Czech company Atrea is a supplier of heating and ventilation systems for family houses. Their Integrated Heat Storage (IZT) is a tank with heat exchangers that serves as a heat storage for hot water and heating. It can be heated by solar collectors, fireplace, pellets, heat pump or electric coils. However, in one installation with solar collectors and a fireplace, there was a requirement to monitor the operation. As the RG23 control unit does not support this, it was replaced by our DIN-IPC controller system and a sample application was created which takes over complete control of the system and also sends the current status to a server where the data is stored and the operation of the system can be monitored over time. Due to the lack of cabling, everything works wirelessly via Wi-Fi, so there was no need to make interventions in the house.
Those system components were chosen for realization::
- IPC-LCDMCU-DIO2AI2 - display for simple system view with operating status with control inputs and outputs and temperature converter
- IPC-CPUF407 - control unit with home network connection (Wi-Fi only used) and control output
- IPC-DIO1AI1 - expansion module for additional control output
The temperatures are measured with the original NTC sensors for bottom, middle and top tank temperature, also the fireplace heat exchanger temperature, the solar system temperature and additionally the outdoor and indoor temperature are measured. The four outputs are used to control the relays for the solar system pump, the fireplace pump and the heating of the tank by the electric coils in the lower and middle part of tank.
There are a total of 12 control profiles that change settings according to the date during the year. The implemented functions are as follows:
- blocking of the electrical coil heating by the spirals when the solar system and the fireplace are operating (not only when the pump is operating, but also the heating time of the solar system or the fireplace is taken into account)
- blocking of electrical heating by signal for low cost tarriff form electrical provider
- blocking of electrical heating by monitoring the house maximum current with maximum current controller HJ103
- calculation of the energy consumed for each day
- connection to the internal network and to the internet via Ethernet and Wi-Fi
- setting the exact time using NTP protocol
- command line via USB and telnet connection for setting system parameters
- HTTP server to display current status and configuration
- MQTT client that sends operational data every second to the configured server (temperatures, pump and coil status and energy consumption)
The collected data is sent to a home server where it is stored using the Prometheus monitoring system and can be displayed graphically via a web browser using the popular Grafana monitoring tool. In this way it is possible to get a detailed picture of the operation throughout the year and to evaluate the operation both economically and functionally.
It is also possible to trace the weather dependency in the solar system operation data to determine the profitability of the entire system, not only in summer. It will be interesting to see how the system operates in winter, whether the solar collector can still supply energy in winter and also when the fireplace starts to heat up. This will be evaluated in the spring.
The DIN-IPC system is suitable for installation in conventional cabinets, the unique cabling similar to that of modular devices makes it easy to use, the cables are not accessible to the operating person and it also does not require structural modifications. It can be used for control in many industries. If you are interested in the solution and would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.