Indoor Air Quality Measurement Is Potentially Life-Saving

To maintain an acceptable level of indoor air quality, measurement of various types of particles, gases and other common contaminants should be done on a regular basis.

Initially, it is a good idea to have indoor air quality measurement performed by a professional company because they will have all the equipment necessary to conduct tests for all of the most likely contaminants.

Once you have taken a measurement of indoor air contaminants, then you can take steps to eliminate them, possibly by tracing them to the source and removing the source. Once you know which particular contaminants your home or office is prone to you can invest in a sensor designed specifically to measure those contaminants, allowing you to keep contamination under control.

Indoor air quality measurement can be done several ways, depending on the type of contaminants that you are trying to detect or measure. For example, a particle counter would be used to measure the amounts of various particles that are present in the air.

Particle counters can measure how many individual particles of a given substance are present in the air, allowing you to determine how clean the air is and whether acceptable or unacceptable levels of these particles are present.

Particle counting uses a high intensity light such as a laser, and particles will either scatter the light or obscure the light, depending on the type of particle counter it is.

Indoor air quality measurement of various types of gases can be done by using individual sensors designed for detecting one specific type of gas, such as a radon detector, a carbon monoxide detector, or an ammonia gas detector . Multi gas detectors are also available that can detect and measure levels of multiple different gases. These types of detection units are typically used in industries where more than one type of gas may be present and needs to be detected for the safety of those present.

Gas detectors of this nature wouldn’t necessarily be the sort of thing that the average homeowner would need, though.

For home use, one of the most common types of gas detectors is the carbon monoxide detector. Because carbon monoxide is harmful in smaller concentrations and deadly in high concentrations, a carbon monoxide detector is a good investment for the home.

Carbon monoxide is produced as a result of incomplete combustion, such as car exhaust, wood stoves and a number of other common household sources. It is completely colorless, tasteless and odorless, so it can’t be detected without the help of a carbon monoxide detector.

Carbon monoxide is known as the silent killer because it can kill an entire household before anyone even realizes that anything is wrong. It may come from a car running in the garage, a blocked chimney or similar source.

A carbon monoxide detector monitors CO levels and will sound an alarm to give the home’s occupants ample warning that high levels of carbon monoxide are accumulating. This small preventative device is worth having because it could actually save your life.