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It's amazing how much pressure you can feel when you're responsible for making sure things are running smoothly, whether it's your building's HVAC or your irrigation system. Often, what we don't see—or can't see—is where problems arise. That's why pressure sensors have become such an invaluable tool across many applications; because tracking this invisible force can tell us so much. Not all pressure is created equal, though, so it’s important to understand the different ways it can be measured to give you the information you need.
How Do Pressure Sensors Work?
But first, the common types of pressure measurements:
- Gauge pressure: pressure relative to ambient pressure
- Absolute pressure: pressure relative to a pure vacuum of space
- Differential pressure: the difference in pressure between two specific points
- Vacuum pressure: negative measurement that’s less than the surrounding atmospheric pressure
When it comes to measuring these various types of pressure, all sensors basically work the same—by measuring the change in pressure differences and transforming that information into an electrical signal, which then becomes data for the user. Pressure transducers transmit signals over a greater distance. Calibration and temperature compensation are also key to reliable pressure readings, so you'll want to keep that in mind when selecting a pressure sensor.
Let's take a look at some typical monitoring applications and how pressure sensors can help you better understand what's happening—from heating ducts to aqueducts.
Monitoring Pressure to Optimize Irrigation
Pressure sensors can provide real-time data on the water pressure within your irrigation system. This vital information can help you save water, improve production, and ultimately help you develop more sustainable and efficient agricultural practices.
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By measuring the force of the water flow within your irrigation system, you can identify and correct issues in order to optimize water usage. Too much pressure can lead to wasted water and damage to your system. Too little, and you can end up with parched plants and crop loss. Some likely culprits? Leaks and blockages in pipes. With pressure sensor data, farmers can pinpoint and then fix problem areas in pipes to balance irrigation across the field and prevent overwatering, underwatering, disease, and crop loss.
Greater irrigation efficiency trickles down to energy efficiency, too. Your irrigation system won’t have to work harder to compensate for loss of pressure that leads to more watering!
Learn more about irrigation monitoring.
Improving HVAC System Performance Using Pressure Data
By providing data on various aspects of an HVAC system's operation, pressure sensors can play a crucial role in optimizing performance of those systems. Pressure sensor data can be used to:
- Track airflow rates to ensure optimal ventilation and temperatures throughout a building
- Find dirty filters that need changing (indicated by drop in pressure)
- Identify leaks/exposed areas in the duct system
- Evaluate fan performance and other machinery functions
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Building owners and facility managers also use gauge pressure sensors to help monitor and improve building and equipment performance overall. Data logging solutions that integrate pressure sensors are invaluable for monitoring things like pump performance and compressed airflow in industrial applications.
Staying on top of these issues also helps building managers meet energy efficiency goals and conserve costs by predicting when maintenance is required and preventing the need for expensive repairs.
Learn more about HVAC monitoring solutions.
Tracking Water Level
For environmental, municipal wastewater management, and numerous other applications, water level monitoring is crucial. It helps scientists in their studies of the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems, for instance. It also informs wastewater facility teams of adequate water supplies in treated water tanks, detects flooding for wetland mitigation, assists municipal managers in tracking reservoir depletion...and the list goes on.
Pressure sensors are integral to monitoring tools (like data loggers) used to measure water level. They translate the pressure exerted by the water into the distance it is to the surface. They also are often accompanied by a barometric pressure sensor, needed to compensate for the atmospheric pressure, which can affect the accuracy of the water level measurement.
Types of Water Level Loggers
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Submersible Water Level Loggers
Submersible data loggers with pressure sensors are placed near or closer to the bottom of a water source, such as a tank, well, or reservoir, and are periodically pulled up to download pressure data.
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Bluetooth Water Level Loggers
Leveraging Bluetooth technology, users can streamline data collection by wirelessly offloading data straight to an app on a mobile device or laptop.
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Remote Wireless Water Level Monitoring Sensor Network
The time-saving HOBOnet Remote Water Level Monitoring System streamlines water level data collection and management, using a single cellular station that delivers near real-time information from wireless water level sensors right to the cloud.
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Check out all of our water level monitoring solutions.
Monitoring Environmental Conditions with Weather Stations
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And, last but not least, we can’t talk about measuring pressure without mentioning one of its more common applications: weather stations. Onset is well-known for our research-grade, flexible weather monitoring solutions, and with good reason! We offer a number of field-proven IoT remote monitoring options that integrate barometric pressure sensors along with numerous other sensors to measure a variety of weather conditions.
See how pressure sensors integrate with weather stations
The Bottom Line on Measuring and Monitoring Pressure
Clearly, when it comes to talking about pressure, it’s a deep dive. But once you choose the pressure monitoring solution that best fits your needs, the pressure's off of you and you’re ready to start collecting data!