Ask HN: Recommendations for indoor/work space air quality sensors? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Recommendations for indoor/work space air quality sensors?

4 pointspoisonborz4 comments

After experiencing negative effects first hand, I've read a lot on the importance of air quality, which became quite more important with the increase of home office time in the past years. I'd like to get a reliable, preferably connected air quality sensor, at a price that makes it reasonable to place it in multiple spaces (like sleep, work).

I'm looking for a solution that has at least both humidity and particle matter (CO2/PM2.5/PM10) sensors.

There are DIY options as all required components seem to cost a few dollars, but I'm looking for ready-made products without soldering. While there really is quite a few of them, seemingly there is nothing between the $10-20 (Amazon desk stations, Ikea Vindriktning) and the $150+ range (PurpleAir, Kaiterra Laser Egg, Netatmo), former looking too cheap to be trusted, the latter possibly be too expensive to get multiple of (especially as reviews are not uniform of their accuracy).

Do you have any recommendations to monitor indoor air quality?

You can get an analog temperature / humidity sensor on amazon for pretty cheap.

Unfortunately, they are more B2B focused these days than the B2C focus they started with, but you might also check out Awair, if you haven't seen it already. Their main product is $300 though.

https://www.getawair.com/products/element

I did some quick searching on Amazon and found out that they make an Amazon-branded $70 air quality monitor. It's brand new.

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Amazon-Smart-Quality-Moni...

That said, I wonder if an air purifier wouldn't be a better first choice if you don't have one already. You can found a decent one for a medium-sized room around the same price point.

Airthings is another brand that appears to be worth checking out. They have several different models with the entry level at $65.

Ikea just came out with something inexpensive as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29458404

Thanks for this extensive answer! I saw the Amazon preview and am interested of the accuracy. Didn't know it was actually Awair, and after some research, Element does seem to be a good sensor, even for $300. But then it turned out it is sold out everywhere due to a crypto scheme...

I do not recommend anything Canary (canary.is), they inexplicably keep most of their air quality data locked away from their customers, so you only get to view the last $x hours of data.

A relevant discussion from a few hours ago here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29458404

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