Resources for Air Quality Monitoring — Kaiterra

WELL Certification: Performance Testing or Sensor Data for Air Quality?

Written by Sam Allsbrook | Nov 7, 2024 6:35:16 PM

If you’re familiar with the WELL v2 Certification, specifically the air concept, then you may know there are multiple verification pathways you can take to meet the requirements in each of the 14 features. While pathways like letters of assurance and technical documents can satisfy some requirements (to attest to the building’s construction and design), other data-driven pathways take the spotlight in the air concept due to WELL’s focus on performance-based standards.

It’s not enough to simply have a well-constructed building that is designed to deliver optimal air quality — WELL requires applicants to go one step further and prove that their air quality meets acceptable thresholds. In order to verify this, WELL projects must test the air quality inside their spaces and submit the data on a regular basis. WELL offers two verification pathways to meet this requirement: performance testing and sensor data.

In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know to meet air quality testing requirements for WELL and discuss the pros and cons of the performance testing and sensor data verification pathways.

What Are WELL's Requirements for Air Quality Testing?

The air concept in WELL has four preconditions, with a wide range of requirements that you have to meet for certification. The precondition that covers air quality testing and verification is A01: Air Quality. This feature sets minimum thresholds for a variety of air quality parameters that exist in the indoor environment, as well as another requirement to measure and test these parameters regularly. 

There are five parts to this feature, and for the purposes of this article, we’ll provide a brief overview of the requirements in each part. If you are fairly familiar with the details, feel free to jump to the next section.

A01 Part 1: Meet Thresholds for Particulate Matter

This part requires WELL projects to meet acceptable thresholds for two types of particulate matter (PM): PM2.5 and PM10. The thresholds change slightly depending on the level of regional outdoor air pollution. You can verify that your building meets these thresholds with either sensor data or performance testing.

A01 Part 2: Meet Thresholds for Organic Gases

Part 2 requires WELL projects to meet thresholds for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through one of two options.

A01 Part 3: Meet Thresholds for Inorganic Gases

This part requires compliance with acceptable thresholds for inorganic gases, and can be verified by either performance testing or sensor data with certain continuous air quality monitors (Kaiterra Sensedge Go measures all these parameters but most do not). To meet the requirements for Part 3, you have to verify these thresholds are met in occupiable spaces:

  • Carbon monoxide (CO): 10 mg/m3 [9 ppm] or lower
  • Ozone: 100 µg/m3 [51 ppb] or lower

A01 Part 4: Meet Thresholds for Radon

Part 4 is slightly different from the previous parts because it offers several verification pathways to ensure acceptable radon levels.

The takeaway here is that, even though sensor data is an option to verify radon levels, you don’t need to worry about finding an air quality monitor that also measures radon. Instead, you can submit a letter of assurance from an engineer stating that your building has mechanical ventilation (most commercial buildings do) and meets precondition A03 Part 1 via Option 1 — a feature you will likely already be satisfying to get certified.

Important Note:
You don't need to measure radon if your building has mechanical ventilation and meets ventilation guidelines per A03.1 (WELL Precondition).

A01 Part 5: Measure Air Quality Parameters

The last part of A01 requires buildings to monitor and submit data for the following pollutants in occupiable spaces at least once per year:

  • PM2.5
  • PM10
  • One of the following:
     
    •  TVOC
    • Benzene, formaldehyde, toluene
  • CO 
  • Ozone

Again, if you are using continuous monitors to meet this part, make sure you use monitors that provide all the parameters required, like the Kaiterra Sensedge Go.

Now that we’ve covered the requirements for precondition A01, let’s dive into the two main pathways to meet these requirements, starting with performance testing.

Use Performance Testing for the WELL Air Concept

Until recently, performance testing was the only way to meet every requirement for air quality testing in A01, because air quality monitors on the market weren’t able to measure all the parameters required by WELL A01. As a result, performance testing for air has been the default no-brainer for projects seeking WELL. 

However, as continuous air quality monitors start to cover all of the parameters required for A01, it’s important for WELL APs to see performance testing through a different lens and understand its pros and cons in comparison to the sensor data pathway.

Pros of Performance Testing

1. You can test more air quality parameters

With performance testing, you have the option to send your air sample to an external lab for testing and analysis. These labs can test for more gases and parameters than you can typically measure with continuous air quality monitors today.

For example, performance testing can allow you to test individual VOCs (formaldehyde, benzene, etc.), while continuous monitors will instead provide a single TVOC value. While TVOC data is more than enough for air quality testing, some projects may opt for measuring individual VOCs for other purposes, like research.

2. You get accurate results (with a caveat)

Because performance testing often involves large, expensive handheld machines or extensive lab testing, the results can be very accurate (as opposed to using a consumer-grade air quality monitor you bought for $99 on Amazon on Black Friday).

However, when we say that performance testing has a high level of accuracy, we’re only talking about the level of accuracy for one sample of air. This is a point-in-time measurement of a test tube of air collected from a handful of spaces around your building — it’s impossible to gain a comprehensive representation of air quality throughout your entire building.

3. There's no technology involved

For some buildings or projects, installing air quality monitors for WELL performance verification is beyond reach due to limited resources, time, or ability to coordinate with IT or engineering teams. In these cases, one-time performance testing done by an external testing agent may be the best option to stay “tech-free”.

Cons of Performance Testing

1. Performance testing is expensive

Performance testing is known to be a huge cost driver for WELL projects. Each test costs an average of $10,000 — but you will likely need to test more than once to pass WELL requirements. It’s common to see WELL projects spend upwards of $30,000 on air testing alone.

2. The logistics are complicated

The performance test itself is relatively simple — a certified testing agent comes to your building and either tests the air in real time or collects air samples for lab analysis — but the amount of planning, scheduling, and coordination required to get the agent into your building can be substantial. 

There are only a handful of WELL-certified performance testing organizations, meaning you will have to wait months before you can schedule an agent to come to your building. If you’re trying to certify a global portfolio, the logistical complexities increase exponentially. Testing agents are not available in many regions and countries, so you may have to fly testing agents across the world to collect air samples from your buildings (a true story we heard from a WELL AP).

Because you have to schedule so far in advance, you may choose a day that turns out to be unsuitable for air quality testing. It’s impossible to know what will happen in your building on a given day several months in the future, so there’s a chance that you may have poor air quality on your testing day due to construction, new carpet installation, a large event with many attendees, etc. 

Going through this process once is complicated enough, but WELL requires certified buildings to submit data on an annual basis — meaning you’ll have to complete this process every year to maintain certification.

3. One-time testing cannot accurately reflect air quality

Performance testing is an annual spot-check, not a long-term monitoring protocol that tracks air quality fluctuations over time. This point-in-time measurement is unable to capture the constant changes in air quality throughout the day, and therefore cannot accurately gauge your building performance. While you might get the stamp of approval from WELL, a positive test result doesn’t indicate that your indoor environment is optimized for health and well-being.

One reason for this is that many buildings will artificially optimize indoor environmental conditions on the day of testing to make sure they pass (and don’t have to pay for another round of testing).

For example, if a certain floor of a building is typically very crowded during the workday, the building operators might proactively increase ventilation rates or tell half of their employees to work from home to make sure their CO2 levels stay below the threshold. Modifications like this not only deliver inaccurate air quality readings but also add to the logistical burden, disrupting employees and impacting day-to-day workplace operations.

Use Sensor Data for the WELL Air Concept

Performance testing for air has been the norm for those pursuing WELL mostly because of the limitations in the parameters that air quality monitors can measure, such as ozone and CO. 

However, as technology develops, there are air quality monitors today that can check the box and measure all the parameters WELL requires in A01. Kaiterra’s Sensedge Go is a great example of this. This makes the sensor data pathway a not only viable but also favorable alternative to performance testing.

Pros of Sensor Data

1. More cost-effective than performance testing

Performance testing gets expensive when you have to undergo multiple rounds of testing to pass. In many cases, installing air quality monitors can be much more cost-effective, especially in the long run. The costs of hiring testing agents every year can rapidly outgrow the costs associated with maintaining monitors. 

Many people have the impression that performance testing is less expensive than using monitors. While this was true in the past — when monitors were costly, bulky, and complicated to install — this is not the case anymore. Air quality monitors are becoming more affordable and easy to install and maintain.

For example, the Sensedge Go has peel-and-stick installation that takes less than one minute — so you could feasibly install dozens of monitors in one lunch break — and doesn’t require specialized and costly labor to run new cables, which is a requirement for wired solutions.

2. You can earn more optimization points with continuous monitors

In addition to satisfying the requirements for the air concept preconditions, sensor data can also help you earn more points in the optimization features. Before, performance testing offered four optimization points through A05: Enhanced Air Quality by verifying that a space meets enhanced (lower) thresholds for PM, VOCs, CO, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). 

Now, sensor data from certain continuous monitors (that also measure temperature and humidity) can be used to earn additional points in both the air and thermal comfort concepts for a total of nine optimization points:

3. Less hassle  especially for data submission

Viewing your air quality data is much simpler when you have continuous monitors running in your building. Instead of jumping through the hoops of performance testing to get a single report, you can log into your monitoring dashboard and instantly access all the data you need for WELL — which eliminates the overall hassle of verifying air quality while drastically simplifying the data submission process. 

All you have to do is go to your dashboard, compile and format the data according to WELL’s requirements (or use a dashboard like Kaiterra’s that does this for you), click a few buttons, and submit. This not only streamlines initial verification but also makes annual re-certification significantly faster and easier, shortening the process from months to hours.

4. Continuous data provides an accurate representation of air quality

Continuous air quality monitors aren’t just valuable for meeting WELL requirements — they also provide a comprehensive picture of your air quality at the same time. Unlike the spot-checking method of performance testing, continuous monitors track air quality throughout the day and identify trends and sources of pollutants like equipment, occupancy fluctuations, or outdoor pollution. This allows you to find new opportunities to optimize your indoor environment to enhance the health and well-being of your occupants. 

Cons of Sensor Data

1. You have to choose the right monitor

If you select an air quality monitor that doesn’t measure all of the parameters required by A01 and A03, then you’re wasting your investment. Your monitor has to measure PM2.5, PM10, TVOC, CO, ozone, and CO2 — even better if it measures NO2 (that gives you an extra point for A05).

2. The costs associated with monitors can add up quickly

Having the right parameters is only one box your monitor needs to check. From installation to maintenance to calibration, continuous air quality monitors have a number of additional costs that should be weighed in your decision-making process. These costs can rapidly balloon if you choose a monitor based on parameters alone without considering the time and resources required for these tasks.

Having the right monitor is key to minimizing these costs — for example, calibration can be a huge pain if your monitor doesn’t have an easy solution (at Kaiterra, we have a modular sensor design so you can easily swap out the old sensor with a new one for your calibration).

Another example is determining how often you will have to change batteries if you choose a battery-powered monitor. With the Sensedge Go, you only have to change batteries every four to eight years, meaning significantly lower maintenance costs than most other monitors that have a one-year battery life.

How to Choose the Right Verification Pathway for the Air Concept

The sensor data and performance testing pathways both have benefits and drawbacks — the key is educating yourself about which verification pathway is best suited to your project needs and building specifications.

We recommend sensor data if you:

  • Have a large building (performance testing will be more expensive)
  • Have multiple locations (coordinating performance tests is difficult)
  • Have global projects (limited performance testing in many places)
  • Don’t have the team or can’t afford the time and effort to do performance testing every year (installing air quality monitors is a one-time event)
  • Want to get more points in WELL without the added work (air quality monitors can give you 9 points with one solution)
  • Want a future-proof strategy that brings a positive impact to occupant well-being (monitors provide air quality insights beyond limited spot checks)

If you’re interested in learning more about the sensor data verification pathway for the WELL air concept, or how to find the right continuous monitor, reach out today to speak with a WELL air concept expert!