Best Air Quality Monitors for WELL Certification: How the Kaiterra Sensedge Go Stacks Up

If you’re currently working on WELL certification, then you likely already have a grasp on the requirements for the air concept, specifically about testing and verifying your air quality.

Performance testing and sensor data are the two verification pathways you can choose from for air quality testing. We’ve compared these two paths and how sensor data, a cost-effective alternative to performance testing, can earn you more WELL points — check out the article here.

If you’ve chosen to go with sensor data for air quality testing, the next step is to decide which continuous air quality monitor to use for your project. We’ve talked before about the two main types of air quality monitors — wired and wireless — as well as what factors to consider if you’re interested in using wireless monitors.

In this article, we’re continuing the discussion through the lens of WELL certification, starting with an overview of what to look for in an air quality monitor for WELL certification, followed by a deep dive into how Kaiterra’s new wireless air quality monitor Sensedge Go compares to other monitors for projects seeking WELL certification.

Three Questions to Ask When Evaluating Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Monitors for WELL Certification

1. What parameters does it measure?

   If you’ve spent any time looking for IAQ monitors, you’ve probably seen that each monitor measures slightly different parameters. However, when it comes to WELL, there is a specific list of parameters your monitor has to have — some are for meeting the hard requirements in preconditions, while others are optional but can help you earn extra points. 

   If you choose a monitor that doesn’t measure every parameter required by the WELL concept — meaning the parameters required to satisfy preconditions A01 and A03 at a minimum — then your investment will be wasted. Not only will you end up having to do performance testing to cover the parameters that are missing from your monitors, but you’ll also miss out on opportunities to score extra optimization points.

   Here are the parameters that your air quality monitor should measure for WELL:

   1. Required: PM2.5 (A01), PM10 (A01), TVOC (A01), CO (A01), Ozone (A01), CO2 (A03), Temperature (T01)

   2. Optimizations: PM2.5 (A05; A08), PM10 (A05; A08), CO (A05; A08), NO2 (A05; A08), CO2 (A06; A08), Ozone (A08), TVOC (A08), Temperature (T06), Relative Humidity (T06; T07)

   As you can see, most of the parameters that are required for preconditions A01, A03, and T01 will also earn points in the optimization features for air and thermal comfort. There are some parameters like NO2 and relative humidity that are not required for preconditions, but if you find a monitor that measures these parameters, you can automatically score even more points in the optimization features.

   Finding an air quality monitor that covers all of these parameters will help you maximize your return on WELL investment by getting all of these points with one solution.

2. How easy and cost-effective is it to install and maintain?

   If you’re not careful, you may end up spending a significant amount of money installing or maintaining your IAQ monitors, which also creates a lot of unexpected work for your team. Even worse — failure to maintain your monitors properly will jeopardize your compliance with WELL!

   Here are four factors to consider when looking at IAQ monitors for WELL:

   1. Installation: Do you prefer wired or wireless? We often see wired solutions work the best in new builds because you can incorporate your deployment into construction and don’t have to worry about knocking down walls and disrupting day-to-day operations to run new cables. Wireless solutions, on the other hand, are better suited for retrofit projects because installation requires no new cabling — all you have to do is attach monitors to walls and connect them wirelessly to a gateway.

   2. Connectivity: How will you bring your data online? Can your building support that type of connectivity, whether it’s Wi-Fi, Ethernet, LoRaWAN, cellular, or Bluetooth? Be sure to understand the requirements of your building’s network (or, figure out if you wish to stay off of your building’s network completely via cellular) to determine what type of connectivity your monitors should support.

   3. Maintenance: This especially applies to battery-powered solutions. How often will you need to change batteries? Whether you have a large or small deployment, you don’t want to do battery replacements every one to two years. Look for a monitor that supports long battery life — without compromising on the quality of your data.

   4. Calibration: WELL projects beware, WELL asks for annual calibrations for your IAQ monitors. How do you plan to do this? The typical calibration process is costly and time-consuming — at Kaiterra we use a modular sensor design for this, but more on that later!

   It’s critical to understand what’s involved in the installation and maintenance of your monitors, as these factors determine your total cost of ownership (TCO). Here’s what the TCO calculation involves for both wired and wireless IAQ monitoring solutions:

   • Wired: Calculating TCO is relatively straightforward — add up the costs of hardware and installation, plus the costs of annual sensor calibrations required by WELL. The installation costs for a wired solution are much higher than for wireless solutions, but the high-cost installation comes with low-cost maintenance (unlike wireless monitors, which require regular battery replacements).

   • Wireless: These solutions often come with “hidden” costs that vary with each vendor. Wireless monitors can seem more attractive due to their lower upfront costs than wired monitors, but one factor many don’t account for is how many gateways you will need. Gateways can be just as expensive as monitors, and if they’re not built to support dozens of monitors at a long range, they can skyrocket your TCO. Plus, on top of gateways, you will also need to factor in the costs of battery replacements and annual sensor calibrations to get an accurate TCO.

3. How are you going to meet all other requirements in WELL, from placement to data submission?

   Besides having the right type of monitor, you will also need to make sure your monitors are placed correctly in breathing zones and at the right density, with data that is easily accessible for annual data submission for WELL. 

   Choosing a vendor that knows the ins and outs of WELL and can help you optimize your deployment is a huge plus. It can offload some of the work from your team and help you avoid any mistakes during your project. Some vendors also provide tools that help you see your progress on certification, as well as resources to help with data submission (another pain point many don’t consider beforehand).

   Now that we’ve covered the three questions to ask during your decision-making process, let’s apply these questions to the Sensedge Go to see how it compares to other air quality monitors on the market for WELL certification.

What Makes the Sensedge Go Different From Other IAQ Monitors on the Market for WELL?

It monitors all the parameters required for the air concept

To make the sensor data pathway a feasible option to meet all WELL precondition requirements, the Kaiterra Sensedge Go was designed to measure every parameter required to satisfy preconditions A01 and A03 while also scoring several optimization points.

Unlike all other monitors on the market, the Sensedge Go monitors CO and ozone, as well as other parameters (temperature, relative humidity, and NO2) to help WELL projects score extra optimization points. Altogether, the Sensedge Go meets three preconditions (A01, A03, T01) and can get nine optimization points in features A05, A06, A08, T06, and T07 almost entirely for free.

Installation and set-up can be completed within minutes

The Sensedge Go is 100% wireless for both power and connectivity. Because it uses batteries as a power source and connects wirelessly to the gateway with no special configuration, the Sensedge Go offers a highly efficient and easy installation process (as fast as 46 seconds!). 

This process can be done by anyone (instead of a specialized technician) and requires no disruptive installation work (like running new cables behind walls to hardwire power). The peel-and-stick installation and zero gateway configuration are unique to the Sensedge Go, making it a more time- and cost-effective solution than any other IAQ monitors on the market.

It has the longest battery life on the market

One of the key differentiators between the Sensedge Go and alternative wireless solutions is the battery life. While other battery-powered solutions offer at most one to two years of battery life, the Sensedge Go can reach up to eight years. 

This is made possible by Kaiterra’s patent-pending Adaptive Sampling™ technology, which intelligently optimizes sampling intervals throughout the building to reduce unnecessary power consumption and extend battery life tremendously. Even at a high-frequency fixed sampling rate, Sensedge Go batteries can last for four years before needing to be replaced.

Adding seven more years of battery life significantly reduces the number of battery replacements that are needed throughout your project — meaning significantly less maintenance work and costs.

It has an ultra long-range gateway

In addition to lower maintenance costs, the Sensedge Go’s gateway capacity also plays a major role in driving down your TCO. Other gateways can only penetrate one floor and host 30 sensors per gateway, whereas the Kaiterra gateway can penetrate three to five floors and host 100 sensors per gateway. It can also transmit data up to 2 km horizontally, which is critical for certain building layouts.

By multiplying gateway capacity and floor penetration capabilities, the Sensedge Go can cover your entire building with 75% fewer gateways than other solutions.

It has a modular sensor design for annual calibrations

WELL projects are required to calibrate their air quality sensors once per year. Annual calibrations typically involve sending each sensor away for factory calibration or having a technician come on-site to test and calibrate each device. However, just like all other Kaiterra air quality monitors, the Sensedge Go comes with modular sensors for hassle-free calibration. 

Instead of jumping through the hoops required for calibration with other solutions, WELL projects using the Sensedge Go can easily complete calibrations by swapping out the old sensor with a new one in a matter of seconds.

This modular design also makes it easy to upgrade sensor technology (with new parameters, for example) without replacing your entire monitor, making compliance with evolving WELL requirements simple and cost-effective.

It makes data submission simple and efficient

If you’ve ever submitted data before for WELL certification or re-certification, then you know how cumbersome it is to compile and format dozens of spreadsheets with thousands of rows of data. 

The Sensedge Go continuously uploads data to the cloud and syncs up with the Kaiterra dashboard, which automatically formats the data for you at the time of export. When you’re ready to submit data for WELL, all you have to do is click a few buttons to select your building and your data, and the dashboard will handle the rest.

It comes with a WELL compliance checker tool

Another software feature that is unique to Kaiterra is the WELL Compliance Checker — a dashboard tool that helps you see whether or not your building complies with WELL’s requirements for air quality. This tool will automatically collect and format IAQ data from your Sensedge Go deployment, analyze it side-by-side with WELL’s requirements, and tell you whether you’re on track for certification or if there are issues that need to be addressed. 

With just one click, you can easily track your progress and identify IAQ risks that would otherwise be difficult to find via manual investigation. That way, you can correct problems as they surface throughout the certification process — not when you’re at the finish line and can’t afford to go back and redo any part of your certification.

WELL projects gain access to our in-house accredited professionals (APs)

All Kaiterra customers gain access to our in-house WELL APs who can help with:

• Sensor mapping and floor plan review
• Remote installation and deployment support
• Data validation and calibration support
• Quarterly WELL compliance reviews

Our experts are here to help you every step of the way to make your WELL Certification journey as simple as possible and help you get the most out of your WELL investment.

Find Out if the Sensedge Go Is Right for Your WELL Project

Want to know more about whether the Sensedge Go is the right air quality monitor for your WELL project? Talk to a WELL AP and air concept expert on the Kaiterra team to find out how the Sensedge Go can help you reach your project goals while also saving you time and money.