Scott 2 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 06, 2023 9:33 am
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...