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Greenplate’s New PID Technology

In previous tech stories we have discussed 3 major problems currently facing park electric BBQs.

  1. Hysteresis
  2. Ferro – Resonance
  3. Thermocouple Placement/Accuracy

Greenplate has spent several years developing a new heart for its BBQ to give users better satisfaction and owners greater reliability, performance and energy efficiency. A detailed explanation of the new technology is explained below.

What is P.I.D.?

Proportional Integral Derivative determines the amount of power required in relation to the rate of rise or fall of the cooking temperature. It does this by MOSFET switching, effectively wave clipping the incoming AC voltage. This power adjustment is undertaken on a per cycle basis i.e. 50 times per second. This means that the BBQ determines the amount of power required to maintain the set temperature no matter the amount of food applied to the plate.

By wave clipping the incoming AC current the saturation point of the transformer is never reached. Therefore eliminating previous issues when the transformer was reaching the saturation point.

For more details on the saturation of transformers and ferro-Resonance please refer to previous Greenplate News Chatter articles explaining this in greater detail. (Click Here)

Hysteresis is now eliminated by the new control system, current BBQ’s will detect a large temperature drop and then apply the full amount of power to the heating element, once temperature is reached the power is switched off. Greenplate’s new PID technology never completely switches power off to the element providing enough power to maintain the temperature not waiting for it to drop then trying to recover.

For more details regarding hysteresis and BBQ temperature control refer to Greenplate News Chatter article explaining this in greater detail. (Click Here)

Even with a thermocouple and MOSFET switching the real plate temperature i.e. the surface temperature will always be different to the thermocouple located directly under the plate. Years of experimentation has resulted in Greenplate developing an algorithm to determine the difference. This now instructs the equipment to display actual true temperature of the cooking plate itself not what the thermocouple is reading underneath the cooking plate. This is now displayed on a Digital Temperature screen located on the body of the BBQ and the temperature range is now adjustable from 50 – 400 °C.

To greater understand the differences that occur with thermo placement and control refer to Greenplate News Chatter article explaining this in greater detail. (Click Here)

The development and implementation of this revolutionary control system allows Greenplate to provide the best cooking performance on the market along with greater reliability and energy efficiency. This combination overcomes all obstacles that have persisted park electric BBQs since their inception over 40 years ago.