8 ms·
What does it take to produce cheap CO2 sensors? Ikea would be my best bet to provide a large enough market for good-enough sensors to bring prices down. A CO2 s
by netrus 4y ago
What does it take to produce cheap CO2 sensors? Ikea would be my best bet to provide a large enough market for good-enough sensors to bring prices down. A CO2 sensor should be in every classroom and every office, but it's not affordable enough yet.
- ikekkdcjkfke 4y agoWhy isn't my 1000$ smartphone loaded with sensors, infrared camera, decibel meter etc.
- davidy123 4y agoYou can add these things via USB (not sure about iPhone). If enough people find it helpful, it'll become part of the package eventually.
- happymellon 4y agoThere are a few lightning adaptors, I have an IR camera for example, however they are talking about the USB C port is going to be proprietary so it will only work for power unless you have Apple approved wiring and chips.
- aflag 4y agoProbably because it would make it cost more than $1000 while not being useful to most people.
- soderfoo 4y agoManufacturers believe consumer sentiment favors cramming more telephoto selfie cams and the like in to phones.
- literalAardvark 4y agoUnfortunately, word on the street agrees. I'd really love CO2, HRV and a physical keyboard, but it's just not gonna happen ever, because we'd end up with the Homermobile.
- red-iron-pine 4y agohomemobile was ugly and expensive. if they could be slipped in easily and reasonably cheaply then it might fly.
- varjag 4y ago> decibel meter You have the microphone in your smartphone.
- goodpoint 4y agoBecause manufacturers invested a lot in advertising to create demand for extremely high resolution screen and cameras. Even if air quality sensors would have saved lives (see covid and air pollution) that's not what companies optimize for.
- aintgonnatakeit 4y agoiPhone has a decibel meter
- LeonM 4y agoAny phone has a decibel meter, it's the microphone. However, I can imagine that with Android devices calibration is going to be an issue (with iPhones, you know which sensor is being used)
- loudmax 4y agoBecause the demand hasn't been there. If more people learn the benefits of these sensors and decide they want more of them they'll pay more for models that include them and manufacturers will respond to demand. If people don't know about them, or don't perceive any particular benefit, those sensors will remain niche and expensive.
- arsome 4y agoSame reason I can't have a hardware keyboard on any modern, reasonably priced phone: lack of demand.
- jve 4y ago... yeah, apart from gyroscope, pressure, proximity, light, position, magnetic, accelerometer, g, fingerprint, blood oxygen, internal temp and IR sensors.
- agoose77 4y agoDepends what "cheap" is. You can get MHZ19 < £20-30 last I checked.
- progbits 4y agoSensirion SCD40, a good quality compact sensor from very reputable manufacturer, sells for $25 in bulk.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoAfter including all the costs and markups to get it to retail, that would imply an MSRP of at least $200.
- billiallards 4y agoLooks like <$30 to buy a single unit on DigiKey with a prevailing price ~$40, but you'd probably need a reflow oven to solder the unit. $60 for an assembled board at retail. Bulk retail is closer to $20, so OP may not have been referring to negotiated wholesale volume pricing. https://octopart.com/search?q=scd40¤cy=USD&specs=0 https://octopart.com/search?q=scd40¤cy=USD&specs=0
- MichaelZuo 4y ago$60 for an assembled unit at a retail store when the sensor alone is $20-$25 in bulk?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- the_generalist 4y agoI toyed with something like this a few years ago. Never really built the thing, but you can actually do this with a Rasberry Pi and a couple of attachments.
- ThePhysicist 4y agoNormally a high CO2 level will go hand in hand with the air feeling stuffy from other pollutants that build up at the same time, so there's hardly a need to continuously use a CO2 meter as you can easily notice when the air "goes bad". CO2 buildup is quite predictable in most closed rooms based on the number of people inside, the room volume and the ventilation as well, so you can just work out a ventilation schedule and stick to that instead. Common sense often beats smart gadets. Personally I have a CO2 meter in my tiny office room but I don't need to look at it as I pretty much know that it will be in the red after being in the room for a while with the door closed.
- flemhans 4y agoI can't feel the difference between 1500ppm and 500ppm CO2 levels, yet 1500 is above recommended limits. It's actually quite difficult to keep it below 1000 for us, and getting these sensors in every room has been quite the 'curse' :D
- boppo1 4y agoI've wondered about this. If I install an air monitor in my room, what do I do if it shows low quality? Open my window in below-freezing winter temps? Hire someone to overhaul my furnace and vents?
- throwaway14356 4y agoif you keep the window open all year, dress appropriately and avoid heated buildings you don't notice how cold it is. I switch it on a few years ago because my cat is getting really old. I now feel cold if its 17 C or below.
- kgermino 4y agoThat is an extraordinarily climate-specific recommendation. It’s currently a fairly mild 30F/-1 C outside my house and even that is obviously way too cold to go without heat completely.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- wkat4242 4y agoSensirion makes a decent photoacoustic-based sensor called the SCD41. It's about 30 bucks in volume. Other models are laser based (NDIR) and more expensive. There's also eCO2 which is estimated based on VOC levels and basically useless. So in other words, adding real CO2 would increase the price a lot. At least double it (since the sensor cost isn't the only factor obviously) This would totally change the value proposition and target market. I guess they did their research and decided against it. There's other devices that do CO2 for around $100.
- peterbraden 4y agoThe SCD40 series is a pain to calibrate - it will drift out of calibration unless it's left outside at some points. It's not ideal for consumer electronics.
- woefblaf123 4y agoThis is not unique to the SCD40 series. This applies also to NDIR based sensors. They also need to 'see' outside air on a weekly basis. It's just the way CO2 sensing tech works.
- fotta 4y agoNot necessarily. The SCD series can have auto calibration turned off. You take it outside once and baseline that to 400ppm. The drift on the sensor is rated very low (+-50 ppm over the sensor’s lifetime). This is what I do with my SCD30.
- wkat4242 4y agoInteresting, I didn't know that, I've only used them in auto mode. I also have SCD30s, the 40s are a pain in the ** to solder and they were hard to get because they are new. I wonder why they don't just calibrate them off the factory line then? I mean, 50ppm is not much. In auto mode you won't get much better accuracy than that because you don't always air the house well enough to get down to 400 (let alone in a city's CO2 bubble).
- lostmsu 4y agoNote, the IKEA sensor does NOT monitor CO2.