The Seachange Concept:

The difference is that SeaChange have gone for modular controls which makes them easier to use. Many Building Management Systems are not used because building staff are restricted from access or find them difficult to understand. Often skilled operatives are needed in order to engineer and operate.

Cheaper to Engineer
Easier for plant maintenance and System extensions
Traditional approach needs to write the program for each project which is expensive
The SeaChange approach is to have standard controllers to operate each piece of plant. (Engineers building blocks)
Inside the modules we can change parameters to suit each project

Benefits of Modular Controls:

Having a fixed control strategy allows:
* Lower costs — no programming
* Far fewer bugs than bespoke strategies
* Easier maintenance
* Auto — configuration and self tuning
* Fixed inputs/outputs allocation allows easier installation

Costs

* With programmatic controls costs are £50 to £80 per point
* With SeaChange it will be £35 to £60 per point

PublicStar is an Authorised SeaChange Solution Provider



SeaChange controls are different, with an application — specific modular design, you only specify what you need, and unique push button ‘plug & play’ technology ensures that our controls are quicker and easier to engineer than any others — and that means smaller bills.

SeaChange controls can be up to £20 - £30 per point cheaper installed.

SeaChange controls’ modular design means that systems can be individually tailored to suit any project — no matter what size. In fact, SeaChange makes it possible to specify intelligent systems on installations that are simply too small to be commercially viable with programmable controls.

Because SeaChange controls are simple to use, they will be well-used. And that will lead to smaller energy bills for your clients.

Controls that you can control

Building users can adjust all the things they need to set their environment from the Zone Controller. With clear display and clearly labelled push buttons, the Zone controller is simple and intuitive to use and can be located on the wall or in the office, not hidden away in the plant room to be forgotten or ignored.

If you want to take all control from the building users and run the building from a remote computer working over the telephone network, perhaps just leaving them an override capability, you still can, but at PublicStar we have found that people work better when they have some control and information about their local environment.

Energy Efficiency

In providing a Zone Controller for the building users to set their environment SeaChange has incorporated many intelligent features that ensure the system keeps running efficiently.

Optimum Start

The time schedules that the user sets define the times that the building is in use — the system uses ‘Optimum Start’ to calculate when to bring on the plant to achieve the correct temperature for the beginning of the working day.

Master Zone

A master Zone Controller can set the time schedules in a number of ‘slave’ zones that only have temperature adjustments and override so that the occupation times for a multi-zone building can all be set from one master zone, or to allow individual tenant adjustments on a multi-tenanted building.

Intelligent Temperature Controls

The heating temperature is present to 20oC and can be adjusted up to 25oC, but both the present and upper limit can be altered at commissioning to allow the appropriate environment level to be set. To maintain energy efficiency, any changes made will revert to the preset temperature the following day. Also, to stop too large a change being made, the unit will only allow a 2oC change in setpoint to be made at any time. Further changes can be made after a few minutes.

Override

The time schedules in each zone can be individually overridden from the push button on the front. This gives a timed extension period when used outside the occupation time.

Plant Room Maintenance

Too often, plant maintenance engineers are prevented from working efficiently by the buildings, Building Management System.

They can not see what the system is trying to do to the plant, nor can they easily isolate an individual item of plant for monitoring or maintenance so they have to call in the controls experts with a PC and data file program for the site — and that can not only be time-consuming but expensive.

But not with SeaChange. Every module has LED indicators to show exactly what the plant is doing — you don’t need a PC to make the readings because they can be clearly displayed on the Zone Controller.

Manual Controls

When SeaChange designed the controls they built in features to aid commissioning and maintenance. Every module has an in-built override capability to allow engineers to force the plant on or off to check its operation, all the while keeping the plant under control with the system safety and interlock features still in place. This means that plant engineers can check and prove system installation and open and close valves and dampers all without calling in controls specialists.

All of the control loops are self-tuning, setting themselves to work with efficiency and stability without hours of setting up.


TIME TO PUT USERS BACK IN CONTROL

A fresh approach to intelligent controls is needed. An approach that makes use of the rapid progress in electronics technology over the past ten years to achieve building control that is substantially easier and better for the non — specialist user.

PublicStar believes the building controls market has three key criteria. Firstly, it demands controls that achieve high energy efficient performance of a building’s services.

Secondly, building controls have to be easily understood and used by a non-technical person.

And thirdly, the market requires building controls that are versatile enough to control both a small and large range of plant and offer remote communications to give the right amount of maintenance and management information.

The control ideal is one which offers the simplicity of a thermostat/time clock, the intelligence to maintain optimum energy efficiency, and the power of a Building Management System.