A Low-Cost Calibration Method for Temperature, Relative Humidity, and Carbon Dioxide Sensors Used in Air Quality Monitoring Systems
, Erik Hernández RodrÃguez 1, Daniellys Alejo Sánchez 1, Mayra C. Morales Pérez 1, Vladimir Nuñez Caraballo 3, Werner Jacobs 2 and Alain Martinez Laguardia 1
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper describes measurements for comparing the performance of a low-cost carbon dioxide sensor to high-end laboratory results. The low-cost sensor itself has been described in previous publications. The paper describes in detail the construction of a calibration chamber for the sensors, including a list of components with their price. The study is a natural continuation of the authors’ stream of publications on air quality monitoring, yet it is significantly different from their previous work.
The manuscript is well written, consistent, and the results are logically presented to support the conclusions. It would be beneficial if the authors could add several sentences or a paragraph about the limitations of such a system, when it needs to be replaced with more expensive solutions, and also perhaps suggest some mid-range solutions that are in the middle in terms of price and data quality.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
We appreciate your review. Thank you very much for your comments and your trust in our research. Your suggestions have greatly improved our manuscript. Concerning your comments, we have added a paragraph at the end of section 3.5 "Result of the field study".
We have not suggested mid-range solutions because we have not had experience with them, only with the devices mentioned in the manuscript.
Best regards.
Reviewer 2 Report
The article ”A low-cost calibration method for temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide sensors used in air quality monitoring systems” intends to present a low-cost monitoring systems that can measure parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, and CO2 and these parameters were monitored at several locations in the city of Santa Clara, Cuba (the Yabu site, the Farm site and the Doctor’s office site in the center of the city).
The cost of these determinations is around € 200 and the system that was used in the experiments consisted of an Arduino MEGA2560, a real-time clock, and an SD-card for data storage, medical disposables and so on. A low-cost calibration laboratory that can evaluate temperature, relative humidity, and gas (CO2) requires an investment between € 1000 and € 1500.
This article is clearly prepared, the information is well presented and can be applied in the analysis of different areas where there are no laboratories or instruments for recording weather parameters and atmospheric pollutants. Since the article encourages and demonstrates that determinations can be made with minimal funds, I believe that this article deserves to be published. There will certainly be voices that disagree with these cheap systems, but it is better to have minimal information than none at all.
This paper has a major main contribution in the literature by presenting clearly and gradually the way in which the determinations and interpretations of the results were performed.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
We appreciate your review. Thank you very much for your comments and your trust in our research.
