What an air quality monitoring service actually includes

An air quality monitoring service puts continuous monitors in the rooms people actually occupy, reports CO2, PM2.5, VOCs, radon, temperature, humidity and pressure, compares each reading to the air outside, and keeps the history. It is priced per space, not per building or per device.

When a tenant on the third floor says the air feels stuffy, a facilities team usually has two options: send someone up to guess, or point to a reading. A monitoring service gives you the third option, but only if it actually includes continuous reporting and a record you can pull up later, not a single visit with a clipboard.

This post breaks down what a real air quality monitoring service includes, what it leaves out, and how pricing works, so you know what you are evaluating before a vendor call.

Key Takeaways

• A monitoring service reports CO2, PM2.5, VOCs, radon, temperature and humidity continuously, not on a single visit.
• Every reading means more when it sits next to the outdoor air at the same address, not a national average.
• ASHRAE 62.1 puts the ventilation target at roughly 700 ppm of CO2 above the outdoor level, which usually lands near 1,000 to 1,100 ppm indoors.
• OSHA's permissible exposure limit for CO2 is 5,000 ppm over an eight-hour shift, a safety ceiling, not a comfort target.
• Measured Air prices a commercial monitoring service per space with no minimum term, and has not published a flat rate.

What an air quality monitoring service measures, room by room

A monitoring service places sensors in the rooms people use, not just the mechanical room, and reports each room on its own. The readings that matter in an office or multi-tenant building:

• CO2 in ppm: how stale a conference room or closed office gets as the day goes on.
• PM2.5 in µg/m³: fine particles from outdoor smoke, nearby traffic or a kitchen down the hall.
• VOCs: off-gassing from cleaning products, new furniture or a recent paint job.
• Relative humidity in % and temperature in °F, room by room.
• Radon in pCi/L, where the building has ground-contact space, since it takes months of data to mean anything.
• Outdoor AQI: the reference reading next door, so an indoor number has something to compare against.

A single test tells you what the air was doing that afternoon. A service tells you what it did last Tuesday during the HVAC outage, and what it is doing right now.

Monitoring service versus a one-time test

A workplace air quality test is a snapshot: a technician visits, takes readings, and leaves with a report. That is useful once, for a baseline or a complaint that already happened.

A monitoring service is the opposite of a snapshot. The monitors stay in the space and keep reporting, so when the CO2 line in a conference room climbs past 1,100 ppm every afternoon at 2pm, you see the pattern, not just one bad Tuesday. The tradeoff runs the other way too: a monitor tells you what the air is doing, it does not fix the ventilation schedule that is causing it.

What a stuffy-floor complaint actually needs

When a tenant says the third floor is stuffy, the number that answers them is CO2 against the outdoor reference, read at the time of the complaint and over the days before it. ASHRAE Standard 62.1 sets the ventilation target at roughly 700 ppm above the outdoor baseline, which puts most offices in the 1,000 to 1,100 ppm range when ventilation is working. OSHA's permissible exposure limit for CO2 is 5,000 ppm averaged over an eight-hour shift, a safety ceiling that has nothing to do with comfort.

If the third-floor reading sits at 1,400 ppm every afternoon, you have a ventilation schedule to fix, not a tenant to reassure. If it sits at 950 ppm, you have an answer and a history to show the next time someone asks. Either way, the record from OSHA indoor air quality standards and the building's own readings settle the conversation faster than a site visit.

How pricing works for a building

A commercial monitoring service is sized per space, not per building and not per seat. More occupied rooms means more monitors, not a licensing tier. Measured Air has not published a flat rate: pricing and scope get set after a building describes its own layout.

What to expect in that scope: no minimum term, and the same software whether the building has one floor or ten.

What a monitoring service will not include

A legitimate service is specific about what it does not do, and a vendor who promises everything is worth a second look.

• No airflow surveys, duct inspections or blower door tests. Those are a separate discipline from continuous room monitoring.
• No in-person consulting or technician visits as part of the ongoing service. The monitors plug in and report; nobody needs to come back to read them.
• No medical claims. A reading does not diagnose, treat or prevent anything. Health thresholds come from bodies like the EPA, WHO, CDC or ASHRAE, not from the monitor itself.
• No published accuracy certifications or lab figures. If a vendor states those, verify them independently before you rely on them.

Getting a building started

Start with the building's own layout: how many floors, how many occupied rooms per floor, and whether radon is a concern given the foundation. The commercial building form collects that and gets a reply within a business day, with pricing set per space once the scope is clear.

FAQ

What does an air quality monitoring service include? Continuous monitors in occupied rooms that report CO2, PM2.5, VOCs, radon, temperature and humidity against the outdoor air, plus a kept history. It does not include duct inspections, airflow testing or in-person consulting.

How much does a commercial air quality monitoring service cost? Measured Air has not published a flat rate. Commercial pricing is set per space, with no minimum term, after a building describes its own layout.

What is a good CO2 level for an office? ASHRAE 62.1 targets roughly 700 ppm above the outdoor baseline, which lands most offices around 1,000 to 1,100 ppm when ventilation is adequate. OSHA's eight-hour exposure limit of 5,000 ppm is a safety ceiling, far above a comfort target.

Does a monitoring service require installation or ductwork? No. The monitors plug in and connect to Wi-Fi; nothing is mounted or wired into the building's ductwork.

How is a monitoring service different from a one-time indoor air quality test? A one-time test is a single visit and a report. A monitoring service keeps monitors in place and reports continuously, so a pattern like an afternoon CO2 climb shows up over days, not just the hour a technician happened to visit.

Can a monitoring service prove the air is fine when a tenant complains? It can show what the reading was at the time of the complaint and in the days before it, against the outdoor air. That record either points to a ventilation fix or settles the question with a number.

The bottom line

A real air quality monitoring service puts monitors in the rooms people occupy, reports CO2, PM2.5, VOCs, radon, temperature and humidity continuously against the outdoor air, keeps the history, and prices per space with no minimum term. It does not include duct work, in-person consulting or medical claims, and a vendor who offers those as part of the service is selling something else.

The next time a tenant says a floor feels stuffy, the fastest answer is a reading, not a guess. Start with the commercial building form to scope a service for your building.