Project Profile · Facility Automation & IoT Monitoring
HVAC Temperature Monitoring System: Early-Warning Alerts for Christ Fellowship's McKinney Campus
Christ Fellowship's McKinney campus relies on ten mini-split air conditioning units tucked into server rooms, AV suites, and equipment closets throughout the building. When one fails, there was no way to know until the room overheated — often taking down neighboring equipment with it. Qualtx Technology designed and deployed a Wi-Fi sensor network, MQTT broker, and live dashboard that emails the facilities manager the moment a room starts running hot, for less than half of the $24,000 the campus had already been quoted elsewhere.
Project Overview
The HVAC Temperature Monitoring System is a Wi-Fi sensor network and browser-based dashboard that watches temperature across 13 critical spaces on Christ Fellowship's McKinney campus — the main server room, the AV server room, IT and IDF closets, electrical rooms, and storage areas that share space with sensitive equipment. Small wireless sensor nodes publish live readings to a central broker, and a dashboard displays every room's status at a glance, automatically emailing the facilities manager if a room crosses its configured temperature threshold.
Qualtx Technology handled the complete solution: sensor node deployment, the MQTT broker and supporting infrastructure, dashboard software, on-site configuration, and staff training — delivered as a working system for less than half the cost of the facility's next-best quote.
The Requirement
Ten mini-split AC units, mostly serving closets and small equipment rooms, keep server gear, AV racks, and electrical panels within safe operating temperature across the campus. None of them reported back to anyone. If a unit failed or an area overheated, the facilities manager found out only after the room got hot enough to matter — and a hot server or electrical room can cascade into damaging or shutting down the very systems depending on that cooling. The facility had already been quoted roughly $24,000 for a commercial monitoring solution to close that gap. Christ Fellowship asked Qualtx Technology whether it could be done for less.
System Architecture
Qualtx Technology built the monitoring system around low-cost Wi-Fi sensor hardware, an MQTT message broker, and a single-page dashboard application — no proprietary building-automation platform, no per-point licensing fees:
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Sensor Nodes | Wi-Fi-connected microcontrollers publishing live temperature and humidity readings, one per monitored room |
| Messaging Backbone | MQTT broker running on a Raspberry Pi, with retained messages so room configuration survives restarts |
| Dashboard | Browser-based single-page application, hosted on the facility's own web server — no client software to install |
| Monitored Spaces | 13 rooms — main server room, AV server room, IT/IDF closets, electrical rooms, and equipment storage areas |
| Alerting | Automatic email to the facilities manager when a room reaches its configured high-temperature threshold |
| Access Control | Open viewing dashboard for all staff; password-protected configuration screen for threshold and naming changes |
How It Works
The original request covered ten mini-split-cooled closets and equipment rooms. During deployment, Qualtx Technology expanded coverage to 13 spaces total — adding electrical rooms and storage areas that don't have their own dedicated AC but sit close enough to sensitive equipment that heat buildup there matters too:
- Sensing: Each monitored room has a compact Wi-Fi sensor node that reads temperature (and humidity) continuously.
- Publishing: Every node publishes its reading to the central MQTT broker, where the current temperature for each room is always available in real time.
- Displaying: The dashboard subscribes to all 13 rooms at once and shows each one as a live status card — current temperature, configured threshold, and time since last update.
- Alerting: When a room's temperature reaches its configured threshold, its card turns red and an email goes out to the facilities manager automatically — no one has to be watching the screen for it to work.
- Configuring: From a password-protected settings screen, staff can rename any room and adjust its alert threshold on the spot. Most rooms are set to alert at 76.4°F; the main server room and the AV server room, which run warmer under normal load, are set to 77.4°F.
Because every setting lives on the broker rather than inside the sensor hardware, thresholds and room names can be changed at any time without touching a single sensor node.
Dashboard Interface
Staff see one screen for day-to-day monitoring and a separate, password-protected screen for configuration changes.
Why It Matters
- The facilities manager finds out about a failing AC unit by email, before the room overheats, rather than after equipment has already been damaged.
- Covering 13 rooms costs Qualtx Technology's client less than half of the $24,000 the campus had already been quoted for a comparable solution.
- Alert thresholds and room names are editable on the spot — no vendor call, no reprogramming, no downtime.
- The dashboard runs in any browser on the facility network, so any authorized staff member can check room status without installing anything.
- The sensor-and-broker architecture scales easily; adding another room later means adding another sensor node, not redesigning the system.
Scope of Work
Qualtx Technology delivered a complete, working monitoring system:
- Wi-Fi sensor node deployment across 13 rooms
- MQTT broker setup and configuration
- Dashboard application design and development
- On-site installation, threshold configuration, and commissioning
- Facilities staff training on the dashboard and configuration screen
- Ongoing support and refinement as the facility's monitoring needs grow
About Qualtx Technology
Qualtx Technology has been providing turnkey automated control solutions for the semiconductor and nanotechnology industries since 1997. Over nearly three decades, Qualtx has delivered control systems and retrofits for a wide range of clients, including AMD, the US Navy, NASA's JPL, NIST, MIT, Texas Instruments, Raytheon, Micron Technology, Cornell, Northeastern University, the University of Texas, Lockheed Martin, Microchip, and Leonardo DRS. That same process-control and instrumentation background extends naturally to facility monitoring projects like this one, where reliable sensing and clear operator alerting matter just as much as they do on a production process tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the HVAC temperature monitoring system do?
It watches the temperature in every mini-split-cooled server room, AV suite, electrical room, and equipment closet across the campus and automatically emails the facilities manager if a room's temperature rises above its configured threshold — so a failed or overloaded AC unit gets caught before the room overheats or damages nearby equipment.
How many rooms does the system monitor?
13 temperature-critical spaces, including the main server room, the AV server room, IDF/IT closets, electrical rooms, and storage areas that don't have their own dedicated cooling but are vulnerable to heat buildup from adjacent equipment.
What temperature triggers an alert?
Most rooms are set to alert at 76.4°F. The main server room and the AV server room, which run warmer under normal load, are set to alert at 77.4°F. Thresholds are configurable per room without reprogramming any hardware.
What hardware runs the monitoring system?
Wi-Fi-connected microcontroller sensor nodes publish live temperature and humidity readings over MQTT to a central broker running on a Raspberry Pi. A browser-based dashboard, hosted on the facility's own web server, subscribes to every room's data and displays live status without any special software installed on staff computers.
Can facilities staff change alert thresholds themselves?
Yes. A password-protected configuration screen on the dashboard lets staff rename rooms and adjust each room's high-temperature warning threshold directly, with no code changes or hardware reflashing. Settings are stored on the broker so they persist across restarts and browser sessions.
How much did the project cost compared to other quotes?
The facility had been quoted approximately $24,000 for a comparable monitoring solution. Qualtx Technology designed and delivered the sensor network, broker, and dashboard for less than half that amount.
Who built the HVAC monitoring system?
Qualtx Technology, Inc., a Plano, Texas-based automation integrator, designed and deployed the sensor network, MQTT broker, and dashboard for Christ Fellowship's McKinney, Texas campus.