Development of a multi-sensor device for indoor environmental quality assessment

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) assessment in offices is demanded for the analysis of building performances, management of energy consumptions and occupants well-being, comfort and work productivity. The present work presents the PROMETEO (PROactive Monitoring for indoor EnvironmenTal quality & cOmfort) device, a low-cost and accurate multi-sensor capable of acquiring, analyzing and communicating the quality conditions of indoor environments to different categories of users. To this end, thermal, lighting, acoustic and air quality conditions will be displayed both to the building infrastructures managers and to the occupants, with the further aim of enhancing their awareness and proactive behaviour. Thermal, acoustic, lighting and air quality quantities were selected on the base of international standards, while specific algorithms were implemented for overall, thermal, acoustic, lighting and air quality assessment. The sensors were selected based on an optimization process of both cost and accuracy aspects, and particular attention has been paid to their location in the case hosting the hardware components. Data transfer and processing on an open-source platform were defined to provide data for further analysis with respect to energy consumption and facility management. The user-friendly interface was specifically designed to show real time and aggregated data, to give hints and to inform the users on IEQ trends.