As data centers become increasingly critical for business operations, there is a corresponding need for reliable and accurate environmental monitoring systems to prevent equipment malfunction due to overheating -- as well to increase equipment longevity. As such environmental monitoring systems such as those offered by ITWatchDogs are being deployed in data centers worldwide to protect mission-critical IT resources.

Sometimes, though, these environmental monitoring solutions find their way into other applications outside of the data center – where they have equal opportunity to prove their reliability and accuracy. For example, researchers at the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University recently used ITWatchDogs’ MiniGoose XP II climate monitor to remotely monitor lab chamber temperatures to ensure all experiments were running under normal conditions.

Specifically the department used the MiniGoose XP II to remotely monitor eight “cold rooms” where researchers had incubators used for raising various insect colonies. As one might imagine, maintenance of temperatures at specific values was critical to these experiments: If one of the incubators overheated, due to environmental equipment failure, the insects would have to be moved within two hours or they would die.

Previously the department wasn’t using remote environmental monitoring, but it learned its lesson when it lost several insect colonies – including a moth colony and a worm colony – due to a temperature control malfunction. Unfortunately the malfunction occurred on the weekend when no one was around. The loss of these colonies was a major set-back for these important experiments. Had the university installed remote environmental monitoring, this disaster probably would not have occurred.

With the MiniGoose XP II the university is now able to monitor chamber temperatures remotely using the web interface, as well as have automatic alerts sent to various email addresses.

“Since installing the MiniGoose XP II climate monitor approximately two months ago, we have rescued an ongoing experiment when the incubator was randomly overheating due to a sticking relay,” said Peter Kirby, chief technician at the department of natural resource sciences, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, Canada. “In addition, it provides peace-of-mind to our researchers who can monitor their incubators from home at night or on weekends, to confirm that all is working fine.”

Kirby said installing the MiniGoose XP II was fast and easy – it was as simple as mounting the unit to a wall cabinet, connecting it to the university's Ethernet network, plugging it in to a wall socket, and running temperature sensors to each of the incubators/cold rooms. Best of all this environmental monitoring solution was significantly less expensive than others the university investigated.

To learn more, check out this recent case study.