Residential Damp Detection with Temperature and Humidity Urban Sensing

Residential damp can be detected by measuring the temperature and relative humidity in a given space. With these values, one can infer the dew point, which is an accurate indicator for condensation. By installing sensor networks that can take these relevant measurements, urban sensing systems could be created that help tackle the problem of residential damp. This paper centres in on this concept. Potential urban sensing solutions relevant to damp are surveyed. Three existing initiatives were found as well as a variety of potential solutions, demonstrating the feasibility of such a network to be installed. A sensor - known as the ‘Frogbox’ – developed from an existing initiative is then deployed in a student residence over a two-week period. From the deployment, it was found that the average humidity was at 56%, which is above the recommended amount. Improvements to the Frogbox could be made by adding a real-time visualisation feature. Given findings from the review and case study, a conceptual urban sensing model for a university student population is then developed. This body of work can be seen as a pre-cursor to further research required in this field.