Guidance Features in Room Alert Manager – Threshold Ranges, Established Standards & Heat Index Readings

For many years now, the CDC, EPA, NWS, ASHRAE & OSHA have been recommending and requiring that employers have proper tools in place to keep their employees safe. Environmental threats should be a top concern for any business owner because an unsafe environment can be dangerous and deadly to your customers, employees, students, tenants or anyone else in your facility. 

Of all the threats that can lead to costly, irreversible downtime, heat is the most critical. Heat-related illnesses are the leading cause of death among all weather-related workplace hazards. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) recently published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention that is expected to be issued in 2022. OSHA will soon be requiring specific standards for hazardous heat conditions, and employers may be mandated to monitor heat index to ensure employee safety. 

We are constantly looking for ways to improve proactive environment monitoring with Room Alert so in response to the upcoming OSHA guidelines, we created a new Guidance section in Room Alert Manager. Our goal is to help employers ensure their factories, warehouses and outdoor environments are within a safe range.

Guidance Features In Room Alert Manager

The new Guidance section was designed as an educational tool where Room Alert users can learn about pre-defined safety standards that have already been set by professional associations such as NWS (National Weather Service) and ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). The Guidance section breaks down into Threshold Ranges and Established Standards tabs.

Threshold Ranges

Under Threshold Ranges, users can define the exact range they want to maintain in their environment. The threshold range you choose helps when creating alerts and graph overlays. In Threshold Ranges, you’ll see a table containing pre-defined threshold ranges that match the established standards. You can choose from the following: 

• ASHRAE Data Center Temperature (Temperature Between 64°F and 81°F) 
• ASHRAE Data Center Humidity (Humidity Between 20%RH and 80%RH) 
• NWS Heat Index – Caution (HI above 80°F) 
• NWS Heat Index – Extreme Caution (HI above 91°F)
• NWS Heat Index – Danger (HI above 103°F)
• NWS Heat Index – Extreme Danger (HI above 125°F) 

If none of these options are suitable for your application, users can also define their own custom threshold ranges to be used in the same way. 

Threshold ranges help businesses and facilities keep track of how their work conditions compare to the recommended temperature ranges. Whether you’re wanting to meet specific requirements or keep employees safe, defining threshold ranges is key.

Established Standards

Under Established Standards, users will see “ASHRAE – Data Center” and “NWS – Heat Index”, with more options to come in the future. The “ASHRAE – Data Center” tab is broken down into 2 main sections: 

1. Informational section is where you can learn about the established standard and suggested threshold ranges
2. Data Trends section is where you can see graphed data trends over the last 24 hours 

The  “NWS – Heat Index” tab is broken down into 3 main sections. 

1. Informational section is where you can learn about the established standard and suggested threshold ranges
2. Data Trends section is where you can see graphed data trends over the last 24 hours
3. Enable Alternate Sensor View is where you can enable Heat Index Readings. This is a global setting that, when enabled, will enable it for all users.

Heat Index Readings

If a user decides to enable alternate sensor view, a Heat Index Readings section will appear under the Device Details tab. Heat Index Readings displays all of the heat index, otherwise known as the feels like temperature, readings from all your Digital Temperature & Humidity sensors. Based on your specific heat index readings, our heat gauge will quickly indicate if your readings show extreme danger, danger, extreme caution, caution or low risk. 

Our new guidance features in Room Alert Manager give users the unmatched experience of having an exceptional view into their environmental conditions. We’re extremely excited to continue supporting our customers by making it easier than ever for Room Alert users to understand their environmental requirements, meet those standards and increase employee safety.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about monitoring heat index with Room Alert, please contact us today through email at Sales@AVTECH.com, through our online Live Chat service, or via phone 401.628.1600.  

You can also visit our YouTube Channel and read our articles here to learn many other reasons why you need Proactive Environment Monitoring with Room Alert.