effectively, two of these valves at the ends of a T junction replicate the function of the two way valve
but do not decrease pressure as much because the valves are at the ends of the T rather than at the T junction.

I am wondering if this has any application in hydraulics/pneumatics or flow control in other domains.

The truth is that it may just be a curiosity with no general application.

Thanks for any advice/help whatever it is.

[Dreyfus]

I should add that this valve has an interesting property: if the currently flowing outlet is sufficiently blocked then the nonflowing outlet will automatically flow. I had thought that this could act as some sort of emergency bypass i.e. 2 fluid supplies to the same outlet and only 1 has flow at any time. If the active outlet is blocked then the other automatically flows.

But I haven't thought this thru well enough to be more concrete.

[Dreyfus]

And yet another caveat! I had originally believed that I could daisy chain these valves together i.e. have 1 valve with its 2 outlets connected to 2 other valves so that the final 4 outlets could be activated in sequence just like existing indexing valves.

However all these indexing valves rely on flow and it turns out that connecting restrictions downstream cuts flow while increasing pressure. The switching therefore becomes unreliable at that point.

The same problem applies to existing indexing valves and indeed most require a period of inactivity to allow the pressure to drop and allow flow when reactivated.

It's the nature of the beast.

I have wondered if this binary valve offers an alternative to the motorised alternating valves. There would be no need for a motorised drive system- just a way to turn the supply on and off.

Probably not.

[71CHOPS]

I don't see any HVAC use.....any systems we use will always be on, or don't fully drain when off.


you might focus on the homestead / "prepper" sector. those would be situations where people would have very low water pressure for their gardens. another thought is livestock water stations in remote areas.

interesting project. the cost to upscale is gonna be massive.

[Dreyfus]

I don't see any HVAC use.....any systems we use will always be on, or don't fully drain when off.


you might focus on the homestead / "prepper" sector. those would be situations where people would have very low water pressure for their gardens. another thought is livestock water stations in remote areas.

interesting project. the cost to upscale is gonna be massive.

Thanks for those comments. I do appreciate them. I just didn't quite understand the last point about cost to upscale. Do you mean the cost to increase the size of the valve or to apply it elsewhere? Thanks for any clarification.

[MKnight88]

Valves have to be built to a different standard for refrigeration in any case. A discharge line could easily be running 400PSI and at a high temperature. The other issue is refrigerant tends to leak a lot easier than water, especially when valves and fittings heat up.

[Dreyfus]

Valves have to be built to a different standard for refrigeration in any case. A discharge line could easily be running 400PSI and at a high temperature. The other issue is refrigerant tends to leak a lot easier than water, especially when valves and fittings heat up.

All good points. However if a ball valve can work in refrigeration than this design should be fine. If it's a question of tolerances than that is just a matter of manufacturing precision and cost. I think my biggest question is what the valve can be applied to. Until that is answered- and it may have no application- then all else is secondary.

I note that the Tesla one way valve works very well but has had no serious application in 100 years.....