Abstract
Because of their size and price, miniature gas sensors are good candidates for long-term, large-scale, continuous monitoring of the air quality in confined environments, even in the presence of occupants. In spite of their still somewhat limited metrological performances, these tools are able to provide relevant information on the pollutants spatial and temporal evolution. They can therefore be used to identify pollution sources and automatically control ventilation and remediation systems, provided they are associated with adequate data treatment procedures. In the present study, four sensors for the detection of CO2, NO, NO2 and O3 have been deployed, without previous calibration, inside a classroom of a low energy high school building, together with standard analytical instruments. The data are analyzed with a procedure based on the bisecting K-means algorithm. This unsupervised classification allows the identification of similar measurements, which can be merged into clusters. An excellent agreement has been found between the classification results provided by the analyzers and by the sensors, even if the latter were not calibrated before deployment. These results validate the data treatment methodology proposed in this work, and demonstrate the potential of using commercial micro sensors in real conditions.
Highlights
Air quality in confined environments has been recognized as a major health problem worldwide [1]
There is an increasing awareness about indoor air quality (IAQ), resulting in individuals or constituted bodies demanding information about the air they breathe, and willing to participate in the acquisition of the data
The goal of the present work is to develop IAQ analysis procedures based exclusively on the parameters measured by sensors located indoors, taking into account possible sensor calibration issues
Summary
Air quality in confined environments has been recognized as a major health problem worldwide [1]. While the conventional analytical techniques, such as gas analyzers or chromatographs, used for laboratory research, or for regulatory monitoring of the air quality outdoors, are well suited for research oriented measurement campaigns, they are not adapted for real-time monitoring of occupied indoor environments. These often bulky instruments generate nuisances, such as noise or vibrations, which would prevent normal occupancy or activities in the room under investigation. They are highly technical instruments, with a response sometimes delayed. They are too expensive to be deployed massively in many places
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