Samsung C&T to build homes that combat dust

The construction unit of Samsung C&T is equipping its new apartments with systems that can detect and filter out fine dust particles as air pollution becomes a worsening problem in Korea.

The company said Monday that it plans to install a detection device called IoT Homecube in two of its new Raemian apartment buildings. The device will be able to detect the level of dust particles in a home and turn on the ventilation system when it reaches high levels to filter out 90 percent of incoming dust, according to the construction company.

Going a step further, Samsung C&T is also developing air showers for entrances of apartment buildings. Normally found in factories for dust-sensitive products like computer chips, air showers are rooms that blast high-power air before a person enters a space to get rid of small dust particles.

Samsung C&T is considering installing them at apartment building entrances, where residents can be blown with 25-meter-per-second (55-mile-an-hour) air before entering.

“Not only fine dust particles but also bacteria and a whiff of smoke can be washed off in the room,” Samsung C&T said.

The apartments’ kitchens will come with a Samsung-developed dust-sensing range hood that detects fine dust levels while cooking and automatically adjusts the air volume to rid of fine dust.

And inside apartments, a fine dust alarm system will give real-time data on the level of particulate matter in nearby playgrounds and roads. Machines outside will spray mists of water into the air to get rid of dust.

Fine dust particles have been categorized as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, meaning the agent is carcinogenic to humans. The problem has been getting worse in Korea, where air purifier sales in the first two months of this year increased 32 percent from last year, according to Samsung C&T.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]