testo 160

What a Logger Tells You That a Handheld Can’t

This is worth being clear about, because it explains why a logger sits alongside a measuring instrument rather than replacing one.

A handheld tells you what the conditions are while you’re standing there. That’s the right tool for commissioning a system, chasing a fault or checking a setting.

It can’t tell you what happened at 3am, what the room did over a weekend when the plant was shut down, or whether a complaint made on Tuesday reflects a genuine pattern or just a bad morning.

Those questions need continuous recording over days or weeks, and that’s what the testo 160 range is for. A complaint about stuffiness in a meeting room is a different conversation when you can show carbon dioxide climbing to a peak each afternoon, and not clearing overnight.

Five Versions

The IAQ is the one that matters most for indoor air quality work, because carbon dioxide is the measurement that describes ventilation performance. Everything else tells you about comfort. Carbon dioxide tells you how much of the air in the room has been breathed and not yet replaced.

The THL is built for conservation work. Light and UV damage exhibits and archives, so museums and galleries need to record them alongside temperature and humidity.

The THE and E take external probes: the S-TH for temperature and humidity, the S-Lux for illuminance, and the S-LuxUV for light and UV. They suit measurements where the sensor has to be somewhere the logger can’t, such as inside a display case. Probe cables can be extended to around 10 metres in total.

The Traffic Light

On the IAQ version, an air quality light shows conditions on a traffic light principle (green, amber and red), with the carbon dioxide limits set to suit the building.

That’s more useful than it sounds in an occupied space. A number on a display means something to a facilities manager, and nothing to the people in the room. A light changing from green to amber prompts someone to open a window, or call someone who can, which is a response rather than a record.

How it behaves depends on the power supply. On a USB mains unit, the air quality light stays on permanently, and the display alternates between temperature and humidity. On batteries, the light only comes on briefly during each measurement, and only temperature is displayed. The IAQ uses more energy than the other loggers, so its minimum measuring cycle on batteries is 5 minutes, and Testo recommends running it from mains.

Data That Survives the Network

Readings transfer to the Testo Cloud over the building’s WiFi, and the system is set up, configured and monitored through a normal web browser, on a PC, tablet or smartphone.

The part that matters for a long measurement is what happens when the network doesn’t cooperate. Up to 32,000 readings are held in internal memory as a buffer, so a WiFi dropout, router restart or blackout doesn’t lose the data. It uploads when the connection returns.

On a four week measurement in a building someone else manages, that’s the difference between a complete record and an argument about a gap.

The logger supports WPA2 Enterprise as well as WPA2 and WPA Personal security, which helps when it has to join a corporate network.

Two Cloud Plans

Both plans send system notifications for low battery, an interrupted radio link and an interrupted power supply, and both support an unlimited number of loggers per account.

Designed to Blend In

This is an unusual design priority, and it comes from the market Testo built it for.

Museums and archives monitor conditions constantly, and can’t have monitoring equipment competing with the exhibits. So the logger is 117 x 82 x 32 millimetres and deliberately plain, and an optional deco-cover can be designed to match its surroundings.

That matters beyond museums. A logger in a meeting room, reception area or hotel corridor that looks like industrial equipment gets moved, unplugged or complained about. One that blends in stays where it was put for the full measurement.

Where It’s Used

Indoor air quality investigation in offices, schools and universities. Meeting room and lecture theatre ventilation assessment. Museum, gallery and archive conservation monitoring. Server and communications rooms. Storage areas for sensitive materials. Healthcare and aged care environments. Hotels and accommodation. Complaint investigation where the problem comes and goes. Checking a ventilation change after it’s made. Long term monitoring where a handheld measurement won’t answer the question.