Sophisticated Control Systems

Problem:  Screw compressor controls failing, high electric demand and time of day rates, hot gas defrost issues, inefficient condenser control, difficulty in monitoring and controlling various refrigerated storage and production rooms, refrigeration gas leaks and frequent power outages causing the refrigeration screw compressors to shutdown and not restart without an operator present and concerns of monitoring for costly excessive compressor and motor vibration.    

Energy Consulting Services provided a turnkey control system that cured all the issues the client was experiencing.  Our reputation has been built on a platform of spending time with our clients to get to know their operation combined  with our decades of control and systems knowledge. 

Control algorithms were written and hardware was installed to:

1) Properly start and stop the screw compressors by Integrating compressor slide valve positions, compressor amperage, system head pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature and voltage.

2) Properly monitor, alarm and control refrigerant levels in refrigerant receivers and initiate shutting down room refrigerant liquid solenoid valves and / or master valves based upon refrigerant level conditions to keep the central refrigeration system operational.  This sequencing of operation is also pivotal to proper restarting of the refrigeration system upon a power outage or safety trip.

3) Monitor and the facility's electric demand and consumption by providing multiple temperature resets for refrigerated areas.  This allowed for cooling the product down during off peak electric periods for up to half the high peak electric cost and coasting into the high peak electric rate for hours without a refrigeration load.  

4) Properly terminate hot gas defrosts with electronic sensors in each evaporator to accurately terminate defrosts.  This also allowed accurate timing of multiple defrosts and integrating that with the cooling tower control algorithms to raise head pressure during defrosts as required.

5) Properly control the cooling towers to stage loading and unloading of fans and pumps with selectable time delays to prevent short cycling while keeping a narrow low band of head pressure yet raising head pressure when hot gas defrost is required.

6) Properly control and monitor refrigerated areas by integrating highly accurate electronic sensors to monitor room temperatures and evaporator temperatures to evaluate each system's performance and alarm if out of range. 

7) Change temperatures of production rooms based upon required operational parameters and time of day scheduling.

8) Monitor refrigerant leaks with multiple sensors to both alarm and indicate were the leak is.

9) Properly stop the refrigeration system high and low screw compressors upon a power outage or safety trip and then restart the system upon a return to normal parameters.  

10) Monitor the total and fault vibration of compressors and motors to proactively perform maintenance rather than have a catastrophic system failure.

11) Provide automated HACCP data gathering for effective control of food safety.

Call us. We enjoy the challenge and probably have done it before.