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greentechZONE Products for the week of October 27, 2008
Cypress Envirosystems Says…
Control and Monitoring Solutions to Save Energy and Improve Productivity for Older Buildings and Plants
Easy-to-install, non-invasive solutions upgrade pneumatic thermostats, manual steam trap monitoring and dial gauges in minutes with payback in under a year
Cypress Envirosystems, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. has introduced an innovative family of control and monitoring solutions geared to help older buildings and manufacturing sites cut energy costs and boost productivity, with a fast return on investment.
Many older facilities rely on dated technologies such as pneumatic thermostats, mechanical steam traps and manual gauges. Compared to newer sites, they typically consume more energy, require more maintenance labor, incur higher unplanned downtime and deliver lower yield or productivity. Although technologies such as Direct Digital Control (DDC) HVAC systems and wireless sensors and transmitters are available, the cost of disrupting existing occupants, preparing new designs, running added wiring, installing new software and triggering safety code issues usually push the payback period to an unacceptable three or more years.
Cypress Envirosystems' new technologies enable older sites to adopt the latest automation technologies at an affordable cost and with minimal disruption to existing occupants, processes and staff. The products require minutes to install and typically provide payback within 12 months. The solutions include the following:
- The patent pending Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat (WPT) retrofits existing pneumatic thermostats to deliver DDC-like functionality in minutes. Compared with a cost of $2,000 or more per zone for implementing DDC systems, the WPT costs less than $400 and may be installed in under 20 minutes with minimal disruption of occupants. It enables remote temperature sensing and control of setpoints, programmable zone control and night setback, automatic self-calibration, BACnet integration with existing automation systems, and enables use with utility Demand Response programs.
- The Wireless Steam Trap Monitor (WSTM) mounts non-invasively onto existing steam traps in minutes and uses a proven algorithm to detect steam trap failures, particularly expensive steam leaks. An estimated 15-20% of steam traps are malfunctioning at a given time, and each leaking trap wastes $5,000 or more in energy costs per year. The WSTM augments manual audits to detect failures in a timely manner and avoid wasting resources.
- The patent-pending Wireless Gauge Reader (WGR) clips-on to the front face of an existing gauge to capture and transmit the readings. It installs in minutes and does not require removing old gauges, breaking pressure seals, performing leak checks, running wires or interrupting the underlying process. It costs 70% less to install than a traditional transducer and enables automatic trending and alarming of process parameters to reduce energy use, lower maintenance labor and improve uptime.
- The Wireless Transducer Reader (WTR) provides a fast and inexpensive solution to read and transmit data from existing standalone transducers with no need to run wires. Its programmable input circuitry can be configured to read most analog transducers in minutes. Packaged with clamp-on current meters and ultrasonic flow meters that do not disrupt processes, the WTR is an extremely cost effective and flexible method to obtain energy-use characterization and baseline data for audits.
"Our products make it easy for a wide variety of businesses to realize the efficiencies of automated, state-of-the-art control and monitoring systems," said Harry Sim, Cypress Envirosystems CEO. "The number of older, inefficient facilities is staggering, and businesses everywhere are seeking fresh ways to attack the problem given today's rising energy prices."
Cypress Envirosystems solutions employ Cypress Semiconductor Corp. products, including 2.4-GHz wireless radios and intelligent PSoC programmable system-on-chip. Cypress is an industry leader in low-power, energy-efficient products. Its SunPower subsidiary produces silicon solar cells with an industry-best efficiency rating of 23.4%.
EN-Genius Says…
By addressing the demand side of the green energy equation, Cypress Envirosystems new family of energy-saving technologies may have an even greater positive impact on the environment than the Cypress SunPower high-efficiency solar cells (reviewed June 2003). By providing a quick, easy way to retrofit older pneumatically-operated HVAC systems with intelligent controls, they will allow older buildings to enjoy a 30% - 50% reduction in energy while improving comfort levels at the same time. Although that’s not as good as the 50% - 70% savings that a state-of-the-art smart building can deliver, Cypress retrofit equipment will serve as a cost-effective interim solution during the decade or two it will take for us to transition to a carbon-neutral economy. With payback periods of a year, or less, their new smart thermostat and its companion products are a compelling value – even if you think that Al Gore is a latte-sipping terrorist.
Besides their obvious environmental and economic attributes, Envirosystems thermostat, steam trap monitor, and gauge and transducer readers are a nice showcase for the versatility of Cypress PSoC controller and PRoC and CyFi radio chips. Communication between units and their central controllers is accomplished via Cypress Wireless USB protocol, a ZigBee-like wireless mesh technology that delivers a half-mile line of site range and 150 - 200 feet in typical industrial environments. The radio used in all these products is based on Cypress PRoC device while a Cypress PSoC is used to handle the housekeeping, data acquisition, and processing functions as well as support the user and M2M interfaces. For more information on how these chips can be used for embedded data acquisition and control applications, see our review of their CYRF7936 CyFi transceiver in connectivityZONE.
One of the most important things about all these products is that they work with the existing wiring and control infrastructures used in most buildings so that installation is quick and inexpensive. For example, the thermostat uses the building’s existing pneumatic damper control interface but its smart front-end can be programmed locally or via a wireless network. The smart, energy-saving features (central programmability, zone controls, remote management and diagnostics, etc) are the most obvious advantages to an Envirosytems retrofit but users will also realize significant savings by eliminating the labor-intensive calibrations required to keep pneumatic systems accurate and functional. Adding centralized control capabilities also allows users to participate in the demand management programs now being extensively used by utilities to briefly shed non-critical loads during peak demand periods.
Adding wireless technology and a bit of intelligence to other common HVAC elements produces equally dramatic results. Their steam trap monitor solves the perennial challenge of trying to see whether a steam trap is leaking or otherwise failed. Between eliminating the labor costs of routine inspections and enabling quick detection of costly steam leaks, Envirosystems estimates that the average payback for a $750 (installed cost) monitor is 12 - 18 months – even for smaller traps. Likewise, their gauge reader ($1250 installed) cuts labor costs and enables centralized sensing, alarm, and trending that is essential for both efficient plant operation and high-precision manufacturing. The gauge reader has an entire library of application notes to help automate nearly any common industrial application.
Their transducer reader also costs around $1250 and does the same thing for non-gauge measurement systems by taking most standard sensor outputs (current loops, voltage outputs, RS-232/485, thermocouples and thermistors) and converting them into wireless digital data that can be easily read by a central collection system. By eliminating the need for manual meter reading the labor costs alone allow these readers to pay for themselves in under a year: even before you count the increased efficiency that fast, accurate monitoring can enable. Cypress Envirosystems says that they’ve already found a warm welcome with early customers who are using their products to cut waste in semiconductor production facilities. They also say they have had some early successes with biotech plants, refineries, and power plants and expect to enjoy a big market in office buildings and hospitals.
These products are a great example of how adding intelligence to existing infrastructures can deliver significant environmental and economic benefits at the same time. Hopefully, other high-tech manufacturers will take note since resource conservation technologies may be one of the few sectors that will fare reasonably well during the current economic recession we’re facing.
Samples of the new Cypress Envirosystems Wireless Pneumatic Thermostat are currently available. The Wireless Gauge Reader, Wireless Transducer Reader, and Wireless Steam Trap Monitor are currently in production. More information is available at Cypress Envirosystems' web site.
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