Motor Control Warehouse have provided several automated control systems to Powys, biomass boiler manufacturers, WoodTek Ltd to control their state of the art biomass boilers systems. The boilers are all located around the Powys, Mid Wales area at Felton Butler, Bomere Heath and Howle Manor.  

These heat generation systems are used to efficiently control the temperature of chicken sheds using biomass boilers. The fuel used is a bi product of the timber industry, wood chip. These systems save on large amounts of fossil fuels and also benefit from a government pay back incentive!    

If you have a system requirement please click on the link. 

System 1 - Felton Butler

Felton Butler consists of seven chicken sheds, controlled by two boilers. Boiler 1 outputs 800kW of heat and boiler 2 outputs 400kw. Please see a picture of the chicken sheds below.

The photograph below shows the control panel designed for the 400kW boiler at Felton Butler.  We used the HEDY, HD700 inverters for all motor control and a Gefran, 7 inch colour, touch screen  HMI with built in PLC for automated control. The system is fully automated and incorporates full system diagnostics with automatic text messaging in the event of a system problem.   

Two Invertek IP66, Optidrive E2 inverters have been used to control hot water flow pressure to the poultry houses by speeding up/slowing down pump speed as required.

The photograph below shows pressure sensors with a 4-20mA signal feeding back in to the Invertek, Optidrive, E2 inverters to control hot water flow pressure to the various poultry houses.

System 2 - Bomere Heath

At Bomere Heath five 195kW boilers are used to control the temperature of five chicken sheds.

A walking floor is used to deliver wood chip fuel to the boiler. The entire process is automated thus saving the farmer time and money. 

Please see below a photograph of the control panel for the 195kW wood chip boiler system at Bomere Heath, chicken farm. 

A quote from farm owner, Chris Holloway about his new biomass system was "It's fantastic". Chris also commented that most of the supermarket giants have stopped purchasing from farmers that don't use biomass to heat their chicken sheds because the chickens are generally healthier using biomass. It is strongly believed that this can be actually tasted in the meat 

System 3 - Howle Manor

Howle Manor has seven 195kW biomass boilers controlling the heating in seven chicken individual sheds.

Please see pictures above and below showing some of the seven chicken sheds.  

Each shed has it's own radio frequency controlled roof on it's wood chip loading bay. Fuel is stored in these containers and automatically fed in to the boiler via a walking floor and conveyor / screw auger system. 

For the control panel we use a Gefran HMI screen. These screens are extremely useful as they allow us to access the diagnostics which can be edited to satisfy the customer's needs.

Please see below a photograph showing one of the 195kW control panels at Howle Mannor, as you can see control is via the 7 inch, colour touch screen HMI unit:

This picture is a close-up picture of the HMI screen on one of the control panels:

From here you can see if the boiler is running or in slumber mode and all of the different temperatures and system parameters. The screen also incorporates a full diagnostic menu. Please see HD700 inverter used for motor control in the project below.If you have any automated system requirements please don't hesitate to contact our team.  

MCW website - Click Here  

WoodTek Website - Click Here 

Thanks for reading!