Read this if you are considering to invest in a temperature monitoring system.
Understanding your temperature monitoring requirements is just as, if not more important than understanding what the market offers. Make sure that you are procuring a suitable solution, not the cheapest solution as that could jeopardize your business operations if the temperature monitoring needs are not met.
We will explain the pricing of a wireless temperature monitoring system in 2 parts – the system itself and the other considerations.
Temperature Monitoring System
The basic items that you are paying for:
- Temperature Sensors
- Data Loggers
- IOT Gateways (optional)
- Monitoring Application/Software
Please read our page that explains how these items work together to become the temperature monitoring system that you need.
An estimated cost can be easily generated based on the temperature range and number of units you need to monitor to determine the appropriate number of sensors that measures your desired temperature range.
Other Considerations
Floor Plan
The layout of the floor plan and environment will affect the number of IOT gateways required for the solution to work. As the IOT gateways are picking up signals from the sensors, presence of aluminum or metallic walls and doors can cause attenuation which affects the signal strength. Hence, it is important to know the floor plan in detail to allocate the right number of IOT gateways at the ideal positions for the solution to work. In most cases, companies are more than willing to host a site walk to locate the ideal positions for the equipment.
Freezer Models
The brand and model of the freezer units is important as well to understand the right type of sensors to use. E.g. a sensor with an external thermal probe is required to run the thermal probe into Ultra Low Temperature (ULT) freezers via their access ports. This will also affect the installation cost as you might need to employ installation services from specific third party bodies for very specialized freezer units.
Audit Requirements
Know the requirements from your auditors. Some auditors just want to see a temperature monitoring system in place, others may want to ensure that there is calibration certification attached to the sensors. For reference, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) would always ask for temperature logs from companies to prove that they have a working temperature monitoring system. So make sure the temperature monitoring solution has a feature to export temperature data logs.
Post-sales Support
What are the warranty and post-purchase service terms? Using ourselves as an example, customers can sign an Advance Support contract (similar to AppleCare for Apple) with us to get services such as an annual on-site check and hardware warranty beyond the first year. It is important to spend some time looking into the post-purchase support options from companies as you will be working with their temperature monitoring solution for years to come.
Summary
To summarize, the cost of a temperature monitoring solution is really dependent on your requirements.
What companies like us can do for you, is to make ourselves available to discuss your requirements and give you a price based on your requirements.