Creating a Customized and Efficient Temperature Control System

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Karthauser & Sons, a leading provider of wholesale flowers and houseplants, serving most of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. They specialize in cultivation of house plants for sale in major retailers and have a strong focus on end-user satisfaction.

CUSTOMER'S CHALLENGES

The client was struggling with an old, obsolete system that did not function properly and received little to no support from the manufacturer or vendor. Given the system's age, limited support, and the company's location, numerous manual workarounds were implemented to compensate for missing functionalities. This led to a significant manual workload to maintain greenhouse operations. Additionally, multiple stand-alone systems were in place to control different sections of the greenhouse, preventing seamless integration into a unified system.

ENGAGEMENT WITH PIEPER AUTOMATION

Pieper Automation was invited to bid on replacing the current system, competing against the incumbent vendor and manufacturer. With its local support and a custom-designed solution that provided scalability for future system integrations, Pieper Automation successfully met the client's needs and secured the project.

PROJECT GOALS

The main project goals agreed upon were to provide a system to control the temperature and venting of the greenhouses. This included managing roof and wall vents, ventilation fans, and heating systems, encompassing gas, furnace, and hydronic heat control.

SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTED

Pieper Automation replaced the old environmental control system which consisted of multiple panels with a single centrally located system with a custom-designed solution that:

Controlled the temperature of each greenhouse and groups of houses through heating, fan systems, and house vents.
Increased the number of temperature sensors to set a better average temperature for the greenhouses.
Provided control of wall vents that were previously only operable manually.
Implemented progressive opening and closing of the vent system based on outside temperature and desired greenhouse temperature, integrated with fans to eliminate the "hunting" issue of the prior system.
Installed a wind speed sensor to close vents and negatively pressurize the greenhouse during highwind events to prevent panel damage.
Included the creation of recipe and scheduling for each greenhouse
Created the ability to access remotely for enhanced monitoring

Additional projects after the initial project to enhance control of facilities included:

Created and implemented a new plant watering system that was integrated into the environmental control system, replacing the obsolete DOS-based watering control system with an OPTO22-based system. The new system consolidated multiple systems into a single localized system. In addition we created user-friendly scheduling functions and recipe creation for the watering and fertilizing, eliminating the need to manually create schedules for multiple systems.
Replaced deteriorated control panels with new stainless enclosures and remote IO boards, ensuring commonality of spares.
Took control of the pump room, by replacing the old control system for water distribution and recycling. This brought control of valves into our watering control system, eliminating the stand-alone system for this room. Old pneumatic valves controlling the water flow were replaced with a pneumatic manifold system.
Controlled the fertilizer and pH system, by integrating sensors into the control system, and adding user interface screens for set points and feedback.

TECHNOLOGY USED

OPTO22 for the control system and HMI
SMC pneumatic manifolds over ethernet to control the valves
Added air filtration to system to increase valve life and cleanliness.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Provided functionality not available in the prior system.
Reduced workloads for the owner and maintenance personnel.
Increased reliability and less downtime
Replaced obsolete components w/ current + readily available hardware.

RESULTS

The client has already seen improvements in system functionality and reduced manual workloads. Over time, they expect further benefits interms of efficiency and cost savings.