You’ll meet the latest and greatest in air quality monitoring in this Tools.Valarm.net customer story.

You’re probably already aware that bad air quality and pollution causes millions of deaths each year. As Arnold recently said:

• Pollution kills more people than war
• 7 million people die every year worldwide because of pollution-related illnesses
• Hasta la vista baby, I’ll be back

So what will you do about your air quality problems? 1 of our customers, Blue Tomorrow, deploys Valarm air quality monitoring units like you see in the photos. The units monitor air quality wherever they’re deployed. In this case we’re talking about the Central Valley in California near Kern County.

These boxes integrate Industrial IoT hardware from all over the world to effectively measure air quality sensor factors like:

• Dust and Particulate Matter, PM1, PM2.5, PM10
• Ozone a.k.a. O3
• NO2 a.k.a. Nitrogen Dioxide
• Volatile Organic Compounds a.k.a. VOCs

What in the world are VOCs? VOCs are a bunch of substances that are seriously harmful to human health when you breathe them.

Examples of VOCs are things like alcohols, aldehydes, aliphatic hydro-carbons, amines, aromatic hydro-carbons (e.g., gasoline vapors), carbon oxides, methane, LPG, ketones, and organic acids.

These are solar powered units that send real-time air quality sensor measurements to Tools.Valarm.net using this key sensor hardware from Shop.Valarm.net:

• GSM 3G Sensor Hubs
• TTL Serial Sensor Adapters
• Meteo Sensors – Temperature, Humidity, and Pressure
• SPI Serial Sensor Adapters

These air quality monitoring systems are deployed side-by-side with California Air Resources Board (CARB) air quality monitoring stations. The systems you see in the pictures here are reporting air pollution sensor measurements to Tools.Valarm.net in real-time and the Alphasense sensors are reporting well, with reliable air quality data lining up nicely with the official CARB data. However, the Tools.Valarm.net air quality monitoring boxes you’re seeing in the photos cost only a fraction of the price of the official EPA grade units, yet these cost-effective systems report data good enough for government work.

On Tools.Valarm.net your air quality information is always available, it’s where you’ve got Industrial IoT sensors with:

• Graphs + Analytics
• 2D Maps
• 3D Earth Globes
• Alerts – Email + SMS / text message
• APIs like JSON for integration into your business intelligence / analytics systems

In the photos of the air quality monitoring boxes you’ll see the specific gas sensors are at the bottom of the box. They’re Alphasense gas sensors that are connected to Alphasense circuit boards. The Alphasense circuit boards output real-time, raw voltage readings from the gas sensors – Ozone / O3, Nitrogen Dioxide / NO2, and VOCs.

The raw voltages are read with 0-10V sensor adapters in each of the air quality monitoring boxes. The 0-10V sensor adapters are connected to GSM sensor hubs, which send the sensor information to Tools.Valarm.net via GSM mobile cell network.

You’ll see the gas sensors are attached to the bottom of the box so that the gas sensor surfaces are exposed to ambient air outside of the box. You’ll also noticed custom enclosures, brackets, and housings all around the boxes. These were all made with our 3D Printer and are available for you at Shop.Valarm.net.

Up at the top of the box you can see blue harnesses that hold Alphasense OPC-N2 sensors. The OPC-N2 is an optical particle counter. It counts particles of different sizes, like dust and PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, which are Particulates of different sizes, e.g., 2.5 micrometers.

Particulate Matters are things that you can inhale and damage your lungs. Even though you can’t even see them! Not fair, but let’s do what we can to help monitor air quality. PM in the air is a mix of solid particles and liquid droplets. They’re things like soot, dirt, smoke, and dust.

Generally things like PM2.5 are bad news bears, and not a good thing for you to be inhaling, exhaling, or breathing. So if you’re seeing high amounts of particulates or harmful gases in the air, then it’s generally a smart idea to figure out what’s causing this since it’s harmful to you, your family, and everyone else’s health.

Alphasense OPC-N2 sensors have forced air intake fans. They uses a laser inside the black box sensor to count particles of different sizes. SPI serial sensor adapters communicate with OPC-N2 sensors to record air quality measurements. The SPI sensor adapters are connected to GSM 3G sensor hubs that send all of the sensor information to Tools.Valarm.net.

You can record and upload your sensor information as often as you, your organization and your customers need it.

Whether you need your sensor measurements 1 time per minute, or 1 time an hour, you can customize it exactly how you need it.

On the left side panel of the boxes you’ll see a blue enclosure that might look kinda like a winged creature, such as a bat or someone flying in a wingsuit. These are not birds, planes, nor bats. They’re meteo sensors made by Yoctopuce that monitor ambient air temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure. Temperatures can be used for further calibrating the accuracy of air quality sensors.

You’ll notice that there are also fans and vents inside of the boxes to ensure air flow through units. This makes sure it doesn’t get too hot or cold inside.

Your lead acid batteries are at the bottom of the boxes. They’re the big black cube chunks that are connected to red and black power wires. The batteries get charged during the day via solar panels and the Morningstar solar charge controller you see at the top of the box. Then during the night your batteries ensure that air quality is continuously measured everywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.26 days a year.

Want to learn more about monitoring air quality? Have a look at our general Air Quality and Pollution Monitoring Page for more on how your organization quickly and effectively measure air quality.

Questions?

Have a look at our Customer Stories page for Industrial IoT and remote sensor monitoring.

Tools.Valarm.net is used in a variety of industries in addition to air quality, like:

• Water resources management for effectively managing fluids, groundwater, and any other liquids
• Flood warning systems for monitoring water levels, storm surges, rising tides, coastal areas, and Smart Cities prepared for emergencies and natural disasters

All of your remote monitoring information is always available just how you need it, like on real-time, web-based map dashboards.

Talk to us if you need air quality monitoring boxes like the ones you saw and read about in this story. Do you, your teams, and your organization need to monitor other air quality factors and gases like H2S / Hydrogen Sulfide, CO / Carbon Monoxide, SO2 / Sulfur Dioxide, VOCs / Volatile Organic Compounds, CH4 / Methane, or CO2 / Carbon Dioxide?

Tools.Valarm.net is an open, flexible platform so you can integrate air quality sensors made by just about any hardware manufacturer like Clairair, AirBeam, Yoctopuce, and Dylos. If you need help deploying air quality and pollution monitoring systems, or remotely monitor any of your assets, get in touch with us and we’ll make sure you install your most effective remote monitoring systems.

Please don’t hesitate to Contact Us at Info@Valarm.net.