Indoor climate monitoring

The temperature is too hot, the air stuffy and dry. How can you concentrate in such an indoor climate? The answer is just bad. In fact, the indoor climate has a greater impact on human health than many people realize. To ensure an optimal working environment where you are productive and feel comfortable, the current values must be checked and controlled.

We answer important questions and show how you can implement your indoor climate monitoring in existing buildings within one day.

Why indoor climate is important

With an optimal room climate, you feel comfortable and can work efficiently. This includes a temperature between 19 and 24°C, a relative humidity between 40-60% and a CO2 content below 1,500 ppm. If these values deviate, this has a wide variety of effects. For example, the immune system is disrupted and infections can increase. Headaches, fatigue or sore throat during work are other consequences. As a result, sick leave days and dissatisfaction in the office increase. We have summarized for you exactly how the indoor climate affects human health in our blog post The Influence of Poor Indoor Climate on Employees based on scientific sources.

Case study: How it can quickly become expensive without controlling the indoor climate

On average, an employee has 7 days of sick leave per year. Such a sick day costs a company an average of €400. Depending on the employee’s salary and responsibilities, the costs may also be higher or lower. If you could reduce sick leave days by 10% in an office with 10 employees, you would save an average of €2,800.

Of course, these are only estimates and both the costs and the savings potential vary greatly in companies. Nevertheless, this example shows how quickly costs can be saved if sick leave is reduced with indoor climate.

Controlling and managing the indoor climate in the office

At the very least, the temperature, humidity and CO2 content should be monitored in offices. It is also important to respond to the wishes of the employees and to establish communication between building users and the facility service.
Another factor that affects employee well-being is drafts in office spaces. This can lead to muscle tension, for example. Contamination of the air by equipment and production facilities with pollutants can also have health consequences and lead to unpleasant odours. Ultimately, the indoor climate also includes lighting, especially solar radiation. You can find more information about a healthy indoor climate on the independent platform MeineRaumluft.

Indoor climate monitoring by means of sensors supports processes

Digital indoor climate monitoring is a time- and cost-saving option for HR managers, internal facility management and external facility service companies that are responsible for the well-being of employees. Technical solutions, such as air humidification, also often require a monitoring solution, as an increase in relative humidity can lead to structural damage to buildings.

Whether it’s temperature, humidity or CO2 concentration, LineMetrics allows you to document and monitor the indoor climate in real time. Battery-powered sensors measure the current conditions and the data is made available on the web platform. With the transparency created in this way, responsible persons can ensure an optimal indoor climate. On the basis of the actual values, ventilation can be carried out or investments can be made in longer-term measures, such as technical ventilation or air humidification. In addition, the data is documented, which makes it possible to prove that it has been implemented correctly. Existing buildings can also be retrofitted with the help of battery-powered sensors and wireless networks.

Retrofit existing buildings with LineMetrics and control the indoor climate

With the help of battery-powered sensors, existing buildings can be retrofitted within one day. With LineMetrics, you can keep track of all rooms, building complexes and locations with a complete solution.

Indoor Climate Sensor

After the batteries are placed in the sensors, they are placed in the offices and production rooms. The Elsys ERS Lite sensor measures the temperature and relative humidity of the respective rooms in real time and sends the data to the gateway. Other variants of the sensor include the measurement of the CO2 content for increased concentration and a motion detector for demand-oriented cleaning. Commissioning takes about 5 minutes per sensor.

Indoor Climate Sensor for Outdoor Areas

The outdoor version of the temperature and humidity sensor can be easily installed outside the building. The housing of the sensor is waterproof, but care should be taken to protect the sensor from wind and precipitation for a correct measurement. By comparing the values indoors and outdoors, targeted measures can be taken, e.g. activate/deactivate air conditioning, ventilate or activate/deactivate air humidification.

LoRa Gateway

The gateway collects data from all sensors within a radius of about 100 meters via an encrypted wireless network. The values are sent to the LineMetrics Cloud every five minutes. The gateway’s data transfer works completely independently of other networks and can be put into operation at any time.

Smart Web Platform

All current and past data can be accessed via the web platform. All you have to do is set the rooms and you can read the data. If you need assistance with the various functions of the cloud, you can always contact our support. You can create and arrange dashboards individually. To keep track of everything, you can set thresholds that you are automatically informed of when they are exceeded. In this way, the development of the indoor climate can be analysed over a longer period of time and the effects of measures can be documented.

Depending on your needs, QR code stickers can be placed in the respective rooms. These enable the responsible employees to quickly and easily access the data of the respective rooms.

Modern smart building solutions, such as LineMetrics, support the implementation and assurance of the optimal indoor climate. As reference projects have shown, the well-being of employees increases significantly with the right relative humidity, temperature and CO2 concentration. Depending on the size of the site and the extent of the measured values, pilot projects can be started from €50 per month.