Review: Senstate Urban Air Quality Station

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I was given the chance to review an air quality monitor from a European company that is located in one of the most contaminated countries with the highest concentrations of particulate matter − the notorious pollutant which causes premature deaths and many illnesses.

Each year during the cold winter months, Bulgaria has the highest PM2.5 concentrations of all EU-28 member states in urban areas (I have the chance to experience it in person in Sofia). The reason is wood and coal burning. Senstate Technologies SC is a Bulgarian company with experience in the field of environmental issues.

The Senstate Urban Air Quality Station is a versatile and configurable air quality monitor with cutting-edge technologies on board, I will give you more information about it in a hot minute.

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Office Study – Tapping Into The Real World Air Quality Data

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

Nowadays, it is a privilege to have access to a real indoor environment where you can measure and quantify indoor environmental quality (IEQ). It is not an easy task because most companies keep AQ data private, and we totally respect that. However, sometimes tapping into the real world data is fundamental in order to understand the conditions white color employees and employers work in an effort to improve work conditions and productivity.

The owner of the building and the office granted me access to installing the Atmocube IAQ monitor for two months, in order to figure out what improvements shall apply in their effort to mitigate covid19, improve working conditions and boost productivity. The office is located in Almeria, Spain which is a coastal city.

They don’t have any mechanical ventilation systems, so the indoor conditions were subject to their human actions and whether they opened the windows/doors or not.

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CO2 Trio Side by Side: Single Beam NDIR vs Dual Beam NDIR vs Photoacoustic

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

So many different types of sensors have become available in the market. For years we have seen and used Single (mainly) and Dual-Beam NDIR sensors for CO2 detection, but now another technology has surfaced, the Photoacoustic.

I decided to do a quick comparison of the different technologies in order to determine which one is the best and what are the differences if there is one. Price always affects the Bill of Material BOM, so we need to make a wise choice depending on the application of the sensor (commercial, real estate, industrial, scientific, etc).

Single and Dual Beam NDIR

CO2 is a gas with an asymmetric molecular structure that has strong absorption of infrared. This is the reason we use a Non-Dispersive Infrared NDIR sensor which is based on tunable diode laser spectroscopy.

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Review: SODAQ AIR – An Air Quality Monitor for Your Bike/Your Lungs

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More and more people choose to ride a bike for their daily commutes and although SODAQ AIR is not the first air quality monitor for a bike, it is the first to have collected over 20M data points. This is particularly import for the development of an IoT air quality monitor as the developers have enough information to debug and develop a super stable product that needs very little troubleshooting from its users.

SODAQ is not a new company as it was founded back in 2013, and they have been working on this particular project (SODAQ AIR) alone since 2015. It seems that consumer satisfaction is always their priority, which is very important nowadays as we need sustainable products that will last for a long time.

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High-End Professional vs Low-Cost Professional Ambient Air Quality Monitors

Sotirios Papathanasiou4 Comments

In the space of ambient air quality monitoring, there are two basic and distinctive categories of professional air quality monitors; the High-End Professional and Low-Cost Professional monitors. I have been asked multiple times to recommend monitors for scientific studies and the deployment of them in cities.

It is very important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of both categories. It is also mandatory to recognize the fact that we will never get the exact same measurement from either category of sensors.

High-End Professional AQA

High-End Professional ambient air quality analyzers are used mostly by governments inside the air quality stations we have in most cities. Their strength is that they meet international standards for accuracy and they are certified by the EU (and similar bodies) to meet minimum performance requirements, in order to ensure that the measurement methods comply with the Data Quality Objectives set down in the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) and in the amending Directive (EU) 2015/1480. Their weakness is that they require lots of energy to operate. In most cases, they are inside a fixed container with a refrigeration system to keep conditions stable. They are big and boxy in size and very expensive to purchase and operate. Additionally, they need constant maintenance by a technician. Another weakness is that in most cases these analyzers are not smart enough to broadcast measurement in real-time to the Cloud and they require other pieces of equipment to do that job, as a result, the cost of operation increases.

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Review: AIRINUM URABN AIR MASK 2.0

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Last year, I reviewed the AIRINUM Lite Air Mask and I was really pleased with the comfortability and efficiency during my daily commutes. The same company has developed a higher-end model called URABN AIR MASK 2.0. In my opinion, this mask has been given much more attention to the details. From the packaging to the mask itself.

The AIRINUM URABN AIR MASK 2.0 offers great protection from particulate matter. I have been wearing the Onyx Black for four weeks already.

Filtration

It employs the same technology as the Lite Air Mask with a multi-layer filter which is tested at the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) with results showing 98% filtering efficiency against particles down to 0.3μm in size. The size of the filter is bigger though. You will find the full lab results here. The five-layer filter can last up to a month of usage, but as always keep it away from very humid environments and procure to disinfect the inner filter layer with sprayed alcohol to prevent bacteria growth. The mask is washable and treated with Polygiene®.

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Two Major Sources of Air Pollution in Cities that We Have to Address Today!

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Ambient air pollution is the world’s top driver of illness and death from chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease.

According to WHO, ambient air pollution is the cause of almost 30% of all deaths and disease from lung cancer. Furthermore, polluted air is responsible for 24% of all deaths from stroke and 25% of all deaths and disease from ischaemic heart disease. Finally, it attributes to 43% of all deaths and disease from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are linked to low-income communities.

Which are the top 2 sources of Air Pollution in cities in 2022?

Wood and biomass burning

Yes, that’s right the “cozy” wood stoves that most people love and brag about are the number one sources of air pollution in cities all around the world. The population on earth takes turns each year, during the 6 cold months in the northern hemisphere and the other 6 months in the southern hemisphere. All wood-burning stoves are very dirty, it doesn’t matter if they are old fireplaces, EPA certified, or pellet stoves. They all emit a tremendous amount of particulate matter which is responsible for all the illnesses and deaths I have mentioned above.

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Review: Atmocube Air Quality Monitor by ATMO

Sotirios Papathanasiou7 Comments

The need for indoor air quality monitoring solutions hasn’t stopped increasing due to two main factors. The market is constantly demanding tailored solutions to meet Green Building standards and, of course, Covid19. Many have bought cheap and generic indoor AQ monitors from big retail stores, but after a while, they realized that their money went down the drain as there is nothing they can do with the data they obtained for two reasons. The AQ monitors didn’t keep the measurements or the accuracy of the data was poor.

Here comes Atmocube, a new indoor air quality monitor designed entirely to meet occupants’ requirements for indoor air quality. The design language is modern and functional. I underlined functional because you don’t need to be an expert to understand what is wrong with the IAQ and which specific parameter you need to address, I will explain more about it in a minute. Finally, the monitor is full of superb sensors, nine to be exact.

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Review: Kunak Air PRO – Ambient Air Quality Monitor

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

Time to talk seriously about ambient air pollution and how technology can help us see and consequently mitigate it. According to a 2016 report, the annual cost of air pollution has to the global health care system has risen to US$ 176 billion from US$ 21 billion in 2015 and the number of workdays lost to air pollution-related illness bounces to 3.7 billion from 1.2 billion. According to another report, ambient air pollution kills more than 3 million people across the globe every year but more importantly causes health problems that increase the annual health care budget.

Unfortunately, air pollution is not taken very seriously by governments and society because we tend to dismiss things we can’t see or understand. Here comes Kunak which is one of the leading companies in the field of monitoring air pollution accurately. Recently, the monitor Kunak Air PRO has been rewarded at the AirLab Challenge 2021 as the most accurate multi-pollutant ambient monitor and it is made in Spain.

Experts, academics, the city, and policymakers all need air quality monitors in order to quantify the ambient air, get the right conclusions about the situation, and finally, make the right decision on how to mitigate the pollution and the health care costs. As you can understand the accuracy of the monitor is very crucial and Kunak delivers great results.

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Particly NFT & Blockchain Air Quality Awareness

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

In December 2021, I introduced Particly, a mascot which I will use as a tool to educate people about air pollution through social media. What you don’t know is that Particly is available as an NFT art and collectible since then. A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a digital ledger. NFTs can be associated with easily-reproducible items such as photos, videos, 3D models, audio, and other types of digital files as unique items. Air Quality deserves a place in the WEB3 Metaverse in an effort to raise awareness.

For those who know me, I always look ahead in time in my effort to find different ways to embrace awareness and engage people. I love new challenges.

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