Testing the Air Quality at AYVA with PASCO’s Wireless Air Quality Sensor

Today we tested out PASCO’s new Air Quality Wireless Sensor. Using this sensor, we were able to determine the temperature, humidity, particulate matter, VOC’s, and levels of ozone and nitrous oxide present. We tested the air quality of four different environments. First inside AYVA’s office, then directly outside the office, behind a car while it is running, and inside a car while it is running. 

In all of these runs ozone and nitrous oxide levels were found to be 0 ppm. Ozone and nitrous oxide can be very dangerous so we were happy to see no evidence of it in all four environments. 

We can also see that the temperature was much higher for the runs inside and outside of the office, compared to the runs inside and outside of the running car which is likely due to the sensor being in a shaded area when outside.

We noticed that the humidity is lowest inside both the office and the running car, which is likely due to the air conditioning in both spaces. The humidity outside is much higher since there is no air conditioning or ventilation, therefore readings 2 and 3 had much higher relative humidity percentages.

Analyzing the VOC graph, it is clear that VOC levels in the air were heavily influenced when placing the sensor directly outside the exhaust of a running car, which makes sense considering the large levels of carbon dioxide being emitted. Since air conditioning can also affect VOC levels, runs 1 and 3 were not very stable. However, run 2 remained relatively stationary, as there was no air conditioning of fumes interfering with any organic compounds in the air.

The particulate matter levels were highest during run 3 where the sensor was placed behind a running car and the lowest during run 2 where the sensor was placed just outside of the office. This makes sense because the exhaust from the car would have more particulate matter than the air outside. Inside the office and car there was some particulate matter probably due to the air conditioning. 

Using the Air Quality Sensor with these experiments, we were able to get a better understanding of different factors that affect air quality, such as humidity, VOCs and particulate matter.