AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Applying a Low-Cost Wireless Particulate Matter Sensor for Indoor Air Quality Monitoring: Calibration and Verification
BYONG HYOEK LEE, Jong Cheol Kim, Kyung Hwan Lee, Sanghyeon Kang, Sun Yong Lee, Environmental Technology Institute, Coway R&D Center
Abstract Number: 294 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract People, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. Yet, often the concentrations of indoor particulate matters exceed that of the outdoor concentrations. Moreover, people who are more susceptible to the adverse effects of particulate matters are likely to spend more time indoors. For the following reasons, it is necessary for residents to monitor current air quality and take actions to control (i.e. eliminating the source or ventilating or operating an air cleaner) of the indoor air quality. In the study a low-cost wireless particulate matter sensor, based on light scattering method, have been developed to measure both particulate matters (PM10) and fine particulate matters (PM2.5). As particles scatter light inside the sensor, a receptor transforms the light into a pulse signal. Based on the length of the signal, particles are categorized as either PM10 or PM2.5. Due to the low detecting limits of the sensor few factors, such as multiplying measured concentrations by a factor to represent the particulate matters whose sizes are below the detectable range of the sensor, are applied to make more accurate measurements. The wireless sensor is tested in both chamber and field with particulate matters from various sources, including Arizona dusts, burning of a tobacco smoke, heating of soybean oil, and Asian yellow dusts. The correlation coefficients between the sensor and a particulate measurement instrument for PM10 and PM2.5 in field tests are 0.937 and 0.928 respectively. Although the correlation coefficients are relatively low, the cost-effective wireless sensors could be applicable for monitoring residential indoor particulate matters. With increase in the growth of Internet of Things, the sensor may provide valuable information on the indoor particulate matters.