A good quality small sensor air quality monitoring system should last 10 years or more, and of course certified monitoring stations (reference, FRM, FEM) should last much longer.
“How many air quality monitors do I need?” is a question we regularly hear, and the easy responses – “it depends”, “how big is your budget?” – are not very helpful. To give a better idea, it will depend on all these factors.
Communities and industry are monitoring air quality around the same areas, so they both want the same thing, right? Er, no, not really ..
Requests to measure hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in ambient air at unthinkably high levels seem to be at odds with our efforts to detect and report single-figure parts per billion H2S emissions. So, why are we asked for such high ranges?
Everyone loves holidays, whether Christmas or anything else, right? So what’s special about ‘air quality’ people? What we get so excited about are ‘free’ experiments, where distinct changes in activity help to peel away the layers of air pollution measured.
It isn’t easy to monitor air quality on or around a mining site: dusty, big machinery, water spray to suppress dust – the list goes on. But you may have to, because of a site permit or some other sort of compliance requirement. That’s the main reason we have seen, but other reasons include baselining and for health and safety.
Or how many air quality measurement points do I need? Annoying as it is, the answer is ‘it depends’.