Participate

Participation

How can I take part?

If you are interested in taking part, you need to have a BER ‘A’ rated certification for your home and be happy to have a sensor in your home that continuously collects information on the thermal comfort and of environmental pollutants within your home. In addition, participants would be asked to complete a contextual information sheet and thermal comfort surveys and an activity diary three times throughout the study.

We welcome enquiries about the study and information can be obtained by contacting:

Dr James McGrath
Postdoctoral Researcher
Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS)
School of Physics,
National University of Ireland, Galway.
Email: james.a.mcgrath@nuigalway.ie

Direct line: +353 (0)91 493437

What will happen when I participate and what will be required from participants?

If you decide that you would like further information on participating in the study, the researchers will provide you with information on the study and give you two weeks to decide whether you want to participate. If you decide that you would like to participate, a researcher will come to your home to install a remote sensor and perform a photo survey. The photo survey will involve the researcher taking pictures of the ventilation and extraction systems and their accompanying sensors, as well as windows and doors. These photographs will be used to identify potential thermal comfort issues and sources for improvement for energy efficiency and will only be available to the research team.

A member of the research team will install the sensors (which are similar to a smoke detector in size) in four rooms in your home; the kitchen, living room, master bedroom and bathroom and will access information on pollutants within your home for 18 months by remote monitoring. You will be asked to fill in a contextual information sheet with information on your home (e.g. heating, ventilation) at the start of the project, as well as a thermal comfort survey and activity diary (e.g. activities such as cleaning and cooking) three times in the duration of this project. The contextual information sheet takes approximately 20 minutes to complete, while the thermal comfort survey and activity diary take approximately ten minutes each to complete.

The benefits of taking part in the study

The benefits of taking part is that you will receive an overview of the indoor air quality within your home. In addition, all participants will keep the sensor provided during the study, so they can continue to measure pollutants within their homes after the study is completed.

Can I leave the study?

Yes, you are free to withdraw from the study at any stage.