AQMesh prides itself on the level of global customer support it provides to its distributors and end users before, during and after sale. There is no cost for technical support and location is not a barrier.

It doesn’t matter what the question, or at what stage in your AQMesh pod ownership, we are here to help. AQMesh has been used across dozens of countries for years and we have built up a comprehensive base of support material, available to all our users, including videos to guide users through every installation and maintenance step.

You put your pod away in a cupboard after a project two years ago and want to bring it back to life: no problem. You have a new user who needs some training: let’s start with the videos and set up a call to handle any questions. You are out on site and need some help right there over the phone: fine (within reason). You need to update your firmware but could do with some help with remote desktop support: let’s schedule it.

This sort of support is unlimited and comes as part of the standard AQMesh package, for the life of your pod. Compare this with support from elsewhere which is only offered as part of a chargeable subscription or a limited service add-on.

Email alerts can be set for exceedances on any data channel, completely customisable to the
user’s required detection limits and can be integrated into other systems for autonomous control.

Email alerts, set for specific pollutant thresholds and averaging intervals, are a great way to get instant information about critical levels and can be vital for managing related processes. Either way they are simple to set up on the AQMesh server and can be adjusted as frequently as required. As well as pollutant exceedances, alerts can be set up to communicate the on-board battery voltage, triggering the battery replacement process in good time.

Whilst some manufacturers use a calculation to give an NO2 reading, AQMesh uses a unique O3-filtered NO2 sensor for accurate, direct measurement of NO2.

It is true in general that small sensor system air quality system customers should be on a sharp look-out for “inferred” measurements, as opposed to direct measurements, because there is a lot of it about. Specifically regarding NO2 measurement, the cross-interference from O3 is well known and indeed was a limiting factor in the use of electrochemical sensors in the early stages of AQMesh development. The latest electrochemical sensor used to measure NO2 in AQMesh feature a filter to remove O3 from the air sample at the sensor interface and is highly effective, over at least the two-year recommended sensor life. In theory the filter can be exhausted during use but the levels of O3 which would be necessary to do this fall far short of the typical exposure that any sensor is likely to have in years of real-world measurement.

As well as delivering a reliable two-year NO2 sensor life, the O3 filter offers proven performance over this period, with no measurable degradation of performance or “drift”.

AQMesh pods require very little maintenance and there is a very low ongoing cost. All we recommend is the electrochemical sensors are replaced every two years, and we replace all sensors for free during the first year.

You literally install your AQMesh pod and access data for two years, with no need for maintenance or sensor changes. Many users choose to move pods about and carry out co-locations for traceability but that’s not the same as having to make additional visits to the equipment that are no help to your project.

We recommend that electrochemical and PM sensors are swapped out after two years. This is as a precaution and not because we see a decline in sensor performance over time. The pumps we use have a life over two years and the electrochemical sensor manufacture recommends replacement after two years but we have not seen a degradation of performance, including drift, in any long-term trials. If you are being told that “all sensors drift” then challenge this – is the response being affected by the way the sensor is being used in their equipment?

Electrochemical sensors do sometimes fail but we operate a remote detection and alert warranty system: we pick up the failure, tell you and disable the affected channel so bad data cannot be published, as well as sending you a replacement, free of charge during the first year. As soon as the sensor replacement is confirmed, data comes back online for that channel.

We offer a free data access service as one of our options and you can use your own local M2M SIM if you prefer, although our global SIM contracts give fantastic worldwide coverage and are reasonably priced, offering fixed costs, convenience and minimal ongoing expenses. When choosing your small sensor system make sure you ask about costs for year 1, year 2, year 3 and beyond.

Development through extensive global co-location comparison trials in all seasons across each continent means AQMesh can operate in the widest possible range of environments and conditions.

There is simply no substitute for getting out there and testing the conditions. From day one we have not been afraid to see exactly what AQMesh can do – and to test its limits. We have welcomed the opportunity to work with partners across the world, over nearly a decade, and let them carry out independent analysis of data from pods co-located with reference stations.

Most often the results have been great: not only has the pod carried on operating, whatever the conditions, but the data accuracy has been maintained. There have been times during the development of AQMesh where we have come across conditions which highlight an opportunity for improvement in our processing and we have used that – in conjunction with as wide a base of comparison datasets as possible – to develop a new processing algorithm.

We have seen pods covered in snow in Sweden or Minnesota, scorching in the deserts of Iraq, in heavy rain in Asia or Scotland. Just look at the range of countries where AQMesh has been used. AQMesh has led the way in development of small sensor air quality monitoring systems – including the first to use a sun shield to minimise the impact of direct sunshine – and we will continue to do so.

With measurements processed and stored on the secure AQMeshData server there is no need for site visits to retrieve data and should anything untoward happen to the pod, data is still perfectly safe and accessible. The on-board buffer ensures no data is lost if comms are interrupted but cloud processing keeps hardware power demands to a minimum.

We all use and get the most from “the cloud” every day and it’s no different with air quality data. AQMesh is kept safe, secure, backed up and managed on a world class platform, so all our users benefit in a number of ways.

The first is the incredibly high server uptime (above 99.9%) and reliability of service that we can provide.

Secondly, as soon as sensor output is transmitted and received by our server it is ‘safe’. Although AQMesh pods have a substantial buffer and can store sensor output for months if they need to, the hardware in the field is clearly more vulnerable than on a backed-up server.

Add to that the convenience of full-time access to data and control over settings – without having to go out to site or up a ladder – and the advantages are clear.

Meaningful correction of cross-gas effects and interference from environmental conditions is consistently delivered through proven and traceable processing.

Processing of sensor output can vary from none at all to the latest AI approaches. Very few air quality experts would challenge the need to apply some form of correction to raw sensor output: it is well known that all small sensors are affected by environmental conditions of one sort or another. Corrections can be applied at various stages. AQMesh was the first manufacturer to test individual sensors in ambient air and quantify sensitivity – rejecting any sensors that do not meet criteria – before installing sensors in equipment.

The sensor characteristics captured at this initial stage can be used during the repeatable, traceable processing that is applied to sensor output from the working system. Years of work and hundreds of co-location datasets are behind the latest algorithms, which are always given a version number and which are available as a free upgrade to all equipment users as soon as they are released.

Some systems claim to offer accuracy through laboratory calibration, and they may well deliver accuracy in the laboratory, but applications are in the field and the perfect relationships achieved with single, dry gases in the lab do not necessarily mean anything in an outdoor environment of mixed pollutants and rapidly changing environmental conditions. If you just need a rubber stamp to show a process has been carried out that’s fine, but do not expect lab calibration to be a guarantee of accuracy in the field.

With wireless communications using the global mobile network and a choice of power options, including batteries, mains supply or a bespoke solar pack, AQMesh can be installed in almost any location.

After 10 years of use in the field, we have seen a good range of monitoring locations. It is reasonable to want to monitor where you need to monitor and not where is convenient. AQMesh started out as a hyper-low power platform, measuring gases and environmental conditions using a lithium thionyl chloride battery that would run for over two years. Our chosen particle monitoring option uses a pump – not a fan – for optimal long-term reliability and improved accuracy as it eliminates issues with electrostatically charged particles, and as such this uses more power. Battery power is still an option but we designed a smart solar pack which can power a pod measuring NO, NO2, O3, CO, SO2, CO2, PM1, PM2.5, PM10, TPC, PM Total, noise and wind speed and direction (all on the same unit) all year round in most parts of the world.

Part of monitoring wherever you need to is to not be limited by communications. After careful consideration of all options, AQMesh uses the mobile phone network, starting with humble but reliable 2G and now offering 4G / 5G / NB-IoT using the latest LTE (Long Term Evolution) communications standard. The infrastructure to support this sort of communication is universal, growing and .. it just works. Reliably. Everywhere you have a mobile phone signal. The same cannot be said of WiFi, ethernet or LoRa, which are not yet universally deployed and limited by range to mostly urban locations.

AQMesh performance and long-term baseline stability has been proven over many years of independent global co-location trials against certified reference equipment, providing AQMesh with a wealth of datasets that no other manufacturer has access to.

Is it the way we sample air? Is it our processing? Is it our assessment of sensors before they are selected for use in AQMesh pods? Is it the QA/QC processes carried out by our server?

All of these factors have a positive impact, resulting in reliable data for years. “Drift”? We hear about drift from other small sensor air quality system manufacturers and we just don’t see it. We carried out long-term trials at our factory and found less than 2ppb drift in the readings from electrochemical sensors across two years.

Nor do we see degradation of response in the optical particle counter (OPC) measuring particulate matter, over time or as a function of high levels of pollution. Occasionally the OPC sample path becomes blocked but this shows a distinctive change in output, can be easily recognised and is a target for our automated QA/QC.

Encrypted disks, complex authentication, audit logs and proactive systems for continuous detection of vulnerabilities and intrusions are routinely examined, making the AQMeshData server – and users’ data – as secure as possible.

It is quite right to be concerned about data security. As well as contact details of users, our server holds location and timestamp information linked to pollution levels and we understand that this information may well be sensitive and is certainly yours.

There is a place for sharing of air quality information and many systems automatically publish air quality readings but our users want to choose how their data is published and what QA/QC is applied to it before it is.

Whether you are accessing data by API or by logging into our application on your laptop or phone, the security measures we use are best in class – think of logging into your bank online.