Eliwell: Refrigeration and HVAC controllers, rack controls and Televis monitoring

Overview

Eliwell was founded in 1980 by an entrepreneur from Belluno to design and produce temperature setting and monitoring equipment for commercial and industrial plants. Its history credits it with the EWTC 101 in 1983, which it calls the first electronic thermostat in the 32 x 74 mm panel size, and with the EWPC series of configurable microcontroller thermostats in 1986. Supervision followed early, with TELEVIS 100 software for supermarkets in 1992.

Ownership has passed through two groups. Eliwell joined Invensys in 1996, alongside the Ranco controls brand, and moved to Schneider Electric with Invensys in 2014. Its company profile now describes it as the Schneider Electric group's centre for HVAC-R applications, designing, developing and producing a standard range alongside customised controllers and design support for equipment manufacturers.

The result is a controls range that runs from the single cabinet thermostat to compressor racks and store supervision, still developed and built in the Belluno area. Eliwell pairs it with Schneider's wider supermarket offer rather than competing as a separate software platform.

Offering

Cabinet and cold-room control is the core. The IDNext -HC user manual covers panel controllers with an 80.5 x 34.5 mm front, from the one-relay IDNext 902 to the four-relay IDNext 978, built for flammable refrigerants such as R290. The IDN974 product page is one of the part-number entries for that family. Earlier compact controllers include the IDPlus 961 to 974 -HC.

For larger plants, the EWCM family controls compressor rooms, and the 2012 retail package listed in the history combined TelevisGo, RTX 600/V, EWCM EO and V910 for cascade CO2 systems. In 2017 Eliwell launched DOMINO, a transcritical CO2 solution for supermarkets. The FREE platform, from 2011, is a compact programmable controller for equipment builders who write their own application.

Monitoring has two forms. TelevisGo v10 is an on-site web supervisor sold in kits with a SerialAdapter. TelevisBlue is a cloud service for convenience stores, delicatessens, restaurants and other small food businesses: a TelevisGate with a preactivated SIM acquires up to 500 connected resources, sends alarms by email and produces HACCP reports, with 12 months of cloud storage included and renewable.

Technology

Eliwell's compact controllers communicate through a TTL serial port rather than RS-485 terminals. The IDNext -HC manual prints a Modbus table for that port: the Pb1 regulation probe at address 4109, the Pb2 defrost probe at 4110 and the setpoint in use at 4114, with status, alarm and output words described by bit mask. Probe values are signed 16-bit words, and the default serial format is address 1, 9600 bit/s and even parity.

To put several controllers on one network, a BusAdapter converts TTL to RS-485. The BusAdapter 150 dongle sheet and the list of supported devices cover the plug-in version, which runs from 2400 to 9600 bit/s, and the BusAdapter 130 and 150 DIN-rail sheet covers the opto-isolated modules. Upstream, the SerialAdapter isolates the RS-485 network from a supervisor's RS-232 port and carries Modbus and Eliwell's Micronet protocol on the same bus, and the EthernetAdapter splits a site into several Modbus sub-networks over the LAN.

The FREE platform is programmed in IEC 61131-3 languages, a standard Eliwell says it was first to use in HVAC-R in 2004. Security handling follows Schneider Electric's vulnerability policy, with monthly security notifications and CVE assignment; CERT-FR advisory CERTFR-2019-AVI-384 covered TelevisGo units built before 15 July 2019, which needed a hotfix for an outdated UltraVNC component.

Markets

Eliwell sells worldwide through a network of agencies, distributors and partners, strengthened by Schneider Electric's presence. At its 40th anniversary, RefIndustry reported that the company operated in more than 90 countries and that Eliwell and Schneider Electric worked together on food storage and distribution and on ambient comfort, including EcoStruxure for Supermarkets and an Innovation Hub demonstration centre for supermarkets and convenience stores.

The customer base spans three groups. Equipment manufacturers build Eliwell controllers into plug-in cabinets, display counters, condensing units and cold rooms, and use the customised design work the company profile describes. Supermarkets buy rack controls, CO2 systems and TelevisGo supervision. Small food businesses, from butchers and bakers to restaurants, are the target of TelevisBlue, whose mobile connection was available in more than 30 countries at launch. Air-conditioning controls, which Eliwell has offered since the Microtech brands of 1991 and the Energy ECH 200 to 400 parametric controllers of 1999, extend the range beyond refrigeration.

Company

The operating company is Eliwell Controls S.r.l., at Via dell'Industria 15, Zona Industriale Paludi, in Alpago in the province of Belluno. It has developed and built its controllers there since 1980, and the Expoclima listing describes it as Schneider Electric's centre of excellence for HVACR applications since 2014. RefIndustry put the workforce at more than 200 people in 2020.

Eliwell has had two owners since its founder. It joined the British engineering group Invensys in 1996, according to its own history. Schneider Electric agreed to take over Invensys in July 2013 and completed the deal on 17 January 2014, according to Wikipedia's Invensys article, which lists Eliwell among the Invensys brands alongside Drayton and Eberle. The brand now trades as Eliwell by Schneider Electric.

Eliwell's plants gained ISO 14001 environmental certification in 2005. Its figures are not reported separately in Schneider Electric's accounts, so the headcount and country coverage above are the company's own statements as reported in the trade press.