Kiln Economizer

Created by Aaron Westfall, Modified on Tue, 10 Sep, 2024 at 4:02 PM by Aaron Westfall

During normal operation, the damper system will regulate the air flow balance between the Return air and the Ambient air to optimize fuel usage, while allowing enough moisture to be ejected in the early phase of the dry to avoid impacting overall dry time.

Troubleshooting:

If the Kiln Temp and Hop Temp are both holding above setpoint late in the dry, the amount of ambient air should be increased.

Manually Power Down the damper system, which will cause both return and ambient dampers to go fully open. This can be done by switching off the breaker in the motor control box at the kiln, in the small box below the Kiln Automation Panel.
Enable the Damper Override by using the Connect screen in Loggernet. Connect to the Economizer, open Num Display 1, and double click the False light next to the Damper_Override for the kiln in question. Damper_Override(2) is kiln 9, (3) is kiln 10, etc. Then enter a -2 in the Amb_Offset for the kiln in question.

Variable Name	Description
Ambient_V	Output voltage to the Ambient Damper. Range: 2-6 Value of 2 is fully open, 6 is fully closed
Return_V	Output voltage to the Return Damper Range and position is the same as Ambient
Ambient_PctOpen Return_PctOpen	Control output signal to damper converted to Percent Open. This is simply a conversion from voltage to percent open.
Ambient_Position Return_Position	Measured position of the damper, as reported by the motor. Range: 0-100 Value of 0 is fully closed, 100 is fully open
AmbientMotorError ReturnMotorError	An error check based on comparing PctOpen to Position. If the motor is manually powered down, or mechanically blocked, the system will interpret the difference between expected PctOpen and measured Position as an Error Range: True / False
Amb_Offset Ret_Offset	A calculated offset to fine tune the measured position and adjust the output signal to achieve the desired PctOpen Range: -6 to 6 This value can be manually adjusted in conjunction with Damper_Override. Setting an Amb_Offset of -2 would increase the amount of ambient air by 30%
Damper_Override	A true/false switch to enable manual override of the damper position. If set to True, you can enter an offset value in the Amb_Offset to increase the opening and allow more ambient air.
TempErrorHr_Avg	A measured Hop Temp error from the kiln. If the hops are overheated by 2 degrees Fahrenheit, this will by a 2. If the system is not able to get the expected reading from the kiln, it will be 0.