A Development of Low-Cost Devices for Monitoring Indoor Air Quality in a Large-Scale Hospital

Abstract

Poor Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is an issue of environmental health problems that cause headaches, fatigue, irritation of the eyes and skin. IAQ in hospital areas is a serious concern since there are many occupants i.e. patients, medical practitioners, and staffs. Furthermore, medical material, medicine, medical gases can cause the quality of air deteriorate. IAQ then requires to regularly check the service areas in order to maintain a good level of air quality. The instrument to measure IAQ is usually expensive. In this study, a low-cost device to measure IAQ was developed, it comprises of two main sensors: BME680 and CCS811. The device was capable of measuring and recording continuously which allows it to monitor air quality including Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), temperature and humidity. The device was employed to measure three service areas of a large-scale hospital in Nakhonnayok, Thailand: the waiting area, the emergency room, and the outpatient pharmacy. IAQs of these areas obtained from the developed device were all in the very bad level. It is possibly due to the influence of structural renovation, medical material, air conditioning, air ventilation, and the people occupied in the areas.