Air quality monitoring.

The latest product from South Coast Science, the Praxis/OPCube, (due to launch Dec 2020), responds to the call for a compact monitor suitable for conducting air quality surveys or establishing baselines. It is a product destined for use in a ‘smart’ environment and it’s designed for pragmatic data gathering when roadside monitoring, or when undertaking local authority investigations. 

As with its big brother, the Praxis/Urban, high-quality Alphasense sensors provide proven sensing technology. The Praxis/OPCube can be deployed in a high-density monitoring network using the same data infrastructure and sampling rates as the Praxis/Urban, so that in terms of accuracy, reliability and deployment, the two devices operate in the same league. The Praxis/OPCube, however, is a smaller, lower cost device specifically designed to provide precisely what’s required in environmental health and smart city use cases. 

Product development at South Coast Science operates on a philosophy of using the right tool for the job and avoiding unnecessary complexity or cost. This is essentially a scientific principle: the simplest explanation is most likely the right one and simpler theories are easier to test. Effective air quality monitoring is achieved by understanding the requirements of a particular task and identifying which measurements are necessary to produce valid, verifiable data. 

Data from multiple gas sensors is not required for every monitoring task, so why have a larger, more complex device than is needed? More components will require more maintenance and an unnecessary multiplication of your costs over your monitoring network. 

The Praxis/OPCube has a single gas sensor combined with a particulate monitor, which is sufficient for most environmental health contexts. The obvious benefit for customers is they do not pay for redundant functionality or infrastructure. 

Key device features for environmental health monitoring purposes:

● Robust - designed for long-term outdoor deployments ● Compact: 154x154x130mm, 2kg ● Local microSD card data storage and 4G mobile comms as standard ● Equipped with sensors for gas + pm + T + rH ● Battery back-up in the event of power loss ● Same open source design and data dashboard as Praxis/Urban

#southcoastscience #Environment