Category: Air Quality Monitor

Review: SPARROW W500

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

We have discussed a lot of times how air pollution can affect human health in the long-term. However, there is one pollutant that can have a severe impact on our health even in small concentrations in the short-term: Carbon Monoxide (CO).

Carbon Monoxide is a colourless, odourless toxic gas. Carbon monoxide poisoning is the most common type of fatal air poisoning in many countries around the world because it is hard to detect with our senses and it is classified as highly toxic.

About half of the carbon monoxide in Earth’s atmosphere is anthropogenic from the burning of fossil fuels (diesel and gasoline), oil, paraffin, propane, natural gas, trash, and biomass.

Here comes SPARROW W500 Air Quality Monitor by ECO SENSORS, a small portable monitor that can follow you anywhere. It is designed to alert you when high CO concentrations are present.

Hardware

  • Carbon Monoxide Sensor by SPEC Sensors
  • Humidity Sensor
  • Temperature Sensor
  • Alarm (audible buzzer)
  • Multicolour LED Light
  • Bluetooth Connection
  • Micro-USB port

SPARROW is super small  5.6cm x 3.3cm x 1cm and super light as it weighs 18g/0.03 lbs. You can pair it with a smartphone (iOS and Android) but also it can operate on its own as the buzzer and the Yellow/Red/Purple LED light can notify you when there are significant CO concentrations around. When the CO concentrations are safe the Green LED light will always flash once per second, except when charging, after all it can inform you about the CO concentrations without the need to launch the app or take your phone into your hands.

The battery will last 2 plus weeks, which is great for those who don’t want to charge one more device every day or so. I have set it with a 1 minute data log rate. The device has a button that you need to press every-time you want to connect it with the phone, that way the Bluetooth connection is established at the moment, otherwise the SPARROW would have to be in a mode where it was always broadcasting for Bluetooth signal, which is a huge power drain for both devices, phone and the air quality monitor.

Fortunately, my house is CO free as I don’t burn anything but we all travel and for those with a garage it is a mandatory device to have. In the picture below you can see the device inside a closed jar with smoke from a burning match as I wanted to stimulate the sensor and simulate the CO concentrations. I must say the CO sensor is a lot more stable and cross-sensitivity proof which means other gases won’t affect the measurements.

SPARROW_Jar CO

SPARROW comes with a carabiner clip but there is an option to attach it on the back of a phone case with a special mount system the case maker OtterBox has developed and they support many cases for iOS, Android phone, and tablets.

SPARROW Animation Case

The App

Visually, the app is not pretty but it does the job. There are a lot of options to tweak and to adjust the app and device to your needs but it lacks a better user experience UX though a better user interface UI. Of course, this is something that can be fixed with future app updates.

You can share the measurements (data Log file) via email which is a neat feature but they go a step further and you can connect the device with the micro-USB cable to your computer and enable direct communication, however, this is an advanced feature.

The app allows you to select different data log rates between 1 second / 10 seconds / 1 minute / 10 minutes / 1 hour / 1 day. There is another cool option to enable if you want  the device not to keep low CO concentrations in the log file, that way you don’t have a huge  amount of data entries to process later on, like in my case.

Literally, you can customise the device to your needs even by changing the Sensitivity mode for different thresholds. You can measure in parts per million (ppm) or milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m³). You can set up emergency messaging by allowing SPARROW app to send messages to emergency contacts when very high concentrations are detected.

Premium mobile phone screen mockup template

 

Conclusion

Breathing CO can cause a series of health issues. Unknowingly, exposure to moderate levels of CO over long periods of time has also been linked with an increased risk of heart disease. If your environment is surrounded by vehicles (suitable for #VanLife) or other sources of burning fossil fuels then having such a device that can guard your health is worth investing in. SPARROW W500 is one of them.

CO2 Monitors for Indoor AQ Monitoring and Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

The pandemic has made us aware of the indoor air quality. We have learned that it is important to monitor the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration inside a room for two reasons: To keep productivity up and to reduce the chances of infection especially, when a room is occupied by many people like in classrooms, offices, etc.

A CO2 monitor can help us estimate the risk of infection of the coronavirus as a high concentration number (above 900 ppm) can indicate that too many people are inside a room, and the air hasn’t been renewed as frequently as the regulations indicate, in some countries.

There are a lot of indoor CO2 monitors in the market, I have reviewed many of them, but I thought it is useful to gather them all together in one place and make your life easier.

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Series of Innovators: SPEC Sensors

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

Introduction

SPEC Sensors was founded in 2012 in the USA (California) by Dr. Joseph Stetter and Ed Stetter. Their gas sensors, analog and digital, are one of a kind as the technology and hard work has allowed them to minimize the sensor size to only 20x20x3 mm in order for gas sensing to become a part of our everyday lives. The company has foreseen that sensors of all types are going to be integrated into smartphones and other wearable devices, becoming an integral part of our everyday lives and building the Internet of Things (IoT).

IoT low-cost sensors are in my DNA as I believe they will allow us to understand environmental issues otherwise, we would have dismissed or we would not be aware.

Let’s read together what they have to share with us and reach a conclusion at the end.

Interview

  • Tell us a bit about your motivation in developing air quality sensors?

We saw the need and opportunity for low cost electrochemical sensors with good performance – before SPEC, high performance sensors were too expensive and too big to enable new applications in wearables and distributed monitors. SPEC was born out of the research driven by Eco Sensors / KWJ Engineering, Inc. led by Dr. Joseph Stetter.  We were able to build SPEC Sensors using modern technology in a new high performance plastic package.Read More »

What should schools do to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in classrooms

Sotirios Papathanasiou6 Comments

Masks provided decent protection against the SARS-CoV-2 but if a carrier of the virus (40% of them are asymptotic) stays inside a home/business for a long time then the chances of transmitting the virus are higher because some particles may escape.

According to experts the best way to prevent the spread of the virus is to keep introducing fresh air inside a room.

Unfortunately, most rooms don’t meet the recommendation of 8 air changes an hour for a 10 square meter (107 square foot) room occupied by 4 people. A clear example is a classroom that doesn’t meet the recommended ventilation rates. This is a common mistake across all schools in the world.

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Building an IoT Air Quality Monitor that will survive the competition

Sotirios Papathanasiou7 Comments

Building a hardware startup is a hard business, we are well aware of that. Right now, there are a lot of indoor/outdoor Air Quality Monitors in the market that support low-cost sensors, unfortunately, even when the cost of the materials (aka BOM) is low, companies struggle to survive because of an initial bad business model.

If you want to enter into the game of the air quality or in general of the IoT, you have to ask yourself: How do I turn what I do into a compelling service?

When you sell a product you earn some money, typically three times more of what you have spent. However, your income relies only on that model and the problem with technology is that it evolves constantly, so tomorrow a new company will sell a product a bit better than yours because there will be a new sensor in the market and all future clients will shift their attention towards that device. Then you have to wait for a year or more in order to realize that you have to shut down your product and taking down with you a few hundred to thousand clients that have bought your AQM — More e-waste and frustration for the end-users.

For this reason, you have to invest in software development as well, and here comes my expertise. I have seen a lot of Air Quality Monitors, and I have collaborated with a fair number of companies in the field, but I always see the same mistake.

Some companies believe that they have to give customers free data support and services for life and if they turn their product into a paid service and they ask money based on a subscription model then they will lose costumers, but this is not necessarily correct. You are not going to ask someone to subscribe to your service to get just numeric values of a pollutant, you have to offer them something more than that. Something the competitors can’t offer because this feature is unique in your ecosystem. Maybe it could be restricted with a patent too.

Consumers really value good products especially when they can’t find something similar.

You are going to ask me, “What can I offer them?” You have two options, stay tuned for future articles or contact me in order to discuss how we can collaborate.

 

Review: Airthinx IAQ for Homeowners

Sotirios Papathanasiou5 Comments

This review is dedicated to the end-users (homeowners) as I present the tools (Smartphone app) and functionalities of the device for the average user and some basic features on the dashboard. Later on, I will review the same monitor for businesses where we will have the chance to see and analyze the more advanced tools which are present on the dashboard for all.

Airthinx IAQ is an Air Quality Monitor (AQM) that was built for experts with many communication protocols in order to ensure that users will be able to access air quality measurements from anywhere and air quality sensors that matter in the indoor environment.

Technical Specifications

  • PM1 / PM2.5 / PM10 Sensors (0~500 μg/m3)
  • CO2 Sensor (0~3000 ppm)
  • CH2O Sensor (0~1 mg/m3)
  • TVOC Sensor (1-10ppm of EtOH) (0-1ppm of Isobutylene)
  • Temperature Sensor (-10-85°C)
  • Humidity Sensor (25-90 %RH)
  • Barometer Sensor (300-1100 hPa)
  • Cellular (GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA)
  • WiFi (802.11 b/g)
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • Zigbee
  • GPS
  • Accelorometer 16g (13-bit resolution)
  • 2 Micro-USB Power Ports

Read More »

uHoo – Virus Index (Update)

Sotirios Papathanasiou3 Comments

Some of you have contacted me because you wanted to know my opinion on uHoo’s latest update. Since June 2020, uHoo has implemented a Virus Index which is a patent-pending technology that uses the power of air quality data to help you know how suitable your close environment is for a virus to survive and spread.

uHoo is an air quality monitor that features nine environmental and pollution sensors. If you want to learn more, read my review here.

uhoo app 2020 virus index

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Dear city of Almeria (Spain) or any other city in the world (English/Español)

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

(Scroll down for the Spanish version/Desplácese hacia abajo para la versión en español)

I am writing this article because I would like to help you understand the importance of the issue as the whole province and consequently my city Almeria doesn’t have an official air quality station with a sensor capable of measuring particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5) in real-time.

What is Particulate Matter (PM)?

Particulate Matter (PM) are solids material (sometimes liquid too) that float in the air. Some PM is released directly from a specific source − combustion in Diesel engines − while others form in complicated chemical reactions in the atmosphere.

Particles in the PM2.5 size range can travel deeply into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs. Studies also suggest that long term exposure to fine particulate matter may be associated with increased rates of chronic bronchitis, reduced lung function and increased mortality from lung cancer, and heart disease. People with breathing and heart problems, children and the elderly may be particularly sensitive to PM2.5.

The Problem

In the province and city of Almeria, there are three Air Quality Stations that measure many pollutants one of which is PM2.5. Unfortunately, these sensors are outdated and the results we get are ONE daily average value which is basically useless in my opinion. Apart from that, we need to wait for a month to get the results back after filing a form. I guess the same thing applies to the 68 stations all around Andalucia in total.

Citizens need real-time data in order to take action and reduce their exposure to air pollution. They also need better tools and maps where they can visualise where pollution is in order to avoid harmful exposure. There are already many studies supporting the correlation between air pollution and COVID-19 cases.Read More »

Could an Air Quality Monitor save your life when it is paired with a Smart Light bulb?

Sotirios Papathanasiou3 Comments

Have you ever wondered how to use the RGB LED bulb you have purchased in a more productive way? Sure, you can control the lights via your phone but this is not “smart” plus if you manage your lights with your phone it may take longer to turn off and on a light fixture than just by hitting the switch.

The obvious is to set up a visual (light) indicator each time the air quality is poor in your house, for example, when PM2.5 is high, then the lights flash twice with orange colour. However, the ultimate way to give real value to a smart light bulb is when the combination of an AQ monitor and a light bulb can save your life in a real-life threatening situation. How?

Read More »

Review: Airthings Solutions

Sotirios Papathanasiou5 Comments

Airthings is a pioneer company as they have developed an in-house sensor for Radon detection but their expertise doesn’t stop there. They have expanded their product-line with domestic and business solutions with one thing in mind, how to enhance indoor life.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have received countless messages from people all over the world who have found themselves stuck inside for a long time and asking me to help them improve their indoor environment. Domestic users but also businesses that want to go a step further and offer a more productive environment for their employees after the lockdown.

I have already reviewed the Airthings Wave Plus and today I would like to review how each product offers a solution inside the house.

Airthings teen room

The Wave Plus is equipped with a Temperature/Humidity, VOC, Radon, and more importantly a CO2 sensor which is the first sensors to have in mind when you think teenagers. Teens tend to spend a lot of time inside their room, listening to music, studying, doing homework, watching countless videos on TikTok and Youtube, and messaging with other teens at the same time via Instagram. Teens don’t worry about air quality but I bet you all have experienced the musty smell every time you open their room door. Part of the smell is a crazy high CO2 concentration combined with VOCs.Read More »