Climate Control with Humidity and Temperature Sensor Systems

Environmental monitoring is now critical for many organizations in many different industries. Food manufacturers, agricultural companies, construction firms, and real estate owners all have specific use cases. Because so many companies today maintain servers and other sensitive tech equipment, monitoring temperature and humidity is becoming more and more universal.

But there is a big difference between clunky, outdated gauges and modern, smart solutions that can be easily integrated into a comprehensive building management system. With features like cloud-based platforms, real-time tracking, remote access, and instant notifications, it is now easy to track temperature and humidity with complete control at scale no matter the application.

How are Temperature and Humidity Sensor Systems Used?

There are a wide range of climate-controlled environments that are sensitive to even relatively minor variations in temperature and humidity. This creates many applications for smart sensors capable of monitoring changes to help safeguard workers, equipment, product, and operations, including the following:

• Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Technology: A temperature monitor that can constantly track indoor humidity level is essential for modern equipment, specifically tech equipment, in areas such as data centers, server rooms, and IDF closets.
• Quality Control for Food Manufacturing: Food product quality, as well as various regulations, require very specific conditions that must be maintained to avoid spoilage, foodborne illness, shrinkage, and more issues.
• Monitoring Construction Zones: In construction projects and infrastructure projects, concrete setting requires close monitoring to ensure that temperature and humidity don’t weaken the composition.
• Reading Building Moisture Levels: Following the escape of water damage or flooding, building moisture levels must be monitored to ensure that it is safe to start restoration.
• Preventing Mold Growth: To safeguard occupant health and identify root causes, it’s critical to monitor conditions in mold-prone dwellings.
• Monitoring for Agriculture and Horticulture: Crop harvests, yields, and virtually every aspect of agriculture and horticulture require users to monitor and manage environments with a smart temperature sensor.
• Managing Technical Equipment: Beyond the noted applications, climate control is vital to the protection and longevity of health service, data center, broadcast, pest control, as well as food and beverage dispensing equipment.

Features to Look for in a Temperature and Humidity Monitoring System

Not all temperature monitoring and humidity meter sensors and solutions are created equal. Some systems lack key capabilities, include platforms that are not user-friendly, and generally fail to deliver. To make sure you get the best option, look for the following features:

• Remote Monitoring Capabilities: Modern companies are increasingly deploying smart sensors for a wide variety of monitoring applications. With so many options available, flexibility and control are essential. Remote monitoring is now a must-have capability to allow various personnel to access the system from anywhere across various sites on any device.
• Cloud-Based Centralized Platform: Environmental monitoring alone can be useful, but it becomes truly powerful within a larger system. Through a cloud-based centralized platform, users can leverage full control and command over buildings and incorporate smart sensors into a wider system that includes security, surveillance, access control, and much more.
• Adaptability and Scalability: No matter the application, most companies will want to alter and expand their monitoring capabilities over time. This makes it key to find an adaptable and scalable system that supports ease of configuration for small-scale or large-scale facilities as well as central monitoring of multiple remote sites.
• Alerting System: A full-featured and modern temperature and humidity gauge needs real-time readings and proactive notifications. It isn’t enough to just log data. If a certain threshold is hit, authorized users need to be alerted instantly — through a central platform, app, email, text (SMS), or other communication method. A fully integrated system should allow the user to set an alarm schedule for different alert levels and timetables, for example, workdays, weekends, or holidays.
• Security and Compliance: All modern systems must have advanced security to prevent exploits and comply with any necessary industry regulations, such as the data integrity and reliability standards of the FDA’s Code of Federal Regulations for Food and Drugs. This generally requires well-protected audit trails/logs and multiple user levels with clearly defined authorization and access privileges.
• Maintenance and Support: Because monitoring systems are crucial to maintaining compliance with industry regulations, any system failures have to be resolved as quickly as possible. Whether the system is hosted or SaaS, it is imperative to procure an around-the-clock technical support plan within any contract package.
• Automated Continuous Monitoring: Any monitoring system should preferably be automated and continuous with no need for human intervention. Installing a real-time, or nearly real-time, data recording system — along with a cost-effective and efficient monitoring platform — offers a clear advantage in all but the smallest facilities.
• User Management: Ease of use should be a priority and this extends to user management. It should be simple to add new users and grant various access privileges across different user levels and send out notifications to specific individuals.

What are the Three Main Ways to Measure Humidity?

There are three main aspects to consider when it comes to measuring humidity levels through a sensor system:

1. Absolute Humidity (AH): The amount of water vapor in the air.
2. Relative Humidity (RH): The absolute humidity measured as a percentage of the maximum possible humidity at the current temperature. (Hotter air is capable of holding much more moisture.)
3. Specific Humidity: The ratio of water vapor mass to the total mass of a given amount of air.

Combining Temperature and Relative Humidity Monitoring

Regardless of the use case, Relative Humidity (RH) and temperature almost always go hand in hand because, without knowing the temperature, RH is effectively meaningless. For a given amount of moisture in the same amount of air, the RH value will fall as temperature increases (because hot air is capable of holder more water). The changing nature of RH along with temperature is one of the many reasons why it is important for a system to monitor and graphically display the RH and temperature over time — and not just record a static, isolated data point.

Finding the Best Temperature and Humidity Monitoring Solution

As technology has advanced and companies increasingly maintain their own critical equipment, the need for temperature and humidity monitoring has only grown. These days, it just makes sense for more and more organizations to include alongside their other smart building management control system.

Meanwhile, firms in more specialized industries with essential use cases are recognizing the value of upgrading to a better platform. Rather than having something that can simply get the job done, they are looking for a real solution.

No matter your need, there is a great option out there. The key is finding something that will work long-term as you grow and scale with all the features you need.