Patent ID: 7823581

Claim:
A gas valve control system comprising: a burner; a valve operatively connected to said burner for supplying fuel to said burner; a controller including a control transmitter for transmitting a control signal at a speed of light to control said valve; and a validation transmitter for transmitting a validation signal at a speed of sound; and a receiver electrically connected to said valve and including an antenna for receiving the control signal and the validation signal from said controller; a counter for measuring the time delay between the control signal and the validation signal; a processor electrically connected to said counter for calculating a distance between said receiver and said controller based on the time delay; a comparator electrically connected to said processor for comparing the distance calculated by said processor to a maximum distance and either passing the control signal to said valve or preventing the control signal from reaching said valve based on the time delay; and said comparator passes the control signal to said valve in response to the distance being lower than the maximum distance and discards the control signal in response to the distance being greater than the maximum distance.