Heinen's Supermarket Premiers the Einstein and CC-100 Controllers
By Ashley Sparks, Controlled Systems, Summer, 1999

Heinen's Supermarket, which operates in the Cleveland, Ohio area, was the first site to implement an installation of Einstein and CC-100 controllers. Harry Hattenbach is the President of The Hattenbach Company, a refrigeration contracting company in Cleveland that supplies Heinen's with its supermarket control equipment. According to Hattenbach, the new CPC controllers allow Heinen's supermarket operator to control and monitor both the store's refrigeration and HVAC systems at the same time and with the least amount of energy costs. "We enjoy the ability to track, monitor and control temperatures at set points remotely and accurately. This system is connected to most of the store's equipment, including all of the cases, racks, desiccant system, condensers, heat reclaim, multi-rooftop air conditioning units, and lighting," said Hattenbach.

The Einstein rack controllers and CC-100 case controllers were designed to provide many new advantages to users. For instance, the units boast a convenient "Touch-N-Go" interface. Says Hattenbach, "Like all computer equipment, controller products have become more user-friendly and easier to read over the years. The new Einstein controller features a large display unit and allows us to monitor the entire store from a remote location with the same degree of accuracy we would get on site. We are able to do this via a telephone line hooked up to a personal computer.

The system feeds the same information to our personal computer, as we would see on-site at the control panel. This technology enables us to answer our on-site service technicians' questions more efficiently since we are both looking at the same screen." Another advantage to using the Einstein and CC-100 controllers is that they are connected to each other through a LonWorks® communication network.

 

 

Heinen's Supermarket article.

According to Hattenbach, this network is not only easier to use, but it reduces the installation complexity and cost that typically come with automation in networking software.

Einstein was designed to be flexible and accommodate most of the special needs of supermarkets today. For example, Heinen's has some of the most uniquely designed cases on the market that require two different temperatures in one case, such as prepared foods and / or home meal replacement items. Thanks to its state-of-the-are technology and design, the Einstein controller is able to accomplish this task.

In addition to refrigeration, Einstein controllers are extremely useful in monitoring a store's HVAC system. At Heinen's, individual boards were installed in the twelve different rooftop units and allow the operator to control each zone in the store separately - from lighting to air temperature. Heinen's uses I/O (input/output) control to manage the hot water boiler temperature and the humidity of the store. According to Hattenbach, Einstein's technology makes multifaceted control easier because a store only needs one wiring loop going out instead of many different loops.

Einstein controllers are not only able to collect valuable system data, but also to interpret the data, make adjustments that improve performance and reduce energy costs, while the user features make operations more productive and comfortable.