IoT Innovations: How Telia is Tracking Air Quality at Day Care Center

The children at the Touhula day care center in Hiekkaharju, Finland are kept guessing as Telia Company's Arttu Aho is putting up some kind of gadgets on the walls around them.

However, the kids are about to find out that the gadgets are in fact sensors that will monitor the quality of the indoor air they breathe every day.

Arttu Aho at Telia Company in Finland and is colleagues have spent the last year finishing the Telia IoT Office solution, designing a service used to measure the contents and quality of indoor air. What goes on at Touhula day care center this particular morning is the pilot project.

"It is great to be involved in this socially significant project," Aho says. "For some reason, there are several problems with indoor air in Finland and these sensors will reveal what they are in a specific room. It is less expensive to intervene immediately, than to wait until people start developing symptoms."

Pilot survey

In this pilot survey, launched by Telia and the Touhula daycare center, sensors are installed for the first time in facilities for children.

"Remove the sticker and press the whole box onto the wall," Aho tells the kids. "Do you know what these gadgets are?" he asks them. "There are holes that look like snowflakes. It's a snowflake box," says a boy called Aran. "A robot," says Emmi. "It's a remote control. But there are no buttons," says Aili.
"Good answers, but they are actually used for studying the air that you breathe," Aho finally explains.

Monitored sensors

In addition to this day care centre in Hiekkaharju, indoor air sensors will also be installed at the Jokilaiva day care centre in Kerava and at the Metsokangas day care centre in Oulu. All the sensors will be to monitored by Telia specialists together with the day-care centre chain's personnel. "Our day care centres are mainly located in new buildings, and we have not had any indoor air problems," says Arto Kettunen, the Touhula day care center facilities expert. "However, we want to monitor the indoor air quality, so that we can intervene if something needs to be repaired."

Sensible sensors

There's more to it. The sensors can also measure how often the different parts of the premises are used, as well as background noise. "Scream!"Aho urges the kids.The children abide, and the decibel diagram on Aho's computer immediately peaks.
"The sensors reacted to the noise you made, which was 85 decibel," Aho explains.

Indoor air

When Janita Moilanen, head of the day care centre, heard about the pilot project she immediately wanted to embrace it and have sensors installed. "There's so much talk about indoor air," she says. "We would definitely like to know about the quality of indoor air here. It would also be nice to share this information with the children's parents."

Facts: The pilot project

Telia and the Touhula day care centre chain will run the pilot study this week, in three cities in Finland. The indoor sensors can measure temperature, humidity, carbondioxide levels and dissolving organic compounds.

Sensors can also measure utilization rate of the premises and background noise. The goal is to keep parents informed in real time.

The method has been developed by Telia Company and Swedish indoor air sensor company Yanzi Networks. The Telia IoT Office solution is easy to use and quick to install.
Touhula has 146 day care centres across Finland.