Feature
Procuring and deploying low-cost sensor networks:
Dr Nicole Cowell, Dr Catherine Muller and Prof Lee Chapman, WM-AIR, University of Birmingham
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ow-cost sensors are becoming an increasingly popular option for monitoring air quality due to their reduced capital costs and small stature, making them suited to sampling in previously unattainable locations. Many users are turning to lowcost sensors to supplement regulatory sampling or for targeted air pollution monitoring. Low-cost sensors are increasingly being referred to as ‘small form sensors’, as whilst their initial costs may be low, they can often be associated with significant ongoing costs past initial investment.
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airqualitynews.com
The initial device costs of a low-cost sensor in the current market usually have a range of between £150 and £5,000 per device, which is at least an order of magnitude cheaper than the regulatory equivalent. However, in addition to these prices, units may require subscription fees; maintenance fees, staffing fees (for installation & maintenance, as well as data quality assurance and control) and the effective lifetime of a device may not be as long as a regulatory device. Therefore, whilst the term low-cost is used in this guidance, it’s important to consider that the phrase generally refers to the initial hardware costs and not the total sampling costs
