Creating a climate rule takes you through a four-step wizard: Name, Thresholds, Units, and Summary. After saving, you can optionally set up a notification rule so the right people are alerted when a threshold is breached.
To start, go to the Rules tab and click New climate rule + in the top right corner.
Step 1: Name
Give your rule a clear, descriptive name. This name appears across the platform wherever the rule is referenced, so make it easy to recognise.
Examples: "Storage Room Standards" or "Gallery A Temperature & Humidity".
Click Next to continue.
Step 2: Thresholds
Define the climate conditions the rule will monitor. You can set thresholds for any combination of the following:
- Temperature (°C)
- Relative Humidity (%RH)
- Lux
- UV
- Cumulative Light Exposure
- Cumulative UV Exposure
The first four monitor individual readings against upper and lower bounds. The two cumulative options set a budget for total exposure over time. Toggling one on opens its own fields for the budget, the warning percentage, the start date, and the reset cycle. See Light and UV budgets for how to fill them in.
Toggle on the metrics you want to monitor. For each one, set four values:
- Critical lower bound: the point below which a critical alert fires
- Optimal lower bound: the lower edge of the acceptable range
- Optimal upper bound: the upper edge of the acceptable range
- Critical upper bound: the point above which a critical alert fires
If you are unsure what values to use, conservation guidelines such as PAS 198 or your institution's collection care policy are a good starting point. You can always adjust thresholds later.
How it works
Click How it works at the top of this step for a visual explanation. The four values create three colour-coded zones:
- Optimal zone (green): the range between the optimal bounds, used for all calculations and statistics such as "time outside of optimal bounds"
- Warning zone (yellow): the range between the optimal and critical bounds. Entering it is logged and shown below each graph, but notifications cannot be set up for this zone
- Critical zone (red): the range beyond the critical bounds. Entering it is logged, and if notifications are set up, they fire when a reading breaches a critical bound
Metrics you leave toggled off will not be monitored by this rule. You can enable them at any time by editing the rule.
Click Next to continue.
Step 3: Units
Assign sensors to this rule. A list of all sensors registered to your account appears, grouped by site. Click + Add next to any sensor to include it, or + Add all to add every sensor in a site at once.
Added sensors are highlighted and marked Added ✓. Use the search bar to find a specific sensor by name, or Remove all to clear a site.
Click Next to continue.
Step 4: Summary
Review the rule name, the number of thresholds set, and the number of sensors added. If everything looks correct, click Save Climate Profile.
After saving
A confirmation screen shows Climate rule created! along with the rule name.
You will be asked: Do you want to notify someone if thresholds is breached?
- Click Set up notification rule to set up a notification rule now. See Setting up notifications for a rule for the full walkthrough.
- Click Done to finish without a notification. You can always add one later from the Notification Rules tab inside the rule.
Without a notification rule, the rule still monitors your sensors and displays breaches in Custodian. You will not receive an SMS or email alert when something goes out of range.