Cold rooms, fridges and freezers
Chilled food must be held at 8°C or below, and most kitchens aim for 5°C; frozen stock sits at -18°C or colder. A reading that drifts is caught while the stock can still be saved.
Temperature monitoring tag
The ZARC temperature tag reports temperature in real time and alerts the moment a reading leaves the band you set. The sensor sits on the tag, or at the end of a cable probe in the air of a room, against a pipe or inside a freezer, so the reading comes from exactly where temperature matters. It runs on its own battery and needs no wiring to the building.
01
What it reports
A thermometer on a wall tells only the person who reads it. A fridge that climbs overnight, a hot water system that drifts below its safe temperature, or a comms room whose cooling fails at the weekend all look fine until someone checks. The tag reads the same temperature around the clock and puts it on a screen that is watched.
Four kinds of alert cover the ways temperature goes wrong: a high limit, a low limit, a temperature rising faster than a rate you set, and a temperature that has stayed outside its band for longer than you allow. The last one stops a door opened for a delivery from raising an alarm, while a door left open does.
The probe is chosen to the job. An air probe reads a room or a cabinet. A pipe-surface probe clamps to hot and cold water pipework. A freezer probe reads down to -55°C. Up to two probes run from one tag, so a fridge and its neighbouring freezer can share one.
02
Applications
Wherever something spoils, fails or becomes unsafe at the wrong temperature, the tag has a job. These are the uses we are asked about most, and the list is not exhaustive.
Medicine and vaccine fridges
Vaccines are stored between 2°C and 8°C. A fridge that goes out of range overnight is known about before the morning clinic, with the record to show how long and how far.
Hot and cold water systems
HSG274 guidance expects hot water to reach outlets at 50°C or above, and cold water to stay below 20°C. Pipe-surface probes read both continuously. This supports the written scheme and its checks; it does not replace them.
Server and comms rooms
Equipment is usually held between 18°C and 27°C at the inlet. A cooling failure shows as a steep rise, and the rate-of-rise alert catches it before the equipment trips.
Plant rooms and boiler houses
A room running hot points to failing ventilation or a fault; a room going cold in winter points to a heating failure before pipes freeze.
Electrical cabinets and enclosures
Heat building inside a panel or kiosk shows as a trend long before insulation or electronics fail.
Frost protection in empty buildings
A low alert at a few degrees above freezing gives time to restore heating before burst pipes.
Warehouses and stores
Temperature-sensitive stock is watched across a whole building, with the record to hand when a customer or insurer asks.
Process and equipment temperatures
Pipework, tanks and equipment that must stay inside a band, read at the surface and alerted on the limits you set.
03
Where it can go
The tag runs on its own battery and needs no wiring to the building. Where the reading has to come from somewhere the tag cannot sit, the probe goes there on a cable and the tag stays outside. Typical positions:
On a wall
Reading the air in a room, store, corridor or plant room.
Inside a fridge, freezer or cold room
The probe inside the cabinet or chamber, with the tag mounted outside.
On pipework
A surface probe clamped to hot or cold water pipes, flow and return, or process lines.
Inside cabinets and racks
Tag and probe in an electrical panel, comms rack or kiosk.
In ducts and voids
A probe in an airstream, ceiling void or floor void.
Outdoors and in outbuildings
In an enclosure specified for the location.
04
In the dashboard
Every probe shows its live temperature and a trend running from the last hour to the last year. The dashboard works out the minimum, maximum and average over any period, how long each point has spent outside its band, and how fast the temperature is rising or falling. Records export for food safety files, maintenance records, audits and insurers, and are held on a UK-hosted dashboard or on servers on your own site.
Limits are set per probe: high, low, rate of rise, and time outside the band. When one is crossed, the alert is raised in real time and goes by email or SMS, and through an app where required, to the people you name, with escalation to further contacts.
- Live temperature for every probe, grouped by site
- Trend graphs from one hour to one year
- Minimum, maximum and average over any period
- Time spent above or below the band
- Rate of rise or fall
- Separate limits for each of two probes on one tag
- Every alert logged with the reading that raised it
- Records exported for food safety, audits and insurers
- Site-by-site comparison across an estate
- A tag that misses its reporting interval is flagged
05
Industries
Temperature matters in every sector that stores, cooks, treats or cools, including:
Healthcare
Vaccine and medicine fridges, and water system temperatures.
Buildings and estates
Plant rooms, water systems and frost protection across a portfolio.
Logistics and warehousing
Temperature-sensitive stock in stores and distribution sites.
Data centres and critical infrastructure
Inlet temperatures held in band.
Public sector, school and college estates
Kitchens, plant rooms and empty buildings in the holidays.
Telecoms infrastructure
Cabinets and huts where heat is the silent risk.
06
Technical specification
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Measurement | Temperature, read continuously and reported in real time |
| Probes | Air, pipe-surface and freezer probes; on the tag or on a cable |
| Low range | Freezer probes read down to -55°C |
| Range and accuracy | Specified to the requirement |
| Probes per tag | Up to two, each with its own limits |
| Units | °C as standard; °F where required |
| Reporting interval | Configurable, down to every minute |
| Limit alerts | High and low, set per probe |
| Trend alerts | Rate of rise or fall, at a rate you set |
| Duration alerts | Time outside the band, so short door openings do not alarm |
| Alert delivery | Dashboard, email or SMS; app where required |
| Recipients | Named people and groups, with escalation to further contacts |
| Missed reports | A silent tag is flagged in the dashboard |
| Gateway power loss | Raises its own platform alert |
| Dashboard | Live readings, trends, min/max/average, time outside band; configured to your requirement |
| Data | Full reading history, exportable; UK-hosted or on servers on your own site |
| Power | Internal battery, up to five years depending on reporting interval |
| Radio | 433 MHz, one-way (transmit only) |
| Range | Site-dependent; confirmed by site survey |
| Mounting | Wall, inside an enclosure, or probe through a door seal, duct or void |
| Environment | Indoor or outdoor, enclosure specified to the location |
| Charges | No per-alert, per-user or licence charges |
| Manufacture | Made to order in the UK |
| Certification | CE marked |
07
From requirement to live alerts
Requirement
You tell us what is being kept at temperature, the band it must stay in and who needs to know.
Configuration
We choose the probes, set the limits, rates and durations, and build the alert routes.
Fitting
The tag goes on a wall or in an enclosure, and each probe goes into the fridge, onto the pipe or into the space it reads.
Commissioning
We compare the first readings with a reference thermometer and send a test alert to every recipient before handover.
Ready to get started? Every deployment begins with a site survey.
Book a site survey08
How it reports
Each reading goes over 433 MHz radio to a ZARC gateway and on to the dashboard, where limits, rates and durations are checked and alerts are sent. The tag has a transmitter and no receiver, so nothing can change its settings or reach it over the air.
Related tags
Humidity
Where damp and condensation matter as much as temperature.
Door state
A cold room door left open or ajar.
Power failure
The fridge, freezer or cooling unit losing its supply.
Leak & water
Water where it should not be, beside the plant.
Questions we answer most.
What can it measure?
Temperature in the air of a room or cabinet, on the surface of a pipe, or inside a fridge or freezer, read continuously and reported in real time.
How cold can it read?
Freezer probes read down to -55°C. The rest of the range and the accuracy are specified to the requirement.
Can one tag read two places?
Yes. A tag takes up to two probes, each with its own limits, such as a fridge and the freezer beside it.
Will opening a door set off an alarm?
Not unless you want it to. A time-outside-band alert waits for a set period, so a delivery does not alarm and a door left open does.
Can it catch a cooling failure early?
Yes. A rate-of-rise alert fires when temperature climbs faster than normal, before it reaches the high limit.
Can it monitor hot and cold water pipework?
Yes. Pipe-surface probes read hot and cold water temperatures continuously, in support of the written scheme and its checks.
How often does it report?
At an interval you set, down to every minute. A shorter interval uses more battery.
Does it need mains power or wiring?
No. It runs on an internal battery for up to five years, depending on the reporting interval.
Can I export the records?
Yes. Trends, minimum and maximum values and the full reading history export for food safety files, audits and insurers.
Can one dashboard cover many sites?
Yes. Every probe on every site reports to the same dashboard, each with its own limits and alert routes.
Do alerts or extra users cost more?
No. There are no per-alert, per-user or licence charges.
Looking for something else?
We work with any sensor for any application.
Most sensing needs are met by a tag we already build, configured for your equipment. If yours needs a sensor or interface we don't list, we have the engineering to build it. Tell us what you need to measure, and we will tell you how we would do it.
Discuss your requirementDiscuss a monitoring
or alerting solution
Tell us what is happening on site, what you need to see, and the event you need to hear about. We will come back with the system that answers it.
Direct contact
Location
Venator House, Unit 9, 15-17 St Stephen's Road, Bournemouth
Dorset, BH2 6LA · VAT GB 409644484
Products contact
Contact the engineering team
Direct to the team that designs and builds the range. Tell us the equipment and the event that matters.