Automated boiler room for homes

Automated boiler room for houses, households, detached 3-4 storey buildings

An automatic or automated boiler room for homes, small buildings and utility rooms is often considered as one of the modular boiler room solutions. This is a new product that appeared on the market not long ago, allowing the buyer to avoid complex wiring and installation. 

In other words, this is a turnkey boiler room, which is supplied on a frame and only requires connecting the radiator circuit and heated floors. Modular boiler houses are designed as stand-alone, attached and roof boiler houses. It is obvious that manufacturers supply solutions of different capacities. The most popular modules are designed for apartment buildings that want to disconnect from the central heating supply and provide for themselves.

In this context, it is necessary to distinguish between autonomous, automated and automatic boiler houses. Automatic boiler rooms are practically maintenance-free equipment that operates fully automatically, but the level of automation can still vary. For this reason, you need to check with the manufacturer the specification of such a heating module and... the possibility of expanding the boiler room. Automated are boiler houses with full or, as a rule, not complete, but partial automation. Autonomous boiler houses are those that operate independently from the main networks, that is, within the framework of the OFFGRID concept.

Already these clarifications imply a whole range of solutions in what form this equipment can be purchased. We decided to reveal the issue in more detail.

Automated boiler rooms for houses and their equipment

We are talking about boiler houses with built-in automation equipment. But here you also need to pay attention to the terms. An automated boiler is the basic basics, but still not an automated boiler room. For example, each model of FOCUS pellet boilers is so automated that the boiler can be considered fully automatic equipment, since the built-in automation:

• first of all, the microcontroller controls the operation of the boiler: air supply, mechanical movement of the grate, pneumatic cleaning if available, auto-ignition, pneumatic supply of fuel pellets;
• boiler operation and auto-ignition depend on the data of the weather regulator, that is, the temperature outside and inside the room;
• automation also controls the combustion intensity, that is, the operating power.

But if we compare an automatic boiler with and without pneumatic cleaning, then the first model will be automatic, and without self-cleaning it will be automated due to the need to clean the heat exchanger mechanically manually. But even in such models there is automatic ash removal and a static ash filter in the form of a plate heat exchanger. 

This is an example of varying degrees of automation of boiler equipment and the fact that in certain functions it is possible to achieve partial self-cleaning of flue gases without automation. Moreover, all professional automated boiler rooms for homes combine mechanical and digital control methods.

Microcontroller

This is the difference between digital and analogue solutions. At the same time, the basis for boiler room automation is still a microcontroller for boilers. Its functions are implied wider.

The microcontroller can be built into the boiler or external. It can control the operation of a boiler, such as the EcoMax260, designed for TT boilers with manual loading (it regulates the temperature in the heating circuit by mixing water from the “return” using a three-way valve and blowing air into the firebox), or control the operation of boiler automation without regulating the operation of the boiler. It all depends on the specific decision. For this reason, boiler houses are usually called automated, specifying the degree of automation in the specification.

Modular automated boiler rooms for homes are classified in the same way, but on the condition that the wiring of the heating circuits is supplied assembled on a metal frame. It is easy to understand for inexperienced users and easy to install.

Heating circuits with temperature controls

The boiler room is assembled, that is, the modular boiler room already has all the necessary equipment for an adjustable boiler circuit. Typically, automation controls the speed of pumps and the operation of valves - thermostats, three- or four-way, their functions usually include mixing water into the system. 

To implement heating with radiators, you need to have a radiator circuit with a pump group, which, using a microcontroller or simpler automation, will regulate the heating temperature of the batteries. The same principle applies to the operation of a water heated floor, except that we are talking about low-temperature heating and it is necessary to either add work from the water supply system or “return” to reduce the temperature of the coolant moving from the boiler using a three-way valve. 

This can be achieved alternatively by using a thermal buffer where all the heat is dumped. And the high-temperature circuit is connected to the upper hottest heat exchanger, and the lower one with a lower temperature is connected to the lower heat exchanger of the thermal buffer. However, valves may still be required to regulate temperatures.

Both solutions can be called an example of an automated boiler room for homes, if there is control of pumps and temperature. But they are implemented differently.

Climate control devices

The temperature depends on a number of factors, one of them is the behavioral scenarios of the residents, which are set in one way or another (situationally using the control module, using weekly scenarios, using automatic temperature control in a given range).

Climate control devices include:

• touch panels for interactive installations;
• heated floor actuators;
• thermostats for temperature regulation;
• temperature sensors.

Some climate control options may include humidity sensors, CO2 levels, and motion sensors. But in this case we are talking about a more advanced level of automation and the so-called HVAC concept, when an automated boiler room for houses is controlled automatically in combination with ventilation and air conditioning.

Eventually…

In conclusion, we repeat that an automated boiler room has a microcontroller that controls either the boiler room or the heating and boiler circuit, adjustable heating circuits with pumping groups and temperature sensors and climate control devices that provide “feedback” to the boiler equipment.