Indoor Air Quality Awareness Using Laptop Thermal Sensors and Software-Based Environmental Modeling

Abstract

Poor indoor ventilation and rising room temperatures can negatively impact comfort, concentration, and overall well-being in enclosed environments such as homes, classrooms, and small offices. Traditional indoor air quality monitoring systems provide accurate environmental data but often require additional hardware, making them less accessible to students and low-budget users. This paper presents AirSense, a fully hardware-free indoor air wellness monitoring system that operates using standard laptop sensors. The proposed system utilizes built-in temperature detection through system interfaces such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and incorporates user-provided inputs, including room occupancy and ventilation duration, to estimate carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration using a simplified respiration-based model. The collected data is visualized through an interactive Streamlit dashboard that displays real-time metrics, temporal trends, comfort levels, and ventilation alerts. Experimental observations conducted in typical indoor environments such as residential rooms and classrooms indicate that temperature readings vary with laptop usage and environmental conditions, while estimated CO2 levels increase proportionally with occupancy and duration of enclosure. The system encourages timely user intervention by suggesting ventilation actions, thereby promoting healthier indoor environments. This approach demonstrates a cost-effective and scalable solution for improving indoor air awareness using readily available computing resources.