Low-cost Air Quality Sensing Process: Validation by Indoor-Outdoor Measurements

Air pollution is a main challenge in societies with particulate matter PM2.5 as the major air pollutant causing serious health implications. Due to health and economic impacts of air pollution, low-cost and portable air quality sensors can be vastly deployed to gain personal air pollutant exposure. In this paper, we present an air quality sensing process needed for low-cost sensors which are planned for long-term use. The steps of this process include design and production, laboratory tests, field tests, deployment, and maintenance. As a case study we focus on the field test, where we use two generations of a portable air quality sensor (capable of measuring meteorological variables and PM2.5 to perform an indoor-outdoor measurement. The study found that all of the measurements shown to be consistent through validation among themselves. The sensors accuracy also demonstrate to be adequate by showing similar readings compared to the nearest air quality reference station.