Community-Based Air Quality Monitoring Framework

2.6 Equipment Needed

The following resources help simplify equipment selection by providing information on equipment that matches a group’s objectives, budget, and data quality needs. These resources are primarily focused on air sensors.

Purpose:  Guides for selecting air monitoring equipment, primarily focused on air sensors.

Resources: 

Resources for choosing sensors:

• Outline of Measurement Technologies: Organizes sensor and monitoring technologies by their intended application, connecting them directly to project objectives. It details monitoring technologies (spectroscopy, gravimetric methods, etc.) that may be necessary for community equipment decisions.  (CARB, website) 
• Questions to Consider Before Purchasing an Air Sensor: Lays out six important questions to consider before purchasing an air sensor, and summarizes details that can support discussion. (EPA, infographic, page 50)
• Checklist for selecting an air sensor: A several-page checklist on the features and functions to consider when selecting  an air sensor.  (EPA, checklist, pages 151-152)
• Selecting an Air Sensor: Provides good visual representations of the precision and bias of sensors against a reference, signal noise, and sensor response time. (EPA, guidance section, pages 65-71)
• How to Select a Sensor System: Similar to ‘Selecting an Air Sensor’ (SCAQMD, toolkit section, pages 65-78) 
• Air Sensors : Regulatory Data and Sensor Data Quality: Video introduces the kinds of outdoor air quality data that EPA, states, and tribes collect and how the data compares to individual air sensor data. Also available in Spanish (EPA, video, 3.5 minutes)
• Intro to Air Sensors: Provides general information on air sensors and covers background information, differences among air sensors and regulatory monitors, common uses, how to plan and conduct a study using air sensors, QA/QC, etc. (EPA, video, 1 hour)

Resources for gauging air sensor performance: 

• Measurement Considerations for Different Application Types: Discusses the effective range, response time, and accuracy/precision considerations for near-source, mobile, and ambient monitoring projects (SCAQMD, guidance section, pages 189-191)
• Air Quality Sensor Performance Evaluation Center (AQ-SPEC): Provides technical air sensor performance summaries that can support narrowing down sensor choices (SCAQMD, evaluation resource) 

Common challenges that these resources help address:

Air monitoring project participants may need guidance on matching the objectives of the air quality monitoring project with budgetary limitations. For example, a project objective seeking to measure and quantify local air quality would require several types of expensive instruments to measure multiple pollutants (ozone, PM2.5, PM10), but might be able to rely on a single less expensive sensor to measure only one pollutant.

Government agency personnel, academic researchers or other experts may be helpful in guiding project participants regarding the selection and appropriate use of equipment. 

Air monitoring projects already underway may find they have a mismatch between their objectives and the monitoring equipment they are using. For example, equipment that measures one type of pollutant cannot always be used to estimate levels of other types of pollutants.