In the building management industry, landlords and building managers are charged with the safety and comfort of the tenants within their apartment complexes or office space. Safety includes ensuring that proper air quality levels are maintained. One of the ways to do this is by preventing a silent offender of public safety issues, carbon dioxide (CO2).
A 2019 study of classrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area conducted by the Lawrence Berkley National Lab and UC Davis found that 85% of classrooms had CO2 readings above acceptable safety levels. The cause of the unsafe levels was believed to be improper installations, programming and maintenance. To prevent this type of unfortunate revelation before it is too late, facilities managers need to invest in CO2 sensing technology to monitor apartment buildings, office space or any facility where large groups gather to provide an extra layer of safety.
Since CO2 levels can vary widely over time, it is not sufficient to take snapshot recordings of CO2 levels. They should be monitored and recorded 24 hours a day. One of the key sensing technologies responsible for monitoring CO2 levels is data loggers.
Stephen B. Knuth, president of TandD U.S., has a few tips for the best usage of CO2 data loggers. He recommends installing a CO2 sensing data logger on each floor in a central location to provide comprehensive coverage.
“If the building is large enough, it may be prudent to add additional loggers per floor,” he says.
Knuth also recommends setting the customizable alert to provide a cushion, which enables enough time to resolve the issue before a real problem can occur. Units like TandD U.S.’s RTR-576 and RTR-576-S can provide CO2 concentration recording and customizable alerts as well as temperature and humidity data. The company’s free WebStorage Service allows users to track all the data collected by its data loggers and more.
Filed Under: Hack the Crisis: Engineering through COVID-19, Sensor Tips
