Arduino Controller for HVAC
Published on : Tuesday 07-09-2021
Controlling an HVAC System with Industrial PLC Arduino – temperature, ventilation and odours control.
This study case explains the implementation of an HVAC system using controller Arduino equipment for a specific solution in this area.
We refer to an installation of a server immersion cooling system, besides controlling temperature, odours and ventilation of the room where the whole system is installed. All this data acquisition and process control is a crucial part in every industrial installation.
Cooling control
Owing to the plant new requirements, the customer needs a new and powerful refrigerating system to improve the current HVAC installation. It is also important to create an installation model that can be easily replicated, with flexibility to modify the present sequence because it exists the possibility of sharing the oil refrigerator with new server farms, due to the spec of the cooler.
The project is a server farm with a specific refrigerator system based on oil. The particularity of this installation requires a great control and monitoring of several critical parameters. The working temperature of the servers, the humidity, and also the oil odours will serve to maintain the environment clean and also functional.
Goals
The HVAC system must control a server submerged in a cooling system. The room and the tank have to be inside a certain range of temperature and humidity. There is also a ventilation system which is responsible for reducing oil odours that are in the plant, so the operators can work in it.
Conclusion
The industrial Arduino PLC must control temperature (room and fluid), humidity and the ventilation of an entire room with two critical elements: temperature and odours, as well. To control the fluid, it is required a PID implementation in the industrial controller with a temperature sensor. The sensor value is compared with a setpoint, and the PLC treats the flow to be implemented by the cooler.
The room climate is controlled by a dehumidifier/humidifier and an air conditioning equipment. They are enabled or disabled depending on the values of the temperature and humidity sensors. The ventilation is treated with a variable frequency drive. The open-source Arduino PLC makes the ventilator rotate faster or slower depending on the odour. The AFD (variable frequency drive) is controlled using an analog signal.
Courtesy: https://www.industrialshields.com
Based in Barcelona and founded in October 2012, Industrial Shields is the brand under the company Boot and Work Corp S.L. It is a fast growing company with the aim to become the biggest developer and producer of industrial automation electronic devices based on Open Source Hardware electronics. The goal is to offer the widest choice of products at a very reasonable cost compared with the products that are developed under the current market leaders. The company is currently delivering worldwide to the main industrialised markets.
