Vaisala has introduced Origo, a modular measurement platform for environmental monitoring in data centers and other mission-critical buildings. The company says improving temperature measurement accuracy can reduce overcooling in air-cooled facilities, where it estimates that a 0.5 °C sensor error can drive significant wasted cooling energy at scale.
Vaisala reports that roughly 80% of the world’s approximately 12,000 data centers still rely on air cooling as the primary method. While it notes that liquid and hybrid cooling are growing for high-density AI workloads, it positions air cooling as the room-level baseline in most facilities, with hybrid architectures commonly using air for space cooling and liquid cooling for the densest loads in both new builds and retrofit projects.
For the product itself, Vaisala says Origo delivers ±0.1 °C temperature accuracy and ±1 %RH relative-humidity accuracy for “stable, reliable environmental control.” “Generic sensors with ±0.5 °C accuracy drive overcooling and energy waste, costing operators tens of thousands of dollars annually,” said Anu Kätkä, Product Line Manager for HVAC and Critical Buildings at Vaisala. “Origo’s precise ±0.1°C and ±1 %RH accuracy and stable measurements reduce unnecessary cooling while ensuring the reliable environmental control that critical facilities depend on. It translates to performance that pays for itself in months and protects uptime for years to come,” says Anu Kätkä, Vaisala’s Product Line Manager for HVAC and Critical Buildings.
Vaisala also highlights Origo’s modular, multi-parameter design, stating it can monitor multiple parameters through compatible probes on the same platform, including carbon dioxide and dew point. It adds that Origo uses field-replaceable probes intended to support quick on-site updates with minimal interruption, and that Vaisala services such as accredited calibrations and technical support are available to complement on-site teams.
On economics, Vaisala’s note to editors describes a calculation for a typical 10 MW air-cooled data center operating with a 0.5 °C temperature error: about 700,000 kWh of cooling energy wasted annually. At $0.12 per kWh, Vaisala calculates this as $83,800 per site per year, or more than $830,000 over a decade. Using an estimated 9,600 air-cooled sites worldwide (80% of 12,000), it extrapolates a global impact of approximately $805 million per year, or about $8 billion over ten years, comparing that baseline with reduced overcooling achieved using ±0.1 °C high-accuracy temperature measurements.
Source: Vaisala
