When most people think of air pollution they picture huge industrial chimneys with black fumes coming out of them. And though they influence the overall air quality in our outdoor environment, it is actually indoors where we are most exposed to air pollution. Just think about how much time you spend indoors each day, whether at home or at work. In fact, some people spend up to 90 percent of the time indoors each day.
This is why environmental monitoring is very important for all kinds of enclosed spaces and you can do that if you simply buy data logger. Maintaining environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, and pollution inside of a building is crucial for the health and comfort of all occupants and in therms of energy efficiency. The Environmental Protection Agency has identified Indoor Air Quality or IAQ as one of the most urgent environmental risks to public health. IAQ is a major concern to businesses, schools, buildings, tenants, and workers since it has a major impact on the health, comfort, productivity and well-being of the occupants.
As I mentioned before, most Australians spend the majority of their time in enclosed environments and the effects of indoor air pollution is much greater than outdoor air pollution. Some of the common sources of indoor air pollution include gasses such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, bacteria and mold, tobacco smoke, outdoor pollutants such as dust and pollen, volatile compounds emitted from a range of products such as cleaning supplies, paint, furnishings, building material, office equipment, and so on.
There are building regulations that define the appropriate ventilation rates for an acceptable level of indoor air quality. They also include operation and maintenance guides concerning the mitigation of various IAQ problems. Air supply systems are based on assumptions to ensure that the requirements are met, but very often this results in over-ventilation and a waste of money and energy due to unnecessary runtime and excessive quantities of outdoor air being cooled or heated.
The best solution to this issue is demand-controlled ventilation systems that adjust the air supply based on the number of occupants and other specific ventilation demands. Spaces such as theaters, auditoriums, gymnasiums, conference rooms, classrooms, and so on, that are designed for large numbers of people but are often only partially occupied, benefit the most from demand-controlled ventilation. This way you are actively controlling the air system to ensure both good air quality and save energy.
In order to do that, your system needs to be based on sensors that will monitor occupancy levels with various counting techniques and also monitor different environmental parameters. Nowadays you can buy data logger that can measure various parameters at the same time and provide you with crucial information that will help you improve both air quality and energy efficiency.
