Retrofitting Aeration Control to Your Existing Switchboard
You don't need new fans or silos for smart aeration. How a controller retrofits to your existing starters — and what to do without a suitable board.
SiloSense IQ ·
Most storage sites already have what aeration needs: fans on the silos and a switchboard with a starter for each fan. What’s usually missing is the decision about when those fans should run. That’s the part a retrofit adds.
What a retrofit actually changes
A typical aeration fan circuit has an isolator, protection, and a contactor or motor starter that switches the fan. Today, something turns that starter on — a manual switch, a time clock, or a person.
An aeration controller sits alongside that and takes over the “on” signal:
- A controller output drives the existing starter’s control circuit.
- The site’s isolation and motor protection stay exactly as they are.
- A manual or local override stays available, so operators can still run a fan by hand.
You keep your fans, your ducting and your switchboard. The fans just start making decisions based on the air.
What the controller needs to know
To run fans on the right air, the controller needs:
- Outside conditions — temperature and humidity from a weather station on site.
- Your limits — the air you’ll accept for each silo, for winter and summer.
- A mode — Forced Run for hot grain, Automatic, Auto Protect for long-term storage, or Off.
With grain sensors in the silo too, you also see what each fan run is doing to temperature and moisture inside.
Before you start: a quick checklist
- Is each fan on its own starter? If several fans share one contactor, they’ll switch together.
- Is there room in the board for a controller and a few relays?
- What’s the control voltage of the starters? Your electrician will match the interface to it.
- How does the site connect? Cellular, Ethernet, Wi-Fi or Starlink all work.
- Who will do the wiring? All switchboard work should be done by a licensed electrician.
Old board, no board, or VSD fans?
Not every site has a switchboard worth retrofitting. Some have tired, mixed-up boards that have grown over decades; others have fans wired to individual switches out in the weather.
For those sites, we build custom aeration control cabinets for any site in Australia — starters or variable speed drives, isolation and protection, with the controller built in, and installed by a licensed electrician. It’s one tidy cabinet in place of a patchwork, ready for automatic control from day one.
How SiloSense helps
Aeration Manager is designed to retrofit: it controls fans through your existing starters, uses your on-site weather to decide when to run, and puts every fan on the dashboard with manual override any time.
If your site needs a new board, ask about a custom control cabinet. Request a demo and send us a photo of your switchboard — we’ll tell you what’s involved.