NDIR Gas Sensor for Spatial Monitoring of Carbon Dioxide Concentrations in Naturally Ventilated Livestock Buildings.

The tracer gas ratio method, using CO2 as natural tracer, has been suggested as a pragmatic option to measure emissions from naturally ventilated (NV) barns without the need to directly estimate the ventilation rate. The aim of this research was to assess the performance of a low-cost Non-Dispersive Infra-Red (NDIR) sensor for intensive spatial field monitoring of CO2 concentrations in a NV dairy cow house. This was achieved by comparing NDIR sensors with two commonly applied methods, a Photo-Acoustic Spectroscope (PAS) Gas Monitor and an Open-Path laser (OP-laser).