Maintaining the optimum climate in any building is a priority, doing so will ensure that those who live and work in a space are comfortable. However, in environments where there are less people occupying the area, it can pay in dividends to have a pair of eyes to keep watch, for the benefit of your building and all that it houses. But what are some examples of buildings that need protecting and how may sensors be the enablers for risk mitigation?

Any area that has low footfall but is densely occupied by precious equipment should really be monitored. Warehouses, not-in-use hotel rooms, even hospital areas contain crucial resources that would cost thousands of pounds to recover if they were damaged by a problem which could have been prevented.

There are many kinds of sensors available to ensure a slight water egress issue doesn’t spiral beyond jurisdiction. Types include water leak, humidity and condensation sensors. Sontay has a range of condensation detection and prevention devices, where one will tell you when there is condensation and others perform an enthalpy calculation, where it calculates the dew point before condensation occurs and water drips. Sensors monitor these conditions to indicate when there is problem, and are able to send messages to the BMS to dehumidify the areas if there is an issue.

An example of a type of building where the demand for water detection sensors is growing is data centres. These repositories of thousands of billions of data were in-demand before covid. Yet, as home working has and continues to be the safe choice for many, the appetite for data centres has increased. Most of the UK population who are currently working from home will continue to do so flexibly for the foreseeable future.

Everything is driven by the cloud technology – our Office 365, and more data servers – meaning the demand will continue to grow exponentially. As the need is increasing, more awareness is being paid to how we can ensure these spaces are kept clear of water egress. Servers cannot get wet or hot, therefore water leaks, humidity and condensation all need to be monitored. Servers also emit lots of heat, and this has to be cooled accordingly so that they continue to operate at optimum levels. 

The demand for sensors is high across all buildings, not least ones which aren’t always occupied by humans to detect issues. Sensors installed as part of a BMS are the extra pair of eyes we all need and they will continue to rise in prominence as the demand for the likes of data centres continues to unravel.