Low-Cost Loggers Monitor Harsh Environmental Conditions for Winery
CAS DataLoggers supplied the temperature monitoring solution for a Washington winery concerned about the complex grape vine weather conditions that affected the quality and yield in their vineyard. To protect their grapes from harsh environmental conditions such as mold and frost, the growers planned to conduct a study ranging from April through October that involved wrapping plastic covers around their grapevines to record the effects and differences from the covered and uncovered grapes. To accurately study their vineyard’s microclimate, the owners wanted a low-cost data logging system to record the ambient temperatures over the 7-month period.
Installation
The growers were provided with 2 Lascar EL-USB-1 Temperature Data Loggers and 2 protective barriers to shield the loggers from any incoming sunlight that might cause inaccurate ambient temperature data. The data loggers were also protected against moisture to an IP67 standard when their protective caps were fitted. The data loggers were also protected against moisture to an IP67 standard when their protective caps were fitted. The USB loggers measured temperature within a -35°C to +80°C (-31°F to +176°F) range, and correct functioning of the units was indicated by flashing red, green, and orange LEDs. Each data logger could store up to 16,000 data points and was supplied with a long-life lithium battery lasting up to 12 months. Since the vineyard’s temperature wouldn’t change dramatically over a short period of time, the data loggers were set up to record once every 30 minutes throughout the 7-month study. The main benefit of this was that the growers didn’t have to perform any maintenance for the data logging equipment until the data needed to be collected.
Usage
The setup and configuration of the data loggers were an easy process. Using the free EasyLog software provided, the owners labeled one of the loggers “Outside Temp” and “Inside Temp” to distinguish one from the other. The software also allowed them to configure the sample collection rate to 30 minutes (sample rates could be set to every 10s, 1m, 5m, 30m, 1hr, 6hrs, or 12hrs). After the configuration process had been completed, the EL-USB-1 devices were ready to sit and record for 7 months.
To view the data from the study, users just plugged in the Lascar data loggers into a PC with the EasyLog software installed. From there they downloaded all the data to use the analysis capabilities of the software. The owners were able to view the data from the built-in graph viewer to see the trend data and print out graphs. The recorded ambient temperatures were also exported to a text format that was compatible for convenient viewing and reporting in Microsoft Excel.
Benefits
The winery’s temperature monitoring study of grape vine weather conditions benefitted in several ways following installation. The Lascar data loggers formed a low-cost system to record ambient temperature data from the 2 key parts of the study, viewing the exterior and interior temperatures from the plastic encasing. Setup and data collection were both simple and reliable for this application. All the study’s requirements were met for the recording duration between April and October with little to no attention needed throughout the project.
For more information on Lascar Data Loggers, or to find the ideal solution for your application-specific needs, contact a CAS DataLogger Application Specialist at (800) 956-4437 or request more information.