I recently bought one air quality monitor (levenghuk wezzer something). Generally it works, but after few dozens of minutes its temperature sensor starts to display like +5 degrees compared to proper temperature. Very weird.
Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
51–60 of 218 posts
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#52This is not a joke, I am really asking: how do you measure the accuracy of an air quality monitor? Comparing it to another monitor? Creating an air pollution condition and seeing how close to that is the measurement?
The state of the art for reasonably priced CO2 monitors seems to be that they hard code in the "ambient" Co2 level and instructions tell you to let it sit outside every once in a while. The the sensor adjusts can adjust it's baseline accordingly , assuming that the lowest CO2 level it's seen in the last week or so is equivalent to the "ambient" outside level. Ofc this is susceptible to issues and can require even more adjustments since CO2 levels go up every year. A sensor from 10 years ago might read 5% lower than a modern one because it's using an out of date baseline CO2.
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#53Has anyone opened up their https://www.birdie.design/ and checked what sensor they use? They don't disclose it.
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#54Does AirGradient have any options that are connected and powered via PoE? The Awair Omni looks like a great option for what I imagine I'd like to set up but it would be nice to support Air Gradient if possible.
One thing that's cool is that Airgradient's designs are super modular. I am on a crusade against micro-USB, so when I made an Airgradient Basic board I just used an ESP board with USB-C instead. If you can get a board with PoE with a similar form factor you might be able to just plop it on. Otherwise you can tweak the PCB and STLs to make it work.
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#55I would not recommend the Airgradient diy kit to anyone. Have been using one for a while but the CO2 sensor is really unreliable and often spits out wrong values. VERY OFTEN. Last time this issue was wildly discussed by people using it e.g. in the link below which is using Prometheus but also in the forums of airgradient. All with no solution. https://github.com/geerlingguy/airgradient-prometheus/issues...
I purchased a soldered unit and the CO2 monitor seems defective and I can't trust the readings. Sometimes it reports 0 if left on for extended periods, other times the readings are wildly out of range of what the module is listed to support. I have emailed them regarding a different issue and didn't have the best response back and hasn't inspired confidence to raise this one. On the plus side the module is replaceabl…
Maybe you are having this issue. https://forum.airgradient.com/t/co2-reading-of-3-constantly/...
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#56Author here. I wrote this article a few weeks ago after discovering that a well known air quality monitor in the market that retails for more than USD 1000 actually uses a PM module that costs less than USD 20. Often people assume that the more expensive, the better but as you can see in the article this is often not the case -especially when it comes to the accuracy of the monitor. If you are looking for an open sou…
The same is true of digital bathroom scales. In fact almost all consumer grade digital scales have “fake accuracy” built into the firmware that ensures the same exact weight shows up when you step on the scale twice in a row, even if you pick up e.g a quarter-pound weight in your hand the second time
That should be outright illegal... Why do they allow equipment that deliberately lies to the user?
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#57Does AirGradient have any options that are connected and powered via PoE? The Awair Omni looks like a great option for what I imagine I'd like to set up but it would be nice to support Air Gradient if possible.
One thing that's cool is that Airgradient's designs are super modular. I am on a crusade against micro-USB, so when I made an Airgradient Basic board I just used an ESP board with USB-C instead. If you can get a board with PoE with a similar form factor you might be able to just plop it on. Otherwise you can tweak the PCB and STLs to make it work.
Fully agree. All our PRO kits have USB C and we also now use the D1 mini with USB C plug.
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
The same is true of digital bathroom scales. In fact almost all consumer grade digital scales have “fake accuracy” built into the firmware that ensures the same exact weight shows up when you step on the scale twice in a row, even if you pick up e.g a quarter-pound weight in your hand the second time
That should be outright illegal... Why do they allow equipment that deliberately lies to the user?
Because "they" have more influence in politics than the user.
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#59If you want more accuracy, buy 2-3 different cheap air quality monitors and average.
Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy
#60Author here. I wrote this article a few weeks ago after discovering that a well known air quality monitor in the market that retails for more than USD 1000 actually uses a PM module that costs less than USD 20. Often people assume that the more expensive, the better but as you can see in the article this is often not the case -especially when it comes to the accuracy of the monitor. If you are looking for an open sou…
Interesting analysis! Minor typo throughout: It's R^2 instead of R_2. Also surprised the dataset doesn't include Awair's products!
Thanks! Fixed.