Indoor air quality measurement and monitoring in Green Buildings is driven by two, sometimes competing issues; 1) minimizing energy costs and 2) maximizing the health and productivity of the building occupants. GrayWolf meters are well-suited for portable IAQ testing, long-term IAQ trend logging and continuous IAQ monitoring in buildings.

Buildings consume approximately 40% of the total energy used in developed countries, with roughly half of that spent on heating, cooling and distributing air. This is a very ripe target for the “green” efforts toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions and the concurrent financial motivation of reducing energy costs. However, easily the highest expense in buildings is occupant compensation and even a very small reduction in their productivity can easily offset energy savings if air quality is reduced in an effort to cut energy use. The wellness of the occupants extends to short and long-term health factors. There are also facility-specific factors such as optimizing conditions conducive to learning in schools and universities, or testing for specific potential contaminants in white collar office areas that result from industry processes in adjoining manufacturing or service facilities.

A number of industry organizations have formed to address the energy reduction and occupant wellness issues for buildings. USGBC LEED, IWBI WELL, ARC Skoru and GBI Green Globes are among them. Long-established groups such as ASHRAE have specialized committees related to building and green building issues (e.g. ASHRAE Standard 62 and Standard 189). Some countries or local government agencies have incorporated some of these industry guidelines and standards into regulations or building code. And some governments have developed their own standards (e.g. Singapore BCA’s “Green Mark”). GrayWolf has long worked with, and often has extensive experience with these groups.

With over 30 parameters to choose from, GrayWolf offers measurement kits with the parameters necessary for certain specific Green Building applications; in many cases satisfying the specific measurement technology requirements, in other cases highly useful as a real-time screening tool ahead of collecting and sending samples out for lab testing. Many of the Green Building requirements are available to view on-board GrayWolf instruments, in-situ. Remote access has many pre-defined parameter limits included to view with gauges and graphs. And GrayWolf’s optional Advanced Report Generation software include limits, text and formatting all useful for reporting to meet various industry and government air measurement requirements.