New solution combines smoke detection with air quality monitoring

Honeywell has launched a solution that combines early warning smoke detection with advanced indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring, furthering its efforts to create safer and healthier buildings. Built on the flagship VESDA-E line of aspirating smoke detectors, the VESDA Air solution has a five-in-one IAQ sensor within a single box, which can help improve building safety by identifying life safety, asset protection or IAQ issues before they escalate into problems.

“The emphasis on indoor air quality isn’t going away — and that’s a good thing as more organisations work to create safer, healthier environments that help boost occupant wellbeing and productivity,” said Udaya Shrivastava, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Honeywell Building Technologies.

“We challenged our engineering teams to find a way to complement the capabilities of our aspirating smoke detection systems with highly sensitive IAQ monitoring. The system identifies not only the minute presence of smoke, but also the presence of air quality contaminants of concern, allowing building operators to react and respond to out-of-bounds parameters quickly, before they escalate into unsafe situations.”

Honeywell’s VESDA technology actively samples air — rather than passively waiting for smoke to reach traditional spot sensors — to identify trace amounts of smoke and enable early intervention before it disrupts operations. Honeywell engineers have integrated a highly sensitive IAQ sensor that measures critical IAQ parameters, including volatile organic compounds^[i] (total VOCs) listed by ASHRAE as ‘contaminants of concern,’^[ii] fine particulate matter of 1.0 micron (PM1.0) and PM2.5 or larger with unprecedented accuracy, CO and CO₂ concentration, temperature and humidity. Suitable for premium commercial buildings, healthcare facilities, hospitality, manufacturing and schools, the new sensor provides instrument-grade IAQ sensing for data uniformity and accuracy.

The scalable solution can be used in both new construction and existing buildings. In buildings with a fully functional smoke detection system, a ‘smokeless’ IAQ-only system can be installed to provide accurate, actionable data to adjust ventilation parameters.

References

^{[i] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, What are volatile organic compounds (VOCs)?}

^{[ii] ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2019, Ventilation for acceptable indoor air quality. Appendix D.}

Image credit: iStock.com/svengine