It all started with a sunken boat. Twice in the same year, Ken Blanchard’s unattended boat sank while docked in Somers Point, New Jersey. The bilge pump failed after stormy weather, and the vessel took on water. As luck would have it, Ken was an engineer. He began to think of a way to create a remote device that could monitor conditions and notify people when their boat was in trouble while they were away.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged businesses and government facilities in unique ways. Many have to operate under conditions where employees are working off premises. Others have had to limit their on-site staff in order to follow social distancing requirements. Many commercial buildings sit empty, while essential businesses like utility plants must remain operational. It has become more important than ever to monitor these workplaces around the clock to mitigate threats to facilities, equipment and inventory.
If critical vaccines and other pharmaceuticals are stored at an unsafe temperature for too long, they can lose their potency. For patients with chronic illnesses, taking a damaged dosage can be life-threatening. But even common medicines can break down and have harmful effects, and it can be difficult to tell the difference between a compromised product and a safe one. That's why pharmaceutical and vaccine providers must take appropriate measures to ensure all pharmaceutical products are stored at the correct temperature.
HVAC equipment represents a large portion of a building or manufacturing plant’s energy usage and operating expenses. HVAC monitoring systems can help minimize these costs by continuously tracking environmental conditions. They also monitor the performance of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment.
Server rooms and data centers are full of expensive equipment. Keeping an eye on equipment status is critical to preventing downtime and saving a significant amount of money on repairs.
Vineyard managers, viticulturists and winemakers know it’s difficult to maintain conditions that support healthy growth and quality harvest of grapes. To ensure the well-being of grapevines, it’s necessary to keep a close watch on environmental factors like temperature, humidity and soil moisture. Without this diligence, the operation stands to lose not only the money invested in the plants, but also the profit from anticipated wine sales.
Server rooms consume massive amounts of energy to keep equipment up and running continuously. One server can use between 500 to 1,200 watts per hour, which adds up to 20,400 watts daily. As a server room facility manager, you can save a significant amount of money and resources by optimizing your energy consumption.
If you work at a zoo, wildlife preserve, or animal research center, you know how important continuous monitoring of environmental conditions is to ensuring animal safety. This is equally important for pet care facilities, as you can read about in a separate blog post. It isn’t easy to maintain an ideal living environment for animals from all over the world. Living areas need to be kept to exact standards to ensure that animals remain safe and comfortable.
