The IPC 11550 is Armstrong's supervisory control system for all-variable-speed chilled water plants in large HVAC comfort cooling applications. It applies the patented Hartman LOOP™ demand-based methodology with Natural Curve™ sequencing to orchestrate chillers, primary and secondary pumps, condenser water pumps, cooling tower fans, and isolation valves as a single optimised system rather than as independent subsystems.

How does the 3-panel architecture work?

The system comprises three networked panels communicating over high-level serial protocol: the IPC 11550 master panel runs the Hartman LOOP algorithms and provides the web-based operator interface; the IPC 3500 panel handles chiller staging and pump speed control; and the ITC 3600 panel manages condenser water and cooling tower fan modulation. All three are factory-configured with project-specific chiller and tower performance curves.

What efficiency improvement is achievable?

Hartman LOOP control targets an annual average plant efficiency better than 0.45 kW/ton (7.8 COP) for water-cooled systems — roughly double the performance of conventional best-in-class chilled water plants operating around 0.75 kW/ton. Efficiency gains come from continuously resetting chilled water supply temperature, condenser water temperature, and pump speeds to the combination that minimises total plant kW at the current load and ambient conditions.

What monitoring and trending capabilities are included?

The web-based interface provides dynamic screens for plant overview, condenser water circuit status, and a real-time performance meter. The system includes 2 GB of onboard memory for data trending, with over 20 plant parameters monitored against factory-preset and field-adjustable warning and alarm limits. Alarm notifications can be routed via email, BAS message, or local audible alarm.