A new paper has just been published by members of the team titled, “Dual-purpose smoke alarms: Integrating low-cost PM2.5 sensors for combined fire detection and indoor air quality monitoring” in
Aerosol Science and Technology.
This study explores the integration of a low-cost PM2.5 sensor into existing photoelectric smoke alarm systems to develop a dual-purpose device capable of both detecting smoke and monitoring indoor air quality. Photoelectric smoke detectors operate on the same light-scattering principle as many particle sensors, which initially led us to investigate the potential of using a standard smoke alarm sensor for monitoring PM2.5 levels. However, through a series of controlled chamber experiments, we found that these sensors are only responsive to very high particle concentrations, typically exceeding 5 mg/m³, rendering them unsuitable for accurate indoor air quality monitoring. To address this limitation, we incorporated a Plantower PMS1003, a low-cost particle sensor with greater sensitivity to lower PM2.5 concentrations, into the smoke alarm system. We conducted extensive tests using various indoor aerosols, such as emissions from, candles, incense sticks, mosquito coils, bushfire smoke simulations using dry eucalyptus leaves and burning matches as repeated measurements from a previous study. The results demonstrate that this integrated system can effectively monitor indoor air pollution levels while maintaining its primary function as a smoke detector.
