Air Pollution in Our Homes

Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by clairity on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @03:30PM (#19862073)

i bought a wave-plus[0] on a whim, and it's also been eye-opening. it doesn't measure particulate matter directly, but has a VOC meter (and radon, which is their strength) that similarly spikes for all sorts of things, including closing the windows at night. it's battery-operated and connects to a phone app via bluetooth (which then can sync to their cloud dashboard if you choose).

i may buy a foobot[1] one day, as it was highly rated in recent studies on pm measurements, and has an api.

[0] https://www.airthings.com/wave-plus [1] https://foobot.io/

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Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by graeme on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @03:48PM (#19862220)

Re foobot, did you see this? https://mobile.twitter.com/dhh/status/928661125327069184

Airthings looks interesting. I'm curious to know of any reviews of their accuracy.

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Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by clairity on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @04:21PM (#19862506)

thanks! i had not seen that particular tweet, though i'd heard dhh was into this stuff generally.

i'm a little less concerned about accurate co2 levels, since mitigation is straightforward (open a window). even imperfect co2 readings are good enough to signal when to open a window (around 800-1000 ppm, or ~2x ambient co2 levels).

voc's and particulate matter are more my nemesis, as my lungs are more sensitive to that stuff. beyond knowing generally how bad the air is, i'd like to be able to figure out what is causing the bad air and how to mitigate it. information there seems lacking right now.

i'd trust the radon sensor in the airthings more than the voc/co2 sensor, since radon is what they're known for. the voc/co2 sensor is probably the cheaper type used in most consumer air quality monitors, so it's good directionally but is not strictly accurate/precise.

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Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by graeme on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @04:51PM (#19862782)

Thanks! Got a link to that report you mentioned on the foobot, incidentally?

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Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by clairity on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @06:06PM (#19863446)

sure, this was a helpful less-scientific study: https://cleantechnica.com/2016/07/09/home-indoor-air-quality...

and this is the study that foobot themselves reference: https://cdn-foobot.pressidium.com/wp-content/themes/foobot/a...

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Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by Rudebwoy10 on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @07:15PM (#19863853)

Definitely seen these studies. I think they are from a few years back though, so the relevance might be in question. I don't think the newer versions of laseregg, netatmo, awair, or any of the other leading brands are on there. What I love about that study (and find funny) are the A-F ratings. If you look at the averages... both foobot and awair have the same grades (2 As, 2 Bs, and a D), yet one of them gets an A and other gets a C.

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Re:Air Pollution in Our Homes by Rudebwoy10 on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @04:57PM (#19862846)

For everything non-Radon, I'd trust Awair (http://getawair.com) honestly. I feel like I'm shilling for them at this point. Outside of DHH's recommendation, I read somewhere that their sensors are certified (plus their 2nd Edition does PM2.5 and CO2, unlike the foobot one). I've looked into smart things, but I'm not concerned about Radon, so wasn't going to pay the extra $75.

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