Why monitor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?
Why do we need to Monitor IAQ?
Indoor air quality (IAQ) relates to a number of environmental factors inside a building that can impinge on the health, comfort, or work performance of the building’s occupants. Monitoring IAQ is vital because it is estimated that the average person spends 90% of their time breathing “indoor air”.
Poor IAQ is a contributing factor to both short and long-term health issues, these can lead to decreased productivity, absenteeism, and in some cases possible litigation. Common symptoms associated with poor indoor air quality can include eye, nose, and throat irritation, headache, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue. In some cases exposure to indoor air pollution can lead to acute and chronic respiratory illnesses.
Factors that can contribute to a unhealthy Indoor Air Environment.
Gas and particulates in the air are the principal sources that contribute to unhealthy IAQ. Common factors that can lead to a harmful indoor environment can include inadequate ventilation, poorly maintained HVAC systems, non-vented gas heaters, airborne pollutants carpet fibers, fungal spores, vehicle exhaust emissions, building materials, carpeting, furniture, chemical pollutants (light industrial chemical substances, cleaning substances), Ozone emissions from printers and photocopiers etc. Another problem is recent energy conservation measures that have led to airtight building construction that can create problems with IAQ. The concentrations of pollutants can also be amplified by factors such as poor ventilation, humidity, and temperature.
Benefits of using PPM Technology’s Wireless IAQ Profile Monitor for monitoring Indoor Air Quality?
In order to accurately understand a building’s indoor air quality, it is advised to simultaneously monitor various indoor air quality parameters including gases, temperature and humidity. PPM Technology’s Wireless IAQ Profile Monitor enables instantaneous monitoring of a number of parameters within a single instrument. PPM Technology’s monitor utilizes a combination of different sensor technologies to enable rapid response, high sensitivity and stability and excellent accuracy.
The IAQ Profile Monitor can continuously detect, measure and record up to 7 customer specified parameters, including but not limited to Temperature, Humidity, Nitrogen Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Ozone, Ammonia, Formaldehyde, TVOC’s, Natural Gas and Smoke. Real-time functions enable immediate warnings of the presence of harmful gases in the air thus protecting employees and the public; buildings can be immediately evacuated giving minimal exposure to the building occupants.
The system has been designed to be easy to set-up and operate. A manager PC simply connects to the wireless network using a Telegesis ZigBee USB module, allowing for transmitting and receiving of information to and from a particular wireless unit.
The wireless units communicate via the sophisticated and reliable Zigbee wireless mesh network; the network can be extended easily by adding repeater nodes or additional PPMonitor or Mini PPMonitor units; each unit can be configured with unique sensor specifications if required. This allows complete monitoring of the Indoor Air Environment in any building layout.
One unit is connected to the Building Management System; BMS Software allows the entire wireless system to be managed from a single PC, the PC can pre-set a number of different exposure levels to trigger when limits are exceeded; these could be visible or audible alarms or to control 3rd party systems such as ventilation systems.
The PPMonitor software enables the data to be viewed graphically, produce reports and statistical data. Analysis of the recorded data over time allows for more efficient management of resources and energy.
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