Verkada offers a range of air quality (AQ) sensors that offer a wide selection of different sensor readings. Our next-generation sensors apart of the SV20 series feature performance improvements and application specific designs.
SV21
The SV21 is a lightweight general purpose air quality monitoring device for room-to-room monitoring of temperature, CO2, and humidity. Example locations would be refrigerators, freezers, IDFs, classrooms or office spaces.
SV23
The SV23 is the new standard for targeted air quality and environmental monitoring best for bathrooms, locker-rooms, hotel rooms or general spaces where more insight into air quality is needed. The SV23 is the next generation of the SV11 that features CO2 monitoring.
SV25
The SV25 is the premiere sensor for application specific monitoring and hazardous air quality insights. The SV25 features performance improvements and provides insights into various gases like CO, CH2O, and CO2; Environmental information such as luminous and barometric pressure in addition to all the other readings available across the other devices in the product suite.
SV11
The SV11 is our first-generation device for air quality monitoring with a wide range of applications. The device includes sensors for monitoring temperature, humidity, air quality, noise levels, TVOC, PM2.5, and motion.
Use Cases for the Verkada Air Quality Sensor
Monitoring temperature and humidity in IDF closets, server rooms, data centers, and other areas with sensitive equipment or supplies
Monitoring performance of air conditioning and air filtration systems with proactive alerting from temp, humidity, PM 2.5, and TVOC sensors
Provides insights into potentially hazardous air quality conditions within a workplace or facility
Provides actionable data for detecting the use of electronic cigarettes
Monitoring motion/occupancy and noise levels to detect activity or disturbances in areas where cameras are not tolerated - private spaces, conference rooms, hotel rooms, managed properties, bathrooms, changing rooms, locker rooms, hospital rooms, etc.
What is the range of the air quality sensors?
Verkada Sensors can monitor generic air quality metrics for spaces of approximately 1,000 square feet. The range for the onboard sensors is also dependent on airflow, ventilation, filtration systems, and other variables. Please keep this in mind when choosing an installation location for your sensor.
What is the range of the air quality sensors for vape detection?
When mounted on an 8 ft ceiling, the sensors can detect vaping events within a 250 square foot area around the sensor (without obstructions or stalls - see below), approximately an 8 foot radius. Higher ceilings or increased distance from the sensor will decrease detection accuracy as the vape/smoke particles are less likely to reach the sensor in sufficient concentrations. The range for vape detection and other sensors is also dependent on airflow, ventilation, filtration systems, and other variables. In most cases, alert thresholds for all sensors can be adjusted to meet the unique needs of your environment.
For vape detection, a good rule of thumb is to put one sensor for every two stalls in a bathroom.
What are the installation requirements and considerations?
The sensor installation is application specific, if you have no specific application in mind, mounting on a low ceiling will provide the best utilization of all features.
For CO2 monitoring wall mounting at heights around 3 to 6 feet from the floor will provide the most accurate measurements, due to the density of CO2 compared to fresh air.
For air quality monitoring and vape detection, we recommend installing at a height of 8-9ft, giving no less than 3 feet from any walls or ceiling vents for the best performance in measurements. If air quality is not an intended use case, the device can be mounted at other heights or orientations. However, this can significantly impact accuracy. For more detailed information about installation and performance, refer to our Recommended Installation Guidelines.
Important information
The Verkada Air Quality devices are not life safety devices and do not satisfy the requirements to be used as emergency smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.
The Vape Index measures air quality events indicative of vaping and smoking, but cannot provide 100% proof of a vaping incident. School security and administrative teams should use the SV11 Vape Index and Verkada camera integration to help with investigations and monitor vaping activity and patterns, but use searches for physical evidence as the basis for further disciplinary/legal actions.
Common bathroom aerosols will not trigger the vape index, however; it’s possible that certain smoke or cooking fumes can be identified as a vape event. In practice, this is rare in typical school environments.
Vape detection performance will be degraded in detecting vaping/smoking incidents if a person uses significant efforts to hide the activity, such as exhaling into a closed container, out of a window, etc. However, the more typical behavior of breathing into a shirt or jacket still results in a detected vape event from our testing.
How does it work?
As vaping occurs, users can see spikes in Verkada’s vape index, which measures against a range of different onboard sensors to identify the likelihood of vaping or smoking occurring on a scale of 1 to 100. Administrators can set custom thresholds to receive real-time alerts via SMS and email. When detected, an alert can also be sent to pre-selected faculty members and on-campus security, allowing teams to respond quickly.
All sensor data is accessible from Verkada’s Command platform and is put against a timeline to give administrators a complete view of when these events took place. Additionally, administrators can pair a Verkada camera with any sensor, providing a layer of visual evidence to see exactly what happened. For locations like bathrooms, cameras can be placed outside these private areas, giving administrators a non-invasive way to monitor these incidents.
Setup
This article explains how to add a device to your Command account. The Verkada air quality sensor will begin working immediately after it's claimed and plugged in, but you may want to tweak the settings. Before you do so, read through Verkada Air Quality Sensors Settings Explained.
Viewing Data
The Verkada air quality sensors output data to a graph in Command for quick viewing. Check out this article for examples and explanations of the data you'll get from your sensor.
Note: If there is degraded accuracy at startup please take this into consideration
For temperature calibration, it typically takes 2-3 hours
It can take up to 5 days for a new device's TVOC sensor to adjust fully to its environment.