Catching high refrigeration temperature alarms quickly is essential to prevent stock loss of medicines and vaccines. Regardless of whether the problems are caused by power outages, mechanical issues of the refrigeration system, or human error, an automated HVAC and refrigeration control and monitoring system can catch issues early. But not only that, it also enables predictive maintenance that helps businesses prevent problems from arising in the first place.
Preventing Rising Refrigeration Temperatures
Rising temperatures can be the result of human error or mechanical issues. Both can be fixed before they cause temperatures to rise over a critical threshold.
If there is a mechanical problem in the refrigeration systems, it is important to catch it early before it leads to serious problems such as refrigeration system breakdowns and the associated stock loss. Predictive maintenance – the practice of fixing small issues early – can easily be carried out using remote monitoring software.
Unusual running conditions that suggest a mechanical issue, such as spikes in energy use, can be detected using sensors connected to remote monitoring software. Once the system alerts staff to these unusual conditions, they can be investigated and problems fixed if necessary. Fixing small issues is more cost-effective in terms of maintenance costs and helps prevent refrigeration break downs further down the line.
Sometimes rising temperatures are simply down to human error. If the door to a cold storage is left open for too long, sensors can detect this and the monitoring system can issue an alarm. The problem can then be immediately rectified onsite.
Mitigating Communication Issues
The best alarms don’t help if no one takes action. Sometimes alarms are localised and by the time somebody notices them, the stock is lost. If the wrong person is notified, this can also lead to no one taking action.
Remote monitoring systems can mitigate these problems if they are set up to forward alarms to nominated staff members. Dedicated remote monitoring services with staff to log and respond to alarms offer another option to ensure alarms are followed up. Not only can remote staff ensure that alarms are followed up, they can also triage them to understand if immediate intervention is required. If no intermediate intervention is required, this can save businesses out-of-hours maintenance and call-out costs.
Ensuring Correct Storage and Critical Alarm Conditions
Temperature settings that can be manually overwritten are another risk factor when it comes to over temperatures. An HVAC and refrigeration control system set up using automation software can help mitigate this risk. Refrigeration temperature set points can be controlled remotely and access restricted to only allow specified personnel to make changes.
A control and monitoring strategy also allows businesses to set critical temperature thresholds and set up automated alarms if conditions are met.
Adhering to Legislation
In addition to preventing refrigerated stock loss, monitoring the refrigeration temperature using an automated system also assists with regulatory compliance. Sensors can automatically measure temperatures at set intervals and monitoring software can store the data for years. Electronic signatures on data sets can be used to confirm to external parties that data has not been changed since it was exported. Temperature alerts help businesses ensure that critical thresholds are not surpassed.
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