Poor Air Quality - High AQI

[jacob]

I wonder what the AQI of the airwash over my face is in a smoke event is? I bet it's better than nothing... but how much better?

I stuck the meter into the exhaust when I was cooking (cooking without an extraction fan is like a small fire => AQI~200+ ) and the exhaust was <5, so the effect is immediate on the first pass. However, the exhaust stream is quickly mixed with regular air from the convection, so sitting next to it or 4 ft away is a different matter. Ultimately, I found the cleaner to be [far] more effective if combined with a large fan that could move the air of the entire room/house.

[thef0x]

7. I concluded consumer level AQI meters in the $100-$300 range are not reliable. They also have short lifespans. 6 months to 3 years, depending on the contaminant being detected. I'm instead using a rough rule of thumb, that untreated home AQI will be ~50% of outdoor AQI.

I've been shocked to compare my front door AQI meter from Ikea (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/vindriktni ... -60515911/ - I feel like I spent ~$7 on these when I bought them, now they're $16!) to Air Now, purple air, etc. I find the results to sync up really well and I use my own sensors for relative assessment, not to do actual scientific, controlled measurements. (Edit: I added a microprocessor to this sensor and have it synced up to a home automation server/container in my proxmox box).

We have one in our kitchen-meets-livingroom and it also clearly detects when we've been cooking with our oven.

Frankly, though, the detectors are not necessary at all -- three simple rules will work: 1) when it's bad out, everything is closed up, air filters are on. 2) when you cook, air out the house (or relevant space). 3) get fresh air in the house in the morning.

Having some pretty good data on this, from what I can tell, when you cook, you really need to air out the whole house. Our bedroom spikes in sync with all indoor sensors (compared to blue line which is outside):



This data is from mid Jan to today, Feb 9, with clean air a constant outside in the PNW.

Technically it's a waste of money, now knowing what I know, to continue owning and powering these sensors.

...but ... graphs...

[delay]

Frankly, though, the detectors are not necessary at all -- three simple rules will work: 1) when it's bad out, everything is closed up, air filters are on. 2) when you cook, air out the house (or relevant space). 3) get fresh air in the house in the morning.

Interesting, that's like running watches in a sense! Once you learn to match your breath to your effort a watch adds very little.

What health benefits do you notice after following your three rules?

[thef0x]

Interesting, that's like running watches in a sense! Once you learn to match your breath to your effort a watch adds very little.

What health benefits do you notice after following your three rules?

Because baseline is clean air, it's harder to "know the water you swim in" in terms of how I'm feeling but when it's bad out (late summer in the PNW for the last bunch of years) and you don't use an air filter: you blow your nose and there is black soot in it, you feel lower energy and less.. clean, it causes coughing, it's just a bad time. It's depressing to have to stay inside most of the time for a handful of weeks -- definitely the worst part even if you can solve the air quality inside issue -- and really feels like "the end is near". Tough to be an optimist in the apocalypse.

Last summer we escaped East to Montana.

Cooking impact: not noticeable on a daily basis at all because the dose is only a few hours and the dose curve declines quickly compared to weeks of forest fire smoke, so I'm glad to have gotten the senors / gathered this data because it's changed my behavior for the better / I wouldn't have known.