Friday, March 5, 2010

Inventive Transducer Solution Solves Aging Equipment/DDC Front End Equation

The challenge: increase the operational efficiency of a 3-story medical office building in Oakland.

The approach: apply outdoor air reset to the constant supply air temperature setpoint.

The problem: the 25-year-old staged-cooling rooftop unit is controlled by a simple Honeywell W7100 discharge air controller. A retrofitted DDC controller on the unit monitors and modulates a VFD added to the fan, but does not stage the unit or otherwise control the discharge temperature. The W7100 controller has remote setpoint terminals available, but requires a 0-500 ohm resistance.

The solution: with a 0-10Vdc modulating output available on the Auto-Matrix DDC controller, an ACI transducer (the DRN-3.1 voltage-to-resistance transducer) allows for remote control of the supply air temperature. The 0-10Vdc signal is scaled by the DRN3.1 across 0-500ohms, which the W7100 controller sees as 40-90F. Now the supply setpoint can be altered manually by a service technician, or can be altered automatically with an outdoor air temperature reset algorithm.

The results: the HVAC service contractor is happy with the increased functionality, and the customer will enjoy increased building comfort and energy efficiency, even from their aging AC unit.

posted by Controlco @ 7:29 AM   0 Comments

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Great Customer Support = Satisfied Customers

“A few months back, HFS Enterprises came to the Bakersfield branch and asked us to quote price and availability for a Dynalco digital temperature gauge. HFS installs and maintains stationary, natural gas powered engines, primarily for irrigation pumping. This gauge was used in conjunction with a type J thermocouple to display the temperature of the catalytic converter on these engines.

I soon found a source for the Dynalco gauge and was shocked to learn that it cost almost $500.00, without the thermocouple. I knew we could offer a solution that would do the job as well or better than the Dynalco unit, and for less money. The solution I arrived at was a Red Lion CUB5TCR0 thermocouple input panel meter, inside a NEMA 4X enclosure also manufactured by Red Lion. This combination costs HFS $167.00 and is just as accurate as the Dynalco product they were using before. Plus, the Red Lion meter is easier to read.

HFS was delighted. In fact, they were so happy that they told two other companies in his line of work about the new temperature display. Both of those companies now purchase these meters and type J thermocouples from us on a regular basis. In fact, we’ve sold over 200 of these meters in the last 18 months.”

posted by Controlco @ 8:29 AM   0 Comments

Thursday, February 4, 2010

New Website

We are excited to see the new site! Continue to watch for updated postings from the Tech Support department.

posted by Controlco @ 8:59 AM   0 Comments

Our new site is launched!

Welcome to our new website. There is a lot of work left to do. Please feel free to comment here and let us know what you think we can do to improve the overall experience!

posted by Controlco @ 8:42 AM   0 Comments