Heading

boilers and other heat sources

Because it was originally developed for larger commercial buildings, the smartkontrols system can cope with any arrangement of Boiler plant, twin-head pumps, modulating control valves, etc.

Any type of boiler can be controlled (gas, oil, electric, condensing, modulating, combination etc) and multiple boilers can be sequence controlled and duty-rotated to ensure even running hours.

The plant room may be fitted with heat detectors, gas safety valves etc and other alarm signals may need to be interlocked with the plant (e.g. a low pressure alarm from the heating pressurisation unit). Each piece of equipment can be effectively wired to the “smartBox” control panel. This panel would contain the smartModules associated with the boiler plant, and all necessary starters, relays, breakers etc.

Ground Sourced Heat Pumps can be controlled in the same demand-driven manner.

No timeclock for the boilers

In a smartkontrols system, the boiler system (or heat pump) does not need a timeclock to tell it when to run - it is demand-driven.

Each of the loads on the boiler system is represented by a smartModule e.g. each heating zone (room) in the house, the domestic hot water service, any swimming pool loads, would all be controlled by a smartModule. The load smartModules all decide whether they need heat or not, and signal to the boiler via the communications network. The smartModule controlling the Boiler plant works out when, and at what temperature to run the boilers to satisfy the loads. In this way, the boiler plant only runs when it needs to, thus saving energy and unnecessary wear of the plant.

smartbox

smartBox - control panels that you can live with in a house

Larger houses with their extensive heating, hot water systems, pools etc can often have plantrooms that resemble small commercial installations. The temptation for a mechanical designer is to specify the type of control panel that you would find in a typical commercial installation.

Made from painted steel with a hinged door, this type of “wardrobe” panel takes up a huge amount of space, and is very expensive to build, because all of the engineers controls and indicators have to be custom-built onto the door.

The modular “smartBox” approach solves these problems. Made from moulded plastic, the consumer-unit styled enclosures typically take up half the space of an equivalent steel panel. Also, all of the smartModules come with their own built-in indicator lamps and override buttons - thus eliminating the need for custom switches and lamps