I have been using the Nimbus control manufactured by Control Resources, for a while to set certain of my circulators in my heating system to an optimized flow rate. I thought it may help folks that are interested in tweaking their systems. What follows worked for us but do your own research.
A picture of the card/control to give an idea of what it is. It fits on top of a 4x4 electrical job box.
I have used the Nimbus board previous to the introduction of the NFCS to be able to select a fixed speed of my choosing to set some of my circulators to a custom flow rate. You can set the control manually via dip settings to output from 27%-100%. For circulators usually I start at 40-42% because that is where I found the water started moving, each circulator and situation that number an be a different value based on what head value of the loop. If it was a primary boiler circulator I would set it at say 40% and start the fire. I would watch the supply and return throughout the burn or at least into its peak and see if the temperatures got too high. If it was climing to high just move the dip settings on the nimbus to bump it up a few percent. This can be done even while its running and the change in the circ spreed is immidiate. I would find the lowest flow rate that worked throughout the whole burn. On the circ from the storage tank to the heating system I watched the supply and return temps and again used the lowest speed to get the task done.
This helped a great deal in keeping the storage tank statified. I had much higher temps for longer periods than ever before by just finding the lowest speed that worked. I took some time but well worth it. Of course there are times even with that system that a fully variable flow rate could even be better. Enter interfacing of the NFCS with the Nimbus control.
The NFCS can send signals to the Nimbus to set it at any speed in the control range. Here, Nofossil shows how the Nimbus interfaces to the NFCS. Rules can be made to operate at 40% if certain temperatures are true or 45% if other temperatures are true, etc. Each of the three circulators I'm currently controlling with this method have 3 or 4 speed selections dependant on temperature sensor feedback and rule set. This is working quite well. The ruleset and current system status I'm currently using can be seen at this link, if my system is currently connected to the network and live.
Currently the PID loop is being developed for the NFCS that will give a fully variable speed rate depending on the rules set.
We have a blog posting that gives more information if someone is interested on how we used the Nimbus for manual control with fixed speeds via dip settings and also how we are using the Nimbus with the NFCS
A picture of the card/control to give an idea of what it is. It fits on top of a 4x4 electrical job box.
I have used the Nimbus board previous to the introduction of the NFCS to be able to select a fixed speed of my choosing to set some of my circulators to a custom flow rate. You can set the control manually via dip settings to output from 27%-100%. For circulators usually I start at 40-42% because that is where I found the water started moving, each circulator and situation that number an be a different value based on what head value of the loop. If it was a primary boiler circulator I would set it at say 40% and start the fire. I would watch the supply and return throughout the burn or at least into its peak and see if the temperatures got too high. If it was climing to high just move the dip settings on the nimbus to bump it up a few percent. This can be done even while its running and the change in the circ spreed is immidiate. I would find the lowest flow rate that worked throughout the whole burn. On the circ from the storage tank to the heating system I watched the supply and return temps and again used the lowest speed to get the task done.
This helped a great deal in keeping the storage tank statified. I had much higher temps for longer periods than ever before by just finding the lowest speed that worked. I took some time but well worth it. Of course there are times even with that system that a fully variable flow rate could even be better. Enter interfacing of the NFCS with the Nimbus control.
The NFCS can send signals to the Nimbus to set it at any speed in the control range. Here, Nofossil shows how the Nimbus interfaces to the NFCS. Rules can be made to operate at 40% if certain temperatures are true or 45% if other temperatures are true, etc. Each of the three circulators I'm currently controlling with this method have 3 or 4 speed selections dependant on temperature sensor feedback and rule set. This is working quite well. The ruleset and current system status I'm currently using can be seen at this link, if my system is currently connected to the network and live.
Currently the PID loop is being developed for the NFCS that will give a fully variable speed rate depending on the rules set.
We have a blog posting that gives more information if someone is interested on how we used the Nimbus for manual control with fixed speeds via dip settings and also how we are using the Nimbus with the NFCS
