A Low Cost Wireless Sensor for Indoor Air Quality
Monitoring System
Abstract – With increase in time spent indoors, and
poor air quality, there has been an alarming increase in
the number of people affected by Sick Building
Syndrome (SBS) and Building Related Illness (BRI).
The main reason being our inability to view or feel the
presence of air pollutants. Our system uses multiple gas
sensors interfaced with ESP32 MCU to analyse the air
and detect the concentration of the individual gases.
This data is stored in the cloud and the user can view it
from anywhere in the world. When concentration of
certain harmful gases crosses the safety limit as
specified by the health department of the respective
regions, an SMS notification will be sent to the user,
warning the user about the presence of harmful air
pollutants.
Index Terms- IAQ, Ubidots, esp32.
I. INTRODUCTION
An average adult human being consumes
about 550 litres of pure oxygen every day [1]. The
quality of air that we breathe has a huge impact on our
mental and physical health. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ),
as the name implies, is the measure of the quality of air
present in the indoor environment. The concentration
of pollutants, humidity and temperature of the air are
the three main indicators of IAQ. It is becoming a
major concern owing to the ongoing industrialisation
and changing nature of work which involves more time
indoors than outdoors. Senior citizens and infants
spend a substantial amount of time indoors compared
to the workforce. As seen in [2], the concentration of
air pollutants present in the indoors can be two to five
times and occasionally more than 100 times greater
than in the outdoors. This is alarming because people
in industrialized countries spend more than 90% of
their time indoors. We are seeing a gradual reduction
in ventilation rate and subsequent increase in the use of
chemical products, as the urge to reduce energy
consumption grows. This, along with the prolonged
exposure to air pollutants can cause diseases like lung
dysfunction [3], lung cancer, nasopharyngeal and
laryngeal cancer, pulmonary tuberculosis, infant
mortality, cataract [4].
According to [3], lung dysfunction (caused by
lung cancer, pneumoconiosis, and occupational
asthma)
was ranked as the top occupational disease by the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH). According to medical reports and studies [1-
6], there has been an alarming increase in the rate of
indoor-air quality related diseases commonly referred
to as Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and Building
Related Illness (BRI). SBS and BRI are related and can
be defined as sickness and uneasiness experience by
occupants caused by the poor indoor air environment.
Symptoms such as asbestosis, asthma, headaches,
mesothelioma, sore throats, itchy eyes, breathing
difficulties, lung cancer, skin irritation and allergic
reactions are among the reported health effect of poor
air environment according to medical report and study
[1-6].
A list of major indoor air pollutants and their
sources is shown in the Table 1.1. The list cannot
completely cover all the pollutants because of the nearly
infinite number of contaminants present in the air and
that each contaminant may have multiple sources
which can be either indoor or outdoor in nature. The
list includes some of the most common air pollutants
present in the indoor air and high concentrations of
these pollutants may cause eye irritation, headache,
cough, allergic reactions [2].
Contamination
(Examples) Typical sources
• Insulation materials
Asbestos
• Ceiling and floor tiles
Biological • Indoor plants
contaminants • Animals
(Allergen, mold, • Human beings
dust mite) • Bedding for animals
• Open fire cooking
Combustion • Heating
related • Tobacco smoking
contaminants • Incense
• Candle
 health and well-being. Most people usually spend more
than 90% of their time indoors whether at home or at
• Engineered board: workplace . These contaminants have a significant
Dry wall, interior-grade influence on the occupant’s health. The disease that
plywood, cabinetry and furniture, can caused high exposure to indoor air pollution is
foam insulation, fabrics shown in the Figure 1.1.
Formaldehyde • Building materials:
Adhesives, glues, furniture
finishing, sealants, paints, stains,
varnishes, wood preservatives,
new carpet dyes and fibres, plastics

• Cooking
• Printer
Nano aerosol
• Photocopy machine
• Nano spray
Figure 2.1: Diseases caused by Indoor Air Pollution

Volatile organic
• Daily consumable products “Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)” is known as
compounds
• Building materials a silent killer of the indoor atmosphere and has been
(VOCs)
defined by The World Health Organization (WHO) [7].
SBS refers to situation or condition of the indoor
building atmosphere that affects the occupant's health.
• Dust
None-combustion Most of the occupants expressed the symptoms of acute
• Hair
particulates discomfort such as a headache, dry cough, eye, nose, or
• Skin
throat irritation [8]. The cause of these symptoms are
undefined but, once the occupants leave the building
these symptoms gradually gets reduced [8].

Table 1. 1: Some sources of indoor air pollutants
[3].
The proposed system uses a real-time Micro
Controller Unit (MCU) with built-in WiFi, connected to
the Internet of Things (IoT) platform through the built-
in WiFi modem. The standards and protocols
associated with IoT are defined by [5]. Multiple
electronic gas sensors interfaced to the MCU are used
to measure the concentration of gases like Carbon
Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Volatile
Organic Compounds (VOC), Liquified Petroleum Gas
(LPG) etc. The wireless MCU transfers the data to
Ubidots IoT platform, where the data is analysed and
used for Short Message Service (SMS) based
notification service.
II. RELATED WORK:
“Building Related Illness (BRI)” is also a
major concern to the occupants and the affected the
occupants expressed the symptoms of irritation to eyes,
noses, or throat, fatigue, and nausea. According to [6],
approximately one million homes with 70 million
occupants are sick buildings. The development of
technology like IoT has enabled us to view real time
data of remote devices from anywhere in this world.
Thus, by using this technology, this project will enable
the user to know accurately the IAQ of their home even
if they are not physically present there and take the
necessary steps.
A. Selection of IAQ parameters
The selection of indoor air quality
parameters is based on conventional IAQ parameter of
hazardous gases (including the concentration of gases
and Dust Particle). The air quality guidelines has been
referred under the Air (Prevention and Control of
Pollution) Act, 1981 that provides the standard
Guidelines which provide an acceptable and minimum
concentration of indoor air pollutions [9].

Nowadays, poor air quality is considered as

one of the major problems by the Indian government
and by the public. Indoor environments are
contaminated by several contaminant present in the air.
Hence, indoor air quality (IAQ) is acknowledged as a
significant factor to be controlled for the occupant’s
a) Carbon Dioxide (CO2):
Figure 2. 2: Concentration of CO2 and it’s
effect on human health
Concentration of CO2 and
Condition of Health Carbon Dioxide
(CO2) gas is a colourless, odourless, and
non-flammable gas. Figure 2.5 shows the
acceptable concentration of carbon
dioxide which is below 1000ppm (parts
per million). If the concentration is
greater than the permissible limit, the
person may experience discomfort [10].
Haemoglobin present in our blood is
used to absorb the oxygen. But,
haemoglobin has a much greater affinity
to CO2.
b) Smoke:
Smoke is one of the most hazardous
gases that is produced by a number of
sources like smoking cigarettes, burning
wood, burning plastic and waste. Smoke
contains a number harmful and heavy
compounds in it and breathing in smoke
causes suffocation [11].
c) CO:
Carbon Monoxide is an odourless,
tasteless gas that can kill human beings.
Carbon Monoxide is produced by
burning any form of fossil fuel. Everyone
is at risk for CO poisoning. Infants, the
elderly, people with chronic heart
disease, anaemia, or breathing problems
are more likely to get sick from CO. Each
year, more than 400 Americans die from
unintentional CO poisoning not linked to
fires, more than 20,000 visit the
emergency room, and more than 4,000
are hospitalized [xx].
III. SYSTEM MODEL:
Figure 3.1: System Model
The proposed system uses an ESP32 Wireless
MCU, a pack of Lithium Ion Batteries, MQ-2 sensor
(Smoke), MQ-135 sensor (CO) and MQ-7 sensor (CO).
Ubidots IoT platform is used to store the data and send
notification to the user when the safety limit of gas
concentration is crossed.
Figure 3.2: Block Diagram
In figure 3.2, as the ESP32 microcontroller
receives the data of environmental parameters and it
process the data in real time. The MCU has Wi-Fi
which is used to send the processed data to Ubidots IoT
platform via the internet. The received data in the
Ubidots IoT platform can also be monitored via a
webpage and also through the SMS notification. The
output of the processed data will activate the LED that
indicates the condition of air quality. The Ubidots IoT
platform will then display the sensed data and condition
of the sensors. In order to show the quality of air, the
green and red LED is used to signify that the air is safe
or harmful respectively. When the value of sensors
exceeds the standard level then it should activate the
alerting system which is the SMS notification.
 b) MQ 135 Module (CO2)
A. SENSROR WORKFLOW

Figure: 3.4: MQ-135 (CO2).

The MQ-135 gas sensor when subjected to

NH3, NOx, alcohol, Benzene, CO2 produces output in
the form of voltage. We have scaled it to our
requirements where the readings are between 0 to 1000
ppm, where values below 450 ppm indicate better air
1) Hardware Requirement: quality and 1000ppm is in the risky air quality of
carbon dioxide.
a) ESP-32:
c) MQ 2 Module (Smoke)

Figure 3.3: ESP 32

ESP32 is a series of low cost, low

power system on a chip microcontrollers with
integrated Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth. The ESP32
series employs a Tensilica Xtensa LX6 microprocessor
in both dual-core and single-core variations and
includes in-built antenna switches, RF balun, power
amplifier, low-noise receive amplifier, filters, and power
management modules. Memory have 520 KB SRAM
and Wireless connectivity of the board have Wi-
Fi: 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth: v4.2 BR/EDR and
BLE.[2]
Figure 3.5: MQ-2 (Smoke)
The MQ-2 gas sensor is when subjected to the
concentrations of combustible gas smoke in the air and
outputs reading as an analog voltage. This sensor can
measure concentrations of flammable gas of 300 to 600
ppm. This sensor can operate at temperatures from -20
to 50°C and consumes less than 150 mA at 5 V.

ESP-32 board support 34 pins in total that is

used to input or output an electrical signal on the
board. There are 2 digital input or output pins and 11
pins of the analog input.10 pins of the capacitive-
sensing. 4 pins of serial peripheral interface and 2 pins
of the I²S interfaces and 2 pins of the I²C interfaces
and 3 pins of the UART.[3] This board can get started
by simply connect it to the computer by using USB
cable connection and also can use the external power
which is by using battery or the AC-to-DC power
adapter. The software required to program a is an open
source software which is Arduino software (IDE).
 B. SOFTWARE
REQUIREMENTS:

1) The Arduino IDE software

[xx] https://www.cdc.gov/co/faqs.htm

Fig 3.5 The Arduino IDE software

The Arduino software is an open-source

platform that is used for building electronic projects.
Arduino consist of both a physical programmable
circuit board and software or IDE (Integrated
Development Environment) that runs on the computer.
This software used to write and upload computer code
to the physical board. Arduino IDE uses a simplified
version of C, making it easier to learn to program.

IV. Results and Discussion: