Smart Air Quality/Pollution Sensors

Air polution is known to cause cancer and other health problems. Can smart home air quality sensors detect this and improve your health? Are they worth buying?
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[@C3PO_]

As an air quality and public health researcher, I gave a thumbs-up to your excellent video and enquiring mind! As you found out, most of the low-cost sensor-based consumer-grade AQ monitors lack of proper calibrations. These sensors are technically nephelometers counting the number of fine particles using a beam of laser. Then they convert the number counts to mass concentrations using empirical equations. For them to measure accurately, the manufacturer should 1) calibrate them in the lab to ensure measurements from two units of the same type of monitor are comparable; 2) perform on-site calibration to take into account the physico-chemical properties of the particles present in your home environment. However, the second step is usually difficult, and your collocation experiment showed that they might have skipped the first step, too - a consistent 5-fold difference between the 2 PM2.5 monitors can't be acceptable variability.😉 Therefore, we consider these monitors *indicative* instruments only useful for showing the direction of change, as you mentioned in your video, and won't compare their measurements to health guideline values for intervention. I like your warning lights for poor AQ, though!👍

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Good to know! Thanks for the comment!

[@fredjones5719]

Could you please recommend a hand held air tester that I use to check the air quality both inside and outside the home. Ive seen so many reviews on them and am having trouble believing any of them really work well.

[@rasmuswi]

I suspect my IKEA Vindriktning and Vindstyrka have actually at least gone through some very basic calibration, I have three of them, currently places side by side, and they actually track each other pretty well, and report the same pm2.5 levels. That said, I still see them as mostly indicative of air quality as I have no good way of calibrating them. Heck, I don't even have a good way of calibrating a thermometer.

[@Airbag888]

@@rasmuswi - pure water ice and pure water boiling -> 0C and 100C

[@rasmuswi]

@@Airbag888 that assumes that your temperature sensor can handle immersion, which I'm not sure if all sensors can. Also, boiling water at normal atmospheric pressure is more like 98C, though that's easy to adjust for if you have a barometer,

[@DocMacLovin]

Excellent Scientific test Setup!

[@h8h81]

I need one that detects vape to turn on my inline fan in attic. Loving these open source series especially the camera ones. Any prime Day Cameras that are good for a budget ptz not PoE cam?

[@74357175]

Thanks for comparing two devices! Unfortunately it confirms my worry (and experience) that these devices are very poorly calibrated, even for the simple stuff

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

Most of them arent calibrated or calibrate at all, they use diferent sensors to average stuff and guess.

[@74357175]

Just saw an article today taking about (carcinogenic) formaldehyde leaking from furniture. I wonder if the HCHO sensors on the market are sensitive enough to detect hazardous levels?

[@RocketBoom1966]

Thanks Alan, I've been looking into this, but hadn't decided on a sensor. I did some research and found the same as you. Those Tuya sensors don't seem the best. Nice science work! I am thinking of modding the Ikea sensor and adding an ESP32 on it.

[@kappadistributive]

I've done this recently. An ESP-01 comfortably fits into the casing (don't forget to add a linear voltage regulator) and it has been working reliably for the last 2 months or so. Kudos to IKEA for making their products this easy to adapt.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

I'll have to look into the IKEA sensor. Thanks for the heads up!

[@adfjasjhf]

@@HomeAutomationGuy Just search for this video from Vaclav Chalopuka: "IKEA AIR quality sensor Home Assistant upgrade"

[@MrSupersidewinder]

There are aftermarket boards available for the IKEA sensors...👍😁

[@RocketBoom1966]

@@MrSupersidewinder I considered those, but I don't think they ship to Australia.

[@thesimbon]

I am testing the SGP40 voc sensor, on paper is one of the best you can buy but it outputs just an "index" of the voc concentration, good enough only to detect if air quality is getting worse when index is above 100 and it gets better with values below 100. There is no measured value.

[@praddzzz]

This man is dedicated 💨

[@jorismunnik4999]

@HomeAutomationGuy Thanks for the great video 😀 I ended up to this video when searching for the Airgradient One sensor and using it in Home Assistant. Any chance you might buy one, test it and make a tutorial on how to integrate with Home Assistant? There are some written tutorials online I believe, but as I am a more visually oriented guy (and a bit of noob with Home Assistant / knowing the basics for lights, sensors and stuff...) a video tutorial would be really welcome 😄 Thanks again and KUTGW! 💪

[@JBGecko13yt]

helpful thanks!

[@scienide77]

I have a central ventilation unit with 3 speeds controlled by humidity in the bathroom and kitchen... Want to do the same thing with co2 measurement but still looking for a decent sensor. Doesn't have to be totally accurate but I don't want a guessing sensor. Seen ndir Zigbee sensors but still a little hesitant to buy. Should look up some reviews.

[@ronm6585]

Thanks.

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

Another great video!

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Thank you!

[@absfinal]

I wonder if it detects when there's a need to shower?

[@hitchmontana]

Which app do ypu use in the video?

[@xtremeideaz]

Thanks for the video and honesty. How about going the DIY way? building an MQ DIY sensor + ESPhome ? are they more accurate?

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

I'm wondering that too! I was hoping one of my smart viewers would be able to comment on that!

[@xtremeideaz]

@@HomeAutomationGuy I built one with MQ2 Gas sensor. so far it works well but i have not tried other MQ sensors. they are a lot. MQ-2 - Methane, Butane, LPG, smoke MQ-3 - Alcohol, Ethanol, smoke MQ-4 - Methane, CNG Gas MQ-5 - Natural gas, LPG MQ-6 - LPG, butane gas MQ-7 - Carbon Monoxide MQ-8 - Hydrogen Gas MQ-9 - Carbon Monoxide, flammable gasses MQ131 - Ozone MQ135 - Air Quality (CO, Ammonia, Benzene, Alcohol, smoke) MQ136 - Hydrogen Sulfide gas MQ137 - Ammonia MQ138 - Benzene, Toluene, Alcohol, Acetone, Propane, Formaldehyde gas, Hydrogen MQ214 - Methane, Natural gas A Lot!!!

[@calebjpryor]

I used awair for years but loathe the company since dropping support for their older still very functional sensors. Now I use a Modified Ikea pm2 sensor with a esp32 and scd41 sensor inside. Running Tasmota or ESPHome. Very close readings to the calibrated awair sensors

[@qpsice]

How do you access that dashboard

[@dorinvoicu1040]

You look like the type of guy that seems normal at the beginning and then farts into the air quality monitor on youtube. I received this compliment myself once.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance!

[@rasmuswi]

When I want to test I typically light a candle and then extinguish it, and let the little white smoke puff reach the sensor.

[@HubertRayBailey-ve5sx]

I know this is a old thread by now. But, can you help me by answering a problem. I have people vaporizing chemicals (bleach turned to chlorine gas) house hold cleaners and creosote made into a smoke screen. Do you know of something that can pick up on these? Something I can use legally. Not asking for legal advice obviously, but something to provide proof. I now have pulmonary hypertension brung on by scaring by these chemicals. Pointing me in the right direction would help.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

I have no idea sorry - I don't really know what those things are. But all the best finding a solution!

[@Lordyama]

A whole-house air purifier is the best way to go. I had bushfires near my house and the air outside was inpenitrably thick. But inside the air was pristine for the entire home. Best bang for buck there is. I also keep an Atmotube Pro in the house so I can see that the air is clean.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Thanks for the info!

[@mikegodin23]

Hi. I have one of that, it seems to work, but I have doubts about the values to use. What values are you using? I couldn't find an accurate chart of values that could work for a healthy air quality. Could anyone help? Thanks. Miguel

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

The various government environmental agencies around the world publish recommendations for indoor air quality, especially for use in offices. I've been using a combination of those and the baselines I see in my house.

[@SmartySmarts]

Are there any that sense 2nd hand cigarette smoke to trigger fan?

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

I am not sure, perhaps one of these would detect that?

[@george_gav24]

Lol, that was an amazing test to the sensor, i hoped you wiped it

[@87vortex87]

Does tuya still required a cloud account? Because that's a no go for me. What are good alternative air quality sensors?

[@BartCockheyt]

Tuya wifi devices do need the cloud. Tuya Zigbee devices don't. So basicly: Wifi=yes, zigbee=no.

[@87vortex87]

@@BartCockheyt no, that's incorrect. I've bought ZigBee tuya wall plugs last year and still needed to create an account to get some tokens to be able to get them working with Home Assistant. Yes, there is no cloud communication, but still cloud registration. And I don't want them to have anything from me, not even my email.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Interesting. I've never had to do that for any Tuya Zigbee product. Did you pair them directly with Home Assistant using ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT? Or are you using a Tuya hub of some sort?

[@87vortex87]

@@HomeAutomationGuy no I didn't have a tuya hub. I bought the wallplugs and wanted to use the integration in HA. But the integration wanted a key that could only be obtained after cloud registration of the products.

[@BartCockheyt]

@@87vortex87 So you probably have the WiFi plugs, not the Zigbee plugs.

[@RogerStocker]

Thanks, Alan, for this nice Video. But as an educated Chemical Laboratory Assistant I would never trust such a cheap sensor. As you said, that can be used to alert on a bad trending. setting some thresholds to trigger a warning is ok but never take the values for facts. Professional monitoring sensors costs multiples. I would estimate low 4 digit numbers. BTW: professional sensors are not able to monitor so many different measurements at once.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Thanks for the input! I certainly am not going to trust it as a laboratory grade device!

[@adfjasjhf]

I recommend to watch a video from "Vaclav Chaloupka". He used IKEA Vindriktning air sensor but he purchased 3rd party board which allows him to use it with ESPHome.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Brilliant! Thanks for the recommendation!

[@rasmuswi]

@@HomeAutomationGuy I was just about to recommend the same thing! I just installed the dedicated CO2 sensor into my Ikea Vindriktning, and spent a few hours configuring ESPHome so the lights on the Vindriktning will turn blue (as I will if there's too much co2 in the air) when co2 levels are high. That Laskakit board replaces the stock LEDs with a Neopixelbus so you can do all sorts of colorful things if you want to. 🙂

[@rasmuswi]

@@HomeAutomationGuy also, the slightly more expensive Ikea Vindstyrka (Vindstyrka means wind strength in Swedish, but in English you'd rather call that wind speed, and Vindriktning means wind direction) is also a pretty nice device, with a nice display, and as opposed to the Vindriktning it actually has Zigbee. I have one of those too.

[@ctlspl]

Any experiences pairing this with homebridge via mqtt?

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

I'm afraid I've got no experience with homebridge.

[@ctlspl]

@@HomeAutomationGuy thanks anyway

[@OwlishGeorge]

Honestly I might just bash together my own using an ESP32... I'm sure there's got to be a decent quality sensor to be had.

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Let me know if you find one. They were super expensive last time I looked, and didn't support all the readings I'd like

[@georgepapa2950]

IKEA PM2.5 sensor with a WeMos D1 Arduino best value into Home Assistant!

[@simonsayshomeassistant]

The MHZ19 is a great DIY CO2 option

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Thanks for sharing!

[@redsun9594]

I use Xiaomi mi air purifier, I believe its pm2 sensor is quite accurate because it reacts when I do dust cleaning and such, but also being Hepa filter it fixed pm2 problem and not only notifies that you have one

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Nice! I've not seen them myself

[@Airbag888]

There used to be one that would do pm2.5/10 and TVOC while also exposing all 3 to HA.. but I cannot find it anywhere

[@IndigoRootsBand]

The fart sold me!

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

🍑💨

[@bobfairchild]

Made in China + WiFi? Will it report back to China?

[@HomeAutomationGuy]

Take a look at my Networking videos. They show you how to create a separate WiFi network for devices like this so you can prevent them from accessing the internet and reporting back to anyone

[@GregGranito]

Immediate subscribe for the fart test

[@LowellBrillante]

Came here for comments about the hilarious fart.

[@VinodBaliga]

"changes introduced in air quality" LMAO 🤣🤣🤣

[@seba2038]

avoid this cheap bullshit, you cannot pay 25$ for a device with 5 sensors, as one sensor costs min 20$. It is not worth to even buy this device, so what bad advices you give to folks man.

[@andreipopescu1]

it has some sort of sensor, test what it does good and ignore the other readings