The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest topics in tech today, enabling the capture and exchange of data in new and exciting ways. Those who have the right mix of technology and network connectivity in place will discover that IoT solutions deliver improved access, usability, and analytics, enabling people and organizations to leverage information and automation to make more strategic and better-informed decisions. In this article, the first in a series, we’ll take a look at how IoT solutions can help aid commercial refrigeration monitoring and cold storage management.
The Basics of IoT
Ericsson forecasts that there will be approximately 29 billion connected devices by 2022, 18 billion of which will be related to IoT. This translates to a growth rate of over 20% annually, primarily driven by new use cases. However, IoT remains a broad term that covers a variety of technology and devices.
At its most basic, IoT is defined as a system of interrelated computing devices and machines with the ability to transfer data over a network without the need for human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. More important than what IoT is, though, is what it can help an organization accomplish. With the right mix of technology and network connectivity in place, IoT provides an organization with real-time visibility of data. This allows people to leverage information to make informed decisions that enhance safety, sustainability, operational efficiency, and economic growth.
IoT Improves Commercial Refrigeration Monitoring and Cold Storage Management
IoT technology is gradually becoming an integral part of commercial refrigeration, providing powerful new capabilities. These include:
Real-Time Monitoring– Integrated IoT sensors allow users to monitor conditions such as internal and external temperature, humidity, power usage, and more. This provides users with detailed data about their refrigeration systems and usage patterns, leading to actionable insights into operations and power consumption. Real-time monitoring also enables managers to remotely assess conditions and manage their system from their phone or computer 24/7. Users can even set alerts for when the system reaches certain power or temperature thresholds and receive immediate notifications on their mobile device.
Increased Efficiency– The IoT network is able to use data from sensors to analyze real-world conditions and make adjustments in real-time. That means refrigeration units work at full capacity when necessary and enter a lower power consumption state when less cooling is required. With intelligent commercial refrigeration monitoring, practices like flywheeling become lower risk. This increases efficiency, reduces costs, and leads to longer equipment life.
Maintenance and Diagnostics– IoT technology provides insights that allow managers to schedule maintenance on their units when required as well as foresee issues before there is a problem. It also provides technicians with the capability to diagnose equipment remotely and the increased diagnostic functionality to pinpoint the problem precisely. The result is reduced maintenance and repair costs and less downtime.
Monitoring and Information Provided by Tessco Allows You to be Proactive
If commercial refrigeration units in a restaurant, hotel, hospital, or other facility go down for an extended period, it can result in thousands of dollars in lost perishable products and the opportunity cost of potential revenues. Tessco’s commercial refrigeration management solutions allow organizations to continually monitor commercial refrigeration systems remotely, providing visibility into the temperature and health of those systems. Alerts can be sent to mobile devices, allowing managers to identify issues early, avoiding costly repairs or emergency replacements. In addition, IoT solutions enable users to be proactive with maintenance and replacement scheduling by monitoring the function of a system and tracking its performance over time, so untimely and unexpected issues do not arise.
At Tessco, we provide our customers with turnkey wireless IoT solutions. We offer the key components, such as monitoring platforms, connectivity, gateway, sensors, and ancillary equipment, along with engineering, design, and technical support. We supply more than 65,000 products from 250 of the industry’s top manufacturers in IoT, as well as mobile communications, Wi-Fi, wireless backhaul, and more. We deliver an outstanding customer experience, expert knowledge, and complete end-to-end solutions for the wireless industry.