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i have a pet fascination with air quality- not in any real sense, but im always just wondering about it, since its so varied and virtually invisible. are there

i have a pet fascination with air quality- not in any real sense, but im always just wondering about it, since its so varied and virtually invisible. are there any simple small tools you know of that are good at get information about air quality. the only thing i see people sometimes use is a particulate meter that tells them the concentration of particulate matter of various sizes. seems like it would be cool to have a kit of different tools to measure things like c02 levels, voc's, particulates etc

fossuser 8y ago
I have one of these that I bought mostly on a whim because I was curious about it. https://getawair.com https://getawair.com It does a decent job.
graeme 8y ago
You can get CO2 meters quite easily on amazon. They sell them as a commodity for greenhouses measurement. For particulates, the Laseregg is the best I've found. Apparently the laseregg 2+ measures VOC, but I'm not sure about that. From what I heard there are no VOC meters available at a consumer level. CO2 is the best proxy, because high CO2 means low ventilation, which prevents venting of VOCs.
- tkahnoski 8y ago
  What do you do with the air measurements? Are there things you can do to improve air quality?
  - graeme 8y ago
    I changed a few things as a result: * I am far more diligent about opening a window at my home and office. In winter I may open one a crack. * I leave my bedroom door open at night * I noticed I was getting extremely high AQI index readings when cooking. I was frying things in a pan after previously cooking something else in the same meal (meat, then sweet potatoes). I now wash in between, use coconut oil (less AQI readings) and am more diligent about opening the kitchen door if the AQU gets high It's kind of like measuring weight. Once you have it stable, you don't really need to do anything. But, keeping the readings alerts you if something ever goes off track. Also very useful to see that even openings in windows could make large and immediate differences.
- sitkack 8y ago
  I think you have it backwards from the cursory research I did by scanning over the datasheets for various sensors. VOC are easier to measure than CO2 and for rooms occupied by people their is a strong correlation between VOC and CO2. VOC sensors qty 1 are 5-12 where CO2 is 40-120. These are sensors themselves, not full devices.

fossuser 8y ago

I have one of these that I bought mostly on a whim because I was curious about it. https://getawair.com https://getawair.com It does a decent job.

graeme 8y ago

You can get CO2 meters quite easily on amazon. They sell them as a commodity for greenhouses measurement. For particulates, the Laseregg is the best I've found. Apparently the laseregg 2+ measures VOC, but I'm not sure about that. From what I heard there are no VOC meters available at a consumer level. CO2 is the best proxy, because high CO2 means low ventilation, which prevents venting of VOCs.

tkahnoski 8y ago
What do you do with the air measurements? Are there things you can do to improve air quality?
- graeme 8y ago
  I changed a few things as a result: * I am far more diligent about opening a window at my home and office. In winter I may open one a crack. * I leave my bedroom door open at night * I noticed I was getting extremely high AQI index readings when cooking. I was frying things in a pan after previously cooking something else in the same meal (meat, then sweet potatoes). I now wash in between, use coconut oil (less AQI readings) and am more diligent about opening the kitchen door if the AQU gets high It's kind of like measuring weight. Once you have it stable, you don't really need to do anything. But, keeping the readings alerts you if something ever goes off track. Also very useful to see that even openings in windows could make large and immediate differences.
sitkack 8y ago
I think you have it backwards from the cursory research I did by scanning over the datasheets for various sensors. VOC are easier to measure than CO2 and for rooms occupied by people their is a strong correlation between VOC and CO2. VOC sensors qty 1 are 5-12 where CO2 is 40-120. These are sensors themselves, not full devices.