Good Air Quality
1) Keeping pollutants (especially allergens like pollen) down
2) Keep low CO2 levels
3) Nice temperature
4) Reasonable humidity levels (not too low for health, and although this has not been a problem, not too high for mold).
Those push against each other. Opening windows means ice-cold air in the winter, hot in the summer, and pollen-filled in the spring.
* I have an air purifier in my room, which makes a world of difference.
* I started monitoring PM2.5 and CO2 levels with an AirGradient running ESPHome (which I'm very happy with), Apollo AIR-1 running ESPHome (which I'm happy with), and a set of devices I set up ad hoc with ESPHome (which I'm less happy with). I was surprised at how much of an impact CO2 seems to have on me (or something which correlates with it; who knows?).
* I use a normal window AC in the summer, and radiators in the winter. They don't always keep up on especially hot / cold days.
I thought I'd ask about good ideas of what I ought to do. My general thoughts:
* I could rig up some kind of air filter to suck in air from outdoors. This would reduce CO2 without letting in allergens.
* That would risk mold in the summer, since I'd be pulling in hot air and cooling it. I'd also lose heating / cooling
* I could use an ERV, but those are $$$, huge, and it feels a bit experimental. I'm not quite sure the best way to rig that.
* I could use an HRV (heat exchanger) for some of the benefit, but those are well-known to lead to mold issues.
I just thought I'd open up to discussion.
If anyone knows people who nerd on this (AirGradient and Apollo Automation especially), that'd be an especially good discussion.