GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies (GE Sensing), a subsidiary of General Electric Company (GE), said that its Protimeter HygroTrac environmental monitoring system is helping the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) to measure it energy efficiency. The monitoring system measures the existing relative humidity and temperature levels within a Grade II listed building. The Protimeter HygroTrac System uses small wireless RH and temperature sensors.
The humidity and temperature levels will be contrasted with the measurements taken after the building undergoes simple and inexpensive modifications to conclude if the building has increased its energy efficiency.
Mike Parrett, the consultant building pathologist and SPAB trustee, states, “We can view all of the measurements taken by the system whenever we have access to the Internet. We can quickly access environmental levels and trends within the building and/or drill down to specific measurements from specific sensors.”
Matthew Slocombe, project manager, states, “We find the alarm thresholds very useful, as an e-mail is automatically sent to me and Mike if and when a threshold is crossed. This allows great peace of mind, as I know that any potential problem will be flagged up well before any serious damage or deterioration can occur.”
The Protimeter HygroTrac System met the SPAB’s criteria by offering the reliability, accuracy, ease of use and minimal disruption in installation. The system was easily deployed in each of the rooms of the Spital Square building and they are programmed to transmit the temperature and RH readings at regular intervals to a central data acquisition gateway. This gateway can be up to 150ft from a sensor and the frequency of reporting can be adjusted between I minute and 24 hours. The gateway store received data and is connected to the Internet via SPAB’s own local area network. This information is then accessible, at any time, to the project managers simply by logging onto a dedicated website.
The monitoring system was deployed in December 2008 and has already yielded useful data for the project team, before the initiation of the modification work in May 2009. The SPAB are developing advice, information and courses on enhancing energy efficiency, compatibly with conservation, for owners and users of ancient buildings and the present project is based in its own headquarters in Spital Square London.