IoT solutions for monitoring air quality
Improve people’s health, happiness, and output by monitoring indoor air quality.
How is air quality measured?
How dirty or unpolluted the air is can be gauged by measuring its quality. The Air Quality Index (AQI) indicates the concentration of pollutants in the air at a specific site with a number between 0 (excellent air quality) and 500 (hazardous air quality, representing an emergency).
Pollutants are, for example:
- Carbon monoxide (CO)
- Carbon dioxide (CO₂)
- Particulate matter
- Ozone
- Volatile organic compounds (VOC)
How monitoring indoor air quality works
Using IoT sensors, for instance, they can get real-time data on indoor air quality with their Paessler IoT solution for monitoring air quality.
- Temperature (in °C or °F)
- Humidity (in %)
- CO₂ (in ppm)
- Pressure (in hPA)
- TVOC (= total concentration of volatile organic compounds such as asbestos, for example; in ppb)
- eCO₂ (= estimated concentration of CO₂ calculated from TVOC; in ppm)
- Particulate matter (in µ/m2)
Your use case and desired metrics will determine the sensors they deploy. Through a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN), they receive the data that has been gathered.
Monitoring air quality in classrooms
Schools and other educational institutions were hit hard by the recent Corona pandemic because of the widespread lack of mechanical ventilation equipment and the widespread disregard for the importance of frequent airing in classrooms.
The Federation of European Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Associations (REHVA) suggests an indoor air CO2 limit value of 800 ppm as part of its guidelines for schools. They know that in many classrooms, this number is exceeded by a factor of ten or more, with concentrations sometimes exceeding 2,000 ppm.
In order to improve air quality and limit the danger of infection from COVID-19, it is important to measure CO2 levels (or rather its equivalent eCO2) in schools.
A straightforward traffic light system is used by the air quality monitoring solution to indicate if the current CO2 levels in a given space are satisfactory (green), deteriorating (orange), or dangerously high (red).
In addition to this visible warning system, past monitoring data is used to foretell when a room needs to be aired out. The predictive monitoring feature in their solution provides a countdown to alert the teacher when it is time to air out the classroom and how long the windows should remain open.
Students and teachers can better anticipate disruptions during class, improve their health and well-being, and reduce heating expenses by adopting an optimal airing behavior.
Benefits of monitoring indoor air quality
Monitoring air quality indoors has several advantages:
- Improved health and happiness because less physical problems are experienced when breathing fresh air.
- Protecting people more effectively from airborne viruses and other diseases is the primary goal of air quality monitoring.
- Better concentration thanks to more oxygen in the air leads to more output.
- Fewer employees and students are taking time off due to illness.
- Savings on heating bills: better air circulation and ventilation can help improve heating patterns.
About Paessler
Since 1997, they have provided solutions for monitoring for companies of all sizes and in all industries. PRTG and other Paessler solutions are used by over 500,000 users in over 170 different countries to keep tabs on their intricate IT, OT, and IoT networks. They think that monitoring is an important step in decreasing humanity’s consumption of natural resources. For the sake of the future and the environment, their products assist customers in optimizing their IT, OT, and IoT infrastructures through the use of less energy and fewer emissions.
