Application of the low-cost sensing technology for indoor air quality monitoring: A review

Abstract

In recent years, low-cost air pollution technologies have gained increasing interest and, have been studied widely by the scientific community. Thus, these new sensing technologies must provide reliable data with good precision and accuracy. Accordingly, this review aimed to evaluate and compare the low-cost sensing technology against other instruments used for comparison by various studies from the scientific literature to monitor indoor air quality in different indoor environments. After exclusions, a total of 42 studies divided into two subsections (11 laboratory studies and 31 field studies) were analysed considering their aim, location, study duration, sampling area, pollutant(s) evaluated, sensor/device and instrument used for comparison, performance indexes and main outcomes.& nbsp;The reviewed studies aimed to assess different low-cost sensors/devices to monitor indoor air quality against other instruments used for comparison. The vast majority of the studies took place in USA. The laboratory studies were mainly conducted in a controlled chamber, and field studies were performed in homes, offices, educational buildings, among others. In both cases, particulate matter was the most assessed pollutant, either with commercial devices (e.g.: Speck, Dylos, Foobot) or sensors (e.g. Sharp GP2Y1010AU0F). In general, based on statistical parameters, the air quality low-cost sensors/devices tested presented moderate correlations with the instruments used for comparison, revealing sufficient precision for monitoring air quality in indoor microenvironments, especially for qualitative analysis. Thus, low-cost sensing technology to monitor indoor air quality is encouraged, but not waiving the relevance of high quality instruments (mainly reference instruments).& nbsp;(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).