Our systems base their development and success on thermodynamics, ease of operation, state-of-the-art communication and operator interface.
Far and wide, just like we like it. Hench builds proprietary and modular industrial Energy Management Systems that improve the refrigeration efficiency of typical refrigeration plants from 15% to 30%. The major three control components that Hench optimizes to achieve energy savings in are compressors, condensers, and evaporators.
Our approach has been to modularize and standardize the various control functions within an industrial refrigeration system. The Energy Management System consists of an assembly of individual modules taken from the entire large product line. Each one controls a function within the refrigeration system, and the various modules are interconnected by a single twisted pair wire set, Ethernet hub or wirelessly. Thus, each module independently controls its own portion of the refrigeration system but is also part of a network.
There are separate modules for each refrigeration component. The basic architecture of each control module is the same. The control modules are differentiated by a set of EPROM’s (Erasable, Programmable, Read, Only, Memory). Each set of EPROMs has its own control strategy preprogrammed.
The system can expand as a facility grows or can easily adapt to new temperature control demands. The Energy Management System complements its offerings with the Colormaster™ graphics package that collects historical data and shows operators – in real time – all room temperature and sensor readings and the status of all refrigeration equipment.
Hench has created a microprocessor-based system that reduces energy use in industrial refrigeration plants by employing an energy-best-practice approach to controlling the refrigeration plant. This practice goes beyond the conventional step-logic controller, adopting instead a more intuitive approach to system design. The end result is an intelligent Energy Management System that provides the required cooling demand for minimal energy consumption (and hence cost), while at the same time reducing operational and maintenance costs.
The Energy Management System strategies that have been developed are over twenty years old and evolving each day. While the main focus is reducing energy usage, the Energy Management System is also an advanced operational control tool allowing operators to maintain the highest levels of refrigeration plant control in a user-friendly package. The Windows-based software allows operators to make system changes by simply pointing and clicking. The only information that has to be entered is the equipment type and the control set points. The calculations for control are generated from these set points. This eliminates time-consuming and expensive site programming and will ensure rapid and easy startups.
The Energy Management System uses many techniques to improve a plant’s efficiency. By real time monitoring of dozens of parameters, the systems save energy by operating the most efficient combination of compressors as the load changes; by keeping the suction pressure as high as possible; by keeping the compressors operating near the top of their capacity; by improving the efficiency of the evaporator defrost process; by keeping the discharge pressure as low as possible; trimming horsepower and controlling energy demand charges and pricing.
In comparison, standard control systems maintain consistent power levels regardless of vital factors such as external temperature or demand capacity. These systems do not manage the energy used. In general, operators of refrigeration facilities usually do not have a vested interest in energy savings like the management team does and wide temperature changes take a long time to achieve. Hence, an operator may sometimes completely max out the refrigeration unit unnecessarily for far too long and the unit is not smart enough to know any different. The Hench Energy Management System differs by offering load shedding to maximize capacity. Variable-speed fan control can be used to eliminate the frequent start/stop shortcoming of this technique associated with fixed-speed fans. Instead of turning the fans off altogether, the Energy Management System allows the user to simply drop the fan speed to some minimum value for the period when a fixed-speed fan would have to be off, and then return to full speed after an appropriate period. This means that the energy-saving fan routine would be fast/slow/fast/slow instead of on/off/on/off. These variable-speed fan techniques are available through the Hench Energy Management System.