SITNet aims to monitor indoor temperatures across homes in B.C. to better understand the risk of residential indoor overheating during hot weather.
Approximately 30 participants across BC were included in the 2024 pilot phase of SITNet. In 2025, we are adding approximately 100 new participants to the project. This public health initiative is supported by the BC Health Effects of Anomalous Temperatures (BC HEAT) committee and is being conducted by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), a program of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA).
SITNet has randomly selected most potential participants from a sample of low-income residents without air conditioning who provided permission to be contacted for future projects when participating in the
B.C. COVID-19 SPEAK Surveys. Other participants have been recruited through the Builiding Resilence to Emerging Airborne Threats and Heat Events (
BREATHE) project at Simon Fraser University.
All participants have been asked to install a cellular-connected sensor inside their homes to measure:
- Indoor temperature
- Relative indoor humidity
- Indoor fine particulate matter from sources such as landscape fire smoke
The data collected by SITNet will help public health practitioners in the province to better prepare for and understand the health impacts of extreme heat events.
Extreme heat events can be dangerous because many people in B.C. do not have air conditioning, and it can get very hot inside their homes. Research from the 2021 heat dome has shown that low-income individuals without air conditioning were at high risk of heat-related injury.
The BCCDC and other agencies do not have reliable information about indoor temperatures. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to monitor indoor temperatures across B.C. to better understand the risk of indoor overheating during hot weather by establishing a reliable and distributed network of indoor temperature monitors.
SITNet recruited 30 participants in 2024 from a sample of residents who provided permission to be contacted for future research when participating in the B.C. COVID-19 SPEAK Surveys. The sampling focused on low-income households without air conditioning.
The project is recruiting 100 new participants in 2025 and may recruit more in future years. SITNet will continue until at least Fall 2027. If you are interested in participating in SITNet, please email sitnet@bccdc.ca.
SITNet uses cellular-connected indoor sensors that measure temperature, relative humidity, and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) indoors from sources such as cooking or landscape fire smoke (
https://blues.com/products/airnote/).
Enrolled participants have been mailed sensors to install inside their homes. Participants have been asked to mount the sensor to a wall and plug it in, so it can automatically connect to the cellular network. Data collected by the sensors are only available to the participants and the BC HEAT committee.
Data collected from the sensors are being collected into a databased stored at the BCCDC. The BC HEAT committee will use the database to access up-to-date information on indoor temperatures and air quality, to help manage extreme heat events when they occur. Data from sensors is anonymously displayed in the BC HEAT dashboard according to participants nearest city or town.
Safeguards are in place to ensure participant privacy. Data collected for SITNet follows strict privacy practices under the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The Act governs how information is collected, who sees it and how the information is used.
We take the privacy and confidentiality of British Columbians seriously and have taken every precaution to ensure that SITNet data and information about participants is, safe and secure, the collection of any personal identifiers is entirely voluntary and is at the discretion of participants.
