Data Loggers and Environmental Monitoring: 5 Things to Know
In many instances it is necessary to monitor precise environmental conditions in a space. A data logger is the piece of equipment used to efficiently accomplish this task. Data loggers and environmental monitoring have gone hand-in-hand for years, but now their importance has vastly increased.
What are data loggers? How do they work? What is environmental monitoring? Why is it important? These are just a few of the questions people who are new to the world of environmental monitoring and data loggers ask.
To help explain environmental monitoring, its importance and role in everyday life, and the data logger technology that helps drive it, we have put together an explainer about the most important aspects of this field. Here are five points you need to know about data loggers and environmental monitoring.
Multiple Industries Need Environmental Monitoring
Environmental monitoring is the process of recording and observing conditions in a given space in order to maintain the required conditions at the desired levels. This can mean maintaining the specific temperature, humidity, or pressure levels. In some industries, especially those that are heavily regulated, creating the optimal environment is not just desirable, it is the law.
Some industries must be regulated to ensure the health and safety of the consumer. When consumers use products from within these industries, it can be difficult to tell whether a product is safe just by looking at it. This is why the conditions under which these products are produced, distributed, and stored are regulated.
Quite a few industries fit this bill and so require precise environmental monitoring. The food and beverage industry, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, are two industries in this category. Environmental monitoring helps keep food fresher longer and helps prevent food borne illnesses. It also helps keep drugs safe and effective for use. Monitoring temperature in the pharmaceutical industry is a hot topic in 2021 with the very specific, very cold environmental requirements for the COVID-19 vaccines.
These are just two industries that rely on environmental monitoring to meet regulations and keep products safe. Other industries include aerospace, healthcare, medical devices, and certain other manufacturing industries. To monitor these environments, companies rely on data loggers.
What Are Data Loggers?
A data logger is an electronic device that records data in a certain place over a period of time. These devices are generally small and compact, so they easily and inconspicuously fit in a space, even a very small one. Data loggers are equipped with sensors that monitor whatever they are designed to monitor (more on the types below) and provide users with precise data.
Data loggers can provide data that can be downloaded, have a digital display, or can even be internet-connected to transmit their data to another location. Data loggers can even be equipped with audible and visual alarms if they are designed to monitor something or some place that could become hazardous if conditions fall outside a specific acceptable range.
Data Loggers Have Increasingly Replaced Chart Recorders as The Environmental Monitoring Tool Of Choice
Prior to the advent of data loggers, chart recorders were the most common method of environmental monitoring. Data loggers, according to Dickson’s overview, are now the tool of choice for environmental monitoring in a variety of industries. These newer, digital tools provide a host of benefits for companies that chart recorders just can’t provide.
A chart recorder is an electromechanical device as opposed to an electronic device like data loggers. These devices record their data by mechanically drawing different charts on paper. The most well-known version of a chart recorder is the one you see connected to a polygraph (lie detector) in TV and movies.
Chart recorders served a great purpose in the world of environmental monitoring for a long time but data loggers have made them an almost obsolete technology in 2021. Data loggers are smaller, cheaper, and require much less power to run. Many data loggers also have a computer processor inside them at minimum or, at best, are part of the Internet of Things (IoT) and can transmit their data over the internet. This offers a level of versatility, convenience, and control that chart recorders never could achieve.
There Are Many Types of Data Loggers
The many different types of data loggers serve different purposes. The most common data loggers for environmental monitoring record temperature, humidity, and/or air pressure. However, these data loggers only scratch the surface of what this type of device can do.
For environmental monitoring, you will also often find CO2 data loggers and open/close data loggers. A CO2 data logger monitors the amount of CO2 in the air. In many regulated industries, air quality is very important both for the products and the health and safety of the workers. These monitors ensure the quality of the air stays safe.
An open/close data logger monitors, as the name suggests, whether doors to sensitive areas are open or closed. If doors to these areas are open too long or not closed properly, it can have a major effect on the area behind the door which could lead to problems for the products.
How To Pick The Right Data Logger For Your Needs
Several factors should be taken into account when looking for the right data logger for your needs. First assess what type of data you need to monitor and at what ranges. From there, look at any special considerations such as size or durability. For example, if the data logger is outside, it must be waterproof.
The next few things to think about include how you need to access the data. Will it be in-person or remotely? Then, you have to make sure whatever data logger you choose conforms to any industry regulations, if applicable. Finally, you need to figure out how many you need. This number will change depending on if you are monitoring a single location or creating a broader picture like a temperature map.
Environmental monitoring is important to so many industries in 2021 and data loggers are the key to this process. Whether you need to do environmental monitoring for your business or are just looking to understand more about how it works, knowing these five points about environmental monitoring and data loggers should help you out quite a bit.
