New Generation Gas Detectors
Give Building Owners a Break

The cost to maintain a building just keeps going up.  The cost to properly ventilate toxic gases to suit modern health standards and heat the fresh air brought in need not be a factor in these rising costs.  Case in point; Opera Electronics’ new line of gas sensors designed to hold costs down.

Precision is the key to controlling the main cost of maintaining an air quality standard, the energy to heat and air condition make up air to replace exhausted air.  Opera’s new 5000 series gas detectors use the highest quality sensors, selected to provide the greatest possible accuracy.  Even though the acceptable gas concentration (fan on) settings are lower today than ever, these modern sensors can produce significant savings over older style sensors because they do not respond to a wide variety of common nuisance gases or temperature and humidity variations.

Longevity is the second factor in controlling costs.  These new sensors stay accurate longer.  The sensors typically need only to be calibrated one per year to maintain accuracy and have an expected life of three years.  Sensors can be calibrated on site or (and here is the best part) simply upgraded with a low cost plug in module.

That brings us to the third factor in controlling cost, maintenance.  The cost to calibrate, upgrade and service gas sensors is rising due to the rising cost of field technicians and the transportation and fuel to get them to the site.  Opera’s new series of gas sensors has a unique feature whereby users can choose either the services of a qualified specialist on site or to replace the sensor plug in module with a new or recycled unit. 

Every gas sensor has unique characteristics and they age differently as well.  In addition, every electronic sensor interface circuit is slightly different (up until now).  After calibration corrects all of these differences, a sensor was always married to its circuit.  The new plug in feature is possible because of an ultra-high precision interface on every 5000 series sensor and a sensor plug-in module containing a memory chip with stored calibration settings for that one sensor.  Unplug the module, and plug in the new one.  That’s it.

Opera has opted for an open market approach to maintaining sensors so that users can shop around.  They offer competitive pricing for field service and make no attempt to build in obstacles for other service providers.  The new system also supports a variety of non-proprietary interfaces to control systems, again, in support of open market trends.