Automated temperature monitoring for Stansted Laboratories
Stansted Laboratories: Testing for legionella and more
Stansted Laboratories is a highly successful UKAS accredited laboratory of 20 staff analysing over 50,000 samples a year in a purpose-built facility. It specialises in microbiological analysis of water and air, with its main income derived from Legionella testing of water and drinking water bacteriological analysis.
Maintaining precise temperatures within its devices, including incubators, fridges, freezers, water baths and the cold room is essential to ensure accuracy and for compliance with the stringent UKAS requirements, as is maintaining a detailed record. Stansted Laboratories had been monitoring and recording equipment temperatures manually, but as the company grew this became a time consuming, labour intensive activity.
Following a site visit, Testo recommended its Saveris 2 system, a highly cost-effective, flexible temperature and humidity data logging solution specifically for small to medium-sized applications, which still provides the accuracy and reliability of its larger ‘parent’ system, Saveris 1.
The Solution
15 Saveris 2 wireless temperature data loggers are now in use at Stansted Laboratories. The majority of the loggers are T2 which are being used to monitor temperatures in fridges, fridge freezers and incubators from -25°C to + 50°C. T3 loggers with specialist flexible probes used for the 50°C water baths and a T1 logger with internal NTC temperature sensor in the cold room. The T2 data loggers are being used with a Testo Penetration probe NTC with ribbon cable (2-metre length) which is exceptionally flat, allowing it to be pushed through narrow openings, such as the door seal of the fridges and incubators without impacting the performance of those units.
The measured temperature values from all the data loggers are automatically recorded by the Saveris 2 system and sent directly over a wireless LAN to the Testo Cloud (online storage), requiring no manual intervention. The information is formatted into an easy to read graphic-based report for each data logger and available as a pdf or CSV file which can be emailed daily, weekly or monthly. Stansted Laboratories has opted for a daily report. Furthermore, authorised personnel can access data logger information at any time and from any location with an internet-enabled smartphone, tablet or PC, for maximum convenience.
For Stansted Laboratories, a key benefit of the Saveris 2 system is the automation. Anu Tavarasa, Laboratory Manager explains: “We were doing the readings manually, which took us a half-hour in the morning and another half-hour in the afternoon. We wanted to automate this to save time. We tried several data loggers but they didn’t work for us as they were taking a long time to download. The Testo system is very fast. Not only has it freed up an hour every day for us to do analysis, but it’s very user-friendly. I like the way we can look at the data online whenever we want; we do this regularly – three times a day at least. The alerts are also very useful, which come direct to the lab.” Testo Saveris 2 provides email and (optional) SMS alerts, with limit values defined by the customer.
Whilst accuracy is clearly essential, for Stansted Laboratories the ease of use and flexibility of Saveris 2 has been a winning combination. The entire system is automated, needs no maintenance except for yearly recalibration (as standard with all test and measurement equipment), staff do not require training, and is both easily expandable and simple to install; so much so that when Stansted Laboratories recently expanded into adjacent premises, staff simply picked up the data loggers and moved them with the equipment without any need for Testo’s assistance.
