Ambient Air Quality Logger

Field guide: Ambient Air Quality Logger

Low-cost particulate monitors changed who gets to measure air: schools, RWAs, construction sites and clinics now hold sensors that track PM2.5 within useful accuracy — what's usually missing is the disciplined record that turns beeping numbers into evidence and decisions. This logger holds readings against India's NAAQS 24-hour limits (PM2.5 ≤60, PM10 ≤100 µg/m³) with the much-stricter WHO guidelines noted alongside, because the gap between 'legal' and 'healthy' is the whole policy conversation.

Siting and averaging discipline carry the value: the standards are 24-hour averages, so log your monitor's daily average (not the scariest minute), from a consistent location away from a kitchen vent or a single dust source — unless that source is exactly what you're documenting, in which case note it and keep the position fixed. A construction-boundary log that shows PM10 doubling on demolition days, GPS-pinned and dated, is how dust-control conditions get enforced.

Field tips

• Log the 24-h average, not peaks — the limit is a daily dose, and peak-logging makes your record dismissible.
• Keep low-cost sensors out of direct sun and rain, and note humidity spikes — optical PM sensors over-read in fog (it counts droplets).
• Pair indoor and outdoor readings at the same hour to learn your building's infiltration — the ratio drives the purifier/sealing decision.

Records are stored only in this browser (localStorage) — export regularly. This tool aids field documentation; it does not replace your agency's official inspection procedures or engineering judgment.