Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #124530

Title: DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING UNITS FOR TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY

Author
item EIGENBERG, ROGER
item NIENABER, JOHN
item BROWN-BRANDL, TAMI
item HAHN, GEORGE

Submitted to: American Society of Agri Engineers Special Meetings and Conferences Papers
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/16/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Animal studies involve measurements of temperature and humidity. There are many approaches to these measurements but few offer good accuracy and low cost. We developed two low-cost units using commercially available sensors. This paper reports the performance and reliability of those units.

Technical Abstract: Research on the effects of thermal environments requires monitoring and control based on temperature and humidity sensor measurements. There are many approaches to both temperature and humidity measurements but few offer high reliability in hostile environments with acceptable accuracy and relatively low cost. The Biological Engineering Research Unit at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center evaluated two separate units that were developed with commercially available sensors for meeting the cost/performance criteria: 1) a linear temperature sensor designed around a National Semiconductor LM35CA, 2) an Ohmic Instruments Company ABS 300 sensor. This report details sensor calibration and performance.