Smarter control system needed

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waterflea

waterflea

Member
Jul 4, 2008
28
NH
Over the last few years I have designed and installed a system built around a EKO 60 and 1500 gallons of storage that heats my house, barn and shop. It is controlled by relays and 2 Honeywell controllers
and works well but not as good as I would like it to....it needs to be smarter. One of the problems is if I set the controllers to shut off the pumps to the storage at a certain temperature, let's say 180 degrees,
and it never makes it to that temperature than the pumps run all night and the systems cools down too fast. If they shut the pumps off and the boiler still has more heat to give, then I have another problem.
I time my burning cycles so that when I go to bed I manually turn off the pumps myself....not the way I want the system to operate. I wonder if replacing the controllers with a computer that
could be programed to think a little about it's options as the boiler temperature reaches it's highest point and starts to drop. What are people using out there for systems like mine that require more brainpower
to control? I would also like it to do some logging of temperatures and times. Thanks for any feedback.
 
Waterflea,

I use a Tekmar 156 controller to handle the job of heating my storage. Works great, one temp probe on the boiler and on on the lower side of my storage tank. You need to program the controller so that it knows at what boiler temp you want it to start the circ for storage, set a Set Pt Dif. to control when the Cir is turned off and a Target temp for storage.

Works great.
 
DaveBP said:
One of the moderators of this forum and long time valuable contributor designs, manufactures and sells and supports a control that will do more than you can imagine.

Check it out:

http://www.nofossil.org/index.php?choice=nfcs
Click to expand...


I figure by now he's had it perfected to load the wood and carry out the ashes? :)
 
I posted what I used on the wiki https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/TankControl_Information/ for my EKO 60 w/1500 gal.

It's the "opensource" version for the computer savvy types. Not much money invested and works pretty good. I'm going to be starting the 3rd season with it so its been pretty reliable for me.

I added some things along the way, more sensors ( Of course ) I finally have some in the tank. I made a small version of the web site that just shows the tank on my iphone. What a PITA since I had to pick up a different charting library, but it works and it's cool to be able to see the temps from anywhere without bugging someone at home , if anyone is at home.

check it out at http://mwkigw01.dyndns.org:26/index.shtml, Not fast due to my terribly slow internet connection but it works.

-- It's only tested on my Iphone4 ( safari ) so I have NO idea what another browser will do.
 
flyingcow said:
DaveBP said:
One of the moderators of this forum and long time valuable contributor designs, manufactures and sells and supports a control that will do more than you can imagine.

Check it out:

http://www.nofossil.org/index.php?choice=nfcs
Click to expand...


I figure by now he's had it perfected to load the wood and carry out the ashes? :)
Click to expand...

I have the fancy control system... But I went oldshcool for the wood and ashes... Thats what the kids
are for. :p
 
Want to go simple? My friend "Maine" on this forum uses a timer to shut down his boiler after a burn cycle. He has a routine that he fires at a certain storage temp and he knows how long the boiler will produce heat. Simple and works flawless. He actually used a coin timer at first and had to put quarters in it to make the boiler work. LOL

Do a search for his post.
 
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