my boiler monitoring

t300

Have a Triangle Tube gas boiler and wanted visibility on what was happening. 20,000ft view of it is

• PLC monitoring boiler via modbus for whatever Triangle Tube offers
• PLC monitoring of 5 zone relays to determine which zone has a heat call. The builder did not use a zone controller, instead he built an overly complex system with a bunch of 24vac relays, so I'm monitoring for 24vac on each of those relays as my zone-on indicator
• using Ignition MAKER (free for personal use) SCADA system with postgresql/timescaledb historian and a PLC with appropriate input cards. Maker sits on a windows NUC right now but moving it to a linux docker system when I have some time.

future, thinking about replacing the dumb relays with a PLC controlled relay system so i can use PLC logic for zone priority and more visibility overall. maybe a summer project. Because existing 'dumb' relay system is there and working, this should be an easy project to move over zones one by one. also will be integrating some esp32 room temperature sensors, collecting into node-red then I'll push that into Ignition along with air quality, humidity, radon, etc. Eventually want to map the HRV status into Ignition as well.

Don't read too much into the numbers shown on the graphs, been testing the system out and been fake triggering some zones to fine tune the system. And haven't cleaned it up to make it pretty or add more graphs yet until I figure out exactly how I want them to look.

Already identified some neat efficiencies like garage floor heat, was calling quite often so I simply increased differential setpoint, now it runs less often, for longer. also interesting how i've been able to tweak the furnace using this info. have it set for 20day, 18.5 night, but when we get up we supplement with wood fireplace which results in the furnace only calling for heat once or twice a day. basement floor heat stays static, ICF basement keeps things warm for a long time. I am currently using electric hot water tank and not the Triangle DHW but will flip over to the Triangle shortly.

EdTheHeaterMan

Interesting. to what end?

t300

For my tech brain to better understand what is going on, but mostly just to scratch a data itch. It started off as noticing the boiler was constantly calling for heat, and I wanted to know which zone(s) were the frequent callers as no way to tell other than standing in the mechanical room and watching the relays light up.