New indoor air quality monitors

Ashtead Technology has launched two new indoor air quality monitors that will help building and facility managers to protect people from toxic gases, as well as airborne particles and viral aerosols.

The TSI 8144-4 measures formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, total volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, temperature/relative humidity, particulate matter and barometric pressure. This instrument therefore provides the ideal solution for monitoring the most common indoor pollutants to help achieve optimal indoor air quality.

The TSI 8144-6 monitors the same parameters, but instead of formaldehyde it measures ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. This means that the TSI 8144-6 is ideally suited to buildings in urban or industrial locations where air drawn from outdoors may be polluted.

Josh Thomas, Ashtead Technology’s Senior Sales Manager, said: “Currently, the greatest demand is coming from organisations that need to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) in the workplace as this has been linked to higher Covid-19 infection rates.

“Whilst it is important for particulates and potentially dangerous gases to be continually monitored, for many workplaces the most serious risk is airborne coronavirus aerosols being exhaled by asymptomatic individuals. These particles are usually less than 5 micrometres in diameter, and therefore similar in size to cigarette smoke, which as we know does not settle and tends to linger in poorly ventilated spaces.

“The TSI monitors can help detect situations in which people have spent too long in a confined space, exhaling carbon dioxide, and potentially coronavirus aerosols. Occupied spaces with good ventilation may contain 350-1,000 ppm CO2, but anything above this can induce drowsiness, with levels above 2,000 ppm causing headaches, increased heart rate and slight nausea.

“We recently worked with a national newspaper to investigate CO2 levels in London stores; worryingly, two of them showed CO2 levels above 1,300 ppm, indicating inadequate ventilation to reduce Covid-19 risk.”

The monitors are supplied with TSI Link™ Solutions cloud-based software which provides customised alerts and 24/7 remote access to the monitors for measuring air quality data in real-time.