How to measure indoor air quality to ASHRAE standards and compliance (also known as ASHRAE Standard 241-2023) in commercial spaces with precision and measurable outcomes?

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Measuring air quality should not be just around one metric, it is a holistic view of the space, its function and most importantly the air change rate in both air movement, as well as filtering and disinfecting. Using a tracer particle system (nebulizers with salt solution and highly precise sensors). Gives a much more complete view of air quality. Rapid certification tests take 20 minutes to perform and cover 5,000 sq ft - certify to test, adjust, retest and evaluate.

 

BreatheScore Certify gives a complete view of how healthy people will be in the indoor space. We commonly refer to this as air health as apposed to air quality, as air quality is commonly tied to C02 measures.

 

CO2 is Only Accurate to Monitor Infection Risk Under a Narrow Set of Conditions.

 

CO2 is easily misinterpreted when used for infection risk monitoring because, fundamentally, respiratory gas measurements are not reflective of respiratory particle exposure and removal rates in buildings that use filtration to clean the air. In North America and Europe this is the dominant mode for CRE buildings.

 

Therefore when CO2 levels are high in a space, and there is high density occupancy, the risk may actually be low with sufficient air change rates and appropriate filtration.

 

On the other hand, when CO2 levels are low, at low occupancy, the risk may still be high if there is insufficient air motion. It only takes 2 people for virus transmission to occur.

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I need a view of all of my building's places of ventilation. Can I get a 3D map of how air flows and where pathogens will likely pool or clear?

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For high priority spaces, Poppy’s system provides high resolution, 3D tracking of how airborne pathogens travel, pool, and clear over time including:

 

- Transmission pathways to validate the effectiveness of the investments in indoor pathogen safety such as air filtration, fresh air - dilution, masking, cleaning, etc.

 

- Pathogen hotspots to uncover unexpected and important transmission paths that would otherwise be missed.

 

- Overventilated zones to reveal areas where heating & cooling costs can be safely recouped.

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Why are Poppy sensors better than C02 (IAQ) monitors to measure ventilation safety, perform building air quality testing, drive actionable insights, and monitor potential health impacts?

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Carbon Dioxide (CO2) monitors can provide an indication if an area has poor ventilation compared to the number of people present.

 

However CO2 is a gas which doesn't behave the same as biological particles in human breath. CO2 sensors don't take into account the value of air filtration.

 

Spaces are often safer than CO2 monitors indicate.

 

Poppy's system takes into account air purification, ventilation, and occupancy for a more direct measure of airborne viruses can make people sick.

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What is effective Air Changes per Hour (eACH) and how is it different than ACH?

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The effectiveness of a building’s ability to remove pathogens from the air is measured using effective Air Changes per Hour (eACH). This score is related to how quickly respiratory 1um aerosol particles (human breath) are removed through ventilation and dilution with clean air.

 

An eACH score of 6 means effectively all the air in the room is replaced every 10 minutes (6/60 mins = 10 mins). The higher the eACH score, the safer staff and visitors are from respiratory viruses that can cause infections, such as COVID-19.

 

The Center for Disease Control (CDC), recommends at least 5 eACH or higher for most types of spaces.

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How does Poppy measure air safety in real-time and what does it actually measure?

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The Poppy system uses sensors and nebulizers to measure how viruses in human breath travel and are cleared from an indoor space like an office. We mimic respiratory particles with Poppy Nebulizers, and release them in a water-based tracer mist into the air.

 

Poppy sensors accurately measure how quickly the 1 micron sized tracer droplets are removed from each space.

 

These droplets contain bar coded particles, designed to mimic the behavior of virus-containing human breath in each indoor space. Sensors are located at the height of a typical adult's breathing zone to be as accurate as possible - giving you confidence and precision.

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Help me understand what BreatheScore sensors can monitor, analyze, and detect?

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To make indoor commercial spaces infection-resilient and overall more healthy, Poppy’s inspects the air down to the particles and consolidates millions of data points to give you charts that measure how infectious particles will clear from the air, how long it will take, and where infection is likley to linger. BreatheScore Certify system provides real-time data during testing periods giving instant airborne-infection clearance data, showing changes, improvements and areas of concern.

 

BreatheScore Monitor provides an installed version of our technology and certification that provides 24/7 continuous data and alerts, as well as capability to detect vaping and other specialized monitoring needs that can be added to you customized install system.

 

BreatheScore Certify and BreatheScore Monitor tracks effective Air Changes per Hour Testing (eACH) for diffused particles instantly during testing, this data shows you how long it takes to clear viruses, bacteria, and molds from the air. It allows benchmarking against standards like ASHRAE 241 in your industry, and sharing real-time safety with occupants using digital signs.

 

When used in calculations ECA or eACH can also provides data as to how much airborne risk is present in the room based on number of people occupying the room at that time, our BreatheScore app uses this type of calculation to determine risk level, and allows you to set capacity controls per room to determine the level of safety and need for aerosol pathogen mitigation is needed.

 

During monitoring, reporting, and testing organizations can see the effects of ventilation changes as they happen, and monitor safety across many rooms, floors and buildings simultaneously.

BreatheScore is also the most advance way to measure HVAC balancing and duct balancing, using a fully digital system to analyze, balance and see the airflow in a room. BreatheScore uses air tracing as outlined and recommended in ASHRAE indoor air quality standard to measure air change rate and clean air analysis in digital, real-time.

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