Modine Manufacturing Company, a leader in technology in the HVAC industry, showcased the revolutionary Building Management System (BMS) monitoring system at Cultivate 2018 in Columbus, Ohio.

The Modine BMS monitoring system offers building owners unprecedented control over their heating units, all at the tip of their fingers through the customer's BMS interface.

"Commercially available BMS thermostats are much more expensive than traditional thermostats," said Jamie Tuinstra, product manager at Modine. "They allow the end user some control over their equipment over a central communication hub instead of physically interacting with the thermostat itself.

“However, common controls such as turning the unit on/off, setting a new limit through scheduling or seasonality provide very little information about the unit's operation. Modine's solution was to put the brains inside the unit instead of at the thermostat. This allows signals from the unit's components to be factory wired so that information specific to the equipment is able to be communicated over BMS without any additional setup by the installer."

By using a simple and inexpensive room sensor, Modine customers can now have functions of a BMS thermostat with the added benefit of equipment alarms and statuses that would not be available using a conventional BMS thermostat method.

In addition, Modine's board supports the energy saver function which destratisfies warm ceiling air temperatures before turning on the burners.

Features of the new BMS monitoring system include:

• Communication over BACnet and Modbus protocols, two of the more common BMS communication types
• Able to run on a traditional thermostat input signal (like most Modine equipment is installed with today) or a return air sensor
• The board has the capability of controlling three outputs (blower, stage 1 valve, stage 2 valve), and uses temperature at the unit heater to perform energy saver function
• Signals sent across BMS allow the unit to: be switched between summer/winter operations, change the heating/fan-only set point and set point band, change the energy saver function temperature set point, turn the unit on/off, and report the vitals of the equipment through statuses and alarms wired into the board
• Standard offering on the Effinity unit heaters; optional on standard efficiency gas fire unit heaters

"The amount of control that greenhouse operators will have with this system is something we think has been missing from the industry," Tuinstra said.

"We encourage everyone at Cultivate to come by and check out the system demos and see first-hand the amount of data that is accessible and controllable. Building owners will have more control and information about their units to lower running costs being used and reduce any down time. The new BMS monitoring system even allows for multi-unit monitoring and integration, to ensure an even greenhouse climate."

For more information about Modine's new BMS monitoring system, visit https://www.modinehvac.com/web/products/commercial-gas-fired-unit-heaters/effinitytm-ptcbtc.htm.