Application: Vehicles

High CO2 concentration in a motor vehicle can cause dizziness, headache, sleepiness, cognitive dysfunction and slowed reaction time. All of these can adversely affect safety of the driver, passengers and other drivers on the road.

But just how high does the CO2 concentration get? With the windows closed, air conditioning switched on and the air supply set to recirculate (a common scenario when driving in Summer), let’s measure the CO2 concentration in a small generic economy car. We used a CO2 Logger with only the CO2 channel active. The visual alarm level was set to 425 ppm, the normal outdoor ambient CO2 concentration. Test duration was 45 minutes, with only one person in the car. CO2 level rose to 3383 ppm, which is much higher than the acceptable maximum of 1000 ppm.