Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) Measurement

Combustion of wood

• Wood consist mainly of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (CH2O)x
• Results of complete combustion: CO2, H2O and heat

BUT: 'Cooking stove never achieve 100% complete combustion'

There are more combustion products in incomplete combustion like:

• CO, NO2, Small particles
• Formaldehyde, Acrolein, Benzene, Toluene, Styrene, 1,3-Butadiene etc.
• Polyaromatic hydrocarbons
• CO and Particular matter (PM) have the biggest health impacts

Examples:

1. CO – low concentration: Mild headache, fatigue, nausea, dizziness
2. CO – high concentration: Death within one hour
3. PM: strong effects to respiratory system

Annualy X.X mio people die due to being exposed to incomplete combustion every day

IAP and improve stoves

• Rule of thumb:
  

       “stoves with less fuel consumption emit less pollutants”

       “chimneys reduce IAP signicant”

• EnDev relevant stove ( reduced wood consumption) should have reduced emissions, too
• Evidence of the improvement through CO and PM measurement:    

       --> Improvement against Baseline

IAP – Measurement Devices

So far:

• seperated devices for PM and CO measurement
• Data analysis difficult

Now:

• One device for PM and CO measurement
• Data analysis simple using MS Excel
• But interpretation needs to be done

Procedure in the field:

• Mount devices
• Switch on, close lid
• Perform test, take notes in parallel
• Open lid, switch off
• In parallel: fill protocol manual

Data analysis

• read data from SD card and press “Process data” button in MS Excel

See, analyse and interpret results

• Careful as calibration of device might be expired

Aprovecho IAP meter

• Demonstration
• 1st tests
• results

IAP measurement

• Understand results
• Check for negative values
• Be critical, don’t trust what you read without crosschecking

IAP measurement - overview on results from projects

Back to "tests and measuring" section