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Project Profile

Glasshouse Environment Control for the DPI

Industry: Government

Overview

Innotech have completed installation of a Genesis II Control System at the Department of Primary Industries Post Entry Plant Quarantine Facility in Eagle Farm. The function of the facility is to screen and test imported plants and seeds to ensure that they are free of disease. Once the plants and seeds have been deemed safe, they are released to the importer.

Challenge

Due to a recent increase in imported plants and seeds, the DPI has had to expand its Post Entry Plant Quarantine Facility by building three additional glasshouses, a seed treatment room, and a growth room.

This has made it necessary to expand on the facility's existing Genesis II control system, in order to enable control and monitoring of environments within the newly built structures.

Site Logistics

The site consists of four glasshouses, three of which rely on evaporative cooling only. The fourth requires a combination of evaporative cooling and mechanical air conditioning. The seed treatment and growth rooms are housed within the adjacent administration building.

Solution

Much of the imported plant life at the facility is rare and expensive. In order to ensure that these valuable plants and seeds are not damaged, it is necessary to maintain very precise environmental conditions, and to enable control and monitoring of those conditions from one central point.

Four Genesis II controllers were installed in the mechanical switchboards of the new glasshouses, wired via a network and to the facility's existing Innotech Controller. They were then connected to the facility's on-site computer and modem, where user-friendly Genesis II software allows staff to easily control and monitor conditions.
The Genesis II allows control of systems such as air-cooled water chillers, air-handling units, a chilled water storage tank and several exhaust fans.

Additional applications include control of internal temperature, humidity, and lighting conditions, the ability to monitor external weather conditions such as temperature, light levels, wind and rainfall, and temperature monitoring of the chilled water storage tank, supply and return water. Roof and sidewall dampers can be controlled in order to allow external ventilation, dependent on rainfall detection or wind direction.

All door switches are monitored to ensure personnel are maintaining each glasshouse. If personnel do not enter the glasshouses within certain timed periods, or the glasshouse conditions become extreme, an urgent fault alarm will be enabled and the system will automatically send an SMS message to a designated mobile telephone.

Summary

Dave Spence, Principal Technical Officer at the Eagle Farm Post Entry Plant Quarantine Facility stated, "There's no room for mistakes in our job as the plant life we look after is very often delicate, rare and expensive." He also said "to this end, the Innotech control system has proved to be a very valuable tool."

Key Functions

  • Monitor external weather conditions including temperature, wind direction, light levels, and rainfall detection
  • Temperature monitoring of the chilled water storage tank, supply and return water
  • Control roof and sidewall dampers, including override dependent on detection of rainfall and wind direction
  • Dumping and refilling of water basins for each evaporative cooler
  • Changeover of chiller sequence
  • Monitor doorswitch of each glasshouse
  • Fault monitoring and alarms
  • Automatic SMS dial up to a designated mobile telephone upon detection of urgent faults
  • Download of facility conditions history
  • Ability to monitor and adjust conditions from one central point.
  • Control and monitor temperature, humidity and light conditions within glasshouses, and seed treatment and growth rooms

For more information about this project or if Innotech can help you please contact us.

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