ADVANCED AIR QUALITY AND

SMOKE DETECTION MONITORING SYSTEM

A Thesis Presented to
The Faculty of the College of Engineering and Technology
University of St. La Salle
Bacolod City

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Electronics Engineering

JAN FERDINAND S. LEDESMA

DONNEL KYLE S. REYES
KLENT ROEL S. ZARSUELA
KING MIGUEL J. GORDO

August 2019
 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In 1890, Francis Robbins Upton provided the design for the first fire alarm.

Surprisingly however, he never shared or created his design. Therefore, the first active

heat detector was invented in 1902 by George Andrew Darby of England. It worked by

detecting a fire through the sensing of high heat. However, the design was quite large and

only feasible for use in factories or other industrial buildings.

Walter Jaeger, a Swiss physicist, created the first smoke detector in the 1930s. In

his attempts to generate a poison gas detector, he became frustrated by the failure of his

design. To calm his nerves, he lit a cigarette, which surprisingly set off the alarm! His

attempt to create a poison gas detector eventually failed, but the nation was rewarded by

his accidental discovery and creation of a smoke detector. Unfortunately, like the heat

detector, smoke detectors of this time were huge and not available for household fire

detection.

Today, it is believed that photoelectric smoke detectors are the best fire alert

option available. Working through the use of a light, which is shot inside of an open

tunnel through which air flows, this device detects smoke by measuring a decrease in

light intensity. Depending on the size of the fire and the device's placement, these smoke

detectors can identify a fire 40-60 minutes after it begins. This quick alert time allows for

the escape from the room or building, quelling of the fire, and if necessary stopping,

dropping and rolling to eliminate its presence.

 2

When your smoke detector is part of your monitored security system, you never

have to worry about missing an alarm. If your smoke detector goes off while you’re

hiking in the mountains without cell service or while you’re in the middle of a crucial

presentation to project stakeholders, your security provider will still be there to send for

help in an emergency—even if you didn’t see a notification on your phone.

In 2019, Smoke detectors are one of the most important things that you can

purchase for your household. Thankfully, they usually do not cost very much and are

easy to install. Fire departments and charitable organizations, often give them away to

people that cannot afford to purchase one. Even though smoke detectors are small in size,

what they do is big. They alert you and your family of fire to give you plenty of time to

exit your home and get to safety. Smoke detectors have a lot of features for you to choose

from and a lot of things that you need to know prior to buying one. To help you decide

what smoke detector is best for you, I am going to share a lot of important information

about them with you as well as review ten smoke detectors so you can get a taste of what

smoke detectors are for sale. (Happy Body Formula, 2019)

Monitoring air quality is essential for local authorities as well as for major public

and private industries to understand and prevent air pollution and assess emission

sources, in order to preserve health and contribute to the fight against the greenhouse

effect.

Indoor air is a dominant exposure for humans. More that half of the body's intake

during a lifetime is air inhaled in the home. Thus, most illnesses related to environmental

exposures stem from indoor air exposure. Indoor air was believed to be a major

environmental factor for more than a hundred years, from the start of the hygienic
 3

revolution, around 1850, until outdoor environmental issues entered the scene, and

became dominant around 1960. Main environmental issues today are outdoor air quality,

energy use, and sustainable buildings, but not indoor air quality (IAQ). But, there is

mounting evidence that exposure to IAQ is the cause of excessive morbidity and

mortality. In developing regions indoor unvented burning of biomass for cooking is the

cause of at least 2,000,000 deaths a year (mainly women and children), and in the

developed world IAQ is a main cause of allergies, other hypersensitivity reactions,

airway infections, and cancers. Cancer of the lungs is related to indoor radon and ETS

exposure. Allergies, airway infections and sick building syndrome are associated with,

e.g., "dampness", a low ventilation rate, and plasticizers. In the future more emphasis

must be given to IAQ and health issues. Systems are needed to ensure that data are of

acceptable quality, to record and store the data, and to analyze the data and present

results. A prototype is intended to display the increased transmission of real-time

information. Experiments are carried out to validate and assist the real-time surveillance

and alert system creation. Wireless Sensor Network; Indoor Air Quality monitoring;

Real-time monitoring; Carbon dioxide monitoring. Giving prompt information to first

responders and provides the status such as the temperature of the house, humidity and

toxicity of the air. Through IOT the subject can inspect the status of the house outside.
 4

Statement of the Problem

The main objective of the study is to design a device that is able to detect the

presence of smoke and fire, and monitors the air quality inside a household.

Specifically, the research aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the parameters that the device can measure in order to justify the quality

of air?

2. What certain thresholds does the device will consider as an undesirable or unsafe

values?

3. What are the modules or sensors involved in making the device?

4. What are the design considerations in making the device?

5. How will the device present the gathered data?

6. What is the advantage of quick response to the incident?

 5

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study aims to determine the emergence of fire and the quality of air through

the sensors mentioned. In addition, it notifies first responders and gives real-time

information of the house’s status in the web. As a result the resident and the fire

department can monitor the house and apply appropriate measures right after.

This study uses a web based monitoring system. The system utilizes electronic

devices such as laptops, PCs and smartphones connected to the internet in order to access

the system. The web based system provides a real time reading for the air condition,

temperature, humidity and battery life.

The functionality of this system is limited to local places wherein the signal is

highly propagated. Rural areas that are prone to signal lost like for instance, outside

Bacolod city are not included in this research (i.e. limitation by geography or area being

covered). This research is intended only for household and commercial building.

Significance of the Study

This study hopes to establish an understanding for the students of the University

of St. La Salle. Furthermore, the study is conducted to benefit the following:

Students - This study may serve as a guide and reference for the students

undertaking similar studies. This research will be a useful reference for the students who

would plan to make any related study precisely the standard underlying the Bachelor of

Science in Electronics Engineering Program.

 6

Future Researchers - The ideas presented may be used as reference data in

conducting new researches or in testing the validity of other related findings. This study

will also serve as their cross-reference that will give them a background or an overview

of the wonders of the internet of things.

Local Residents - this research will help the locals maintain good air quality and

also provide security and safety in their household. In addition, prevent further damage to

the house, neighboring houses, and make faster response to incident.

Definition of Terms

Web-based system - It is a system which uses Internet web technologies for delivering

information and services to users. This allows people to read or check the

information/data wherever and whenever it is convenient for the user. It also stores data

to the web for other purposes like checking of records for each given time.

UL (Underwriters Laboratories) - is a world leader in product safety testing and

certification. For more than 100 years, manufacturers have had their merchandise

evaluated and tested for safety risks by our independent, third-party safety certification

organization.

Ionization - strictly defined, ionization is the complete loss of an electron from an atomic

or molecular species. The resulting species is called an ion.

Plasticizers - a substance, typically a solvent added to a synthetic resin to produce or

promote plasticity and flexibility and to reduce brittleness.

 7

Stakeholder - is a member of “groups without whose support the organization would

seize”, as defined in the first usage of the word in a 1963 internal memorandum at the

Stanford Research Institute.

Air quality - refers to the condition of the air within our surrounding. Good air quality

pertains to the degree which the air is clean, clear and free from pollutants such as smoke,

dust and smog among the other gaseous impurities in the air.

Indoor Air Quality - is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is

known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants.

Dampness - is moisture in the air or on the surface of something.

Review of Related Literature

This chapter includes studies related to the development of automated web-based

Air Quality Monitoring and Smoke Detection system. In addition, this chapter also

discusses the similarities and differences between the researchers’ proposed study and

other studies conducted related to it.

Smoke detection has become a fundamental component of the active fire

protection strategy of most modern buildings, particularly residential occupancies.

However, this was not always the case. The smoke detection industry experienced

explosive growth in the use of smoke detectors in the 1970’s, driven by advances in

technology and manufacturing that greatly reduced prices according to Bukowski &

Mulholland. This explosive growth was accompanied, and likely furthered, by several

significant research projects that reinforced the life safety protection provided by smoke

detectors and provided evidence that supported increased requirements for smoke
 8

detectors in buildings. In addition, significant research efforts were undertaken to

understand the environments to which detectors are exposed and the response of these

detectors to such environments [Heskestad, 1974; Heskestad, 1975; Bukowski, et al.,

1975; Heskestad & Delichatsios, 1977]. Many of the means by which to estimate the

response of smoke detectors were formulated during this period of important smoke

detection research (1970’s) and have not advanced significantly since then; they are still

the only available means for engineers to even approximate the response of smoke

detectors. However, the practicality of these methods is severely limited by the

significant fact that the uncertainty in the methods is generally unknown. The current

research addresses this shortcoming and provides guidance on modeling the response of

smoke detectors. The goals and scope of this research are detailed in subsequent sections

of this chapter.

A growth in research and the general knowledge base regarding the operation of

smoke detectors accompanied this. Most of the practical means of estimating the

response of smoke detectors were derived from this era and have remained largely

unchanged. By itself, this fact is not significant. However, there have been significant

advances in detector technology since that time, including more uniform smoke entry

characteristics among detector technologies, reduced sensitivity to nuisance (i.e., non-

fire) sources, algorithm-based detection and multi-sensor, multi-criteria detection.

Research into the current trend toward the development of fire detection algorithms and

multi-sensor, multi-criteria fire detectors is prevalent in the literature in the last decade

[e.g. Gottuk, et al., 1999; McAvoy, et al., 1996; Milke, 1995; Milke and McAvoy, 1996;

Milke and McAvoy, 1997; Rose-Pehrsson, et al., 2000; Wong, et al., 2000]. However,

advancement in the research behind predicting the response of common spot-type

 9

ionization and photoelectric detectors has been minimal. More fundamental approaches

exist to model the detectors, though these methods have not been advanced sufficiently to

prove practically useful for modeling smoke detectors.

The photoelectric and ionization sensors have to meet the same fire tests in the

UL smoke detection product standards. Which technology is better depends on either the

type of fire or the source of combustion, because every fire develops differently once a

material is ignited. At one extreme, smoldering fires from natural materials like cotton

upholstery and wood furniture generally produce measurable levels of carbon monoxide

and larger particles of combustion in the 0.3 to 10.0 micron size range, which

photoelectric sensors are better at detecting. However, a smoldering fire may never

generate enough heat to lift the particles of combustion to the smoke alarm. At the other

extreme, flaming fires from synthetic materials used in modern interior furnishings

produce small particles of combustion in the 0.01 to 0.3 micron size rang and generate

high temperatures very quickly with a minimal amount of carbon monoxide. Ionization

sensors are generally better at detecting these types of fires. It’s impossible to know what

type of fire will occur because most buildings have materials that will produce small

and/or large particles of combustion.

Another topic entitled Fire and Smoke Detection Using Wavelet Analysis and

Disorder Characteristics conducted by Rafiee et al. (2011) is all about the latest method

for fire and smoke detection are only use motion and color characteristic therefore many

false alarms will trigger unconsciously that lower the alarm performance. This fire and

smoke monitoring systems are quite useful in various fields like military, social security

and economical. Because fire is a complex but not rigid visual phenomenon, therefore a
 10

multi-feature-based approach for algorithm was decided. The objective using an

algorithm is to determine a combination of characteristics whose mutual occurrence

where fire will become only combined possible cause. Fire has obvious characteristics

like color, motion, shape, growth, and smoke features. During this project they only

aimed on few features such as color and motion and also plus additional feature analysis

in future work.

Another study entitled Video-based Smoke Detection conducted by Xiong et

al.(2007) states that the method of detecting object in sequent frame is called as motion

detection. Motion detection was done by comparing image frame in the image processing

by defining a unique background. Therefore, the first frame was considered as the

background and other images was compared and measures with it. Each image was

included one or more labeled objects. If there was one object in the image then means

there was a motion in that image. 7 When a fire burst, early detection is crucial to

minimizing damage and saving lives. Current smoke sensors inherently suffer from the

transport delay of the smoke from the fire to the sensor. A video smoke detection system

would not have this delay. Further, video is a volume sensor, not a point sensor. A point

sensor looks at a point in space. That point may not be affected by smoke or fire, so the

smoke would not be detected. A volume sensor potentially monitors a larger area and has

much higher probability of successful early detection of smoke or flame. Video smoke

detection is a good option when smoke does not propagate in a “normal” manner, e.g., in

tunnels, mines, and other areas with forced ventilation, and in areas with air stratification,

e.g, hangars, warehouses, etc. Video is also a good option for large, open areas where

there may be no heat or smoke propagation to a fixed point, e.g., sawmills petrochemical
 11

refineries, forest fires, etc. Research in detecting smoke using surveillance cameras has

become very active recently. Just as the old saying “where there is smoke, there is fire”

puts, early smoke detection concerns people’s life and property safety. However, video

smoke detection still has great technical challenges since its current performance is

inferior to those of traditional particle sampling based detectors in terms of detection rate

and false alarm rate.

Detecting the presence of fire in images and videos can be a very helpful

technique. Once this technique is honed and works well, it has the potential to save not

only lives, but also property such as office buildings, schools, and homes. The team of

researchers Luo, Su and Tsai conducted a study entitled Fire detection and Isolation for

Intelligent Building Using Adaptive Sensory Fusion Method System. Nowadays,

many institutions such as manufacturers, prisons, offices, restaurants, schools, etc. have

harnessed the use of closed caption television (CCTV) or video surveillance systems.

Implementing a system that would detect the presence of fire through these video

surveillance systems has the potential to yield many benefits, such as a quicker detection

of fire than other methods, such as smoke detectors.

These sensors can be classified into two groups, and each group has one smoke

sensor; one flame sensor and one temperature sensor. The sensory failure and isolation

techniques described in this paper are based on weight variation of the sensory adaptive

fission method. From the simulation and experimental implementation results, it

demonstrates that the method can exactly find out which sensor to be faulty and isolate.

That is to say, when a sensory failure occurs, the system can exactly locate the sensory

failure.
 12

The home care monitoring with emergency notification system is composed of

different hardware and software devices designed to continuously monitor the pulse-rate,

oxygen saturation and temperature of the patient. Sensors are connected to arduino uno

microcontroller that will detect and analyze the said parameters. A program is encoded

that will determine if the values given by the sensors are within the boundary of the

normal range. An alarm buzzer will turn on if the data are not within the accepted

boundaries defined in the program.

A study entitled Web Based Fire Alarm System is a huge step for health and

safety development. Fire safety has been an important aspect in this day and age, keeping

an eye on a house or a building imposes a challenge especially in fire safety. Developing

a web based monitoring system which gathers and feeds temperature and smoke density

and activates the sprinkler system automatically and manually through the internet would

greatly improve fire safety. The thesis project aspires to make fire monitoring and fire

prevention easier. Accurate room temperature, smoke density and a control of a sprinkler

system will be in people’s reach through internet access anytime and anywhere. The

project utilized a PIC microcontroller which controls the temperature and smoke sensor,

the sprinkler system, alarm, and an Ethernet shield paired to an Arduino Uno to transmit

and receive data through web. This proposed fire alarm system will help the future of fire

control and safety.

The development of Home automation with Fire and Burglar alarm using

android via GSM conducted by Singh et al. (2015) will be a significant endeavor in

promoting a wireless innovation with a wider range in the field of automation. This study
 13

will also be beneficial to home owners who wants to automate their houses with fire

alarm and burglar alarm using their smartphones.

Huawei’s IoT based Smart Smoke Detection lack many of the disadvantages of

traditional smoke detectors such as difficult cabling, short battery life, high maintenance

costs, and an inability to interact with people. This solution is plug-and-play, easy to

deploy, and thanks to using wireless communications technologies, requires no cabling.

The smart smoke detector features low power consumption and a battery standby of over

10 years. There is no need to frequently replace the battery which makes maintenance

less expensive. It is related to the study being conducted since its main focus is the smoke

detector and innovation.

References:

http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/7647/1/CD6727_prob.pdf

https://www.epa.gov/air-quality-management-process/managing-air-quality-ambient-air-
monitoring

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/air-quality-
monitoring

https://patents.google.com/patent/US7302313?oq=air+quality+monitoring

http://www.huawei.com/minisite/ iot/en/smart-smoke-detector

https://strategicfire.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Roberts-Tech-Advances-in-Smoke-
Alarms.pdf
 14

Materials and Methods

Figure 2. System Block Diagram

15
 16

Bill of Materials

Unit Total
Shipping
Description Quantity Unit cost cost
cost
(PHP) (PHP)

Arduino Yun Shield & Genuino

1 piece 3000 - 3000
Yun Shield

Arduino Leonardo 1 piece 300 - 300

Arduino Yun 1 piece 4800 - 4800

Arduino MKR GSM 1400 1 piece 2800 - 2800

Arduino MKR WAN 1300 1 piece 2000 - 2000

Speed Grove - Gas Sensor(MQ2) 1 piece 75 - 75

Seeed Grove - Air quality sensor

1 piece 50 - 50
V1.3

Android device 1 piece 5000 - 5000

Arduino 1 piece 1100 - 1100

ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module w/

1 piece 300 - 300
adapter

Green and Red LED 1 piece 50 - 50

Buzzer 1 piece 400 - 400

220 ohm Resistor 5 piece 10 - 50

Connecting wires 5 piece 20 - 100

Breadboard 1 piece 100 - 100

 17

Carbon Dioxide Sensor 1 piece 1500 - 1500

Humidity Sensor & Temperature

1 piece 400 - 400
Sensor

Arduino GSM module 1 piece 600 - 600

TOTAL - - - - 22535

Description of Materials

MATERIAL DESCRIPTION

Arduino Leonardo - Microcontroller

- Perfect board to use when designing

Arduino Yun
connected devices.

Arduino MKR GSM 1400 - Add global GSM connectivity.

- Designed to integrate low power

Arduino MKR WAN 1300
consumption and high performance.
- Detects combustible gases and
Speed Grove - Gas Sensor(MQ2)
smoke.

Seeed Grove - Air quality sensor V1.3 - Monitors gases present in the air.

- Used for monitoring the status of the

Android device
house.
- Create pieces of codes that perform a
Arduino
defined task.
- Give microcontrollers access to the
ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module w/ adapter
Wi-Fi

Green and Red LED - Visual indicators

220 ohm Resistor - Current contoller

 18

Connecting wires - Connects the circuit together.

Breadboard - For Testing.

- Detects the presence of CO2 in the

Carbon Dioxide Sensor
air.

Humidity Sensor & Temperature - Detects the Humidity and

Sensor Temperature of the surroundings.

Arduino GSM module - For SMS purposes.

Arduino Yun Shield & Genuino Yun - Solves the internet connectivity and
Shield storage issue for Arduino board.

Buzzer - Sound indicator