Hacker News Reader

Comment by rubicon33 | Hacker News Reader

Honest question - Why would one want to monitor CO₂ in their office?

Elevated CO2 levels have a noticeable impact on human cognitive ability. Indoor environments obviously have higher CO2 levels vs outdoor, but certain offices may have worse than typical indoor levels due to poor ventilation.

https://thinkprogress.org/exclusive-elevated-co2-levels-dire...

The linked article is fascinating.

"They found that, on average, a typical participant’s cognitive scores dropped 21 percent with a 400 ppm increase in CO2."

If this result is reproducible, this is quite concerning considering:

"In surveys of elementary school classrooms in California and Texas, average CO2 concentrations were above 1,000 ppm, a substantial proportion exceeded 2,000 ppm, and in 21% of Texas classrooms peak CO2 concentration exceeded 3,000 ppm."

Interesting, I had no idea. Do you think it's worth getting a CO2 monitor for a home office? I don't usually have the windows open since it's cold out. Is one person enough to elevate a small 10x10 office to cognitive impairing levels?

It’s a small investment and probably worth it if you already suspect bad ventilation. Within seconds of plugging a CO2 monitor into my bedroom outlet, the monitor was registering 1200ppm — and that was without any humans in it prior.

I doubt you'll need one. It's typically a concern when sqft/person is < 80, as is often the case in open-office plans and classrooms.

Just try to open the window at least once a day.

I disagree. It _may_ be totally worth it depending on the place. (Eg. what heating system you use, how many electronic devices there are, how big the room is.) I'd say do a little test: open the windows; if (it feels refreshing) { get one }.

Disclosure: I'm not an expert, simply got interested in this lately as I strongly feel its impact on my productivity.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com