7 ms·

Informative article with fair, fact based, conclusions. I'd like to add that: - The VINDRIKTNING is extremely consumer accessible ($11.99, good build, simple

Informative article with fair, fact based, conclusions. I'd like to add that: - The VINDRIKTNING is extremely consumer accessible ($11.99, good build, simple traffic light system). - It may be put into spaces that previously had no particulate air quality monitoring. - The spouse-acceptance-factor is extremely high (unlike e.g. a couple of circuit boards wired together off of Aliexpress). There are other consumer friendly offerings, but they aren't affordable (e.g. Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor 4x cost, Airthings 10x cost). That being said, IKEA could fix their traffic-light system's cut off points for free and should consider it.

LeanderK 5y ago
I think being low-cost is very important, otherwise I wouldn't consider it. I don't live near a major road, but in a small city. I don't think the air-quality is bad, but I also don't know for sure. I would not invest a significant amount of money (more than 10-15€).
- TheBlerch 5y ago
  You may find the Breezometer app helpful - I’ve found it quite accurate for local outdoor air quality in several different areas.
- Someone1234 5y ago
  I've found a lot of indoor sources of contaminants for example cheese that fell off a Pizza onto the oven floor will put you into "yellow" the next time you run the oven.
azth 5y ago
> - The spouse-acceptance-factor is extremely high (unlike e.g. a couple of circuit boards wired together off of Aliexpress). Which circuit boards do you recommend that have high accuracy that can be ordered?
- ahaucnx 5y ago
  I can recommed the Plantower 5003 PM sensor. Plantower also has smaller ones, e.g. 7003 or A003 but we get the best (most accurate and stable) readings from the 5003 model. We also experienced with more expensive ones e.g. from Sensirion but did not really measure a significant advantage compared to the Plantower.
ahaucnx 5y ago
It is actually pretty easy to build a much more accurate air quality sensor with the Plantower PM2.5 module as a base and a Wemos D1 mini as WiFi connected MCU. We have build instructions on our website on how to do it [1] + a nice 3D printable enclosure to pass the spouse-acceptance ;). [1] https://www.airgradient.com/diy/ https://www.airgradient.com/diy/
- Someone1234 5y ago
  I don't think our usages of "accessible" are the same. For example expecting to consumers to have a 3D printer and know how to use one would preclude it from my definition by a lot. Let alone needing a breadboard and to manually solder on components onto it. Accessible is walking into a store, putting a reasonable amount of money down, and plugging the thing in. Then providing output anyone can understand without training or expertise (e.g. traffic lights, smiley faces, etc).
  - hedora 5y ago
    I once bought an air filter that had the pm 2.5 rating surrounded by a blue/yellow/red halo. The only things it was missing were logging, and the ability to run the sensor without the fan. It could change fan speeds based on PM 2.5, but it was calibrated for a small room, and always ran way too slow. I wish there were standards around thermostats these days. If there were, then people could sell gizmos that measure PM 2.5, then (if the windows are closed), use it to set the speed of the variable speed blower in central air furnaces accordingly. This would cut our electricity usage by at least 20-30% during fire season. (I’d love to see a legal mandate for interoperability in this space.)
    - genewitch 5y ago
      My furnace blower isn't in use any longer, but it has connections for varying speeds, 6, I think. It only uses 1, though. I'm unsure of how it would even be used in practice, as it appears it's just various voltages. Ideally furnace blowers would be inverter ran so you could just tell the inverter how fast to run the fan, rather than changing the supply voltage. Mine was a 3.5 ton HVAC, I replaced it with a five head, five and a half ton "mini split"; while the split air has had it's share of issues (like, I got a full refund of the purchase price a few months ago due to manufacturing defects of the copper lines), I prefer having air handling done bear the ceiling and using 20x20x1 inch filters on box fans (or fancy filters if those are your style) on the floor. The mini split has the inverter driven motors everywhere, and is completely silent during normal use. I have two AQM, and occasionally one or the other will register high CO2 or whatever and I will open a couple of windows and run exhaust fans (built in to the home) to cycle the air, it takes about 20 minutes. The main furnace style system did no filtering or air quality management.
beckingz 5y ago
Spouse acceptance factor is an underrated engineering constraint.
- monopoledance 5y ago
  And likely an unnecessary sexist remark.
  - ev1 5y ago
    No sex or gender was implied by the word spouse?
    - monopoledance 5y ago
      "technically, ..." Yeah, I know. That's why I said likely. C'mon, don't play stupid.
      - UnFleshedOne 5y ago
        Well, but is it wrong? Even you knew which gender is less likely to like bare baseboard with chips sticking out. Do you expect people to actively disregard their lived experience?
        monopoledance 5y ago
        > Well, but is it wrong? Even you knew which gender is less likely to like bare baseboard with chips sticking out. Do you expect people to actively disregard their lived experience Thanks, for confirming it. Ridiculous, how everyone is trying to bend interpretation.
        GekkePrutser 5y ago
        But you're the one who called it sexist. Even though it is merely a statistical likelihood. As others have pointed out it is really a serious consideration for a lot of people so I don't think it's an unnecessary remark, and the OP went out of their way to make it not sexist.

LeanderK 5y ago

I think being low-cost is very important, otherwise I wouldn't consider it. I don't live near a major road, but in a small city. I don't think the air-quality is bad, but I also don't know for sure. I would not invest a significant amount of money (more than 10-15€).

TheBlerch 5y ago
You may find the Breezometer app helpful - I’ve found it quite accurate for local outdoor air quality in several different areas.
Someone1234 5y ago
I've found a lot of indoor sources of contaminants for example cheese that fell off a Pizza onto the oven floor will put you into "yellow" the next time you run the oven.

azth 5y ago

> - The spouse-acceptance-factor is extremely high (unlike e.g. a couple of circuit boards wired together off of Aliexpress). Which circuit boards do you recommend that have high accuracy that can be ordered?

ahaucnx 5y ago
I can recommed the Plantower 5003 PM sensor. Plantower also has smaller ones, e.g. 7003 or A003 but we get the best (most accurate and stable) readings from the 5003 model. We also experienced with more expensive ones e.g. from Sensirion but did not really measure a significant advantage compared to the Plantower.

ahaucnx 5y ago

It is actually pretty easy to build a much more accurate air quality sensor with the Plantower PM2.5 module as a base and a Wemos D1 mini as WiFi connected MCU. We have build instructions on our website on how to do it [1] + a nice 3D printable enclosure to pass the spouse-acceptance ;). [1] https://www.airgradient.com/diy/ https://www.airgradient.com/diy/

Someone1234 5y ago
I don't think our usages of "accessible" are the same. For example expecting to consumers to have a 3D printer and know how to use one would preclude it from my definition by a lot. Let alone needing a breadboard and to manually solder on components onto it. Accessible is walking into a store, putting a reasonable amount of money down, and plugging the thing in. Then providing output anyone can understand without training or expertise (e.g. traffic lights, smiley faces, etc).
- hedora 5y ago
  I once bought an air filter that had the pm 2.5 rating surrounded by a blue/yellow/red halo. The only things it was missing were logging, and the ability to run the sensor without the fan. It could change fan speeds based on PM 2.5, but it was calibrated for a small room, and always ran way too slow. I wish there were standards around thermostats these days. If there were, then people could sell gizmos that measure PM 2.5, then (if the windows are closed), use it to set the speed of the variable speed blower in central air furnaces accordingly. This would cut our electricity usage by at least 20-30% during fire season. (I’d love to see a legal mandate for interoperability in this space.)
  - genewitch 5y ago
    My furnace blower isn't in use any longer, but it has connections for varying speeds, 6, I think. It only uses 1, though. I'm unsure of how it would even be used in practice, as it appears it's just various voltages. Ideally furnace blowers would be inverter ran so you could just tell the inverter how fast to run the fan, rather than changing the supply voltage. Mine was a 3.5 ton HVAC, I replaced it with a five head, five and a half ton "mini split"; while the split air has had it's share of issues (like, I got a full refund of the purchase price a few months ago due to manufacturing defects of the copper lines), I prefer having air handling done bear the ceiling and using 20x20x1 inch filters on box fans (or fancy filters if those are your style) on the floor. The mini split has the inverter driven motors everywhere, and is completely silent during normal use. I have two AQM, and occasionally one or the other will register high CO2 or whatever and I will open a couple of windows and run exhaust fans (built in to the home) to cycle the air, it takes about 20 minutes. The main furnace style system did no filtering or air quality management.

beckingz 5y ago

Spouse acceptance factor is an underrated engineering constraint.

monopoledance 5y ago
And likely an unnecessary sexist remark.
- ev1 5y ago
  No sex or gender was implied by the word spouse?
  - monopoledance 5y ago
    "technically, ..." Yeah, I know. That's why I said likely. C'mon, don't play stupid.
    - UnFleshedOne 5y ago
      Well, but is it wrong? Even you knew which gender is less likely to like bare baseboard with chips sticking out. Do you expect people to actively disregard their lived experience?
      - monopoledance 5y ago
        > Well, but is it wrong? Even you knew which gender is less likely to like bare baseboard with chips sticking out. Do you expect people to actively disregard their lived experience Thanks, for confirming it. Ridiculous, how everyone is trying to bend interpretation.
        GekkePrutser 5y ago
        But you're the one who called it sexist. Even though it is merely a statistical likelihood. As others have pointed out it is really a serious consideration for a lot of people so I don't think it's an unnecessary remark, and the OP went out of their way to make it not sexist.