Experimental Prototype and Measurement Driven Study of Indoor Air Quality

People spend a considerable amount of time indoors than outdoors. Given the hot or cold climatic conditions that prevail in different geographies, most indoor environments tend to be heated/cooled for ensuring occupant comfort. The quality of air that people breathe in such indoor environments is therefore vital for their long term health. Whilst we hear a lot about air pollution in cities, there is seldom a talk about indoor air quality. This paper elaborates on a proof of concept prototype for air quality monitoring using open off-the-shelf components and highlights findings from measurements conducted using this prototype in buildings on a University campus. Measurements were conducted in classrooms in different buildings at different times of the day with different temperature, humidity levels in these premises. Findings from this study show that air quality is fairly stable and within the acceptable limits across the different measurement locations. One of the outliers was a small dorm room with many people present during the measurement duration which exhibited degradation in the air quality level. This highlights that in crowded indoor environments, it may be necessary to closely monitor air quality and provide the necessary countermeasures to improve it.