You probably know that the Sprint Pro has a host of useful functions, but have you ever scrolled through the menu of your Sprint Pro, found the ambient air monitor and wondered how you could use it?  

Well, you need wonder no longer – because in this post we will look at the Sprint Pro ambient air monitor and its uses.

Who needs to carry out ambient air monitoring? 

As a gas engineer, your need for ambient air monitoring may vary according to the type of work you do, but if you specialise in Carbon monoxide (CO)/Carbon dioxide (CO₂) detection – for example, if you have CMDDA1 certification for dwellings or undertake COMCAT (commercial catering) reports in the UK, or have equivalent domestic or catering CO/CO₂) certification elsewhere in the world – you will probably find this function very useful.  

How does ambient air monitoring work? 

In general terms, ambient air monitoring is simply the measurement of pollutants in the atmosphere, but in a gas detection context it refers to analysis of how much carbon monoxide is in the air.  

In some cases, the level of CO₂ is also measured. The Sprint Pro 4 and Sprint Pro 6 both have a direct CO₂ infrared sensor fitted, therefore they can measure both CO and CO₂.

Ambient air monitoring may be carried out anywhere that CO and/or CO₂ present a risk. For example, to detect CO leakages in the home (perhaps from a boiler), or to monitor CO₂ levels in commercial catering premises.  

With the Sprint Pro, ambient air monitoring is carried out over a given time period, which may be anything from a few minutes to several days, during which time the analyser samples the ambient air at intervals of between one and thirty minutes. At the end of the test, the device gives readings for the current, peak and whole-test average rates for both CO and CO₂. You can save these directly to your log and/or print them out as paper reports. 

Even when it comes to report printing, the Sprint Pro gives you options, so you can print as much or little of the relevant information as you need. This can be very handy when you have just taken literally hundreds of samples over a 7-day period! 

Ambient air monitoring for CO is available on all Sprint Pro models 

Why do I need ambient air monitoring functionality? 

Regardless of specialist certification, having the capacity to analyse ambient air is increasingly useful to HVAC professionals and gas engineers. This is particularly true in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the benefits of fresh air and good indoor ventilation have been highlighted. Excessive CO and CO₂ are threats to both human and environmental health, and with growing awareness of this, and sustainability becoming an increasingly important social/political/policy topic, the need to quantify and measure them is likely to increase.