IT control/ monitoring of Catfire, Hamont 100Kw biomass boiler.

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

We have had a Catfire boiler since 2014 and we are happy with its ability to heat the farmhouse and neighbouring cottage, but I have been pretty hacked off with the fact that my installer hasn't wanted to connect it to the internet so that we can monitor it remotely. I have had several occasions where I jump in the shower at 11o'clock at night to find luke-warm water due normally to flex augers blocking or the fuel store being empty. If I had an IT system, I could be texted or emailed the second it turns itself off, rather than 16-20 hours later via cold water down my neck.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? There is a place to put a SIM card on the control panel. I am thinking of putting one in there. Any thoughts?

 

[f0ster]

if it has the function of gsm then go for it, tesco mobile is best if you can get an 02 signal, they do not turn them off if unused (payg) we fit gsm to lots of boilers and it is an excellent way of getting to know you have a fault as soon as it happens.

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

if it has the function of gsm then go for it, tesco mobile is best if you can get an 02 signal, they do not turn them off if unused (payg) we fit gsm to lots of boilers and it is an excellent way of getting to know you have a fault as soon as it happens.

Thank you. I've just got back in from manually filling the boiler. The flex auger is sticking. I think the last load of pellets must be different stuff.

 

[f0ster]

we have a customer who has a catfire 80kw on chip so it is feed auger, the carfire is a copy of the kwb multifire 1 apart from some slight differences such as ember bed level and control system. what sort of flex auger is it, centre less spiral like collinson. does it have a day hopper fed from a main hopper or just a drop box instead of the day hopper, too much sawdust in the mix causes bridging, the pellets change from being a fluid to a solid with excess sawdust.

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

we have a customer who has a catfire 80kw on chip so it is feed auger, the carfire is a copy of the kwb multifire 1 apart from some slight differences such as ember bed level and control system. what sort of flex auger is it, centre less spiral like collinson. does it have a day hopper fed from a main hopper or just a drop box instead of the day hopper, too much sawdust in the mix causes bridging, the pellets change from being a fluid to a solid with excess sawdust.

Sorry I completely missed this reply. 100kw Catfire. centreless auger feeding a day hopper with pellets. It really seemed like the way to go, no problems with wood chip bridging etc... The problem I get is fines building up in the bottom of the hopper. The fines get into the auger and the auger then really struggles to move.. I'm on my third auger motor and second auger flight. I have now started to hoover the bottom of the hopper out inbetween loads. The Tesco card didn't send a single message.. I'm guessing no O2 signal. I use EE and therefore know that I can get a signal at the boiler. Hoping that will help..

 

[rollestonpark]

Do you have your broadband/internet connection (maybe an ethernet connection back to your router etc) to where your boiler is?
If so then you could do loads of different stuff to monitor the boiler completely separate from the control system.
For example:
use a raspberry pi (or similar computer), put a temperature sensor on the flow pipe from the boiler.
When it gets below a certain temperature (of your choice) send yourself and email.
Or you can wire a relay to a motor breaker (maybe the feed auger motor), when it trips off, pi sends an email.
You can go as far as you want with these things for very little money. Just need to be a little computer savy, follow guides online and do maybe a bit of coding.

There are other options, ethernet relays with digital inputs and outputs, that can be used for similar methods. Which might be simpler.
I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff, would always be willing to help anyone out if they wanted.
All the software is free and hardware very cheap these days.

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

Do you have your broadband/internet connection (maybe an ethernet connection back to your router etc) to where your boiler is?
If so then you could do loads of different stuff to monitor the boiler completely separate from the control system.
For example:
use a raspberry pi (or similar computer), put a temperature sensor on the flow pipe from the boiler.
When it gets below a certain temperature (of your choice) send yourself and email.
Or you can wire a relay to a motor breaker (maybe the feed auger motor), when it trips off, pi sends an email.
You can go as far as you want with these things for very little money. Just need to be a little computer savy, follow guides online and do maybe a bit of coding.

There are other options, ethernet relays with digital inputs and outputs, that can be used for similar methods. Which might be simpler.
I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff, would always be willing to help anyone out if they wanted.
All the software is free and hardware very cheap these days.

Sounds great. I may have to enlist my 9 year to help on this one!! It will probably work out cheaper and give more options than the £5 month EE sim card which I've just installed. Still haven't received any messages. It probably doesn't send any unless there's an issue.

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

Do you have your broadband/internet connection (maybe an ethernet connection back to your router etc) to where your boiler is?
If so then you could do loads of different stuff to monitor the boiler completely separate from the control system.
For example:
use a raspberry pi (or similar computer), put a temperature sensor on the flow pipe from the boiler.
When it gets below a certain temperature (of your choice) send yourself and email.
Or you can wire a relay to a motor breaker (maybe the feed auger motor), when it trips off, pi sends an email.
You can go as far as you want with these things for very little money. Just need to be a little computer savy, follow guides online and do maybe a bit of coding.

There are other options, ethernet relays with digital inputs and outputs, that can be used for similar methods. Which might be simpler.
I really enjoy doing this kind of stuff, would always be willing to help anyone out if they wanted.
All the software is free and hardware very cheap these days.

Temp' and motor overload monitoring would be very useful.

 

[rollestonpark]

Sounds great. I may have to enlist my 9 year to help on this one!! It will probably work out cheaper and give more options than the £5 month EE sim card which I've just installed. Still haven't received any messages. It probably doesn't send any unless there's an issue.

If you can manage to get node-red working on a raspberry pi (use google for help).
https://nodered.org/
This is like programming in what the kids refer to as 'scratch' (but for more industrial type stuff) . The kids often learn this in primary school.

I now control my whole CHP, boiler, chip drying, warehouse heating, farmhouse heating, farm electric gates etc etc with node-red.
It's free, and very easy to program using a web browser. I use it in conjunction with MQTT which is the internet of things protocol you'd probably heard about.
Well worth the effort and can all be done with a bit of perseverance and for little to no money.
So easy to add a bit of extra code to, when other ideas come along also.

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

If you can manage to get node-red working on a raspberry pi (use google for help).
https://nodered.org/
This is like programming in what the kids refer to as 'scratch' (but for more industrial type stuff) . The kids often learn this in primary school.

I now control my whole CHP, boiler, chip drying, warehouse heating, farmhouse heating, farm electric gates etc etc with node-red.
It's free, and very easy to program using a web browser. I use it in conjunction with MQTT which is the internet of things protocol you'd probably heard about.
Well worth the effort and can all be done with a bit of perseverance and for little to no money.
So easy to add a bit of extra code to, when other ideas come along also.

Many thanks, back to school time...

 

[Dman2]

Many thanks, back to school time...

Hi @ShropshireLad
Just seen this thread
We also have a 100kw catfire
Happy enough with boiler, but not with service company
Who do you use?

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

Hi @ShropshireLad
Just seen this thread
We also have a 100kw catfire
Happy enough with boiler, but not with service company
Who do you use?

I use mid wales log burners and flues. Ian Garbett. He has the same boiler himself. Great guy, seems to know his stuff. He also does solar and other renewables.
he even cleaned my solar panels earlier this year.

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

 

[Dman2]

View attachment 1045959

Thanks for this
Just tried ringing, but sounds like he is abroad by ringing tone ( maybe further than Wales)
Fired an email off will try again next week

 

[Gary - Power and Gas]

We have had a Catfire boiler since 2014 and we are happy with its ability to heat the farmhouse and neighbouring cottage, but I have been pretty hacked off with the fact that my installer hasn't wanted to connect it to the internet so that we can monitor it remotely. I have had several occasions where I jump in the shower at 11o'clock at night to find luke-warm water due normally to flex augers blocking or the fuel store being empty. If I had an IT system, I could be texted or emailed the second it turns itself off, rather than 16-20 hours later via cold water down my neck.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? There is a place to put a SIM card on the control panel. I am thinking of putting one in there. Any thoughts?

You could fit a monitoring and targeting system to it, which will give you instant access, but it's not a cheap option.

 

[Tenby treat]

Hi @ShropshireLad
Just seen this thread
We also have a 100kw catfire
Happy enough with boiler, but not with service company
Who do you use?

 

[Strefford§Stabilisers]

Still using Mid wales log burners and flues, as listed above.