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Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

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Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#71
post #18

Earlier 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

Yes, but do you(or someone else) have a recommendation of which scale does not do this? Something that's not consumer grade, but not "enterprise cost"

I have looked for this myself, and come to the conclusion that it doesn't exist unless you're willing to buy a second hand, bulky hospital scale.

Measuring human weight is harder than it seems (we don't stay still).

Most scales use a strain gauge sensor that detects bending of a metal arm through changes in resistance. It's pretty noisy and needs averaging. There's some integrated circuits to relate the resistance to weight. Most do some factory calibration only around the target weights (median adult weights).

Look instead for a scale that explicitly states that it is accurate over the whole range (e.g. baby to 220lbs). Usually there's tradeoffs - e.g. the displayed weight won't 'settle down'. I have one like this and it works better than any previous one I had (tested by adding calibrated weights), but I hesitate to recommend since it's a low cost consumer model.

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#72
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats like having a car that always drives me somewhere I don't want before it drives me where I want. What the actual f*ck. How are people okay with having such garbage in their homes. Why not just buy an analog spring scale...

Because like anything analog these days, they are hard to find?

I can find mechanical scales very easily in the Netherlands, but they're more expensive. On Alibaba I see that digital bathroom scales are about $2.50 and with WiFi/Bluetooth it's $6, mechanical scales are double that at $12 while also taking up more volume (more pallets and containers). With volume scale and unique designs, your own skin on the apps, and market specific packaging the margins are only going to get better for the (connected) digital scales.

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#73
Slightly parallel: does anybody know if there exist products to detect more "local" pollution? Like an electronic nose that would be able to detect "sources", e.g. of mould or chemicals (for disinfection or fixing). I.e. not just the "room air quality", but spots causing it.

(It is for a bit of an urgency that emerged in a building.)

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#74
I bought the Pimoroni one and it broke after 6 months.

Interesting to see the particles spike when frying food but other than that I only learned in which direction the wind has to blow for my air to be polluted (straight south so in the future might enable ionization then if pollution goes ballistic).

What you need is a sensor that measures CO, CO2, all the hydrocarbons AND particles at different sizes. The Pimoroni could measure 1!, 2.5 and 10 PPM.

Just use: https://maps.sensor.community and https://www.ventusky.com

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#75
post #18

Earlier 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 the user otherwise will spot the discrepancy and pronounce "these scales are rubbish" (which in a way they are).

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#76
post #33

This 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 mor…

New shareholder value opportunity: Pay an extra 10% and get a dynamic baseline model that hardcodes a baseline level and expected gradient of 0.5% per year.

By the time the device lands in landfill, it probably won't ever have been too far off. And if the CO2 curve derivative starts to underperform and risk your deployed calibrations, throw some dollars an some anti-nuclear campaigns as that's cheaper than doing an update!

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#77
post #74

I bought the Pimoroni one and it broke after 6 months. Interesting to see the particles spike when frying food but other than that I only learned in which direction the wind has to blow for my air to be polluted (straight south so in the future might enable ionization then if pollution goes ballistic). What you need is a sensor that measures CO, CO2, all the hydrocarbons AND particles at different sizes. The Pimoroni…

That website isn't so useful outside of central europe for what its worth. Purple air is pretty good.

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#78
post #27
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest what are your thoughts on the Aranet4? (other than it's quite high price of course).

As far as I know the Aranet uses NDIR CO2 sensor modules from SenseAir. We do use the same brand in our DIY kits and they are very accurate and probably one of the best low-cost CO2 sensors.

Cool, good to know. Thank you for taking the time to respond!

Re: Air quality monitors: paying more does not get you more accuracy

#80
post #61

For people who use Home Assistant, I've gone with DIY route with ESPHome [1] and senseair CO2 sensor. You can buy those sensors for +- 26 USD on AliExpress. Together with 5 USD, ESP32 devkit, it's mostly "solder"-n-play. Of course, I only have one of them, so I can't say if they are accurate, but I just need to know if the CO2 levels are normal (+- 400ppm) or high (+1000ppm), to open a window. I have tested it with j…

I attached a cheap IKEA Vindriktning PM2.5 sensor to esphome to get air cleanliness data into Home Assistant [1]. That's also very simple to do - solder some wires and write a few lines of yaml and it shows up in the web UI. I bought two of them and they are accurate to each other, so the sensors appear to be acceptable.

[1] https://plett.uk/posts/ikea-air-sensor/

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