Category: air quality

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

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UV Filtration During COVID-19 with BRISE C200 Air Purifier (English/Español)

Sotirios Papathanasiou3 Comments

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

Two years ago I reviewed the BRISE C200 and I have been using it everyday but I had never thought before that the UV sterilization process will come so handy. It provides an extra layer of protection in a house or in small office especially during this covid-19 pandemic.

I don’t know about your experience during the lockdown, but mine was quite frustrating when I had to go out for grocery shopping and return home or even when I ventilate my house. A lot of things had been written about the SARS–CoV–2 virus, like that it could survive on clothes, on surfaces (keys, phones, money, etc) and that it can be an airborne pathogen.

Airborne means that a virus is transmitted between people through respiratory droplets and contact routes.Read More »

Why is it so hard to ditch private vehicles from cities?

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

We all know that cars contribute a lot to air pollution in urban environments, like particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, among the most common. I see many fellow environmentalists who try to push cities towards a future without cars, but I think with the current means it is very difficult to win the battle.

The automotive industry spends millions on advertising, and they always target the emotional connection that forms between a driver and a car. They will never tell you that cars are important tools that will help you on your work or any other everyday tasks, but they will tell you that a car will offer you freedom as you will be able to escape away from your problems or it will make you a powerful human being and so on.

Take, for example, the first three ads I got as a result when I googled “Car ads”. Powerful subliminal messages to lure you into thinking that a car will make you a new person.

car ads
Just by Googling “Car ads”

When environmental scientists urge communities to leave cars behind they don’t actually do a great job of spreading the message around because they are not trained to do this kind of task. Allow me to elaborate on that. Atmospheric scientists are good at their job which is the study of the Earth’s atmosphere and its various inner-working physical processes. They are able to investigate cases and write papers base on actual facts and among experts, we are able to understand what they want to share but we miss the science of physiology, something that the automotive industry relies on for a century now.

Every day people are not going to read those papers and studies, and if they do, they aren’t going to understand a lot. By giving them the information in a form that they can understand, and without alarming them, we have more chances of making them understand the issue.

Conclusion

When carmakers launch new cars on the market, they are going to involve many more experts on how to make their product more appealing to the costumers, aka everyday people, as a result, we have to fight with the same tools and team up with marketing experts.

Examples of campaigns, we can deploy if we want more people to join the #CarFree movement. Feel free to share them!

Bicycle Power3

Bicycle Power2

Bicycle Power1

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 »

Review: Node-S by Clarity

Sotirios Papathanasiou11 Comments

I love clean air and even when we are indoors the air we breathe comes from the outdoor environment, like streets, small neighborhoods, city superblocks, etc. There are high probabilities that you, the reader, live in a city and the air you breathe isn’t clean enough to support your healthy lifestyle.

Most cities in Europe, as far as I know, have two state reference stations (a background and an urban) for air quality monitoring. They are great, with highly accurate and expensive equipments inside. Unfortunately, most of the time they are old and outdated which limit their ability to engage people to look into the air quality problems we are facing.

My city hosts around 200,000 people and the one urban reference stations we have isn’t capable of measuring PM2.5, at least not as most people will expect. It registers ONE daily average PM2.5 measurement (and not always). Data are free but in order to get these daily measurements you need to file a form and wait a month as manually a lab examines the filters were PM2.5 particles are captured.

Of course this is a tedious way to report data in 2020 at least in my opinion, I understand the “accuracy” obsession that surrounds some scientists, they can keep doing that but also they need to report real-time data to citizens if they want them to change the way they think and behave. I mean, what can I do if I learn that the air was dirty a month ago?

Here comes a outdoor monitor like Clarity Node-S. In my opinion, cities have no excuse not to install such monitors around the city and allow citizens to see the air they breathe. Literally, it is so easy to pick a place in a city and install a monitor. Clarity takes advantage of the low-cost sensors and has developed a solution hard to resist.

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Air Quality data that make sense for the average users

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

Have you ever used an app that will help you relax? Well I have, one of them is Apple’s Breathe app that can be found in the Apple Watch since WatchOS 3. The idea behind the app is that a steady breathing technique will help you relax and hopefully reduce heart rate pulses. Great app but I think Apple or any other developer should combine Air Quality (AQ) data with their breathing/meditation app.

In a mockup that I designed based on Apple’s Breathe app (I chose Apple’s Breathe app for its simplicity and effectiveness), I placed the Air Quality Index (AQI) information inside the app and depending on the AQ at that period the user will be prompted to avoid breathing deeply when the AQ is unhealthy or to adjust the duration when the AQ is good and start. In case the AQ is unhealthy a reminder will notify the user to come back for a breathing session later when the air is healthy enough for deep breaths.Read More »

Low-Cost Portable Monitors vs Reference Monitors Part2

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

A long time has passed since I wrote Part 1, and I presented the results for NO2 and PM2.5 measurements between the low-cost sensors and the reference monitors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, laboratories were closed for 2 months so they couldn’t send me the results but since the 1st of June, I have the results in my hands.

Dates  PM 2.5 Mediterráneo
31/01/2020 15,83 µg/m3
03/02/2020 17,35 µg/m3

These are the data they sent me. Two daily average values for the 31st of January and the 3rd of February. Data for the 1st and 2nd of February weren’t available for a validity reason.

I know it is ridiculous for an urban state reference station to give you just two values for four days. I am curious to learn what exactly they do with these values, what kind of studies (rolling my eyes now).

Unfortunately, I am unable to compare the PM2.5 low-cost sensors with the BAM results as I wanted, so the only thing I could do is to average the values from the low-cost sensors for the specific days and place them side by side. However, it won’t do it as it will create a huge confusion.

Conclusion

You start evaluating portable low-cost sensors, and you end up finding that the official city station is so outdated (accurate but outdated). This is the reason I am going to review an outdoor monitor (Clarity) that is designed specifically for cities that lack real-time PM2.5 monitoring, and it can offer a denser spatial coverage.

Regarding the Atmotube Pro and Flow 2, I will also compare them against the outdoor monitor in order to get a better idea about the PM2.5 monitoring capabilities.

Is covid-19 going to halt the air quality industry?

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

No, this is not the case for the air quality industry, but quite the opposite.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the media has covered the topic quite extensively. Big newspapers like The Guardian, The Sun, NY Times, etc have written at least a few articles about how good is the air outside and small local newspapers, which had never mentioned any environmental issue before, wrote about the same subject.

The pandemic has shocked people to their core, as a result, during the lockdown, more people became aware of the issue of air pollution and how traffic contributes a lot to the problem. In a recent NASA seminar, I learned that the satellite maps that we all have seen in newspapers presenting the NO2 concentrations before and during the lockdown, don’t represent the NO2 on the surface, where people breathe. However, they represent the total amount of NO2 from the surface to the top of the troposphere.

SatelliteGIOVANNI-NO2 COVID19

Indoors

Of course air pollution is not only present in the streets but inside our houses too, as a result, people have taken closer attention to indoor air quality as they spend 24/7 inside their houses, working, cooking, eating, relaxing, and playing with their kids.

Being all day long inside your house makes you think about how you can improve the indoor conditions and of course, air quality is as important as a pillow for your head during a night’s sleep. You want to be in a comfortable environment with the right temperature, humidity, and air quality.

This is the reason many companies sold out indoor air quality monitors. I had people asking me where they could find an air quality monitor and some companies telling me “we are out of stock” or they were running to fulfill orders.

Let’s see what AQ data from Airthings say before and during the lockdown. Immediately, we can understand that there was an average increase in CO2 concentration inside houses. Nevertheless, there are some factor we have to consider:

CO2 indoors US Norway

First of all, Airthings’ users are conscious about the air they breathe because the devices help them see the air quality so they may take measurements against high CO2 concentrations. Imagine what happens to houses were no monitors can be found. Secondly, we have to consider that houses in northern Europe tend to have HRV systems and fresh air is introduced automatically to the indoor environment.

All in all, not all houses, have mechanical ventilation systems and during winter, when windows are closed, CO2 levels tend to be above 1000ppm for a great period during the day. Before COVID-19, houses used to “breathe” when homeowners went to work or school but not anymore, so monitoring the air quality indoors is more crucial than ever before. Especially if we want to avoid Brain fog, which is the inability to have a sharp memory due to high CO2 concentrations.

Outdoors

On the other hand, outdoor air was and still is important because one day we will return to a “new normal life” where we will need to breathe clean air outdoors. Cities are preparing the streets for the post-pandemic era, we have seen examples of cities allocating more space to the pedestrians and cyclists but also there are cities that now are investing in IoT low-cost outdoor air quality stations that can easily be placed all over the cities and provide us with a more dense spatial air quality coverage.

The improved and dense spatial air quality coverage will allow the policymakers to make better decisions and will allow citizens to have access to air quality data more easily than before as the outdated air quality stations we can currently find in many cities sometimes require manual work to register values one by one and they are not data-driven. This manual work makes data not real-time, hard to reach, and unsuitable for instant decisions. For example, in Andalucia, Spain the PM2.5 measurements are available after a month from the day the data were taken, and then you need to file an official form in order to access them.

Liberating accurate information and allowing people to access it, I think will transform the way we think and act, two important words that are key in order to address the issue.

Indoors outdoors air quality

Dear Air Purifier Manufacturers

Sotirios Papathanasiou3 Comments

An Introduction

Air purifiers are machines that help us breathe cleaner air when for some reason the air quality indoors is bad. There are a lot of companies and models out there for costumers to choose and most of them offer some kind of High-efficiency particulate air filtration aka (HEPA).

HEPA filters are made by compressing randomly together thin fibers of glass or synthetic material like PP+PET with diameters between 0.5 and 2.0 microns. The air space between HEPA filter fibers is typically much greater than 0.3 μm.

HEPA Fiber2_0094
Clean HEPA fibres

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