“With Celsicom we can ensure optimum dehydration climates”

Published 2023-03-20

There is growing interest in logging the climate in different environments. This is according to Axel Arleij, moisture expert at Raksystems (formerly Dry-IT), which helps construction and real estate companies to monitor the building climate and investigate the indoor climate. A large number of Celsicom boxes are used to measure temperature and humidity.

The mobile-connected and cloud-based measurement boxes have been valuable working tools for Raksystems for many years. Celsicom boxes help prevent unnecessary and costly delays on many large construction sites.

– They make it easy to monitor the dehydration climate in building environments,” says Axel Arleij and continues:

– What many of our customers appreciate about the system is the ability to view real-time measurement values on a mobile screen, for example, at any time.

Raksystems Dry-IT has been logging temperature and humidity in different indoor environments for ten years. Previously, Axel and his colleagues used measuring equipment on construction sites that they had to go to in order to transfer measurements to a computer.

Info for immediate action
– We did not have access to real-time measurement data. At best, new data was downloaded once a week. This made it impossible to work proactively and ensure an optimal building climate. With Celsicom it is a different story. We can see immediately if we need to take action, for example to deal with a major cold snap,” says Axel.

As construction schedules become tighter and tighter, the importance of ensuring optimal dehydration climates increases, in order to meet deadlines and, for example, to lay floors on the intended dates.

– With Celsicom loggers, you can easily check that the heat is reaching all corners of the building to maintain the required level for concrete to dry out in time. This avoids delays due to low temperatures, insufficient heat dissipation, or temporary doors that may have been left open and released heat… it’s easy to become complacent during construction.

Easily see the status of dehydration
Before building a house, Axel Arleij often helps builders to define the requirements for the checks and measurements to be carried out during construction. Once the building is constructed, Axel arranges for the installation of Celsicom loggers to verify the correct temperature and humidity in all spaces.

– Everything is followed up at regular intervals during site visits, when we review average values together with the customer to see how we are doing with dehydration and what we need to focus on.

– We always end projects by producing summaries and graphs of the construction climate. This is something that contractors can use in discussions with suppliers if, for example, there are problems with certain moisture-related movements in materials. It is simply a quality assurance certificate that you have stayed within the right range of what different materials can do.

Climate logging on 100s of buildings
Axel and his colleagues are also often tasked with logging the climate in operating buildings. This may be in connection with the discovery of mold growth on, for example, raw board in cold attics. They are also hired for major refurbishment projects of listed projects such as churches.

– If you’re going to do some energy-saving measures and you don’t know what the impact will be, we usually do a climate measurement to see what the current situation is before any changes are made to the structure. Subsequent measurements then indicate whether everything is working as intended or whether a harmful amount of moisture has been added.

Raksystems is now up to a hundred office, school, residential and hospital buildings in the Stockholm area alone where Celsicom loggers have been used for climate monitoring. The Proteinet housing block in Hagastaden and the Ersta New Hospital in Södermalm are two current projects where a large number of loggers monitor temperatures and humidity on floors and in stairwells.

Good coverage in all situations
In addition to the ability to see current measurement data in real time, Axel appreciates the ease of use and reliability.
– The Celsicom loggers are able to transmit for a very long time. And where even mobile coverage is poor, Celsicom usually has good coverage. We are very happy with this and it is also something that customers appreciate.

Axel Arleij also notes that many construction projects are good at finding other synergies with the Celsicom system. By keeping a close eye on temperature and humidity, they have been able to bring forward plastering and painting, installation of kitchen cabinets – and a number of other steps.

– There are simply many advantages to the Celsicom system.