Visualization and control of the heating system at the High School of Communications Technology in Prague

In 2002, the Energie MaR company completely renovated the electric heating system at the High School of Communications Technology (HSCT) in Prague. The reconstruction itself consisted of:

• Construction work on the school building
• Complete reconstruction of the building's heating system
• Monitoring and control of the heating system
• Control of storage heater heating, room temperatures, motion detection, window status
• Control of the school radio system, TV, ripple control signal transmission via the communications network
• Monitoring of 65 control cabinets installed within the school

To control and monitor the school radio system, a Tecomat TC600 PLC is used. The control cabinets are equipped with several TECOREG TR050 PLCs. Data between the PLCs and the control room's PC is transferred via 4 independent RS485 buses. These buses are operated using metallic cables. The visualization application is made with the Reliance 3 SCADA/HMI system. The processes can be monitored and controlled from one or more PCs integrated into the LAN. This network allows for displaying the visualization application and processing measured data from any computer within the network. In total, about 5,000 signals are transmitted (states, commands, parameters, etc.).

A network diagram depicting communication between the control room and the school's rooms

The proper and efficient control of the building's storage heater heating is carried out by the control system program. The program calculates the time required for charging the storage heater based on the outside temperature, room temperature, average room temperature, time programs, window status, motion detection, and specified room property parameters. During off-peak times when electricity is cheaper, the storage heater is charged. The charging stops at the end of the off-peak period.

For clarity's sake, each classroom has its own visualization window displaying measured data and allows the operator to quickly access the settings, charts, historical data, and all necessary information about each classroom. This enables the operator to have a complete overview of the current and past states of the processes. A summary table, on the contrary, provides a complete overview of the entire building. This table displays basic information on all rooms in the building and information needed for proper control. This table allows the operator to easily switch to any visualization window.

Examples of visualization windows

A complete 3D model of the HSCT building

Visualization of a classroom

Visualization of the plan of the school building's third floor

Visualization of the summary table

Visualization of data transfer via RS485

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