At Kaiterra, we spend a lot of time helping indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring projects find the right monitor for their project and creating comprehensive guides to ensure successful project implementation. Throughout our time consulting on IAQ monitors, we’ve seen projects make several mistakes that cost significant time and money, or cause them to completely change plans down the road.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the most expensive mistake a project can make when choosing a commercial air quality monitor, and provide a step-by-step process for choosing the best monitor for your project.
There are a lot of options out there for commercial air quality monitors, from different hardware and software features to different data integration options and installation methods. This can be quite overwhelming, and we’ve seen projects try to simplify their decision by just pulling tech spec sheets from different vendors and comparing them side-by-side — and making decisions based on the numbers listed.
While comparing tech specs is an important part of choosing an IAQ monitor, you can’t start and end your selection process by evaluating these numbers alone. A list of technical qualifications cannot provide a complete picture of how the monitor will meet your goals — but, in many cases, these are the only criteria projects will consider.
We’ve seen dozens of projects opt for a monitor because of arbitrary criteria listed on tech spec sheets, such as resolution, range, or odd parameters (that they may not even need to measure in their space, like SO2, for example).
If you jump right into the weeds of technical qualifications before understanding what you’re trying to achieve and what limitations you’re working with, you may end up with a monitor that fails to meet your goals — at which point you may need to completely switch solutions.
Take WELL certification, for example. If you’re going for WELL and want to use IAQ monitors for your certification, all you need to do is look for a monitor that is RESET Grade B and part of the Works with WELL catalog. If your monitor has those two labels, then you’ve already ticked all of WELL’s boxes from a product compliance perspective.
However, what’s more important in this case is understanding how many points your potential air quality monitor can help you achieve. Different monitors provide different parameters — choosing a monitor that doesn’t measure every parameter WELL asks for could cause your project to miss out on several points, or even have to do performance testing to meet basic air concept requirements. But, with the right monitor, you can easily meet multiple preconditions and score up to nine points in both the air and thermal comfort concepts.
Now that we’ve covered the wrong way to choose a commercial air quality monitor — only evaluating tech specs — let’s talk about the right way to select a monitor: understanding the big picture of your project.
Getting the big picture of your project requires two assessments. The first is examining your goals, and the second is evaluating the physical requirements and/or preferences you’re working with. Put these assessments side-by-side to identify where they coincide, and use that overlap to narrow down your monitoring options to only the solutions that work best for your project.
Defining your goals for monitoring IAQ will help provide an overarching set of guidelines for what hardware and software features to look for in your solution. At Kaiterra, our clients typically have one of three goals for their project — however, some projects have multiple goals, in which case you should prioritize them so you can identify which selection criteria are most important.
This could include WELL, LEED, Fitwel, RESET, etc. Each of these certifications has different requirements for monitoring IAQ, including:
• Parameters: Which are must-haves or nice-to-haves? This will differ among certifications as well as between different tiers of certification.When narrowing down your options, choose the solution that not only meets the requirements for your certification but also delivers a higher return on investment (ROI), such as giving you extra WELL points by meeting the requirements in the optimization features.
If your project goal is to improve your building’s operations, you need to make sure your air quality monitor can integrate with the systems you’re using, whether it’s a building management system (BMS), integrated workplace management system (IWMS), or both.
If you need your monitors to integrate with BMS, look for a solution that has a BMS-related certification like BTL. Ask your vendors how their monitors integrate with the BMS, specifically whether they use an API or BACnet base. If they use a BACnet base, specify whether they use a BACnet/IP or BACnet/MSTP communication protocol.
Also, when it comes to integration, pay attention to your ideal data push interval — how often you need your data to be synced — and double-check that your monitor can support that.
A very common goal our clients have is to understand how their building’s indoor environment impacts occupant health and identify ways to optimize health and well-being. If this is your primary goal (meaning you don’t need to meet certification requirements or integrate with BMS), start by identifying which parameters are the most important to you — whether it’s particulate matter (PM), CO2, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), etc.
After you’ve compiled a list of required parameters, determine how you will evaluate the impact of monitoring and improving IAQ — improvements in air quality parameters, changes to productivity, etc. and look for monitoring solutions that support these types of metrics on the software level (which includes translating readings like CO2 and PM2.5 into actionable, health-related metrics).
Lastly, consider what level of data access you want your solution to have. Many projects centered around health optimization want to show occupants how they’re working to improve the indoor environment, and will share this data online or present it on a screen in the lobby to keep occupants in the loop. If you want to publicize your IAQ data, be sure to screen vendors for tools that will allow you to easily do this.
The second part of understanding the big picture of your IAQ monitoring project is identifying the physical requirements, limitations, and preferences of your project. Evaluating the four categories below will help you narrow down your available options and make sure the monitor you choose will work well with your environment:
The two options for powering air quality monitors are hardwired and battery-powered, and choosing the right one largely depends on what stage the project is in and if a certain power supply is required.
If you have a new build, it may be easier for you to do hardwiring — be sure to check for any technical requirements, such as whether you need to be using Power over Ethernet (PoE). If you’re working on a retrofit project, then a battery-powered solution may be less intrusive than running cables throughout your building. In this case, make sure you consider battery life and ensure that it aligns with your ideal frequency for servicing your monitors.
In many cases, projects will have both options available in their building, at which point you will have to weigh the pros and cons of hardwired and battery-powered air quality monitors to decide which power option you prefer.There are multiple options available to connect your monitors to the network to transmit data but check first to see if there is a required type of connectivity in your building.
If your building does not have specific connectivity requirements, then decide whether you would prefer to use an independent network or join the existing building network. If you prefer to use a separate network, then you should look for a monitor with cellular connectivity. If you want to join the building’s network, then choose a monitor that supports Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or LoRa connectivity. Be sure to check for specific InfoSec requirements and plan several months to get approval from your building’s IT team.
Your building may have certain requirements for installation, such as specific device placement rules or only allowing monitors to be attached to walls with tape. However, if you have the option to choose your installation plan, consider these three factors and take them into consideration when you evaluate air quality monitors:
• Location: Whether you want monitors on the walls, tabletops, or even on the ceiling, follow applicable placement guidelines to make sure your monitors are in the breathing zone and not too close to objects that could alter air quality readings.
• Installation method: Do you want to screw your monitors into the wall, or do you prefer peel-and-stick installation?All air quality monitors need maintenance, whether it’s battery replacements for battery-powered monitors or sensor calibrations (required for both hardwired and wireless monitors). Many building certifications like WELL and RESET also require calibration once per year.
Consider what kind of maintenance schedule is feasible for your project, and screen vendors for how easily and efficiently their monitors can be maintained. This will help you avoid choosing a solution that requires more maintenance than you can afford.
After evaluating the big picture of your project, you should be able to narrow down an ocean of monitoring options to a couple of solutions that can deliver on your goals while satisfying the requirements and preferences of your project.
At this point, you’re ready to officially make your decision about which commercial IAQ monitor you will use for your project. At Kaiterra, we have three best practices for how we recommend our clients make this decision.
If you want a more permanent solution that requires little maintenance once installed, a hardwired solution may be ideal. Hardwiring your air quality monitors ensures secure power, connectivity, and data security.
Keep in mind that installation can be more costly and time-intensive than a wireless option because you may have to run new cabling. Because of this, hardwired solutions are often best for new builds or smaller projects with lower installation costs.
If you want more flexibility with your deployment, or if you have a retrofit or larger project, a wireless commercial air quality monitor may be the best choice. These solutions offer a much faster and more cost-effective installation process. It’s as simple as putting the device on the wall and powering it on — no need for specialized labor. These monitors can be easily moved around if your project goals or requirements change.
However, make sure to factor battery replacements into the total project costs. If possible, choose a monitor that offers an extended battery life (the Sensedge Go can reach up to eight years) to minimize the costs and time needed to change batteries.
If you want additional information about which type of solution is best for your project, we’ve written a full comparison between wired and wireless, battery-powered air quality monitors.Software is crucial because it allows you to make use of your data. Software analytics tools help you collect, analyze, and interpret your data to understand how to make the changes necessary to reach your goals.
However, many projects don’t give software the consideration it deserves and, in many cases, it usually becomes an afterthought. This is dangerous because you may end up buying a solution with software that doesn’t meet your needs, leaving you with tons of data that cannot be put to use.
To help our clients understand what type of dashboard/software solution to look for, we’ve identified four levels of data analysis that an IAQ solution can provide. The right level for your project depends on the scope of your deployment, what you want to achieve with your data, and what in-house resources and expertise you have available.
This level directly delivers the raw data collected from the monitors with no further analysis or interpretation. Level 1 is best for offline or BMS-only use, or for a project that already has a data analytics team on-site that can custom-build their own dashboard.
Level 2 offers a rudimentary level of data analysis, such as trend lines and graphs. The data is visualized, but not summarized or interpreted. This level is ideal for projects that just need one or two devices, or simply want to get a general pulse check of their air quality — taking action on the data will require a higher level of analysis.
This level digs deeper into the data and offers much more complex analytic tools that can extract a variety of insights you can take action on, whether it’s a high-level portfolio overview or room-specific trends. By providing a lift with data analytics, Level 3 is ideal for commercial projects and/or projects with specific goals for their air quality.
The highest level of data analysis will automatically identify and analyze trends, and provide data summaries, recommendations, and even predictive insights for the team to take action. Level 4 is best for commercial projects that want to improve IAQ without manually analyzing the data and determining the best course of action.
If you manage a commercial project with specific goals for IAQ, or if you need more than a handful of devices, we recommend choosing a software solution that can at least provide level-3 analytics. For projects with large-scale deployments that collect millions of data points each day, a level-4 dashboard will be ideal to help maximize the value from IAQ data and remove workload for internal teams.
Want a quick recap? Here’s a cheat sheet with our best practices for choosing a commercial IAQ sensor.
Talk to an IAQ monitoring expert on the Kaiterra team to learn more about which commercial air quality monitor is best suited for your project.