whether used in a hospital environment or in a home care environment , the present invention will generally have associated two main pieces of apparatus . firstly an active humidifier which controls the temperature of a heater plate heating a body of water to achieve a desired temperature and humidity of the gases being humidified . secondly a transport conduit from the humidifier to the patient is also required , which is preferably heated to reduce condensation , or “ rain out ”. referring to fig1 a humidifying apparatus as might be used in a hospital generally referenced 1 is shown . the apparatus comprises a body 2 containing heating means comprising a heating plate 20 having an electric heating element therein or in thermal contact therewith and control means for example electronic circuitry which may include a microprocessor for controlling the supply of energy to the heating element . the body 2 is removably engageable with a humidifying chamber 3 which contains water for humidifying gases . referring to fig2 which shows the humidifier apparatus in more detail , the humidifying chamber 3 has edges which engage with collar 24 on the humidifier apparatus . the gases to be humidified may be a mixture of air , oxygen and anaesthetic for example which are supplied to the chamber through a gases inlet 4 . this might be connected to a ventilator , or in the case of cpap therapy a cpap blower . a gases outlet 5 is also provided and the gases outlet 5 is connected to the conduit 6 ( fig1 ) which conveys humidified gases to a remote destination such as an intubated patient at the end 7 of the conduit . alternatively , the end 7 of the conduit may have a gas mask attached thereto , which is used to cover a nose and / or mouth of a user so as to supply humidified gases to the user for breathing , as in the delivery of cpap therapy . the humidifier heater plate 20 has a temperature transducer 8 which is in electrical connection with the electronic control circuitry in body 2 of the apparatus so that the control means monitors the temperature of the heating plate . a heating element 10 is provided within the conduit 6 to help prevent condensation of the humidified gases within the conduit . such condensation is due to the temperature of the walls of the conduit being close to the ambient temperature , ( being the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere ) which is usually lower than the temperature of the humidified gases within the conduit . the heater element effectively replaces the energy lost from the gases through conduction and convection during transit through the conduit . thus the conduit heater element ensures the gases delivered are at an optimal temperature and humidity . the present invention provides a means of controlling at least the heater plate and preferably also the conduit heater element without the need for any sensors , either in the humidifier chamber or positioned in the conduit . this is achieved by estimating the rate of flow of gases through the humidifier using parameters already available to the controller . for a given humidifier an appropriate level of power can then be determined to apply to the heater plate to achieve the desired temperature of gases delivered to the patient . additionally this may be used to provide a more appropriate level of energisation at this conduit heater element . this not only saves the cost of the extra sensors but also allows the apparatus connected to the end of the conduit to be simpler and lighter . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention the controller 100 , shown in fig3 , uses a range of inputs to control both the power 108 supplied to the heater plate 110 as well as the power 114 supplied to the conduit heating element 116 ( if present ). in certain applications it may also be used to provide control instructions to auxiliary apparatus such as a blower fan . using an internal algorithm 106 the controller 100 estimates the power 108 to supply to the humidifier heater plate 110 to achieve a given humidity and or temperature of gases at the top of the humidifier chamber alternatively ( or estimates the temperature to achieve a given power ). it then uses a second algorithm 102 to estimate the required power 114 to supply to the conduit heater element 116 and the humidifier heater plate 110 to achieve optimal temperature and / or humidity of the gases delivered to the patient 118 . referring to fig4 , when the humidifier starts up the controller executes a supervisory algorithm , which controls the heater plate and if present the conduit heater element . initially 128 the heater plate is controlled to a temperature of 40 ° c . and the conduit heater element may be energised with a duty cycle of for example 50 %. the heater plate temperature ( or alternatively the power supplied to the heater plate ) is then monitored 130 until it settles to a stabilised level . effectively a window 132 is superimposed over the heater plate temperature profile 134 of which an example is shown in fig5 . when the profile 134 ( over the entire period of the window 132 ) fits within the bounds of the window 132 , it is effectively considered to have stabilised . once this has occurred the controller enters a calculation stage . firstly , it calculates the flow rate of the gases 136 using any one of a number of methods which will be described later . secondly knowing the rate of flow of the gases the algorithm then calculates the required heater plate power 138 ( alternatively heater plate temperature ) to achieve a desired temperature / humidity of gases ( alternatively heater plate power ). a relationship has been empirically determined using a humidifier and a heated conduit such as that as described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 640 , 951 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . the actual relationship for any other arrangement would either have to be empirically determined by experimentation or theoretically calculated . for a desired temperature of gases exiting the humidifier of for example 37 ° c . the relationship between the power supplied to the heater plate ( p hp ), the rate of flow of gases ( f gas ) and the ambient temperature ( t amb ) is graphed in fig6 . from this an approximate general algebraic equation has been extrapolated which the controller can use to determine an approximate level of power to apply to the heater plate : p hp =(− 0 . 1239 × t amb + 5 . 383 )× f gas +(− 0 . 3112 × t amb + 10 . 738 ) thirdly the algorithm calculates the required power input to the conduit heater wire 140 to deliver a desired temperature of the gases to the patient . with gases flowing at a known rate of flow it is possible to calculate the resultant temperature of the gases once they have flowed through a conduit of known characteristics surrounded by the atmosphere at a known or assumed ambient temperature . thermal characteristics of the conduit will either be known or can be calculated by experimentation . this relationship is based off empirical data using a humidifier and a heated conduit such as that as described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 640 , 951 . the actual relationship for any other arrangement would either have to be empirically determined by experimentation or theoretically calculated . with a conduit entry gas temperature of 37 ° c . and a temperature of gases delivered to the patient of 40 ° c ., the relationship between the flow rate of the gases ( f gas ), the power input to the conduit heater element ( p c ), the ambient temperature ( t amb ) is graphed in fig7 . this is extrapolated to a general algebraic expression : p c =(− 0 . 0005 * t amb + 0 . 0169 ) f gas 2 −[ 10 − 5 * t amb 3 − 0 . 0042 * t amb 2 + 0 . 2189 * t amb − 3 . 0075 ] f gas − 1 . 0169 * t amb + 38 . 956 practically this relationship can be simplified whereby p c is dependent only on t amb . this is an acceptable approximation for the conduit heater element , as it is not as crucial as the heater plate . once the heater plate and conduit heater element have been appropriately energised , the controller continues to monitor 142 the system for any changes in the variables . the main reason for this is to avoid thermal overshoot ie where the flow drops suddenly , the temperature of gases can become dangerously high . in order to monitor effectively , two methods are used . firstly the flow rate is monitored and secondly the change in flow rate ( with respect to time ) is also monitored . the first 144 is to allow the system to respond to any changes in the system . the second 146 is a fast response system in order to avoid thermal overshoot . effectively where either p hp or t hp is controlled constant , monitoring the other variable gives an indication of any change in flow , or any other variable which requires a recalculation . in order to monitor the flow a variable x ( defined as p hp / t hp ), which is closely related to the flow rate , is constantly calculated and monitored . if it goes up there is a 30 minute delay before the controller initiates a recalculation , to avoid spurious readings and unnecessary calculations . if it goes down there is a 30 second delay before the controller recalculates , to avoid any possibility of the delivered gases being , even transiently , too hot . where large step changes occur the controller needs to react quickly . in such cases it will reset to initial conditions to wait until the system stabilises again , as any calculations in the interim would be pointless . to achieve this dx / dt is calculated and monitored . while a negative value is more dangerous , any deviation over a certain value will reset the controller . in an alternative embodiment of the present invention the expected heater plate temperature is calculated using and if the actual heater plate temperature deviates by more than 5 ° c . then the program recalculates the required powers . 1 ) estimates the rate of flow of gases keeping all variables constant 136 . 2 ) estimate the required heater plate power / temperature to achieve a specified temperature / humidity of gases in the humidification chamber 138 . 3 ) calculate the power input to the heater wire to achieve a desired output temperature 140 . it will be appreciated that a greater level of power will be supplied to the conduit heater element if : i ) the rate of flow of the gases reduces , ii ) the ambient temperature decreases , iii ) the differential between ambient and gases temperature increases . it will also be appreciated that the heater plate temperature could be controlled to a set value ( using closed loop control ) as opposed to power . in this case the power supplied would be monitored as a measure of system stability . furthermore where relationships are expressed algebraically they could equally be stored in look - up tables . generally when used in a hospital setting a humidifier such as that described in the present invention will be used in conjunction with a respirator to supply humidified gases to an intubated patient , or possibly using a respiratory mask . as such the humidifier will operate effectively independent of the respirator and therefore must make all of its control decisions based on only the sensors contained therein . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention the flow rate of the gases passing through the humidification chamber can first be estimated by comparing the power input required 108 for the humidifier heater plate to the measured temperature 112 of the heater plate . in effect the higher the rate of flow of gases the larger the amount of power required by the heater plate in order to achieve a given heater plate temperature . thus for a given system the relationship between power to heater plate and flow rate for a given heater plate temperature can either be determined empirically or theoretically calculated . again using a humidifier and a heated conduit such as that as described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 640 , 951 the following empirically determined relationship applies : f gar = - ( 0 . 831 - 0 . 0049 * t amb ) + abs ⁢  ( 0 . 831 - 0 . 0049 * t amb ) 2 - ( 4 * ( 0 . 00004 * t amb - 0 . 0057 ) * ( ( 14 . 348 - 0 . 25 * t amb ) - p hp ) )  ( 2 * ( 0 . 0004 * t amb - 0 . 0057 ) ) where p hp is the power applied to the heater plate to achieve a given heater plate temperature in steady state of 50 ° c ., t amb is the ambient temperature and f gas is the gas flow rate . it will be appreciated this method is more appropriate in the hospital care environment where the ambient temperature can be assured with a high degree of confidence . in the homecare environment the present invention will often be employed in conjunction with a continuous positive airway pressure ( cpap ) device or such other breathing apparatus which will include a fan such as that described in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 050 , 260 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . it will be appreciated that in such applications it may be possible to connect the controllers of the various devices together in an arrangement such that data may be readily exchanged . in such cases the rate of flow of the gases may be estimated directly from information available either from the fan or , where provided , a flow sensor . in this embodiment of the present invention the flow is estimated based on the loading of the fan . generally the fan will be controlled to run at a specified speed and therefore deliver a constant pressure output . the flow rate of the gases will depend on the restrictions in the flow path . in turn in order to maintain the specified speed a certain power input will be required for the fan . therefore an algebraic relationship between the actual gas flow rate and the power input to the fan can be developed for a fan of known characteristics . this relationship may either be determined empirically by experimentation or theoretically calculated using specified motor characteristics . a number of methods are known in the art for determining the loading on a motor from the supply it draws . the simplest such method would be to firstly meter the current drawn 148 from the fan 150 , as indicated in fig3 . the current 148 is the input to the conduit heater element controller 102 where either an algebraic relationship or a look up table is used to determine the flow rate of the gases . for example in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 740 , 795 , the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference , a method is disclosed using both motor voltage and current to estimate the flow rate . while this represents one method , as mentioned above , it will be appreciated that other methods , such as based on just current , will be equally applicable . as mentioned in the alternative embodiment , in certain cases a flow sensor may already be provided in the gas flow path . this being the case , the gas flow rate 152 can be extracted directly from the flow sensor 154 and used as an input to the humidifier controller 100 , as indicated in fig3 . this is then used directly in the conduit heater element controller 102 to determine the power to apply to the heater plate 110 and conduit heater element 116 according to the algorithm shown in fig4 and described earlier . in order to connect the conduit heater element to the power supply in the humidifier , an adaptor cable is required . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention , the adaptor 200 includes an indicator 202 to indicate whether the conduit heater element is operating correctly , when the adaptor is plugged in , as shown in fig1 . the humidifier controller continually detects for the conduit heater element and determines whether it is operating correctly . it does this by energising the conduit heater element intermittently , and if the expected current results , it energises 204 the indicator ( eg an led ). the present invention as described in the foregoing provides a novel method and apparatus for controlling the heater plate temperature in a humidifier for supplying humidified gases to a patient under respiratory therapy . this has the advantage of removing external sensors making the system simpler , cheaper and lighter . similarly it may also allow for effective control over energisation of the conduit heater element , ensuring the system as a whole operates correctly as well as being as efficient as possible .
a breathing assistance apparatus adapted to deliver humidified gases at a desired level of humidity to a patient including a humidifier and a heated conduit is disclosed . the humidifier includes a controller which controls the humidifier , or the humidifier and the heated conduit to deliver the gases to the patient at the required humidity or temperature , without the requirement for sensors in the gases stream . the controller uses information already available to the controller , without the requirement for additional information to be provided by sensors in the gases stream . this means the need for sensors in the gases stream is dispensed with . a significant benefit is achieved as sensors are not required in the conduit and thus the apparatus is simple and less bulky .