Hi, all!
In the past few years, I have developed my own heat pumps and created a DIY heat pump controller.
This controller is open to the public and is distributed free of charge. The source code is open source, so the controller can be used as is or customized for any operating conditions.
Hope this will be helpful to someone in renewable energy installations.
Valden Heat Pump Controller v1.x
The Valden Heat Pump controller is an open source platform to precisely control heat pumps. This controller can be used for the automation of newly built Heat Pumps (HPs), as a repair controller for old systems or as control system for performing experiments on refrigeration equipment.
Specs
- 12V 0.5A DC power supply,
- 230V output,
- 4 16A relays: Compressor, Hot Circulating Pump (CP) or Air Fan, Cold CP or Air Fan, Crankcase Heater,
- 2 inputs: Hot and cold side refrigerant over/under pressure NC sensors,
- up to 12 temperature (T) sensors, -55..+125 °C range,
- Electronic Expansion Valve (EEV) supported, 6 pin EEV connection: 4 * coils + 2 * 12V,
- automatically turns on/of system when heating required,
- automatic power saving mode,
- built-in protections: cold start, overheat, short-term power loss, power overload, ground loop freeze, compressor protection against liquid and other,
- LED indication,
- control via
remote display https://github.com/openhp/Display/ or local Serial (UART 5V).
Refrigeration schemes supported
- Heat Pump (HP) with Electronic Expansion Valve (EEV),
- HP with capillary tube or TXV,
- EEV-only controller.
Further details, assembly, appendices, fine-tuning options, illustrations, abbreviations, and so on you can find in the
permanent Valden Heat Pump Controller repository: https://github.com/openhp/HeatPumpController/
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me.