Development of an Experimental Set-Up for Evaluating the Performance of Carbon Dioxide Sensors in a Controlled Environment

Accurate calibration of low-cost carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors (LCS) is an integral part for ensuring reliable air quality monitoring, particularly under varying environmental conditions. This study proposes an experimental set-up to provide a calibration procedure in order to evaluate the impact environmental quantities (e.g. air temperature (ta) and relative humidity (RH) on LCS CO CO2 accuracy. Three experiments were conducted under varying environmental conditions: stable ta and RH, variable ta and variable RH. The results revealed that environmental factors impacted sensor accuracy, with average accuracy increasing from 37 ppm under stable conditions to over 125 ppm under fluctuating conditions, with a MAPE of 6.7%, 19.7% and 20.9% for stable ta and RH, variable ta and variable RH respectively. These findings emphasize the importance of dynamic calibration approaches that adjust for environmental fluctuations, enhancing the applicability of LCS in diverse monitoring scenarios