Smart Building

Afriso: CO2 measurement and targeted ventilation

Author: Frank Altmann, Head of Marketing, AFRISO
Issue 02-2021: read all articles online read as pdf

CO2 sensors are ideal for targeted ventilation, which is what a company in the Heilbronn district of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, was looking for as a way to deal with the COVID pandemic. The goal of the people in charge of occupational safety and domestic technology was to continuously measure the CO2 concentration in the individual rooms and inform employees if threshold values are exceeded. An effective solution was quickly implemented, thanks to the AFRISO smart home system.

For this project, an AFRISO CO2 sensor was simply plugged into power outlets at eye level in the individual office and meeting rooms. Because the CO2 concentration was indicated directly on the sensor by an easily understandable LED traffic light (green – yellow – red), employees were immediately able to implement ventilation recommendations.

To ensure the best possible wireless connection in the smart home system, the corresponding ranges in the building were measured in advance. This made it possible to install the AFRISOhome gateways at defined points and interconnect them. Thanks to EnOcean wireless technology and the “device-in-device” function of the AFRISOhome app, no laying of cables or other structural changes were necessary.

The app’s authorization concept was used to create programs for individual users that send a push message to their smartphones or – for PC users – to the AFRISOhome web app when the threshold value of 1,000 ppm CO2 is reached. This means that in addition to the orange LED, a push message also prompts employees to ventilate the room.

Approximately 20 gateways and more than 100 CO2 sensors were installed in this project. Additional threshold values with push notifications to supervisors were implemented by linking the gateways to a master gateway. All measured CO2 values are stored in the corresponding gateway for approximately four weeks and then overwritten by the new data.

www.afrisohome.com/co2