Biomass boilers are increasing in popularity due to favourable levels of efficiency and general on-going cost. The nature of any application that provides heat and power means that up time of the systems are of paramount importance. This is imperative in commercial situations where providers of these applications often have tight SLAs to adhere to and down time can be costly. Implementing the power of Industrial IoT can be a crucial start to allowing proactive measures to be put in place to reduce this, as well as giving vital insight to allow predictive parameters to be developed.
Implementing an IIoT solution can allow monitoring of critical parameters to be tracked remotely. These solutions are increasingly being created as an integral part of the system installation, enabling benefits to be enjoyed by the manufacturer, service delivery partner, fuel supplier and ultimately the building owner and its occupants. Being made aware of and responding quickly to, unacceptable changes in parameters, creates unrivalled efficiencies and expedited ROI by making decisions from a position of knowledge.
What and how can IIoT benefit a manufacturer of Biomass boilers?
By getting a continuous performance data feed from field-based systems:-
– This can provide valuable insights into product performance. Logged data can be analysed over time to pick up collective, intelligent performance patterns. This data can be fed back into continuous product development and refinement strategies.
– Gathered data can be used to monitor operating conditions of systems to help reduce liabilities in terms of in warranty claims. Claims can be assessed on the merits of tangible data, enabling decisions to be made from a position of knowledge.
– Monitor when systems are switched on and become operational. This maybe the kick-off point for any warranty period. 
What and how can IIoT benefit delivery partners of Biomass boilers?
– Faults can be picked up when they happen or even before they actually happen. This allows intelligent deployment of field based technicians as and when they are needed. This benefits efficiencies and ultimately the bottom line as the productivity per technician goes up.
– All remote systems send data to one, tailored dashboard allowing visualisation of all field-based systems. This allows swift responses to any system issues and minimises levels of risk associated to ‘non-compliance’ of any service level agreements that may be in place.
– Potentially allows new revenue streams and models to be delivered :-
o Enhanced service offering e.g. gold, silver and bronze call out times with an associated ongoing cost.
o Pricing models could be explored to offer a fixed monthly fee for ‘delivery of heating’.
What does this mean for the fuel supplier?
– Dispatching of fuel deliveries in an intelligent way, maximising efficiency of vehicles and supplies.
– Creation of more capacity to sell to more users based on richer knowledge of where your deliveries need to go to.
What does all of this offer the end user?
– Peace of mind that when they want heating/hot water it is going to be available
– Peace of mind that a fixed monthly fee will guarantee service levels and eliminate/reduce risk of any unforeseen ‘nasty bills’.
Must implementing such a solution with so many benefits involve considerable investment though? The efficiencies gained through better servicing, leveraging the data for analytics and enabling improvements to SLAs have been key outcomes from out existing clients that ensure the investment is negligible. But as an industry the development of the technology whilst maintaining the quality means that often the costs isn’t as much as you would expect.
As a passionate and agile company that cares about your success, we have current experience in this area as well as many others. If you would like to know more about our Industrial IoT solutions and how we can help you monitor your assets, please call us +44 (0) 1905 754 078 and ask for one of our IoT Application Specialists.
