System Management/Instrumentation

[WStayton]

Hi All!

   I'm sitting here wondering just what I need for system management, and/or instrumentation for my whole house energy system.

  First the system:

   18 each 200 watt 24V volt solar panels (primary electrical)
    01 each 4'x12' home-made solar panel (primary heat)
    01 each Mercedes OM616 4 cylinder diesel driving a ST-24
         (secondary electrical, secondary battery charging & secondary heat)
    16 each 6 volt 180 amp-hr batteries (primary electrical storage)
    01 each MidNite Solar Classic 150 Charge Controller
    01 each Xantrex XW6048 Inverter/Charger (primary inverter/charger)
    01 each Wood fired boiler rated at 130,000 BTU/hr
         (secondary/tertiary heat) Boiler is designed for wood/coal, so I THINK that the 130,000 BTU/Hr is for a hot coal fire and with wood I will have significantly less - MOST of the time!
    03 each EPDM lined, insulated tanks of about 2,500 lbs water ea
         (Primary Heat storage - actually, ONLY heat storage)
    01 each 120' loop baseboard heaters (primary heat)
    01 each 50 ft loop of 3/4 soft copper through all three tanks for domestic hot water.  (primary domestic hot water)
    01 each "instant" gas hot water heater (secondary domestic hot water)
    01 each heat loop through all three tanks for boiler heat exchange
    01 each heat loop through all three tanks for solar panel heat exchange
    01 each engine mounted heat exchanger for transfer of heat to tanks

  So what do I need for instrumentation for this whole mess???

   I have sort of figured on:

    Thermocouple for each tank temperature (03 each)
    Thermocouple for solar hot water panel temperature
    Thermocouple for boiler temperature
    Thermocouple for engine cooling loop - on/at engine
    Thermocouples for battery temperature (02 each-one to XW6048 and one to Midnight 300)

   Pressure gauges (04 each) for each closed loop in the heating system.

   DC voltage for the batteries
   DC current flow for the batteries (not sure if this is NEEDED but nice to have!)

    I envision running all the thermocouple leads to one location, the "control panel" for the whole mess, along with the remote control head for the XW6048 and the engine instruments (Amp meter for alternator, gear box temperature, water temperature gauge)

  I was thinking to have the pressure gauges remotly located at the source they are monitiring - not ideal for examining but a lot less complicated than running 3 miles of capillary tubing all over the place.
 
  The Charge controller has the ability to monitor/display the voltage from the solar panels and , by selectively turning off various of the six loops (breaker) I can thus read individual 3-panel loop voltages.

  So, what have I forgotten/left-out?   I THINK that their are monitors that will look at all of these values and ring-a-bell if something is out of limits but I THINK that I am better off just doing the monitoring myself and not having ANOTHER expensive piece of equipment in the loop - it has been my experience that the more complicated pieces of instrumentation that you have in the system, the more failures of instrumentation you will have - exponentially!!!

  What do you all think - all input is hereby solicited!

Regardz,

Wayne Stayton

[cschuerm]

If you really wanted to monitor all of that in a quality manner, you'd probably go with an industrial PLC (programmable logic controller) and associated instrumentation.  You'll certainly be spending some real money though.  I utilize the PLCs from Control Microsystems (http://www.scadapack.com) for cost-sensitive applications.  You could either go with an industrial touchscreen or a computer based monitoring system.  Probably not a really cheap way to monitor that many things unfortunately.
chris

[rcavictim]

If you really wanted to monitor all of that in a quality manner, you'd probably go with an industrial PLC (programmable logic controller) and associated instrumentation.  You'll certainly be spending some real money though.  I utilize the PLCs from Control Microsystems (http://www.scadapack.com) for cost-sensitive applications.  You could either go with an industrial touchscreen or a computer based monitoring system.  Probably not a really cheap way to monitor that many things unfortunately.
chris

Chris,

I picked up a pair of Mitsubishi Alpha-2, AL2-24MR-D PLC controllers wanting to use one as a system monitor and controller in my large wind turbine project.  It is going to do things like monitor the available wind from an anemometer tachometer generator and decide whether to go into shutdown mode or not, applying dump load and electric brake actuator as necessary.  I have zero experience with PLCs and was wondering if I might pick your brain off list to get this set-up, if you are familiar with this particular controller.  If yes could you send me your private email addy to my PM box?  thanx.

Sorry for the OT post guys.

Rob