Increase Your Facility Management Business Potential and Stop the Spread of COVID-19

December 7, 2021

Field service management professionals around the world are helping their customers monitor air quality factors that could prevent the spread of COVID-19...and they’re doing it remotely.

Recent studies show that even small increases in certain fine particulate matter, which is known as PM2.5, can lead to a 15 percent increase in COVID-19 deaths. Additional research shows that, in any given indoor environment, when excess CO2 levels double, the risk of COVID-19 transmission also roughly doubles. That’s right, our air quality matters and not just when we want to go for a run outside or walk through a city without inhaling smog. Indoor air quality matters when it comes to the prevention of the COVID-19.

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How Field Services Is Tackling Air Quality

Field services professionals, particularly those in HVAC and facilities management, are taking their IoT (the Internet of Things) skills and monitoring our air virtually with smart sensors.

They’re using their access to IoT tools like the ones Simpro provides to monitor air quality using sensors that measure multiple air attributes including ambient temperature, humidity, CO2, CO, volatile organic compounds and PM2.5. CO2 and PM2.5 in particular have been linked to COVID-19.

If you’re new to IoT (and please know you’re not alone), IoT refers to the interaction between assets or ‘things’ that are connected to the internet. Attached to, or embedded in, these ‘things’ are sensors carrying software and connectivity. This enables objects to ‘talk’ to each other and exchange data.

IoT can:

  • Monitor the temperature in a food storage area
  • Identify the presence of water in a critical area such as a server room
  • Track the air quality in working environments such as commercial offices

What Can Simpro Air Quality Sensors Do?

They do a couple of things.

  1. They measure crucial air quality attributes including the PM2.5 and CO2 ppm level that researchers have linked to COVID-19
  2. They only require one Simpro Yo Pure node to measure multiple air quality attributes including ambient temperature, humidity, CO2, CO, volatile organic compounds andPM2.5. They give you the option to turn on all attribute measurements or a selection of them
  3. They are fully integrated with Simpro, creating a seamless operation from alarm detection to dispatch of field technicians.
  4. They allow for the monitoring of multiple sensors in multiple buildings at one time through the asset maintenance feature, which has one comprehensive dashboard (that’s right, all of your data is in one place!)

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How IoT Air Quality Monitoring Increases Efficiencies?

Helping folks improve their air quality not only provides a literal breath of fresh air, but it also increases business efficiencies.

Just take a look at Simpro IoT Partner, Envirologik,

Envirologik placed a set of monitoring solutions for a large property management customer that looked at the customer’s chiller refrigerant status, energy consumption and temperature monitoring of flow and return. As a result, Envirologik recommended efficiencies and changes that resulted in £5,000 monthly savings for their customer. Needless to say, Envirologik made one customer very happy.

Government Guidelines for Improving Air Quality

As an added bonus to this new revenue stream, governments are providing recommendations for businesses that are creating COVID-safe environments.

The NSW Government has begun a comprehensive review of ventilation in 2,200 public schools. The Victorian Government has announced that it will invest more than AUD $190 million in initiatives to support a COVID-safe reopening of schools, with a focus on ventilation.

The UK government released “Guidelines Of Ventilation And Air Conditioning” during the coronavirus pandemic and recommendation of using CO2 monitors (a monitoring device that can measure CO2 ppm level in an indoor environment), assisting businesses to make sure the workplace is safe and continuing to reduce COVID-19 transmission.

To read an ebook about how you can use IoT solutions to improve business efficiencies, click here. For more detail about IoT and air quality, download this IoT air quality report.