Environmental Monitoring During the Winter Months
Filed under: General, environmental monitoring, water leak monitoring
Today, we had our first major snow storm of the season. I’m a transplant to the northeast and winter in
Maine is still a jarring experience for me. My hometown of Vancouver, WA basically shuts down at the first sight of snow and doesn’t reopen until all the white stuff has melted away, which in a normal year is sometime before 4 pm on the same day. Around here, you just prepare, plow through and get on with business.
Winter requires some special preparation for the inside of your facility as well. With snow and ice comes the threat of water pipes bursting and power outages. Make sure that your facility is protected by having a back-up generator in place. You should also be sure that the main water pipes and any pipes that are running along uninsulated walls have been winterized. Read more
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
Avoiding water damage during floods
Filed under: environmental monitoring, water leak monitoring
This past weekend, the remnants of tropical storm Ida showed up in Southern Maine as a rain-soaked nor’easter. Fortunately, for us, we didn’t see the wide spread flooding and coastal erosion that other areas experienced further south on the New Jersey and Delaware coasts. 
Seeing all the news footage of flooded streets made me think about how important it is to be prepared for water infiltration due to flooding. According to the Red Cross, floods are among the most frequent and costly natural disasters, causing more than 90% of the damage related to natural disasters. On average, floods cause more than $4 billion in damages worldwide, per year. Proper preparation is equally important for businesses and homeowners.
Water leak detection systems in the server room
Filed under: environmental monitoring, water leak monitoring
With the importance placed on temperature and humidity monitoring and detecting hotspots in the data center, it is easy to forget that the second most common cause of catastrophic failure are water leaks. Whether your server room is located near refrigeration equipment used for building cooling, building facilities like bathrooms and kitchens or air conditioning units, precautions need to be taken.
Prevention
It all starts at the building planning level. Having an initial survey, to know if your building is in or near a flood zone, sounds like a no brainer, but it’s surprising how many people I speak with on a weekly basis that are in the heart of a flood zone with no water monitoring system in place. Once you know the situation your server room is in, it is important to take the necessary precautions by having the proper drainage installed, including a sump pump. This protects you in the event flooding becomes present.
Data center in hot water
Filed under: environmental monitoring, temperature monitoring, water leak monitoring
So here I was, thinking about what today’s blog would be, and my buddy Mitch gave me today’s title. Although a corny title, it describes an issue that happened with a customer of mine. The good news is that Ravica’s probes helped save the day.
Joe, the Admin for an ISP, had purchased multiple water sensors and temperature sensors for his six data rooms. Around 3:20am on a Sunday he got an alert from his SensorProbe. Apparently, the temp in one of the server rooms was rising. Since he was on call, he decided to get into his truck and see what was going on. On his way to the building, he received another page. The water sensor had triggered. He was now very concerned.
Once he reached the data center, it was obvious to him what had happened. One of the valves of the heating system started to reached its limit. This quickly caused the temp of the pipes to rise, which is what triggered the temperature sensor.
The relief vales reached their breaking point and started to spray water all over the first data room. He was quick to let me know that he shut down the water and saved the other data rooms from being soaked, since they were in line and showed signs of having the same behavior.
That means the investment in the temperature monitoring probes saved them thousands of dollars. If that isn’t the best reason to buy then I don’t know one that is!
- Jimmy D
Yahoo powers data center using Niagara Falls; Google raises data center temperatures
Filed under: Data Center, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
If I received an invitation to visit the offices of Google and Yahoo, I wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time snooping 
around the desk of the company founders. I’d rather spend my time checking out their data centers. Just imagine being among the machines that crunch all that search and email data zipping around the world. Just imagine what the physical security must be like at their data centers…
Yahoo last month announced plans to build its greenest data center in Lockport, N.Y. Yahoo co-founder and Chief Yahoo David Filo explains in his blog that the data center will be designed to use 100% outside air to cool the servers. And the resource used to power the data center and the servers will be the renewable hydroelectric power from the Niagara Falls. Read more
Water leak monitoring helps avoid mold
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, water leak monitoring
Water leaks and or high humidity can lead to mildew and mold. The results after prolonged exposure can mean premature paint problems, structural issues and health problems, not to mention the stink!
We can’t depend on our noses to do your mildew monitoring because we can’t be in a dozen places at once all the time.
There is an easier way. Our water sensor can monitor for water leaks. The cable for the actual sensor can be up to 100 feet away from the BitSight. Because its unique design, it can be used to notify when water levels drop too low as well.
The humidity sensors we manufacture can be run 1,000 feet and fished through walls to measure humidity in air ducts, crawl spaces, etc. As a bonus, the same unit performs temperature monitoring and measure as well.
Ravica has a complete line of intelligent environmental monitoring solutions to help protect your business from a environmental disaster. All units support SNMP and send alerts in numerous formats.
- Mike
Monitoring water leaks during hurricane season
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, SensorProbes, environmental monitoring, water leak monitoring
It’s official, hurricane season is upon us. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lists June 1st as the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. The end of this particularly dangerous portion of the calendar year has been moving ever outward and now comes to a close at the end of November.
Bonnie Schneider reports for CNN that as of as early as Thursday, May 28th, the first Tropical Depression had already formed just over 300 miles south of Providence, Rhode Island. Winds, however, did not exceed 35 mph. This early storm turned out to be little more than a hazard to nearby fishing vessels, but could the early storm activity be an omen of future seasonal dangers? According to hurricane expert Robbie Berg of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, “A flurry of activity in late May or early June is not a sign of what’s to come.”
It’s good to know that despite the early indications of an active 2009 hurricane season, there is no reason for a Swine Flu like panic. However, regardless of whether this year will be any worse or better than the typical hurricane season, it is important for those in storm prone areas to take their normal yearly precautions. It could be said that any hurricane season is a bad hurricane season.
For those of us up here in the great state of Maine, we don’t have to worry as much. However, there are many of us that enjoy summers in Maine and winters in any one of the southern states. Recently, I helped a customer configure an environmental system for his summer home in Florida to watch for any water leaks, during the months when he was not there.
The system was simple to design and implement. Basically, a few water sensors were strategically placed around the house; one in the basement, two on the first floor and one in the attic. The customer liked the portability and size of the BitSight2; so with four sensors to attach, he needed two SensorProbes. We gave both BitSights external IPs on his home network and loaded them on the Internet, where he could hit them from his home in Maine.
Now, in the event that he has leaking or flooding on any floor of his summer home, the BitSight will alarm him immediately. Luckily for him, he has neighbors that live there year-round. So he can call someone to check things out, if his sensors alarm him, all the while being 3,000 miles away.
The BitSight2 line of environmental monitoring sensors are great for data centers and offices, but the size and flexibility of these entry level units makes them suitable for home use as well.
Are you putting measures in place to watch your home for water leaks, while you are away this hurricane season?
~ Jon Mills
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