3 ms·

You might need to specify which kinds of gasses or particles you need to measure. I would have assumed CO2 from the context, but since you mentioned cars I'm w

You might need to specify which kinds of gasses or particles you need to measure. I would have assumed CO2 from the context, but since you mentioned cars I'm wondering if you mean CO, VOCs, and/or PM32.

mdp2021 5y ago
Correctly guessed, mainly CO2 (breathing). I did not know that CO can be relevant in the car. But of course, the more is evalued, the better. In fact, for example, I had similar concerns for CO for the house (free flames).
- CoastalCoder 5y ago
  My understanding is that in a car, CO is normally a concern only if exhaust gas is somehow leaking into the passenger compartment. Unless your car has the fans off and the windows rolled up for a really long time, I'd be surprised if CO2 was something you need to worry about. Maybe if you're sleeping in it with the windows rolled up? CO in the house is definitely a concern. If you have a fireplace, woodstove, or furnace with a properly functioning chimney, you're unlikely to run into problems AFAIK. But people die every winter because they used a propane grill, or kerosene heater, or gas stove/oven in their house without proper ventilation. Or used a wood stove with ineffective / blocked chimney. So in colder climates having a functioning CO meter seems like a no-brainer.
  - mdp2021 5y ago
    Exactly. In the car, it may happen in winter that you could be working for some time with little ventilation. You may at some point feel dizzy, and realize you would like a meter to get the feedback that can teach you be more aware of the air quality, to regulate the balance between letting the hot air inside escape and letting the fresh air (both senses) in. In the house, similar awareness could be beneficial. But I have not yet found a decent product. It is unacceptable that one is supposed to have a Google account or similar in order to read a ruler or configure a blender.
    - CoastalCoder 5y ago
      I'd like to share a thought on this, which you may find helpful. I apologize if it comes across as presumptuous; I'm not good at finding the right wording for this kind of thing. It's a cautionary tale from my own life that may or may not resonate with you. Sometimes I've had similar lines of questioning. Where it occurs to me that something might be a risk worth addressing, and so I'd better gather data until I'm confident everything is okay or that I'll have a way to notice when the risk becomes real. Every(?) time I've gone down that route, I later concluded that the concern really wasn't that big a deal, and that I'd just be hyper-focused on it because of anxiety or A.D.D. I.e., in the overall scheme of things, the true risks that deserve priority are pretty evident: good sleep and body weight, exercise, not smoking, keeping my finances in order, etc. I have a tendency to forget those primary issues when I start focusing on something that could, potentially, under some circumstances become a problem. When I go down those rabbit trails, I end up reading a lot of articles, buying some unnecessary stuff from Amazon, planning for a project that realistically I'd never complete, and just worrying a lot. If there's any takeaway from all this (for me, at least), it's "don't sweat the (probably) small stuff".

mdp2021 5y ago

Correctly guessed, mainly CO2 (breathing). I did not know that CO can be relevant in the car. But of course, the more is evalued, the better. In fact, for example, I had similar concerns for CO for the house (free flames).

CoastalCoder 5y ago
My understanding is that in a car, CO is normally a concern only if exhaust gas is somehow leaking into the passenger compartment. Unless your car has the fans off and the windows rolled up for a really long time, I'd be surprised if CO2 was something you need to worry about. Maybe if you're sleeping in it with the windows rolled up? CO in the house is definitely a concern. If you have a fireplace, woodstove, or furnace with a properly functioning chimney, you're unlikely to run into problems AFAIK. But people die every winter because they used a propane grill, or kerosene heater, or gas stove/oven in their house without proper ventilation. Or used a wood stove with ineffective / blocked chimney. So in colder climates having a functioning CO meter seems like a no-brainer.
- mdp2021 5y ago
  Exactly. In the car, it may happen in winter that you could be working for some time with little ventilation. You may at some point feel dizzy, and realize you would like a meter to get the feedback that can teach you be more aware of the air quality, to regulate the balance between letting the hot air inside escape and letting the fresh air (both senses) in. In the house, similar awareness could be beneficial. But I have not yet found a decent product. It is unacceptable that one is supposed to have a Google account or similar in order to read a ruler or configure a blender.
  - CoastalCoder 5y ago
    I'd like to share a thought on this, which you may find helpful. I apologize if it comes across as presumptuous; I'm not good at finding the right wording for this kind of thing. It's a cautionary tale from my own life that may or may not resonate with you. Sometimes I've had similar lines of questioning. Where it occurs to me that something might be a risk worth addressing, and so I'd better gather data until I'm confident everything is okay or that I'll have a way to notice when the risk becomes real. Every(?) time I've gone down that route, I later concluded that the concern really wasn't that big a deal, and that I'd just be hyper-focused on it because of anxiety or A.D.D. I.e., in the overall scheme of things, the true risks that deserve priority are pretty evident: good sleep and body weight, exercise, not smoking, keeping my finances in order, etc. I have a tendency to forget those primary issues when I start focusing on something that could, potentially, under some circumstances become a problem. When I go down those rabbit trails, I end up reading a lot of articles, buying some unnecessary stuff from Amazon, planning for a project that realistically I'd never complete, and just worrying a lot. If there's any takeaway from all this (for me, at least), it's "don't sweat the (probably) small stuff".