Decentlab: LoRaWAN instruments for environmental monitoring

Decentlab makes LoRaWAN instruments for indoor air, water and environmental monitoring, with documented payload decoders and optional data services.

Best for: Projects that need specific environmental measurements, documented sensor characteristics and integration into a chosen IoT platform.
Less suited to: Electrical submetering or high-speed control: the cited portfolio centres on environmental measurements and low-power wireless reporting.
Deployment: LoRaWAN sensors on public or private networks, with a chosen application or optional Decentlab Data Access service.
Data in: Sensor-specific LoRaWAN payloads; Data Access exposes JSON over an HTTP API and CSV export.
Pricing: Sensors are offered by quotation; the data service is a separate deployment choice.

Overview

Decentlab grew from measurement work rather than a general-purpose smart-home catalogue. Its company history traces the business to structural-health monitoring and an Empa spin-off, followed by expansion into environmental and smart-city applications. That background is reflected in a range organised around physical quantities and sensor combinations.

For an energy or building project, its strongest contribution is often context: indoor air conditions, occupancy-related activity, water level or weather measurements that explain operating conditions. Those measurements complement electrical consumption data. They should not be treated as a substitute for an electricity meter simply because both streams can appear in the same monitoring application.

Offering

The product catalogue includes water-level and pressure instruments, air-quality devices and soil-monitoring sensors. Product selection follows the required physical quantity: ultrasonic distance, radar level and pressure-based level sensing are different approaches rather than interchangeable labels for one device.

The DL-IAM indoor monitor combines CO₂, total volatile organic compounds, temperature, relative humidity, pressure, light and motion sensing. The manufacturer supplies a datasheet and payload decoder from its product page. This is useful for building and HVAC analysis because several conditions are captured together, but its motion channel is an activity indication rather than a complete explanation of how many people occupy a building.

Products and platforms

Decentlab Data Access
Data service

Time-series storage, dashboards, CSV export and HTTP API access.⁴

Technology

Decentlab's LoRaWAN overview describes use with public or private network infrastructure and forwarding data to a range of application platforms. The radio network and the application are distinct choices. The DL-IAM page identifies Class A operation and battery power, along with a device-specific decoder link.

The optional Data Access service adds time-series storage, configurable dashboards, CSV export and a JSON HTTP API. It also describes connector libraries for tools such as Python and R. That creates two useful integration paths: decode sensor traffic into an existing IoT environment, or consume the managed service's data interface. Neither requires assuming that every downstream platform uses the same payload format.

Markets

The company's application range includes environmental monitoring, water-related measurements, agriculture and smart-city work. For commercial buildings, the indoor monitor provides air-quality and environmental data relevant to comfort and HVAC operation. For outdoor or distributed estates, the wider range supports physical conditions that a conventional electrical meter cannot observe.

A 2024 integration announcement names Akenza and TagoIO support across Decentlab devices, and identifies several public and private LoRaWAN network options. This makes the company relevant to projects that already have an IoT platform in place. The integration claim concerns sensor-data handling, not a claim that every platform implements identical alarms, analytics or commissioning behaviour.

Company

Decentlab GmbH is based in Dübendorf, Switzerland. Its company history dates its founding to 2008 by Jonas Meyer and Reinhard Bischoff following work at Empa. The current page identifies Bischoff as Managing Director and Meyer as Technical Director.

The business combines instruments with an optional data-service layer. Its services description includes dashboarding, data access and integration support, so a buyer can distinguish the sensor purchase from the software and data-delivery requirements of the project. That separation is useful when comparing specialist instrument suppliers: measurement capability, network access and application services are separate responsibilities even when one company offers all three.