Solutions for IAQ monitoring — observe and take action
Recently, I talked a lot about the importance of indoor air quality and why it is so important to keep an eye on it. If you didn’t read it yet, feel free to take a look at them (IAQ & VOC vs CO2). Today, I want to show you, what you can actually do about it. It is important to be aware of the danger, but without preventive measures, it’s not very helpful. So, in the following you will see a list of products & services which take care of you and your indoor environment. This list will be continued in the next few days in separate blog posts. So, stay tuned!
For your office space
720 degrees — suuuper concerned about the IAQ in your office
…and they are right to be so. If you think about it — definitely makes sense. In average, adults spend eight hours per day in the office — that’s one third of your day. Being exposed to bad air for such a long time can affect your health and productivity. 720 degrees prevents that, by offering air quality measurements for your company’s indoor environment.
720 degrees takes all important factors influencing your well-being into account. With their cloud solution, the company is able to see real-time particle flows and notifies the customer only when necessary. Productivity is much more likely to increase and employees (as well as employers) do not feel exhausted all day due to poor indoor air quality conditions. Oh, and they also take noise levels into account, which also can have an effect on your well-being.
Want to find out more? Click here and dive into the world of enhanced indoor environment quality!
For B2B
Bosch Sensortec GmbH — think small, not big!
Are you thinking about creating a product which is able to detect air quality? Bosch Sensortec is producing sensors for the consumer electronic market — and they are pretty good at it. Mainly focusing on smartphones, smartwatches, headsets and earables, Sensortec, with their new gas sensor, also addresses IoT devices. It’s 3x3mm small with a height of ~0.9mm. It sports a gas sensors, as well as sensors for temperature, humidity and barometric pressure inside the same package.
Let’s focus on the gas sensor. It detects all kinds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Due to its size, it basically fits in every device there is. It constantly monitors the air around you with high accuracy and it seems like they developed their own Index for Air Quality — which makes sense, since the average customer probably doesn’t know if a 150.000 Ω gas resistance is good or bad. However, I don’t want to bore you with the details and specs — although, if you want to know more, check out their website and the datasheet!
What this sensor can do is up to you! With the detection of VOCs, the sensor is able to fulfill several use cases. Bosch provides the following list of examples for applications:
Possible applications/use cases:
- Air quality measurement
— Personalized weather station
— Context awareness, e.g. skin moisture detection, room change detection
— Fitness monitoring / well-being
— Warning regarding dryness or high temperatures
— Measurement of volume and air flow
— Home automation control (e.g. HVAC)
— GPS enhancement (e.g. time-to-first-fix improvement, dead reckoning, slope detection)
— Indoor navigation (change of floor detection, elevator detection)
— Altitude tracking and calories expenditure for sports activities
Here’s a short video explaining the basics:
For your home
AirThinx — the ‘X’ stands for: X-actly what you need
They implemented nine sensors. You can basically detect anything you want. PM 1, PM 2.5, PM 10, CO2, CH2O, VOCs, Temperature, Humidity & Pressure, as stated on their website and visualized below:
Interesting: This monitoring device is able to specifically detect CH2O, also known as formaldehyde. Why? Formaldehyde is extremley hazardous, as Fischer stated already over 100 years ago in his paper:
‘The inhalation of formaldehyde gas in even small quantities is followed by bronchitis and pneumonia.’ (Fischer, 1905)
Plus: It’s very common in our daily life. Sources can be composite wood products, building materials, paints, cosmetics, dishwashing liquids or glues as stated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The high degree of accuracy this company reaches by adding nine different sensors to their IAQ monitoring device is highly beneficial for everyone who is interested in specifics about why the indoor environment is becoming worse. Additionally, being able to narrow it down to one specific gas or a group of compounds, makes it easier to take action and suggest preventive measures for the future.
Stay tuned for additional options on how to take care of the air surrounding you!
Thanks for reading!
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References
Paper
Fischer, M.H. (1905). Journal of Experimental Medicine: The toxic effects of formaldehyde and formalin. 6(4–6), pp. 487–518
Uniform Resource Locators
720°. Home, retrieved from: https://www.720.io/en/
AirThinx. IAQ, retrieved from: https://airthinx.io/products/iaq/
AirThinx. Products, retrieved from: https://airthinx.io/products/
All about sensors. Bad indoor air quality is more than just CO2, retrieved from: https://allaboutsensors825447014.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/bad-indoor-air-quality-is-more-than-just-co2/
All about sensors. Why the air you are breathing indoors is killing you, retrieved from: https://allaboutsensors825447014.wordpress.com/2018/03/31/why-the-air-you-are-breathing-indoors-is-killing-you-slowly/
Bosch Sensortec GmbH. Home, retrieved from: https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/
Bosch Sensortec GmbH. BME680, retrieved from: https://www.bosch-sensortec.com/bst/products/all_products/bme680
Environmental Protection Agency. Facts about formaldehyde, retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/formaldehyde/facts-about-formaldehyde#whatcontains
Bosch Sensortec GmbH. BME680 datasheet, https://ae-bst.resource.bosch.com/media/_tech/media/datasheets/BST-BME680-DS001-00.pdf
Video
YouTube. Integrated Environmental Unit BME680, retrieved from: https://youtu.be/qQPMeGbuoWg
