Air Quality Monitors from USD 169 to 6.000 use the same low-cost PM Modules

Sunday, Sep 24, 2023

A few weeks ago, I wrote quite a popular blog post titled “Air Quality Monitors: When Paying More Does Not Get You More Accuracy” with the key takeaway that the accuracy of PM2.

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Should we Pay for Clicks?

Sunday, Sep 17, 2023

At AirGradient we are on a mission to bring accurate and more affordable air quality monitoring to as many people as possible.

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The Climate Change Monitor

Saturday, Aug 26, 2023

Since June, the wildfires in Canada have devastated an area three times larger than previous years and emitted a huge amount of particulate matter, travelling into the US and triggering health alerts by the EPA.

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Low Cost CO2 Sensors Performance Outdoors Close to Reference Grade Instruments

Thursday, Aug 17, 2023

We are working with researchers at the University of Cambridge on outdoor CO2 monitoring using low-cost NDIR sensors. We replaced one of the PM modules of the Open Air with a SenseAir NDIR CO2 sensor.

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Our Journey of Making a Plastic Injection Mold with a Chinese Mold Maker

Saturday, Aug 12, 2023

For our air quality monitors we have now worked with three different mold makers in China and learned a lot. I would like to share our experiences and give some tips.

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Our Open Source Open Hardware Vision

Tuesday, Aug 1, 2023

From the start and being heavily affected by air pollution ourselves, we want to maximize the impact our air quality monitors have.

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You might NOT own the Data of your Air Quality Monitor

Monday, Jun 26, 2023

We at AirGradient are on a quest to democratize air quality monitoring with our open source, open hardware and open data approach.

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The link between Climate Change and Air Pollution

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

With record breaking temperatures and depressing news about accelerated growth in air and oceanic temperatures, our planet is not in a good shape.

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Health Impacts Of Air Pollution Across the Life Course

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2023

Nearly everyday we learn about new negative health impacts from air pollution, particularly from fine particles like PM2.5 and for quite some time, I wanted to make a list of all these impacts with link to studies with evidence.

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Air Quality Monitors: When Paying More Does Not Get You More Accuracy

Wednesday, Apr 12, 2023

Typically, a higher product price should correlate with better quality, features and/or performance. Take for example computer CPUs: The higher the cost of the CPU, the better the performance.

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Reading Temperature and Humidity from Plantower PMS5003T

Monday, Apr 10, 2023

We use the PMS5003T version for our outdoor monitor Open Air which includes an integrated temperature and humidity sensor. If you use the Arduino Sketch from the AirGradient Arduino library you need to patch the PMS library to get these values.

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Why We Joined 1% For The Planet

Tuesday, Apr 4, 2023

AirGradient started as a volunteer project to help a school in Northern Thailand monitor the air quality in classrooms during the highly polluted “burning season”.

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The Hidden Cost of Air Quality Monitoring

Monday, Mar 27, 2023

Over the last few months, one of the largest air quality monitoring manufacturer in the world has increasingly crippled their free data plan to the point that their free API does basically no longer work and forces people to upgrade to a paid plan.

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Low Cost CO2 Sensors Comparison: Photo-Acoustic vs NDIR

Tuesday, Mar 14, 2023

When it comes to low cost CO2 sensors, there are basically three different methods to measure CO2. Estimated CO2 (eCO2) through TVOC sensors NDIR sensors Photo-acoustic sensors Estimated CO2 (eCO2) through TVOC sensors - not recommended - The first method via TVOC sensors is extremely unreliable.

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Licensing and Monetization of our Open Source Air Quality Monitors

Wednesday, Mar 8, 2023

All the AirGradient’s founders have been affected by the severe air pollution in Southeast Asia, and from the start we have worked with disadvantaged communities and provided them with affordable and high-quality air quality monitoring.

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Our Stories and Beliefs

Wednesday, Feb 15, 2023

We started as a volunteer project in a school in Northern Thailand, monitoring the dangerously high air pollution levels in classrooms during the so-called “burn season” which adversely affects peoples’ respiratory health.

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AirGradient TVOC Monitoring Survey Results

Monday, Jan 30, 2023

Total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects.

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When Mimi is Better than Mini or When a Clone is Better than the Original?

Friday, Dec 16, 2022

Imagine a scenario where something that is termed ‘fake’ is actually better than the ‘original’. Sounds crazy right? This is the situation we found ourselves in at AirGradient a few weeks ago.

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Launching the Open AirGradient Outdoor Monitor

Thursday, Dec 15, 2022

Launching the AirGradient Outdoor Monitor As many of you probably know, we have been working hard on an open hardware outdoor air quality monitor for quite some time.

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Good Hardware Takes Time- The Journey of the AirGradient DIY Kit Production

Wednesday, Jul 13, 2022

This week we are completing shipment of the first batch of AirGradient DIY Pro Kits (formerly called DIY v3 Kits) to early customers that ordered them around four months ago.

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AirGradient DIY Pro Kit Built Instructions

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

These instructions are for the people who ordered our first batch of the new DIY kit with the professional enclsosure. The instruction assume that you have already built a normal AirGradient DIY kit and thus primarily focus on the differences to the default DIY Kit .

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Breathe Safe Air Blog

Tuesday, Jan 19, 2021

The other day a customer asked me what kind of air pollution masks I would recommend and during my research, I came across a great blog called “Breathe Safe Air “.

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Indoor Air Quality Covid 19 Transmission Risk Indicator

Saturday, Jan 9, 2021

The risk of Covid 19 infections depends highly on the characteristics of the indoor air, especially the rate of ventilation and the temperature and humidity inside the room.

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The making of our new DIY enclosure

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2020

With the first version of our DIY board we developed a simple 3D printable enclosure with a wall mount that looks like this:

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CO2 Traffic Light to Reduce Covid-19 Transmission Risk

Wednesday, Oct 28, 2020

The WHO and leading health authorities agree that increased ventilation is a critical factor in reducing COVID-19 transmission in schools.

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Install the Arduino Software and D1 Mini

Sunday, Oct 4, 2020

For all the AirGradient for Education build instructions we use very similar components and the same microcontroller, the Wemos D1 Mini.

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AirGradient DIY Display

Sunday, Oct 4, 2020

When we launched our indoor classroom monitoring with our professional sensors, one of the first feature request from teachers was to have a small display that would show the indoor and outdoor air quality.

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Use the Real-time Outdoor Activity Risk (ROAR) Guideline to complement your school’s AQI policy

Tuesday, Aug 11, 2020

Most international schools base their AQI policies on the US AQI standard that defines six bands of air quality from “Good” to “Hazardous”.

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Book Review: Nicholas and his incredible Eyesight

Saturday, Aug 1, 2020

As part of our newly launched AirGradient for Education initiative, we want to review educational material to help schools increase awareness on the important topic of air quality.

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Why Air Quality is such a Successful Marketing Opportunity – a look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Tuesday, Jun 30, 2020

Can you imagine a prestigious school without toilets? It is very interesting to look at the core marketing messages of private schools.

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Design your School’s Air Quality Management to be a Growth and Profit Maker

Tuesday, Jun 23, 2020

In most cases, schools approach the topic of air quality from a risk and health perspective and thus seeing it purely as a necessary evil/cost to fulfill international air quality standards and regulations.

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Air Purifier vs. Positive Pressure Fresh Air System – an unfair Battle?

Monday, Mar 30, 2020

We have made a comparison test between a positive pressure fresh air system (PPS) and a standalone purifier on the effectiveness of bringing the ambient PM 2.

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Air Quality at Schools – A Holistic Approach

Thursday, Feb 20, 2020

Air pollution is a prevalent issue that has severely impacted the health and wellbeing of schools in certain regions around the world.

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8 Student Experiments to Measure Air Quality

Sunday, Feb 16, 2020

As pollution is becoming more rampant worldwide, educators are deeply encouraged to teach students about the science of pollution and what they can do to care for the environment.

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We Measured the CO2 Level in a Classroom. This is What We Found Out.

Friday, Feb 7, 2020

In the city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, many adults and children alike suffer from the air pollution caused by the annual smoke season.

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6 Ways to Improve Air Quality in Classrooms

Friday, Feb 7, 2020

Air pollution has always been a universal concern, but one that is often swept under the rug by many schools. Children’s health is at risk due to bad air quality, especially those who live in rural regions.

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Living in an Area with High Air Pollution? Consider Positive Pressure Systems.

Wednesday, Jan 8, 2020

A positive pressure system (PPS) in your house is probably the best solution if you live in a highly polluted area.

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Air Quality – Selected Resources

Saturday, Dec 28, 2019

Here is a list of links to resources that we recommend to learn more about air quality in general and also in regards to schools.

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How to write a School Policy on Air Quality

Wednesday, Nov 20, 2019

Virtually any school that operates in an environment with air pollution issues should have a detailed policy on how to protect its students from these hazards.

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Classroom and indoor CO2 Standards compared; A Look around the World

Monday, Feb 27, 2017

Unlike with PM 2.5 where there are already quite established global standards, the standards and guidelines around CO2 are less known and well worth a more detailed look.

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Ikea Vindriktning Air Quality Sensor Review and Accuracy

Monday, Feb 27, 2017

Ikea recently came out with a range of air purifiers and also an air quality sensor. The Vindriktning does not have a display but shows the air quality data in the form of a traffic light with red, yellow and green LEDs.

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Case Study: Children’s Pre-School Center (CPSC)

Learn how a child care center in California used our DIY sensor kit to build a powerful air quality solution.

Download Case Study