What Data Points Your IAQ Sensor Should Capture To Enhance Value
Key Takeaways:
Measuring IAQ is more than temperature and humidity, the right device can also make occupants healthier and safer.
Quality air makes for healthier, more productive occupants you’re more likely to retain as tenants.
Monitoring indoor air is about so much more than temperature and humidity. The push for occupant well-being in our indoor spaces has landlords and property managers taking indoor air quality more seriously. Understanding what pollutants are common indoors, how to measure them, and what can be done to remove them will help reduce the risk of indoor health concerns. It all starts with the right sensors that can track critical points of data.
Basic indoor air quality (IAQ) sensors start by collecting temperature and humidity, similar to the functionality of HVAC sensors. More advanced sensors also act as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide detection to protect occupants from deadly leaks.
Ensuring Healthy Air
Airborne solid particles and liquid droplets known as particulate matter (PM) can cause health problems. Different sensors can track different sizes of PM, but having the ability to track PM 2.5 is critical because those are the size particles small enough to travel all the way to the lungs when inhaled, spreading illness.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are important to monitor because they have high vapor pressure and low water solubility, meaning they don’t bind to particles in the air or dissolve in water, causing them to be hard to get rid of. Formaldehyde is an example of a VOC worth monitoring with an IAQ sensor. Smoking and vaping also negatively impact indoor air quality and have been shown to have negative health impacts, even as second-hand.
In the short term, poor indoor air quality from exposure to a pollutant can cause irritation in the nose, eyes, and throat and has been shown to cause headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Enough exposure over a long enough time will cause health impacts to worsen, leading to respiratory diseases, heart conditions, and cancer.
The quality of the air we breathe indoors, where we spend more than 90 percent of our time, is critical to our overall health. Protecting occupants in buildings requires owners to monitor IAQ and take corrective action when pollutants are threatening the health of anyone in the building. Investing in high-quality IAQ sensors that can track several types of pollutants and be tied into Nantum’s automated monitoring system is one of the best ways to increase the well-being of people in buildings.
