Smart Home Air Quality Monitors: know the air that you breathe

Keeping the air fresh and clean at home leads directly to a healthier and more active you. The average adult breathes a total of about 11,000 litres of air per day. That is a lot of air going in and out of your body as you inhale and exhale. So start monitoring the air quality at home with one of these smart air quality monitors.

You Are What You Breathe

Keep everyone at home safe with one of these smart air quality monitors. These nifty gadgets have the ability to detect a variety of harmful airborne particles and alerting you so you can take the appropriate action. Use an air filter, open the window, switch on the exhaust fan, order a deep carpet clean, muster up the energy to do a proper spring clean or simply take a short vacation and get the cleaners in are some of your options.

Indoor air pollution can be caused by poor ventilation. Keep your room clean and circulate the air in the room at least once a day.

Modern air quality monitors also detect Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). VOCs are organic chemicals that vaporises at normal room temperature and permeates the air in enclosed rooms. These molecules enters the ambient air and as you inhale, moves into your body. The chemical compounds are either natural or man-made and are released from paint, cleaning detergent or aerosols, some of which are dangerous to the human body in the long term.

As for the airborne particles, these sensors can detect PM 2.5, fine particles equal to or less than 2.5 microns in diameter. These particles are so small that they go into our respiratory system and cause harmful effects to the body. As they are smaller, they also stay longer in the air than compared to bigger dust particles so we are more susceptible to breathing them in.

Next to PM 2.5 air particles and Volatile Organic Compounds, advanced air monitors can also pick up carbon dioxide level, humidity and temperature. Some air quality monitors offer the option of a remote sensor that you can place outside to check the air quality index around your area. You best option is to combine an air quality monitor with an air purifier if one is not built-in to help clean and neutralise the air at home.

Do You Need One

If you work from home, have little ones in the house, suffers from dust or pollen allergies, dealing with asthma, eczema or generally just want better well being and health than an air quality monitor helps you achieve that. Dust and pollen can cause allergies and asthma attacks. Dry air can cause itchy skin and exacerbate skin conditions such as eczema.

On the other hand, high humidity level can cause mould, mildew and bacteria to grow. A balanced humidity level can help manage asthma and allergies. Next, knowing that your room is set at the right temperature helps you and your child especially toddlers feel more comfortable during the day as well as at night. These are some of the benefits of an air quality monitor.

Bottom line is, knowing that the air you are breathing is safe gives you peace of mind. Receiving timely alerts so you can take the corrective measures when the indoor air is polluted to an unhealthy level especially with chemicals and toxins trapped in the house ensures that you are not exposed to harmful levels of these chemicals.

How Best to Make the Most of Your New Air Quality Monitor

Now if you already have an air quality monitor, here are a few tips to the most out of it. The best place for your air quality monitor is in the middle of the room. This is typically on the coffee table in the living room, on the dining table in the dining room, on a side table or console in the bedrooms and the counter top in the kitchen. Do not put the unit too high up or too low down. If you want to know how the whole house is doing, get multiple of these, one for each room for maximum coverage.

It’s pointless having the information and not taking the correction steps to improve the air quality in the room. Once you have a stable reading, spend some time looking at the recommendations and tips as to how to improve the air quality in the room. Do you need to open the windows, switch on the fan, remove the offending source of give the room a deep clean. Once you have taken the corrective measures, check again in a couple of hours to make sure that things have improved.

To keep things under control, make sure that you set the notifications on your app to alert you when things happen to go south again. You can also add plants in your house and serves to keep the air clean. You can find a long list of plants that act as nature’s air purifier and can help tremendously with the air quality indoor. You can find a quick sample of plants that care for the air in your home in the image below. These go by their more familiar house names such as Peace Lily, Chrysanthemum, Weeping Fig, Snake Plant, Dracaena, Spider Plant and Aloe Vera. All which can be grown indoor.

The last tip we have for you to make the most of your air quality monitor is to pair it with a smart device be it a smart plug for a fan, an air purifier or air conditioner. That way, the cleaning and airing process is automated, short of opening the doors and windows to let fresh air in, these digital ‘recipe’s be it on the companion app, Alexa or IFTTT can help react automatically to the condition in your room.

Top 5 Best Air Quality Monitors

We take a look at five of the best air quality monitor in the market. You can click on the links below to find out more from online retailer.

1. Awair Glow Air Quality Monitor

A compact indoor air quality monitor that does not get in the way, do not need to be mounted or placed on a table, simply plug it directly to the wall and off it goes. Awair Glow even doubles as a night light and works as a smart plug so you can use it to control your standard fan, heater, humidifier or air purifier. What’s more, it will work with Alexa or Google Assistant via voice commands and comes with its own companion App.

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2. Foobot Air Quality Monitor

Not the most exciting in the design and looks department but the second generation Foobot air quality sensor offers a great way to monitor the air quality in your house. It will measure VOC levels, PM as well as humidity and temperature in the room. To trigger an instant alert, tap twice on the top of the top of the unit and it will push a notification to the Foobot app giving you details of all the readings it can capture.

The app is easy to use and aligns each reading against the WHO’s global health index great to know where you stand in comparison. You can also get helpful tips and the timeline gives you access to historical data. A great way to quickly check and get an overview of the status in the room the device is in. The device can work with other third party smart devices such as Nest Thermostat and air purifier or the home’s air conditioner. It can even work with IFTTT if you can cook up a sensible recipe to turn on or off your other appliances when needed.

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3. Awair Indoor Air Quality Monitor

At first glance, the Awair Indoor Air Quality Monitor looks like your standard bed side clock but it does more than show the time. The Awair has 5 sensors to track dust, chemicals (VOCs), carbon dioxide, humidity and temperature making it the most comprehensive air quality monitor. A quick traffic light indicator shows the state of play with the air quality in the room. The large array of LED display to the right shows how your room is performing against the EPA’s guidelines.

Compared to other air quality monitor that relies on the companion app to relay information, the Awair offers all that up front without pulling up your phone or tablet. If you find the light annoying especially at night, you can use the app to control its brightness. It comes with settings to let you customise it with preference on better sleep, controlling allergies, increase productivity or just improve your general health and offers the relevant insights and tips. When the air quality is bad, it will immediately offer advice to help you improve the condition in the room. It has a timeless walnut enclosure and works in any room, from the kitchen to the nursery to the bed room.

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4. Netatmo Healthy Home Coach

Netatmo Healthy Home Coach measures the vitals of your home and alerts you when something needs to be fixed. It is also one of the more affordable options when compared to other air quality monitor. It not only tracks air quality level, humidity and temperature but noise, something that the other monitors do not do. The later is to ensure that you have the best noise level for a sound sleep. The Healthy Home Coach measures these parameter and highlights potential problems as well as let you know how to fix them. It has a simply cylindrical design with a bar of light on the front that only comes on when you tap on the top of the unit for a visual report of the current air quality level in the room. You may find more information using the Healthy Home app. If you have more than one of these in your home, the App lets you have an overview of your entire home as well as the air quality in each room.

While the design is solid and the app is cleverly developed, it lacks sensors to read the dust or particulate level or volatile organic compounds putting it somewhat lower on our list. However, it compensates for this with its noise level monitor which is great if you want to make sure that you watching the TV downstair is not disturbing your little one in the nursery or baby room relying on the app off course, without leaving your favourite TV show.

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5. Nokia Home Video and Air Quality Monitor

Nokia Home is the only air quality sensor that comes with a camera, so you it can double as a security camera or as a baby monitor. The small, non-intrusive device is no bigger than a canned drink but is packed full of features. Nokia Home comes built-in with VOCs sensor and offers real time data. The HD camera is capable of 12x zoom, night vision and 135° wide angle so you do not miss anything. The Nokia Home can pick up sound and motion, sends alerts and perform 2 way conversation via the app. It does not however detect humidity or temperature in the room.

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BONUS: Elgato Eve Room

Don’t be fooled by its size, this small sensor from Elgato can measure VOCs as well as humidity and temperature, sending this to your mobile device via Bluetooth. It also works with Apple’s HomeKit so you can connect it to your iPad or Apple TV at home and control it using the iOS Home app. If all you need is a sensor then the Eve Room is for you.

 

Blueair Aware

An air quality monitor which is an extension of or can be pair with air purifiers that the company makes, the Blueair Aware can work on its own as a standalone monitor with sensors to detect particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon dioxide and more. The Aware presents a viable solution for those looking for an automated system that upon detecting poor air quality goes to work by triggering compatible air purifiers in the home. Much like the Foobot and Netatmo, the design focuses on simplicity with only one LED indicator strip that tells you the current air quality. More information can be had from the customisable app with graphs and visuals to present the historical air quality to see how the air has improved or deteriorated over time.

Click Here for the Top 5 Best Air Quality Monitor