Continuous IAQ Monitoring: How to Use the “Endless” Data

“So, You Have Some IAQ Monitors. Now What?” is a free white paper by the Air Quality Working Group, a subset of the BuildingGreen Peer Networks, that delves into how practitioners can interpret and use the data they get from continuous air monitors to achieve excellent indoor air. (Disclosure: the author of this piece copy edited the white paper.)

The white paper comes as a sequel to one the group published in 2022, “Considerations for Continuous Air Quality Monitoring: Simple tips for getting it right, according to IAQ consultants,” which offers guidance to building teams seeking to better understand and evaluate continuous air monitors.

“So, You Have Some IAQ Monitors. Now What?” covers:

• IAQ management—management of IAQ should be embedded into existing building operations and employee engagement and education strategies.
• Mitigation strategies—source control, filtration, ventilation, and tightening the building envelope are general mitigation strategies that will almost always improve indoor air quality.
• Common contaminants—the authors describe the potential health impacts, commonly referenced thresholds, and probable trends and patterns for common contaminants.
• Contaminant thresholds—the paper discusses variability of contaminant thresholds between standards and how different thresholds may apply across building types.
• Data interpretation & use—continuous monitors can be used as a real-time indicator of indoor air health and to show trends in IAQ over time.

Continuous IAQ monitoring “provides building owners, operators, and occupants with the information to make data-driven decisions, mitigate risks, improve occupant health and well-being, and align with evolving rating systems and standards,” write the authors.

More on Peer Network IAQ white papers

Continuous IAQ Monitoring: Wins and Pitfalls