Air quality, the importance and attention to what we inhale has significantly grown over the last 18 months. It’s common knowledge that good air quality helps relieve stress, makes us happier, strengthens our immune systems and provides us with a sharper and more energised mind. In an indoors professional context we’re experiencing higher productivity, creativeness and focus on the job when exposing our body to fresh air. Children on the other hand experience a negative learning curve, more fatigue and are less concentrated during exposure to bad air quality in classrooms. But how do we know when we’re exposing our children to bad air and viruses such as Covid-19? And what is considered bad air quality?

The most important indicator of bad air quality is carbon dioxide (CO2). With a CO2-sensor, we’re able to see if a room is ventilated enough or not at all. Today plenty of battery-powered sensors exist which allow a quick set-up compared to electrical installed models. Secondly, both sensors with and without data logging are available in the market. 

CO2 sensors that do not log data, provide a restricted view or snapshot of air quality at a certain moment in time. Smart CO2 sensors are able to log data internally on an SD-card or send it to a dashboard via WiFi where the evolution over time in a room can be monitored. The smart CO2 sensors are often more expensive compared to the normal version, but are able to provide some extra benefits.

A combined offering from Control CO2 and Waylay offers WiFi connected CO2 sensors to schools and other public institutions for their air quality monitoring, combining the hardware with software. By connecting CO2 sensors with data logging to a WiFi network, principals and/or prevention advisors can merge and measure the entire air quality over multiple points in time to see the evolution of CO2 in multiple classrooms. Visual dashboards in the Waylay platform provide a real-time and historical view of CO2, show what actions need to be taken when thresholds are exceeded, can activate the ventilation system and trigger an alarm when needed. 

Schools and other public institutions can get a one-time 5000€ investment including 30 smart CO2 sensors and a flat Waylay license fee of (€2000)valid for 3 years, regardless of the number of sensors. Principals are therefore able to follow up the evolution of air quality inside their classrooms, all in an easy to use dashboard and alarm system.