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Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

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Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#51

Post by strogonoff »

Urgo wrote: post #44
strogonoff wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sure the sensor is fine and the weird USB port can be fixed (though it looked like they do not make it easy to disassemble the body). However, the device is just so janky and unpleasant to use I am not sure I want to go through the trouble. I started looking at Airthings, though I was recommended AirGradient as well. > until this year I always just used their website to view the data or the app Never used their…

> Of course, but it means it should be within reach to turn on and it will blast blue light in my face should I want to check it at night. An e-ink screen would work best, considering low refresh rate is not an issue in this scenario. You can set a schedule. Mine automatically go into DND mode a little before bedtime and turn off after the sun is up.

Would you have a clock that requires being turned off at night, because it has an unbearably bright screen?

I personally don’t want to fumble through DnD mode whenever I thought to take a glance at carbon dioxide or PM2.5 while it’s dark outside.

There is only one thing I need from it, and that is to show air quality measurements in a non-painful way. Sadly, AirVisual Pro does not do that well for me.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#52

Post by bhouston »

ahaucnx wrote: post #42
bhouston wrote: post #30

I bought this no-name CO2 monitor (can be found on Amazon and AliExpress and probably elsewhere): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006483766478.html It is ~ $50. It actually works really well. I tested it in a number of situations and it appeared to be relatively accurate. It led me to make some ventilation changes in the house. I didn't need it on all the time, I just do spot checks if I think there is an issue n…

I had a look but it's unclear that it is an NDIR CO2 sensor. There are cheap Chinese CO2 sensors that actually do not measure CO2 but estimate it from VOCs. You can test this easily. Spray some Ethanol around your sensor and see if the CO2 rises a lot. If so then it's not a real CO2 sensor.

I think it is a VOC-based estimator. Seems to work well though in most cases.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#53

Post by sliken »

sxp wrote: post #4

What do the two ownerships clauses (quoted below) mean in practice? It's unlikely AirThings will come after me if I download all the data from my sensors and post them online. And is there any evidence that they've gone after people who have created open source interfaces to their APIs? It sounds like their lawyers just wrote aggressive clauses into their contracts to cover their asses in case they are acquired or wa…

If you don't want airthings to own your data, do not upload it to them.

Airthings has a git repo allowing you to read your own data, keep it inside your network, and graph it with graphana or anything you want.

However if you use their free, er, no charge service to view your data, then they own what they upload.

If you want to own your data, buy the airthings, don't use their service, and do anything you want with your data.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#54

Post by sliken »

mbStavola wrote: post #2

I plan to pick up some AirGradient units and phase out my AirThings devices simply because I want to keep all my data local and open. However, I do wish 1) it could monitor Radon and 2) had a PoE powered sku.

Why not just use Airthings, don't use their service, and own your data.

They say in the license if you use their service (i.e. you upload your data to them) they own it. But if you don't, you own it. Seems fair to give them their data if they are going to store it for you and provide you an app and website to view it.

They publish a github repo to let you download direct from airthings (not using anything cloud) and graph it with graphana or whatever you want.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#55

Post by daft_pink »

scire wrote: post #34
daft_pink wrote: post #18

Why no radon on the airgradient? I’d really like a device that also prevents cancer.

Why not measure something like CO2 and use that as a proxy? The logic being that whenever you bring in fresh air, you decrease radon concentration. And a high CO2 level means you need to bring in fresh air anyway, and you incidentally also reduce radon concentration. I could be way off here though, happy to learn more on the topic as I don’t have experience with (dealing with) radon.

Because Radon actually causes cancer and ventilation is expensive. I’ve read many articles about people going nuts trying to manage CO2, but I think it’s useful to know if I’m being exposed to something that would actually result in early death as I’m more likely to take immediate action on that.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#56

Post by daft_pink »

madspindel wrote: post #20
stephenitis wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I'd like to go with air gradient but i need a radon sensor

https://aranet.com/en/home/products/aranet-radon-sensor

I just want to point out that the other device being compared actually includes a radon sensor and the cost of that device would be cheaper than the airgradient plus the radon sensor.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#57

Post by daft_pink »

anotherhue wrote: post #38
stephenitis wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I'd like to go with air gradient but i need a radon sensor

You can get a cheap analogue radon sensor. As others have pointed out, even if you do detect radon the typical solution is add ventilation. Which is exactly what you do if you had a high CO2 reading.

Do you have any links to this? I’m very curious.

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#58

Post by mbStavola »

sliken wrote: post #54
mbStavola wrote: post #2

I plan to pick up some AirGradient units and phase out my AirThings devices simply because I want to keep all my data local and open. However, I do wish 1) it could monitor Radon and 2) had a PoE powered sku.

Why not just use Airthings, don't use their service, and own your data. They say in the license if you use their service (i.e. you upload your data to them) they own it. But if you don't, you own it. Seems fair to give them their data if they are going to store it for you and provide you an app and website to view it. They publish a github repo to let you download direct from airthings (not using anything cloud) and…

This isn't the case for their newer products afaict-- with the ViewPlus (which is what I have) you _must_ go through their cloud offering in order to get your data.

I do not want to roundtrip for something that shouldn't have left my house in the first place. Their older products allowed me to keep it local, why shouldn't their newer ones?

Re: Air Quality Monitors Compared: AirGradient One vs. Airthings

#59

Post by anotherhue »

daft_pink wrote: post #57
anotherhue wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a cheap analogue radon sensor. As others have pointed out, even if you do detect radon the typical solution is add ventilation. Which is exactly what you do if you had a high CO2 reading.

Do you have any links to this? I’m very curious.

Just lookup radon test kit and how to deal with radon.

https://kagi.com/search?q=radon+test+kit+&r=us&sh=fA8r72RApl...

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