Temperature Alarm Plays Vital Role in Your Network Sustainability

It is critically important to monitor the temperature levels at your remote sites. To get the most detailed visibility of site temperature, you need a temperature alarm remote that monitors four separate analog thresholds.

While discrete alarms are the most common type of network monitoring alarm, there are some applications best suited for analog alarms. A common example of an analog application is the measurement of temperature. If you have analog alarm values to measure, you need to identify the thresholds at which your monitoring system will take charge.

For example, let us say you are using a temperature alarm to measure the temperature of a remote site. Building temperatures range from 10 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Under normal conditions, the building's heating and cooling system will keep the temperature within an acceptable range. To take advantage of multiple analog values, you might set up 4 different threshold values like below:

1. When the temperature is below 30 degrees, page a technician and notify the Network Operations Center (NOC). A value this low might indicate that the heater is not working at all.
2. When the temperature is below 50 degrees, notify the NOC. This may indicate that the heater is not functioning properly.
3. When the temperature is above 80 degrees, notify the NOC. This may indicate that the air conditioning unit is not functioning properly.
4. When the temperature is above 100 degrees, page a technician, notify the NOC, and open a vent (via derived controls). This may indicate that the air conditioning unit is not functioning at all.

With four thresholds you can establish separate major and minor alarms for both high and low temperatures. This gives you both an advanced warning if temperatures are starting to leave the optimum range (for example, the air conditioner is not working right and the temperature has risen to 80°F) and a final notification when temperatures have reached the danger point (for example, the air conditioner is not working at all, and the temperature is 100°F).

Knowing both the inside and outside temperatures gives you the total picture. Imagine if the outside temperature is 150°F and your AC stopped working. With this knowledge you know you had better dispatch a technician fast as the temperature is sure to rise rapidly.

T/Mon NOC monitors four separate analog thresholds

This is of great importance as high temperatures will dramatically shorten the functional life of your batteries. For example, a lead-acid battery that would last 10 years under ordinary conditions would last only a year if it was constantly operated at temperatures over 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a recent case a telecommunications company lost a remote site with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment due to the lack of temperature monitoring. With the added heat radiation of servers and equipment, the site quickly transformed into an oven cooking the equipment beyond restoration.

Call DPS Today to learn more about integrating a temperature alarm monitoring system

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