Industry 4.0 – Episode 1 : Connect temperature sensors to Compas

Did you know that a 1 degree increase in temperature set point results in a 8-10% increase in energy consumption? (source)

It all started with a question: why heating the warehouse in the same way as the offices? In order to set the temperature of the storage area, we had to adjust 4 air heaters manually, which did not allow us to be precise nor flexible.

We installed sensors to measure the temperature in 3 areas: the offices, a meeting room and the warehouse. Thanks to our software Compas, we are able to connect and retrieve data from the sensors. We have also connected the air heaters to this monitoring.

How do we do this?

First we installed an UCC (our monitoring hardware) with Compas in it. We wired some sensors to it. Then, we developed an algorithm to set the desired temperature in the storage area according to the time of the day and the measured temperature. For example, we integrated the Alpha Innovations’ holidays and the legal holidays using a web API to avoid the activation of the heating when there is no one in the company.

What are the impacts?

Now, not only do we have an overview of the temperature of our facilities, but more importantly, we are able to use this data to improve our performance.

The concrete consequences of this installation are, among others :

• Easier and more accurate setting of our heaters
• Ensuring that the temperature corresponds to the conditions required for product certification
• Saving energy because we no longer overheat
• …

A revolution? Not really but…

In this article we are talking about a temperature sensor. Obviously, monitoring this equipment is no incredible achievement, but what would you do if you had a dozen sensors and parameters to monitor, whatever their brands? If this is your case, consider Compas: you will have a single interface to have an overview of several equipment!

Curious to know what else we can do with Compas?

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