AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Laboratory Determination of the Functional Range of Eight Low-Cost Particle Sensors and Consumer Device
YANGYANG ZOU, Matthew Young, Melissa Ryan, Andrew May, Jordan Clark, The Ohio State University
Abstract Number: 105 Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
Abstract Low-cost particle sensors are rapidly gaining popularity for monitoring human exposure to particulate matter (PM). Manufacturers of these sensors typically provide either effective or maximum range of concentrations over which the sensors are accurate. Evidence suggests the sensors’ performance over this range can vary, and clear definitions of functional range can help understand this variance. This is especially true for indoor environmental monitoring.
To this end, we sought to understand potential limitations of the sensors in terms of their functional range. We conducted laboratory experiments using PM sources including burning incense and toast, and atomization of ammonium sulfate. Particle mass concentrations in these experiments ranged from near zero to over 1000 μg/m3. We conducted linear regression analysis between the sensors and co-located reference instruments. From this we suggest methods to define upper and lower bounds of functional range. We found that: 1) there exists a range of concentrations beyond which correlation of low-cost sensors to reference instruments drops considerably; 2) this range differs drastically for different sensors and different sources and can begin at concentrations above those of typical indoor environments; and 4) increasing the averaging time increased the R2.