In the need of my new homemade energy saving fireplace (which boils water for the radiator) i designed and built a digital thermostat. The idea to design my own thermostat came when i came across with the following problem.
When i first fire the fireplace the water in the boiler around the fireplace is cool. After a few minutes the fireplace warms the water enough so that the water temp exceeds the thermostat limit. The thermostat changes state and drives an electric valve to move the water from the fireplace boiler to the radiators. The electric valve is slow enough and takes a few minutes to make a full turn. While the water is moving from the fireplace boiler to the radiators, circularly cool water is coming back in the fireplace boiler from the radiators. Τhe water temp in the fireplace boiler is getting cooler and after a few minutes falls under thermostat's limit. The thermostat changes state and stops the valve from driving the water to radiators. This happens again and again until the whole amount of water in the radiators is get warm. 
To prevent this problem from opening and closing the electric valve in so small time spaces i designed a thermostat that can delay the sample points. It check's the fireplace boiler temp and drives the electric valve once the water temp exceeds the thermostat limit. After that it waits for a half hour or more and then checks the water temp again.