Smart City Battery Operated IoT Based Indoor Air Quality Monitoring System

Indoor and outdoor air pollution is known to cause many health problems. In order to improve air quality it is essential to monitor relevant parameters and identify sources of pollutants. This paper presents the design and development of a low-cost, portable Internet of Things (IoT) Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring system with 30 hours of battery life. The unit is intended for the monitoring of total VOCs, CO2, PM2.5, PM10, temperature, humidity and illuminance. The system can be used for both real-time measurements as well as hourly and daily averaging, in low power modes, and interfaces with a custom Blynk smartphone app, developed for easy user engagement. The device calculates a qualitative air quality index from measurements taken in-situ, based on United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards. Environmental data is used by the system to provide recommendations, such as increasing ventilation or reducing activity levels, which can help users improve their air quality. This system can be used as a node to monitor air quality in large scale networks for Smart Cities.