PLANT & MACHINERY / HVAC PLANT
Chiller monitoring
The plant item everything depends on, usually the least watched
A chiller is often the single most important plant item in a building: lose it and the whole occupied space goes with it. It is also frequently the least instrumented thing on site outside its own factory controller, which talks a proprietary protocol to nobody. The BMS may know the setpoint and whether the unit is calling, but not whether the compressor is running rough, whether the delta across the evaporator has been quietly narrowing for a month, or whether unit two has been carrying the load alone since unit one dropped out in April. So capacity problems surface as complaints from the top floor in the first warm week, and the diagnosis starts from scratch with an engineer on site.
Talk through your site ● Answered within one working day
The difference
Chiller monitoring: what changes the day it goes live
A chiller is often the single most important plant item in a building: lose it and the whole occupied space goes with it. It is also frequently the least instrumented thing on site outside its own factory controller, which talks a proprietary protocol to nobody. The BMS may know the setpoint and whether the unit is calling, but not whether the compressor is running rough, whether the delta across the evaporator has been quietly narrowing for a month, or whether unit two has been carrying the load alone since unit one dropped out in April. So capacity problems surface as complaints from the top floor in the first warm week, and the diagnosis starts from scratch with an engineer on site.
- Flow and return temperature on the actual pipework, so the delta across the machine is measured rather than inferred from a controller setpoint
- Compressor vibration to catch a developing mechanical fault, and run state to prove which unit in a multi-chiller set is actually carrying the load
- Any 4-20 mA transmitter the chiller already has, pressure, level or flow, pulled onto the same dashboard without touching the manufacturer controller
- A performance trend that shows degradation across a season rather than a snapshot taken on the day the engineer visited
What you get
- 01
Flow and return temperature on the actual pipework, so the delta across the machine is measured rather than inferred from a controller setpoint
- 02
Compressor vibration to catch a developing mechanical fault, and run state to prove which unit in a multi-chiller set is actually carrying the load
- 03
Any 4-20 mA transmitter the chiller already has, pressure, level or flow, pulled onto the same dashboard without touching the manufacturer controller
- 04
A performance trend that shows degradation across a season rather than a snapshot taken on the day the engineer visited
The full stack, applied here
All five layers, one accountable system
Every Indiott build runs all five layers as one accountable system. Follow a single live signal from the sensor that catches it to the report that proves it.
Turnkey LoRaWAN and industrial sensors read the physical world at the edge, on battery, without rewiring the site.
Hands a reading to CONNECT ↓
Gateways, industrial routers and serial device servers carry every reading back over LoRaWAN, 4G, 5G, Ethernet or satellite, so the far edge reports as reliably as the plant room.
Hands a signed stream to SECURE ↓
OT security by design: managed switching, VPN and firewall routers, protocol gateways and hardware data diodes keep the network segmented and the data tamper-evident to IEC 62443.
Hands a trusted stream to CONTROL ↓
When you want the system to act, remote IO, wireless valves and the bespoke Indiott Engineering line close the loop, dose, switch, isolate or interlock, with no human in the middle.
Hands an action to MANAGE ↓
The software layer turns it into decisions: live dashboards, mapping, alarming and analytics, with one-tap reports and clean feeds into your SCADA, BMS or existing platform.
The loop is closed ✓
How teams start
From a single pilot to the whole portfolio
You do not boil the ocean. Nearly every rollout runs the same four moves, and you own a working, evidenced result at the end of the first one.
Scope & risk map
We walk the sites, list the assets and pin the one constraint that matters, then agree what a good result looks like before a single sensor is bought.
Pilot on one site
A focused set of sensors goes onto one site or asset group, live on our telemetry and dashboards, wired to the people who need the alert.
Validate & standardise
We tune thresholds, kill false positives, confirm the integration into your SCADA, BMS or CAFM, and write the standard design down so it repeats.
Scale the portfolio
The proven design rolls out across the estate, reusing the same hardware standards and data models so every site reads the same way.
The chiller monitoring kit we deploy
Full catalogue
Urban.io Activity Sensor
Request a price
Urban.io Ambient Temperature Sensor
Request a price
Urban.io Battery Test Sensor
Request a price
Urban.io Current Sensor
Request a price
Urban.io Delta Pressure Sensor
Request a price
Urban.io Gateway
Request a price
Urban.io Humidity Sensor
Request a price
Urban.io Light Sensor
Request a price
| Model | Key specification | Price ex VAT | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urban.io Activity Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Ambient Temperature Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Battery Test Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Current Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Delta Pressure Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Gateway | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Humidity Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
| Urban.io Light Sensor | — | Price on request | Quote only |
Brands in this kit: Urban.io
Why Indiott
A specialist stack, not a box-shifter
Brand-agnostic by design
We pick the best of each brand for the layer and the environment, not one vendor catalogue. Milesight, AquaIoT, Atop, Browan, SpecSens and Urban.io, chosen on merit.
The whole stack, one supplier
Sensing, connectivity, OT security, control and the dashboard come from one accountable team, so there is no finger-pointing when something needs to talk to something else.
Specified and supported in Britain
UK-based engineers scope the site, quote the kit and stand behind it, with compliance mapped to the regimes your auditors actually cite.
Honest kit, honest pricing
Prices are shown where we can, quoted fast where we cannot, and you get a straight answer and a bill of materials within one working day.
DEPLOYED IN THE FIELD
Compliance this answers to
| Standard | What it requires |
|---|---|
| F-Gas Regulation (EU 517/2014, retained) | run-hours and performance trending support leak-check regimes and the record-keeping duty on stationary refrigeration |
| ESOS and SECR | measured plant performance data underpins energy-savings assessments rather than modelled estimates |
| CIBSE TM44 | continuous chiller data strengthens air-conditioning inspection findings with real operating evidence |
What it costs, roughly
A two-chiller plant room with flow and return probes on each unit, compressor vibration and a shared gateway sits in the mid hundreds of pounds. Adding the pumps, the AHU filters and the hot water calorifier in the same room costs very little more, because the gateway is already there. Itemised quote back within one working day.
Chiller monitoring: asked before buying
Do we need the chiller manufacturer to open up their controller?
No, and that is rather the point. Everything here is external: strap-on pipe probes, a magnet-mounted vibration sensor, and a loop sensor that reads an existing 4-20 mA transmitter. You get useful data without a controller integration, a licence or a manufacturer visit. If you later want the controller's own points, that is a separate BACnet or Modbus job and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth it.
Will a strap-on probe give a true water temperature?
It gives a reliable surface temperature that tracks the water closely on insulated pipework, which is what you need for trending a delta. It is not a calibrated in-line sensor and we would not present it as one for billing or contractual performance testing. For trend, alarm and fault-finding, which is the usual job, it is the right instrument.
What happens when the chiller is off for the winter?
The sensors keep reporting and the run-state data simply shows the unit stopped. That is useful in itself: it proves the machine was down when you thought it was, and the first start of the season is exactly when a developing fault tends to announce itself.
Related solutions
Next step
Scope it with an engineer.
Tell us the site, the assets and the constraint. You get a bill of materials and a straight answer within one working day.
- A bill of materials sized to your site
- Priced ex VAT, UK entity, no login wall
Rather talk it through? Call 023 9223 3611
Received. An engineer has it.
You will hear back within one working day with the parts, the prices and the lead time. A confirmation is on its way to your inbox.
If it is urgent, call 023 9223 3611.