The air monitoring platform will be rolled out across Energy System Catapult’s Living Lab.
Glasgow-based arbnco is set to trial a new digital air quality platform with consumers in Energy Systems Catapult’s Living Lab.
The Living Lab trial, which aims to reduce indoor air pollution, follows a £300,000 funding grant from Innovative UK’s Small Business Research Initiative.
Around 40,000 deaths in the UK are attributed to air pollution each year. However, indoor air quality can often be overlooked compared to outdoor air quality linked to vehicle emissions.
With a growing focus on improving ventilation in buildings due to Covid-19, the global ventilation market is expanding rapidly and has already exceeded £2bn in value and expected to reach almost £9bn by 2027.
arbnco R&D Manager Andrew Stewart said: “Indoor air quality is a problem literally hidden behind closed doors.
“Issues typically arise from cookers in kitchens, gas heaters and wood burners in living rooms, humidity in bathrooms leading to condensation and mould, while even bedrooms can be a problem with raised CO2 levels building up at night, if not properly ventilated.”
The Glasgow firm’s digital platform gathers a range of data from air monitoring sensors, including temperature, humidity, CO2, VOC, PM and Formaldehyde.
This, combined with data on the property and occupants, provides analysis on air quality issues and delivers alerts on potential harms.
The air quality platform will be trialled in Energy System Catapult’s real-world test environment, the Living Lab, which consists of over 200 homes around the UK where new energy products, services and business models are tested with consumers.
Commenting on the project, Stewart added: “We’re delighted to be testing with the Living Lab – a truly unique facility that dramatically reduces the barriers to product testing with real consumers in a real-world environment.
“Partnering with the Energy Systems Catapult means we can obtain a wealth of data and feedback from households that will accelerate the development cycle and time-to-market.”
Living Lab business lead Rebecca Sweeney, said: “Up to 30 million UK homes need to be made zero carbon in the coming decades.
“That means making homes more insulated and air-tight to prevent them losing heat. But it also means ventilation and air quality will be vital to ensuring homes are healthier and more comfortable.
“The Living Lab will provide arbnco with both qualitative and quantitative consumer data from a range of housing types and demographics to help them further develop the user experience of the platform.”
Source: DIGIT