Page 169 - New Trends in Green Construction

INDOOR AIR QUALITY IN BUILDINGS: MONITORING WITH LOW-COST DEVICES FOR RISK PREVENTION
Francisco Casares, Isabel M. Moreno-García, Luis M. Fernández- Ahumada
Keywords: Monitoring of indoor air quality, Healthy homes, Air Pollution, INDOOR - prevention and control 1. Introduction
The term "indoor air quality" has become particularly relevant over the last few years. It has been associated with the term "sick building syndrome", which encompasses a wide range of symptoms or illnesses that people who work or live in the building attribute to the building itself. According to the European Environment Agency's "Environment and Health" report, acute lower respiratory tract infections attributable to indoor air pollution account for 4.6% of all deaths and 3.1% of DALYs (disability adjusted life years) (EEA, 2005).
The main pollutants found in home indoor air, offices, leisure premises,etc. are: Carbon Monoxide (CO), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Ozone (O3), Biological Pollutants, Household Products, Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Environmental Tobacco Smoke (Fig. 1). Other important factors related to indoor air quality and health effects in t h e Mediterranean areas are high temperatures, humidity, air currents... (ISHT, 1990).
Experience indicates that traditional techniques used in industrial hygiene and in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning do not always provide satisfactory results in solving current indoor air quality problems. The solution must include pollutant continuous monitoring so that preventive measures can be taken to provide a rapid response to the possible risk. The guiding values, mechanisms involved according to current toxicological evidence and potential consequences on health can be seen in many publications (Viegi, 2004; WHO, 2010; WHO, 2012).
2. Materials and methods
Today, there are low cost sensors to measure the levels of CO, CO2, O3, NOx, NH3, CH4, Volatile Organic Compounds, Temperature, Humidity, Noise,... In addition, a low-cost electronic
board (approximately 6 €), based on ESP32 of ESPRESIF with WIFI connection and MQTT protocol is available. A distributed network of intelligent sensors is implemented, making data easily accessible and enabling a "mapping" of the monitored areas, where indoor air conditions can be observed.
169
New Trends in Green Construction