@@JeffGeerling First of all it does not look that bad. Second just move the vent as long as you have a stud wall on top of the concrete . if you can't a contractor should be able to do it for a couple hundred bucks.
I live in Northern California and have felt similar sluggishness due to the fires and subsequent horrendous air quality. In a way, it's more frustrating than being sick because you don't feel really bad enough to rest but you don't feel good enough to accomplish anything. I'm going to try this project once I can breathe again.
Dude, you're awesome. I appreciate how thorough you are with how you provide your material, and your advocating of open source. Keep up the great content.
@@JeffGeerling HMMM Very cool. I might actually get this then. My dad and I have been looking for a more permanent solution with a vent we have available. Only problem is the size of the vent, but we can work around that. Thanks!
Jeff, you can permanently fix this vent by mounting white sheet (like magnet one ) in front of it on 5-10 centimeters from wall. It will not block airflow and there is no difference from camera point of view. Otherwise, pretty nice video! And I think about it but with ESPHome as firmware.
Came here to suggest something like this! He could even 3d print a cover that would have vents on the side for air to go through, and put a cool graphic or logo on the front.
Awesome stuff Jeff. I just started my crusade for good ventilation in my house. I felt exactly the same sluggishness you did in my home office, and there were some mornings I'd wake up so groggy that I felt like I hardly slept. I ended up using a SCD-30 sensor for CO2, temp, and humidity tracking in my bedroom for starters. After tracking with Grafana, I found that there were some nights we got above 5000ppm in our bedroom! We've been much more adamant about encouraging good ventilation in our house, and it sounds crazy but wow has it chamged how I have felt around the house. Anyway great video!
Yikes. I don't have a CO2 sensor but I do have a window that is open in the hallway upstairs 24/7/365 (when possible) unless it's raining heavily or too cold outside. During the none winter months I try to keep the bedroom window open even if it's just a little bit. Downstairs I have a fan in the guest toilet that is energy star and is built for continuous duty. It also serves double duty as that is also where the cats litter box is.
Dude! This totally happened to us at our old house too, but not just in a basement office. We started closing all our doors a lot to keep the kids out of different rooms, and there was only one return in the house, and sure enough when we'd go to sleep at night we'd wake up with terrible headaches and grogginess because the CO2 levels climbed to 2000+. As soon as we put gates in the doorways during the day instead, it was easier for air to circulate enough before we went to sleep.
Good to hear from you! And yeah, many homes don't have a return in every room, so that is a real problem-especially if you have thick carpet that touches the bottom of the door and prevents air from escaping the room under the door.
@AstroCat I wouldn't say they "went down the wrong path". I would say they "didn't finish the job" because they didn't install ventilation in the form of an HRV or an ERV (explanatory video here: th-cam.com/video/i7US4TmyD6k/w-d-xo.html). Running one of those at very low speed all the time can greatly improve IAQ without massively running up your heating/cooling load.
Yeah I plan on getting an ERV once it's safer to have a contractor put it in. Our house is less than 20 years old so fairly modern and tight, but has returns in all rooms. So usually we don't get a particularly high level in just one room, we just don't get enough fresh air in so there's high CO2 in the whole house.
Thank you lucky stars that you woke up in the morning. CO2 can be a killer, especially when your asleep. A 'sick' house is nothing to mess around with, especially with your family.
@@navyholesnipe9469 usually CO (carbon monoxide) is more hazardous - there shouldn't be any in your home but as a product of incomplete combustion it can happen and kill quite silently. I'm not sure what the lethal level of CO2 (carbon dioxide) is but I suspect it's quite a bit higher than people see, I've heard of co deaths but not CO2 deaths outside of industrial processes. Do you know what the lethal level of CO2 is or if it's fatal more frequently than I realized?
Nothing soldered is surface mount so you should have a pretty easy time. One tip - if you’re new to soldering you may want to practice soldering header pins on a proto board first. Proto boards and header pins are available cheap on Amazon and other stores where electronics are sold.
@@markconger8049 The more fun route to practice is to buy the simple project boards that usually only have some LEDs and a battery mount to solder on. I've been soldering since I was a tween, but I still buy the occasional one because they tend to be fun and thematic. My favourite is the sugar skull for Day of the Dead. People comment on it every year, so it's one of the rare solder practice projects you can show off and get good feedback heh.
Recommend you not buy cheap Chinese solder... especially lead based... it makes you dizzy... Also...cheap solder that is RoHS compliant is super hard to work with because it doesnt melt and stick as well as quality silver based soldier
Same as SilverSnakeFreedom mentioned, his wideo makes it easy for two main reasons: 1. good quality solder with fluxed core, 2. proper soldering iron which can control the temperature. The practice will come with first few broken solders ;)
Knowing your office was in the basement I was going to say the only thing your sensor was missing was radon. Glad you made this one. I was thinking about creating a CO2 sensor myself but I'm glad that one has been made that truly takes it to a new level.
@@smacksalad you can have pretty efficient LED lights that grow stuff. I have many aquariums in a similarily enclosed room, with DIY aquarium led lights that are quite powerfull, but dont heat the room that much. I also live in the tropics, where it is very hot. But i have AC, i guess if your room is closed without any climate control, any heat source can become annoying? But then again, a small, low light plant, with a small efficient led light may cause very low heat generation.
@@AudreyRobinel Nope. Current LED are around 20% efficient, theoretical maximum is 40% efficient, that's 80% and 60% heat respectively. Still a lot of heat to deal with. If you're running AC the cost is more than double what it is for those lights.
Pro tip: use some blu-tak (blue poster putty) to hold components in place while you solder. Often use this more often than helping hands or a PCB vise. Great video as usual, Jeff!
Since I much prefer blog post form, I always try to encapsulate everything there. It's way easier to search, scan, and reference in the future-plus I can update things there. Hard to do on a video, where things change every 3, 6, or 12 months!
Well done, and very well presented. Thank you for posting. The effects of poor IAQ quality in our homes and buildings is an area that we are only starting to understand the long-term consequences of. Continuously breathing particulates and carcinogens appears to have long-term health effects. In most cases, monitoring these items is a good start, but reducing their sources (often various sources of combustion), improved ventilation, and filtration - are key to remedying them.
He's using the old model air sensor. There are PMS7003 and even better PMSA003, the wiring on them is slightly more difficult, but many come with a breakout board that makes it easy with regular gpio pins. (all are on ebay)
Now I want to build two of these to monitor the air quality in my kids' bedrooms. Though they get plenty of sleep time wise they seem to always be too tired at wake time and for a while after. Thanks for the tutorials and links.
This is one of the best youtube videos I’ve seen. It makes me want to attempt a similar build. I’m not sure I have the background to pull it off. I’m interested in creating a commercially viable monitoring system for IAQ so that improvements being made can be tracked and monitored. I think I’d have a lot of learning to do to be able to pull a build like this off. Perhaps I need to partner with someone who already has these skill sets. I’d also like to include circuit level energy usage monitoring. You’ve certainly got me thinking. Thanks
I saw one a few months back... it wasn't quite as nice of a build but it did the trick at least, though didn't have two-way communication. It didn't have an app, but a web UI.
Had the same idea, until I saw doorbell from eufy. All data is locally saved on micro sd card in the included homebase. Trying to figure out how to send the data to the rpi rn, but the price is worth the easy use/install
You could use something like motioneyeos. It would need some customization but I think you can trigger events using a button connected to the gpio pins on a pi
Seeing how long it takes for the solder to melt (around 5:20), I'd recommend a little more temperature. (The tip size does generally look okay, that's the other thing when melting solder takes too long.)
When I converted my SodaStream to use standard co2 tanks I bought a cheap ($150) co2 detector from Amazon in case I had a leak. I didn’t, but it blew my mind that the co2 level in my kitchen would spike to 1200-1500 ppm for a few seconds after filling a bottle.
@@JeffGeerling As an automation nut, the idea of having vents (bathroom vents, range hoods, house fans, etc) turning on based on air quality levels rather than manual switches sounds awesome!
For anyone who hasnt done projects like this: I built a similar air quality monitor a month ago(own design, I didnt know about AirGradient unfortunately) , also getting parts from banggood and aliexpress. The only tools I needed were a cheapo £10 soldering iron (you can order it together with the components if you dont have one) and a pair of sharp scissors. If you wanna give it a go, its a fun project and might even help your headaches and afternoon slumps ^^
I'm Deaf and trying to live nomadically. One of my fear was that there are simply no budget friendly option for a Deaf alert for CO2. Basically skipped the idea of having an indoor kitchen of some kind. I've been wanting to learn Arduino and basic electronic since forever just to make this one thing and voila! your vid showed up!. It's basically exactly what I'm wanting to make except no wifi and I'll connect a test button from my vibrating bed alarm clock to be closed by the pi whenever CO2 and the like gets too dangerous. Thank you!
Mate. As an avid viewer of your videos I’m telling you please don’t worry about covering the vent for my benefit. Stay healthy and keep that air flowing.
@@JeffGeerling How about a larger white square plastic shield or so that’s lifted from the wall surface (like 10ch or so) and fits onto the vent. It covers the ventilation, while not blocking it completely.
Here in EU legislation in last years introduced the mandatory requirements for new building about air quality. There ara some heat recovery ventilation systems that you could interface directly using arduino/raspi and do custom control ;)
I have a air quality monitor in my home as well, I built it out of similar hardware. When researching this project I discovered that the AQI people have reported some findings that are concerning. saying that a lot of people live in homes that have real problems with air quality. Molds, and chemicals as well as CO2. Modern living, at it's finest.
I think any efforts to bring air testing to all of us is important, regardless of what the catalyst was... Thanks for sharing this, hope you dig even deeper. Outside air is another important matter and I believe there should be more sensors for air quality in all areas and that data readily available on a digestible way.
Safety tip when snipping leads after my funtimes a few weeks ago. Wear safety glasses. Yes it seems stupid. Yes I've thought the same having worked on electronics for the last two decades and yes it is a pain in the arse but... I was snipping some header pins flush and one of them managed to get into my eye and behind my lower eyelid. I ended up in a&e as despite my best efforts trying to get the metal out of my eye with tweezers, it did not go well. And yes... it hurt, it hurt a lot.
Hello Jeff! Very nice video, very interesting! I am myself putting air quality sensors in my lab, so this is extremely on point for me :) One thing i'd like to mention : now i am putting leads on my sensors, and have them in open air to provide better readings. When in a case, the heat tends to accumulate, and many sensors are affected by heat. I try to leave some space between them (although most sensors don't heat that much, it is mostly the MCU). I'd like to mention also, as you mentioned "the easyest way", i find it to be esphome trough home assistant. With espHome, i assemble my node (i mean in the physical sense, plugging sensors, etc), plug it in USB, then open the esphome tab on home assistant's interface, create a node, paste the yaml config specified on esphome documentation, then hit upload. It will thus flash the esp, and next time, you can flash it over the air if you change something. I don't have to look for libraries or whatever... (i did that at some point, but it can be annoying with version changes). Anyways, once done, your sensor sends data to home assistant on a regular basis (can be changed), and HA automatically makes graphes and all. But just to go a bit further, you connect your home assistant to influxdb, then graphana, and do the dashboards as you did. The easy route is to use the plugins directly in home assistant (HA); although i chose to have influxdb not running on my raspi4 that runs HA, because i have beefier linux server with dockers for such tasks; and i plan to keep the data indefinitely, poll the sensors often, etc. Don't want to add a unnecessary burden to th pi SD card. I take good note of your sensors, i knew some, didn't know others. My plan is to have many air quality sensors running, and try to measure the deviation between all those sensors. Would be better if i had a lab grade one to calibrate my measurements, but i don't :) I am also willing to see if multiple cheap sensors in parallel can be used to significantly increase accuracy. In the begining with simple mathematical solutions, then later with AI (it is my field, so i want to use it there, it is not just for buzzwords :) ). As for sensors, there is also the BME680, not great for temperature (BME280 is muuch closer to my reference probe for that), but give air quality index estimations (following the IAQ scale), as well as equivalent CO2. as for particulate sensors, i have many of them, and only a few are worth buying. The one you used is one of them : well supported in various project, documented, and caracterized. Many particulate sensors don't give life expectancy, calibration procedures, etc. I am, as you are interested also by the geiger counter, and would like to also turn it into a physical random number generator :) Anyways, i didn't know about the CO2 stuff, i'll look into it, it may explain why i sometimes also have a hard time focusing in my lab.
Thanks for all the details! I've been waffling on ESPHome / Home Assistant for a few months, but you may have just convinced me to go that route soon. Definitely will save some time in the initial setup / programming, and the built-in graphing might be adequate for my needs!
@@JeffGeerling If going for home assistant, i would advise to go for the Pi4 install (or another SBC) rather than the docker one. With the OS install, you have an easy addon repo, you just do things in the webui (you can ssh into the box and do it like this, but the webui automates a lot of boring stuff), whereas you have to deploy the container for each addon in the contenerized version. For ESPHOME, you can do it from your computer, but again, the ESPHOME addon adds a webgui interface, and you can modify the YAML for your remote nodes from a browser. It validates the YAML in live with live error notices (explained, on top of that!) I like to do it from there because i can then modify a node from any computing device on my network, i don't have to manage the toolchain (dependency X is outdated, blablabla, i can deal with this, but i don't want to), and you can also plug nodes via USB to first program them. I would also recommend the file editor addon, allows you to modify the yaml files on your home assistant install. 95% of stuff can be set via webgui, but some stuff can't (mostly advanced stuff), or it is at times faster to simply copy-paste a code snippet. Then you have the snapshot utility, allows you to back up everything or some things only, in an easy way. I have not done it yet, but there is also a way to have all your config files (minus your credentials, that you can save safely into a secret.yaml file) saved on a git repository (i just moved my sensitive data to secrets.yaml, so i will now do the git stuff) Then for ESPHome, simply take a look at their devices/sensors that are supported : esphome.io/#devices i even discovered some sensors that way, or found a way to use sensors i had bought but never figured how to use. Most of the time, i can find the config in the docs, and the times i don't, i find it on some forum, with the correct pins declared. Last point, it may not be something you are considering right now, but when you have a home assistant deployed, you can buy a few sonoff smart relays, replace the closed firmware with esphome, and automate lights, plugs (turn on the ceiling fan when it is too hot, turn off the AC when the windows are open, etc), dehumidifiers and various stuff (there is even a "dehumidifier" component to have it work without having you do the logic, same for thermostats. You can also have an IR LED and send some IR codes to your AC or various devices from an ESPHOME node (one of my next projects, to smartify the AC) Anyways, i talk too much, see you next time :)
BME680 and BME280 are resistive sensors and have overheating issues, which is why you probably notice your overheating issues more than you need to. In order to get ok sensing with them you need to use FORCED mode which puts them to sleep wakes up takes 1 reading and goes back to sleep. These sensors are mostly for pressure and for flight controllers so massive amounts of air flow.. better yet, though, you can use sensirion sensors which are capacitive like the SHT30 in this video (or better if you want 0-100% humidity the SHT31 or SHT35 or SHT85) all of them are better than all of the bosch sensors though. If you need PRESSURE then you should use a BME280 or BMP180 but only in those cases. To replace the BME680 there is the SGP40 which is also a VOC sensor, but again from sensirion, which does much better sensors. Also as you said, keep them away from the MCU, sensirion recommends at least 3cm.. and in my testing it makes a massive difference, especially if your esp8266 is awake all the time it puts out a good amount of heat around it even though you can't feel it.
@@gg-gn3re Hello! Thanks for the insights! I use BME280 mainly because i have tons of them, and they are cheap. They are my default "enviro" sensor to monitor rooms; for they are cheap, easy to find, and I2C. I have a MCP9808 temperature sensor on the same station (given for a very accurate, precise sensor by adafruit); i will add a SHT30 (i have one in my parts bin). The experiment i am conducting is as much about measuring stuff as comparing sensors. Strange thing, the BME280 is really close to the MCP9808, but the BME680 is 2°C higher. However, the 3 curves are parallel, meaning i could apply an offset. I will look more into sensiron line, it is not the first time i hear good things about them. For now, i am dispatching BME280 in all areas of the house as well, and outside. Other than a roof over the sensors, i did not take any environemental protection measures for them, they have been holding for more than a year (here is the caribbean, humidity levels outdoor are often 80%+, and can reach 100% at night). As for air quality, i have a particulate sensor i need to deploy, and i will look into other sensors. I also wanted to finaly deploy some sensors i had bought for quite some time without using them!
Perfect timing. Something I've wanted for so long since I'm pretty sensitive to bad air. The initial investment is on the pricy side, this is going to take a while :D
Jeff, thanks for yet another amazing video. At first I thought you'd jumped the shark, (and were going to start selling those HEPA air filters you then later ?teasingly? mentioned in the video :) ) with that click baity title. As always you never disappoint and gave us yet another high quality fully documented maker video. I should have never doubted you. Keep up the awesome work.
I have a couple friends who keep telling me to buy HEPA filters... I'm like why do that when nature gives us plentiful air for free? Plus that doesn't solve the problem of CO2!
Super cool! I built a monitor for my workshop using a pm2.5 sensor that then kicks on an airfilter if it gets too bad. Now I am thinking I might do an update with this awesome package
great project, Jeff.... though one quick fix for your basement would be to make a small picture frame with standoffs that can attached (screw/magnet) to the face of the vent. This way, the vent can stay open for ventilation all the time & you can have a place to put a piece of art or your channel. ;)
You should probably avoid soldering on your breadboard. Firstly, the breadboard might not be able to take all the heat and you could melt the plastic. More importantly, the breadboard interconnects will act like a heatsink for what you're trying to solder. Soldering is best done when all connection points are correctly heated, as all the solder will just flow where you want it to. For throughhole I usually don't need flux and just focus on heating up every pin and hole. It also helps when you have a bit of solder on the tip to make proper thermal contact with the parts.
I made a Arduino PWM controlled ventilation ( there's full of tutorials) and this seems a perfect new addition to include in it. So I can ventilate the room because temps and air quality.
Waw, quite an interesting video. Btw, for the next version... adding a radon sensor, Geiger etc... I would recommend to add a gamma ray sensor too. They're not that expensive and show amazing results.
This video gives me the idea to use this on our indoor ventilation. I could set a sensor in each tube in the centralised unit and somehow integrate it into Home Assistant, maybe... one day..
Two things: Make something to stand off from the vent and cover it while still letting you have airflow! You could put art or something there and still get the ventilation needed to be healthy. If you end up hooking it up to some home automation stuff, you might be able to reach out to Linus Tech Tips and help Linus with his own home automation set up.
I bought a 3 of the Senseair S8 CO2 Sensors. I'm waiting for them to come in. They was suppose to be for another project. But I'm glade I saw this project. Now I have another use for the other 2 Thank you.
Jeff, I would suggest making a baffle box for the vent - so it doesn't reduce flow at all but makes it super silent. Make it the same color as the wall and it would just blend in.
For those really thin wires (and the thick ones) get a thermal stripper, I'll never go back to the bladed type. Migt impinge on the air quality though !
I ran a co2 sensors at home for some time a couple of years ego, unfortunately the sensor I used was rather unreliable so I ended up stopping it. However, it was really interesting to see how fast the co2 levels dropped by just opening a window. The cognitive function of a person drops rather fast with poor air quality. At ~2000ppm co2 I think it drops to about 50%. It's not linear though.
I run a co2 monitor to keep ph levels up in my reef tank. Opening a window in my last house with a box fan in the window would drop levels from 1500 to 500 in 10-15 minutes. There are a few major factors at play. First, can you get a cross breeze. It's much easier to clear the space if you can blow in on one side and exhaust the other. Second, how much area isn't capable of being exhausted. Things like closets, bathrooms, or other side rooms hold in the old stale air. When you shut the window, those areas will eventually balance out. My last place was not ideal and would restabilize at around 800ppm in 30 minutes or so. Being on the east coast with high humidity, leaving windows opened for hours on end was not possible 99% of the year.
New homes here for the past decade have to come with CO2 alarms. Usually in the form of smoke/OS2 alarms. I hear the same story over and over again on Nextdoor. The home owner was never made aware they were combo units and at some point replace them all with plain jane smoke alarms. They go to sell and get nailed for it.
I connected CO2 sensor with Home Assistant and installed HA app in phone. Now HA can send notifications to my phone "open window" :) Helps when you work from home. Long meetings with high CO2 will make you sleepy
You need to have a formaldehyde test as well. I went through this after buying new furniture that brought our house air to toxic levels. Also a VOC test would be a good idea so you can see how bad house hold cleaner are poisoning the air.
If you do a follow up on this, check your kitchen after you've done certain types of cooking. Anecdotally I've read that a poorly-ventilated kitchen range can expose you to unsafe levels of particulates. I dont know if that's true or not, but it might be helpful to know because most people dont think of kitchens as unsafe places to breathe.
Especially if you have a gas cooktop, it can be a big problem. And if you burn food or cook on higher temps, there's a lot more stuff that'll end up in the air you breathe.
Nice, I like the case. I made a little air quality project with a Sparkfun micromod carrier board running an ESP32 pulling data from a Sensirion SCD30 and Bosch BME680. Data is sent with MQTT to a Raspberry Pi running Node-Red and then to Grafana. I'm sure there is a better way but I don't know JSON. Sensor data should be kept secure or else you will broadcast to the world if you are home, what room you are in, just from CO2 levels alone. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal until I looked at a week worth of time series plots.
I recommend to add tVOC sensor to your setup. I find it the most important part of my air quality monitor. Even when CO2 is fine tVOC can go oven 3 mg/m3 in my apartment and I feel that it affects my productivity.
WES51 gang represent! I've had mine for many years and still love it, even after heavy use. I got one early enough that I have the nicer stand with the ceramic collar, rather than the cheaper/clunkier/noisier metal one they changed to later. Just finally replaced the very sad-looking sponge on it, which I should have done a long time ago!
I have a WCC100 which I believe is a fully analog 120v predecessor to the 24v microcontroller-based WES series. My sponge is also in need of replacement (and for that matter also the tip). Did you use a special soldering sponge or just a cut up kitchen sponge?
@@eDoc2020 DigiKey stocks (or at least did, at the time) proper first-party sponge replacements (right size and pre-sliced), and they were pretty affordable so I just added one to an order I was making already. For tips, I bought a kit of knockoff ones off amazon (couldn't stomach the Weller prices) and they seem to work just fine in terms of thermals and durability. It might be a different story with the newer "cartridge" designs that embed a lot more smarts in the "tip", but for this style of iron it's basically just a hunk of metal, and having the full selection of tip shapes has been handy.
I've just ordered the parts, so that I can make three of these. Looks create. I can see me creating my own endpoint on my K8s cluster, so that they can all feed data in, and make it available to Home Assistant somehow. That would help with my long term goal of having HA based home automation. There's been plenty of times that I feel sluggish and groggy, never thought about air circulation, and it's worth the cost to be able understand what the air quality is.
@@JeffGeerling Got it working with ESPHome, just took a google search and someone had already done it. I now have three of these running, two connected to my HA with ESPHome and one with the stock firmware with wifi disabled. I don't like the case, turns out its too small if you use too many stand offs. So time for me to hit the CAD and build my own case for it.
@@colindawson4818 Awesome! Please share the case on Thingiverse if you do get a better one up for it. That's definitely the weakest point of the design. I've considered just running mine bare with standoffs and a back plate.
What would be cool as well is to add a pressure sensor right inside your HVAC return to measure the air pressure when the fan is on, so you can get an alert when to replace the air filter.
One option might be to mount a cover of some form (maybe even some art) an inch or two in front of the vent with standoffs. That would hide it while allowing a decent amount of air through.
You should tin the wires first, you do this after stripping, gently twist the wires so it stick is together, then solder it. Trim it and push into the board. Much easier to solder into the board.
If you turn up the temperature of the soldering iron you will find it much quicker and easier, it will also reduce the chance of heat damage as the contact time is reduced
awesome project, air quality is definitely important, i kept getting these micro faints at my new workspace, feels like your fainting but only for a split second, i couldn't figure out why, i tough it was diet or anemia or something like that until i stared open the windows for a few hours each day and the problem went away. I will try to build this project so that i can monitor the air quality in here.
Sick building syndrome is real. I worked in an office that was in a vintage multi-story warehouse they rehabbed. Sealed it up tight. Had all the symptoms: drowsiness, mental fatigue. About a week before I left they handed out a survey to all employees inquiring if anybody had those symptoms. Apparently not imaginary. My old house, OTOH, is so leaky and drafty there is continuous air exchange.
Great video, it's exactly what I was looking for. I was put off by the price of off the shelf offerings, specially since many want to use their own cloud service(and who knows how long they will be around). I just want to push the data to homeassistant. Still not the cheapest devices around but hey, I can get full control over the software.
One thing an air purifier can help with is air circulation. I'm living in an old apartment with 10ft ceilings and without the purifier the air would get stale quickly. It also helps when I open my windows, because I'll just set the air purifier to its highest speed and within 10 minutes all the air in my huge room has been replaced. My air purifier also has a PM2.5 sensor built in as well as a humidity and temp sensor. I have them all hooked up to my Pi running on Home assistant. Now all I need is a cheap CO2 meter and I'm set. I have an Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 in case anyone is wondering. I paid 120 euros for it which is really fair for what you're getting in return.
For your vent, how about making a acoustic panels and removing any foam so it's just the fabric on the front. Then place it over the vent. That will give the appearance of it simply being something for the sound without stopping airflow.
Airflow would likely delaminate the fabric from the acoustic foam around it over time, but I'm thinking for now I may take some other advice and build a little white cover that stands off from the wall a bit.
One thing that airgradient PCB could improve is to place that temp/hum sensor at the bottom of the airflow as the heat from the other components might throw it off a bit. Most if not all commercial sensors are constructed in that way.
CO2 is absolutely correlated with brain function, yup. I was having some pretty serious problems; saw a video of a guy trying to live in an enclosed space; his plants didn't absorb enough CO2, and he looked terrible. He gave some interesting figures though. Since then, I've had my window open and a fan drawing air in from it or across it most of the time. Being a converted attic, my room's volume is quite small and I'm in it almost all day due to other health problems, so I've got to deal with it. I'd like a CO2 sensor alone, don't need the other sensors. Edit: Maybe other sensors too. The air in here gets weird when I open the little vent built in to the window.
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I build something similar about 2 years ago when all the bathrooms on my building had to be renovated... Designed a board for an esp-01, a PMS3003 and a dht12. Had 2 esp sendsing observations via MQTT and a a RPi 3B+ hosting the MQTT, InfluxDB and Grafana servers as containers. One of the boards died about a month ago, but the 2nd one keeps going.
Very cool project. I feel like using the breadboard to hold your pins is a bad idea though. That breadboard is a huge heatsink. If you didn't have such a nice soldering station it might take forever to make a solder joint. Even so, it looks like that slowed you down a lot.
love how he starts building a CO2 and particulate sensor instead of making an angled cover for the vent, so it can stay open all the time
Like just space it out 1-2 inches from the vent, lol
@Faranox if the opening of the covering is smaller than the original, it will inhibit airflow, and also make more noise.
@@lloydrmc ? What. I meant just space the covering a few inches off. It wouldn't make significantly more noise
#engineerproblems
@@JeffGeerling First of all it does not look that bad. Second just move the vent as long as you have a stud wall on top of the concrete . if you can't a contractor should be able to do it for a couple hundred bucks.
I live in Northern California and have felt similar sluggishness due to the fires and subsequent horrendous air quality. In a way, it's more frustrating than being sick because you don't feel really bad enough to rest but you don't feel good enough to accomplish anything. I'm going to try this project once I can breathe again.
Dude, you're awesome. I appreciate how thorough you are with how you provide your material, and your advocating of open source. Keep up the great content.
Piping this into something like home assistant + automating the venting system sounds very cool to me. Might be fun to get that working.
ESPHome actually supports all these devices out of the box, so it shouldn't be difficult to build a setup for Home Assistant.
@@JeffGeerling HMMM Very cool. I might actually get this then. My dad and I have been looking for a more permanent solution with a vent we have available. Only problem is the size of the vent, but we can work around that. Thanks!
@@jja2000 did you get any solutions get it integrate with Home assistant?. Thanks
@@wissamoh Use the ESPHome integration. If you flash the 8266 with esphome it should work out of the box.
Jeff, you can permanently fix this vent by mounting white sheet (like magnet one ) in front of it on 5-10 centimeters from wall. It will not block airflow and there is no difference from camera point of view.
Otherwise, pretty nice video! And I think about it but with ESPHome as firmware.
Or just take it off, it's not a big deal, these videos aren't big budget movies, his health is more important.
...or fix it in post and mask it out! :D
Came here to suggest something like this! He could even 3d print a cover that would have vents on the side for air to go through, and put a cool graphic or logo on the front.
@@marthinwurer Logo looks even better 👍
@@marthinwurer Exactly! Turn a problem into a Branding Opportunity
Awesome stuff Jeff. I just started my crusade for good ventilation in my house. I felt exactly the same sluggishness you did in my home office, and there were some mornings I'd wake up so groggy that I felt like I hardly slept. I ended up using a SCD-30 sensor for CO2, temp, and humidity tracking in my bedroom for starters. After tracking with Grafana, I found that there were some nights we got above 5000ppm in our bedroom! We've been much more adamant about encouraging good ventilation in our house, and it sounds crazy but wow has it chamged how I have felt around the house.
Anyway great video!
Man.. 5000ppm is BRUTAL, no wonder u felt like shit when you woke up. Glad you could fix it :)
Oh wow, and I thought 3000 was bad... at 5000 I'd probably turn into some sort of zombie!
@@JeffGeerling He probably did too lol
Yikes. I don't have a CO2 sensor but I do have a window that is open in the hallway upstairs 24/7/365 (when possible) unless it's raining heavily or too cold outside. During the none winter months I try to keep the bedroom window open even if it's just a little bit. Downstairs I have a fan in the guest toilet that is energy star and is built for continuous duty. It also serves double duty as that is also where the cats litter box is.
Probably the reason sometimes I wake up feeling like crap.. time to measure CO2 as well.
Dude! This totally happened to us at our old house too, but not just in a basement office. We started closing all our doors a lot to keep the kids out of different rooms, and there was only one return in the house, and sure enough when we'd go to sleep at night we'd wake up with terrible headaches and grogginess because the CO2 levels climbed to 2000+. As soon as we put gates in the doorways during the day instead, it was easier for air to circulate enough before we went to sleep.
Good to hear from you! And yeah, many homes don't have a return in every room, so that is a real problem-especially if you have thick carpet that touches the bottom of the door and prevents air from escaping the room under the door.
@AstroCat I wouldn't say they "went down the wrong path". I would say they "didn't finish the job" because they didn't install ventilation in the form of an HRV or an ERV (explanatory video here: th-cam.com/video/i7US4TmyD6k/w-d-xo.html). Running one of those at very low speed all the time can greatly improve IAQ without massively running up your heating/cooling load.
Yeah I plan on getting an ERV once it's safer to have a contractor put it in. Our house is less than 20 years old so fairly modern and tight, but has returns in all rooms. So usually we don't get a particularly high level in just one room, we just don't get enough fresh air in so there's high CO2 in the whole house.
Thank you lucky stars that you woke up in the morning. CO2 can be a killer, especially when your asleep. A 'sick' house is nothing to mess around with, especially with your family.
@@navyholesnipe9469 usually CO (carbon monoxide) is more hazardous - there shouldn't be any in your home but as a product of incomplete combustion it can happen and kill quite silently. I'm not sure what the lethal level of CO2 (carbon dioxide) is but I suspect it's quite a bit higher than people see, I've heard of co deaths but not CO2 deaths outside of industrial processes. Do you know what the lethal level of CO2 is or if it's fatal more frequently than I realized?
I'm a noob with soldering but this actually looks accessible, I might give this a try!
Nothing soldered is surface mount so you should have a pretty easy time. One tip - if you’re new to soldering you may want to practice soldering header pins on a proto board first. Proto boards and header pins are available cheap on Amazon and other stores where electronics are sold.
@@markconger8049 The more fun route to practice is to buy the simple project boards that usually only have some LEDs and a battery mount to solder on. I've been soldering since I was a tween, but I still buy the occasional one because they tend to be fun and thematic. My favourite is the sugar skull for Day of the Dead. People comment on it every year, so it's one of the rare solder practice projects you can show off and get good feedback heh.
Recommend you not buy cheap Chinese solder... especially lead based... it makes you dizzy...
Also...cheap solder that is RoHS compliant is super hard to work with because it doesnt melt and stick as well as quality silver based soldier
Same as SilverSnakeFreedom mentioned, his wideo makes it easy for two main reasons: 1. good quality solder with fluxed core, 2. proper soldering iron which can control the temperature. The practice will come with first few broken solders ;)
Thanks!
Feeling thankful for my drafty 100-y-o house right now! Seriously though, fascinating.
love the time laps seeing time pass on the clock looks so cool
@AstroCat most likely
defn looks like octoprint for sure to me
Knowing your office was in the basement I was going to say the only thing your sensor was missing was radon. Glad you made this one. I was thinking about creating a CO2 sensor myself but I'm glad that one has been made that truly takes it to a new level.
now that you can monitor the rooms co2 levels, you should put some plants in there to see if/or how much co2 they absorb
Plants in a basement? Lol
@@yaash4123 grow lights…
@@choahjinhuay Heat...
@@smacksalad you can have pretty efficient LED lights that grow stuff. I have many aquariums in a similarily enclosed room, with DIY aquarium led lights
that are quite powerfull, but dont heat the room that much. I also live in the tropics, where it is very hot. But i have AC, i guess if your room is closed without any climate control, any heat source can become annoying? But then again, a small, low light plant, with a small efficient led light may cause very low heat generation.
@@AudreyRobinel Nope. Current LED are around 20% efficient, theoretical maximum is 40% efficient, that's 80% and 60% heat respectively. Still a lot of heat to deal with. If you're running AC the cost is more than double what it is for those lights.
Pro tip: use some blu-tak (blue poster putty) to hold components in place while you solder. Often use this more often than helping hands or a PCB vise. Great video as usual, Jeff!
Just wanted to say thank you, you're one of the only few people I trust on YT/Reddit.
Bless
Thank you so much I really appreciate that you put the text version of your tutorials in the description.
Since I much prefer blog post form, I always try to encapsulate everything there. It's way easier to search, scan, and reference in the future-plus I can update things there. Hard to do on a video, where things change every 3, 6, or 12 months!
Well done, and very well presented. Thank you for posting.
The effects of poor IAQ quality in our homes and buildings is an area that we are only starting to understand the long-term consequences of. Continuously breathing particulates and carcinogens appears to have long-term health effects.
In most cases, monitoring these items is a good start, but reducing their sources (often various sources of combustion), improved ventilation, and filtration - are key to remedying them.
Jeff is such a great motivation for me on my own TH-cam journey, I am glad I was motivated by this man.
You can read the pm2.5 off the IKEA sensor with an esp too. I've got one with a co2 sensor hacked in. Works really well with esphome.
Works well with Tasmota too, I've hacked one myself recently, and bonuses are that it's cheap, and it comes with its own enclosure.
I kid you not, I was just starting out with Home Assistant and looking for what I could with indoor air quality. This is awesome, ty :D
ESPHome has support for all these sensors, so it should be easy enough to get it integrated!
He's using the old model air sensor. There are PMS7003 and even better PMSA003, the wiring on them is slightly more difficult, but many come with a breakout board that makes it easy with regular gpio pins. (all are on ebay)
Now I want to build two of these to monitor the air quality in my kids' bedrooms. Though they get plenty of sleep time wise they seem to always be too tired at wake time and for a while after. Thanks for the tutorials and links.
This is one of the best youtube videos I’ve seen. It makes me want to attempt a similar build. I’m not sure I have the background to pull it off. I’m interested in creating a commercially viable monitoring system for IAQ so that improvements being made can be tracked and monitored. I think I’d have a lot of learning to do to be able to pull a build like this off. Perhaps I need to partner with someone who already has these skill sets. I’d also like to include circuit level energy usage monitoring. You’ve certainly got me thinking. Thanks
Mate, you got me signed up after combining sensors with 3D printing. Thank you from coming back from the future! 🤯
This is really interesting. I love that you don't need a cloud service. Does anyone know of a ring doorbell type of project for the Raspberry Pi?
I saw one a few months back... it wasn't quite as nice of a build but it did the trick at least, though didn't have two-way communication.
It didn't have an app, but a web UI.
Had the same idea, until I saw doorbell from eufy. All data is locally saved on micro sd card in the included homebase. Trying to figure out how to send the data to the rpi rn, but the price is worth the easy use/install
You could use something like motioneyeos. It would need some customization but I think you can trigger events using a button connected to the gpio pins on a pi
There are some projects using the esp32 cam as a doorbell, can use esphome firmware and integrate with homeassistant or plain mqtt
13:18 "people often ask me we productive" **shows a can of dr.pepper** "boom. Productive"
Seeing how long it takes for the solder to melt (around 5:20), I'd recommend a little more temperature. (The tip size does generally look okay, that's the other thing when melting solder takes too long.)
ok so this is 100% making me want to start doing projects like this... probably going to order a kit next week
When I converted my SodaStream to use standard co2 tanks I bought a cheap ($150) co2 detector from Amazon in case I had a leak. I didn’t, but it blew my mind that the co2 level in my kitchen would spike to 1200-1500 ppm for a few seconds after filling a bottle.
The things you don't even think about!
Also, when we forget to turn on our range hood, the PM2.5 goes up pretty quick too.
@@JeffGeerling As an automation nut, the idea of having vents (bathroom vents, range hoods, house fans, etc) turning on based on air quality levels rather than manual switches sounds awesome!
@@Waitwhat469 There is already a smart vent company, though they are expensive. If I can remember their name, I will post another comment.
cheap 150$ dollars co2 detector?
Whats an expensive co2 detector?
Finally finished implementing your setup. Ansible is interesting! I need to learn more how that works!!! Thanks for helping me keep my air safe :)
For anyone who hasnt done projects like this:
I built a similar air quality monitor a month ago(own design, I didnt know about AirGradient unfortunately) , also getting parts from banggood and aliexpress.
The only tools I needed were a cheapo £10 soldering iron (you can order it together with the components if you dont have one) and a pair of sharp scissors.
If you wanna give it a go, its a fun project and might even help your headaches and afternoon slumps ^^
I'm Deaf and trying to live nomadically. One of my fear was that there are simply no budget friendly option for a Deaf alert for CO2. Basically skipped the idea of having an indoor kitchen of some kind. I've been wanting to learn Arduino and basic electronic since forever just to make this one thing and voila! your vid showed up!. It's basically exactly what I'm wanting to make except no wifi and I'll connect a test button from my vibrating bed alarm clock to be closed by the pi whenever CO2 and the like gets too dangerous. Thank you!
Oh that's awesome! Glad you could do that, and maybe consider posting your instructions somewhere (maybe even just an issue on the GitHub project)?
Mate. As an avid viewer of your videos I’m telling you please don’t worry about covering the vent for my benefit. Stay healthy and keep that air flowing.
Just put a “ventilation” label on the vent. Now that you know how important fresh air is, you can consider the label your public service announcement.
But then you'd see that label in every video! :)
@@JeffGeerling How about a larger white square plastic shield or so that’s lifted from the wall surface (like 10ch or so) and fits onto the vent. It covers the ventilation, while not blocking it completely.
@@JeffGeerling You could make a cover for the label?
Here in EU legislation in last years introduced the mandatory requirements for new building about air quality. There ara some heat recovery ventilation systems that you could interface directly using arduino/raspi and do custom control ;)
I have a air quality monitor in my home as well, I built it out of similar hardware. When researching this project I discovered that the AQI people have reported some findings that are concerning. saying that a lot of people live in homes that have real problems with air quality. Molds, and chemicals as well as CO2.
Modern living, at it's finest.
Couldn't come at a better time.. I want one in each kids room to monitor air quality specially with A/C on and everywhere closed
This is super useful to me because I do experience very similar symptoms.
I think any efforts to bring air testing to all of us is important, regardless of what the catalyst was... Thanks for sharing this, hope you dig even deeper. Outside air is another important matter and I believe there should be more sensors for air quality in all areas and that data readily available on a digestible way.
It seems to be the realizable option to those cheap scrap they sell online. Thanks a lot.
Safety tip when snipping leads after my funtimes a few weeks ago.
Wear safety glasses.
Yes it seems stupid. Yes I've thought the same having worked on electronics for the last two decades and yes it is a pain in the arse but...
I was snipping some header pins flush and one of them managed to get into my eye and behind my lower eyelid. I ended up in a&e as despite my best efforts trying to get the metal out of my eye with tweezers, it did not go well.
And yes... it hurt, it hurt a lot.
Nice, this looks like a good winter project with my son. -Fellow STL AMDG educated person. Blue, not red.
Hello Jeff! Very nice video, very interesting! I am myself putting air quality sensors in my lab, so this is extremely on point for me :)
One thing i'd like to mention : now i am putting leads on my sensors, and have them in open air to provide better readings. When in a case, the heat
tends to accumulate, and many sensors are affected by heat. I try to leave some space between them (although most sensors don't heat that much, it is mostly
the MCU).
I'd like to mention also, as you mentioned "the easyest way", i find it to be esphome trough home assistant. With espHome, i assemble my node (i mean in the physical sense, plugging sensors, etc), plug it in USB, then open the esphome tab on home assistant's interface, create a node, paste the yaml config specified on esphome documentation, then hit upload. It will thus flash the esp, and next time, you can flash it over the air if you change something. I don't have to look for libraries or whatever... (i did that at some point, but it can be annoying with version changes).
Anyways, once done, your sensor sends data to home assistant on a regular basis (can be changed), and HA automatically makes graphes and all. But just to go a bit further, you connect your home assistant to influxdb, then graphana, and do the dashboards as you did. The easy route is to use the plugins directly in home assistant (HA); although i chose to have influxdb not running on my raspi4 that runs HA, because i have beefier linux server with dockers for such tasks; and i plan to keep the data indefinitely, poll the sensors often, etc. Don't want to add a unnecessary burden to th pi SD card.
I take good note of your sensors, i knew some, didn't know others. My plan is to have many air quality sensors running, and try to measure the deviation between all those sensors. Would be better if i had a lab grade one to calibrate my measurements, but i don't :) I am also willing to see if multiple cheap sensors in parallel can be used to significantly increase accuracy. In the begining with simple mathematical solutions, then later with AI (it is my field, so i want to use it there, it is not just for buzzwords :) ).
As for sensors, there is also the BME680, not great for temperature (BME280 is muuch closer to my reference probe for that), but give air quality index estimations (following the IAQ scale), as well as equivalent CO2. as for particulate sensors, i have many of them, and only a few are worth buying. The one you used is one of them : well supported in various project, documented, and caracterized. Many particulate sensors don't give life expectancy, calibration procedures, etc.
I am, as you are interested also by the geiger counter, and would like to also turn it into a physical random number generator :)
Anyways, i didn't know about the CO2 stuff, i'll look into it, it may explain why i sometimes also have a hard time focusing in my lab.
Thanks for all the details! I've been waffling on ESPHome / Home Assistant for a few months, but you may have just convinced me to go that route soon. Definitely will save some time in the initial setup / programming, and the built-in graphing might be adequate for my needs!
@@JeffGeerling If going for home assistant, i would advise to go for the Pi4 install (or another SBC) rather than the docker one. With the OS install, you have an easy addon repo, you just do things in the webui (you can ssh into the box and do it like this, but the webui automates a lot of boring stuff), whereas you have to deploy the container for each addon in the contenerized version.
For ESPHOME, you can do it from your computer, but again, the ESPHOME addon adds a webgui interface, and you can modify the YAML for your remote nodes from a browser. It validates the YAML in live with live error notices (explained, on top of that!)
I like to do it from there because i can then modify a node from any computing device on my network, i don't have to manage the toolchain (dependency X is outdated, blablabla, i can deal with this, but i don't want to), and you can also plug nodes via USB to first program them.
I would also recommend the file editor addon, allows you to modify the yaml files on your home assistant install. 95% of stuff can be set via webgui, but some stuff can't (mostly advanced stuff), or it is at times faster to simply copy-paste a code snippet.
Then you have the snapshot utility, allows you to back up everything or some things only, in an easy way.
I have not done it yet, but there is also a way to have all your config files (minus your credentials, that you can save safely into a secret.yaml file) saved on a git repository (i just moved my sensitive data to secrets.yaml, so i will now do the git stuff)
Then for ESPHome, simply take a look at their devices/sensors that are supported : esphome.io/#devices
i even discovered some sensors that way, or found a way to use sensors i had bought but never figured how to use.
Most of the time, i can find the config in the docs, and the times i don't, i find it on some forum, with the correct pins declared.
Last point, it may not be something you are considering right now, but when you have a home assistant deployed, you can buy a few sonoff smart relays, replace the closed firmware with esphome, and automate lights, plugs (turn on the ceiling fan when it is too hot, turn off the AC when the windows are open, etc), dehumidifiers and various stuff (there is even a "dehumidifier" component to have it work without having you do the logic, same for thermostats.
You can also have an IR LED and send some IR codes to your AC or various devices from an ESPHOME node (one of my next projects, to smartify the AC)
Anyways, i talk too much, see you next time :)
BME680 and BME280 are resistive sensors and have overheating issues, which is why you probably notice your overheating issues more than you need to. In order to get ok sensing with them you need to use FORCED mode which puts them to sleep wakes up takes 1 reading and goes back to sleep. These sensors are mostly for pressure and for flight controllers so massive amounts of air flow..
better yet, though, you can use sensirion sensors which are capacitive like the SHT30 in this video (or better if you want 0-100% humidity the SHT31 or SHT35 or SHT85) all of them are better than all of the bosch sensors though. If you need PRESSURE then you should use a BME280 or BMP180 but only in those cases.
To replace the BME680 there is the SGP40 which is also a VOC sensor, but again from sensirion, which does much better sensors.
Also as you said, keep them away from the MCU, sensirion recommends at least 3cm.. and in my testing it makes a massive difference, especially if your esp8266 is awake all the time it puts out a good amount of heat around it even though you can't feel it.
@@gg-gn3re Hello! Thanks for the insights!
I use BME280 mainly because i have tons of them, and they are cheap. They are my default "enviro" sensor to monitor rooms; for they are cheap, easy to find, and I2C.
I have a MCP9808 temperature sensor on the same station (given for a very accurate, precise sensor by adafruit); i will add a SHT30 (i have one in my parts bin).
The experiment i am conducting is as much about measuring stuff as comparing sensors. Strange thing, the BME280 is really close to the MCP9808, but the BME680 is 2°C higher. However, the 3 curves are parallel, meaning i could apply an offset.
I will look more into sensiron line, it is not the first time i hear good things about them. For now, i am dispatching BME280 in all areas of the house as well, and outside. Other than a roof over the sensors, i did not take any environemental protection measures for them, they have been holding for more than a year (here is the caribbean, humidity levels outdoor are often 80%+, and can reach 100% at night).
As for air quality, i have a particulate sensor i need to deploy, and i will look into other sensors. I also wanted to finaly deploy some sensors i had bought for quite some time without using them!
Perfect timing. Something I've wanted for so long since I'm pretty sensitive to bad air.
The initial investment is on the pricy side, this is going to take a while :D
Jeff, thanks for yet another amazing video. At first I thought you'd jumped the shark, (and were going to start selling those HEPA air filters you then later ?teasingly? mentioned in the video :) ) with that click baity title. As always you never disappoint and gave us yet another high quality fully documented maker video. I should have never doubted you. Keep up the awesome work.
I have a couple friends who keep telling me to buy HEPA filters... I'm like why do that when nature gives us plentiful air for free? Plus that doesn't solve the problem of CO2!
Super cool! I built a monitor for my workshop using a pm2.5 sensor that then kicks on an airfilter if it gets too bad. Now I am thinking I might do an update with this awesome package
great project, Jeff.... though one quick fix for your basement would be to make a small picture frame with standoffs that can attached (screw/magnet) to the face of the vent.
This way, the vent can stay open for ventilation all the time & you can have a place to put a piece of art or your channel. ;)
You should probably avoid soldering on your breadboard. Firstly, the breadboard might not be able to take all the heat and you could melt the plastic. More importantly, the breadboard interconnects will act like a heatsink for what you're trying to solder. Soldering is best done when all connection points are correctly heated, as all the solder will just flow where you want it to. For throughhole I usually don't need flux and just focus on heating up every pin and hole. It also helps when you have a bit of solder on the tip to make proper thermal contact with the parts.
This is perfect timing. I’ve been wondering about this recently.
I made a Arduino PWM controlled ventilation ( there's full of tutorials) and this seems a perfect new addition to include in it. So I can ventilate the room because temps and air quality.
Waw, quite an interesting video. Btw, for the next version... adding a radon sensor, Geiger etc... I would recommend to add a gamma ray sensor too. They're not that expensive and show amazing results.
oh man, you're so good at finding things on my todo list.
This video gives me the idea to use this on our indoor ventilation. I could set a sensor in each tube in the centralised unit and somehow integrate it into Home Assistant, maybe... one day..
You should look into getting a VOC sensor as well! Love the project
Yeah Why not vocs??? Its really useful
Two things:
Make something to stand off from the vent and cover it while still letting you have airflow! You could put art or something there and still get the ventilation needed to be healthy.
If you end up hooking it up to some home automation stuff, you might be able to reach out to Linus Tech Tips and help Linus with his own home automation set up.
It's slowly coming together, but I'm considering adopting Home Assistant at some point.
I bought a 3 of the Senseair S8 CO2 Sensors. I'm waiting for them to come in. They was suppose to be for another project. But I'm glade I saw this project. Now I have another use for the other 2 Thank you.
Thank you for making this video. I've been researching how to make my own air quality sensor, this has helped a lot.
This channel is making me want to make my next home a fully smarthome
Jeff, I would suggest making a baffle box for the vent - so it doesn't reduce flow at all but makes it super silent. Make it the same color as the wall and it would just blend in.
For those really thin wires (and the thick ones) get a thermal stripper, I'll never go back to the bladed type. Migt impinge on the air quality though !
I ran a co2 sensors at home for some time a couple of years ego, unfortunately the sensor I used was rather unreliable so I ended up stopping it. However, it was really interesting to see how fast the co2 levels dropped by just opening a window.
The cognitive function of a person drops rather fast with poor air quality. At ~2000ppm co2 I think it drops to about 50%. It's not linear though.
I run a co2 monitor to keep ph levels up in my reef tank. Opening a window in my last house with a box fan in the window would drop levels from 1500 to 500 in 10-15 minutes.
There are a few major factors at play. First, can you get a cross breeze. It's much easier to clear the space if you can blow in on one side and exhaust the other. Second, how much area isn't capable of being exhausted. Things like closets, bathrooms, or other side rooms hold in the old stale air. When you shut the window, those areas will eventually balance out. My last place was not ideal and would restabilize at around 800ppm in 30 minutes or so. Being on the east coast with high humidity, leaving windows opened for hours on end was not possible 99% of the year.
New homes here for the past decade have to come with CO2 alarms. Usually in the form of smoke/OS2 alarms. I hear the same story over and over again on Nextdoor. The home owner was never made aware they were combo units and at some point replace them all with plain jane smoke alarms. They go to sell and get nailed for it.
LOL! OS2. My computer brain took over. I'm leaving it ;p
haha, OS/2 Warp brings back memories!
Great video. Another sensor is the IKEA PM2.5 VINDRIKTNING and it is even a cheaper sensor and can be modified with an esp8266 to connect to WiFi
The best windows setup !. Well done.. Next, next, next, finish
I connected CO2 sensor with Home Assistant and installed HA app in phone. Now HA can send notifications to my phone "open window" :) Helps when you work from home. Long meetings with high CO2 will make you sleepy
I've been considering running HA instead of my custom setup. Maybe it's finally time :D
Which sensor did you use with HA?
thanks for your reveiw and showcasing such a great product. Just ordered 3 of um
You need to have a formaldehyde test as well. I went through this after buying new furniture that brought our house air to toxic levels. Also a VOC test would be a good idea so you can see how bad house hold cleaner are poisoning the air.
If you do a follow up on this, check your kitchen after you've done certain types of cooking. Anecdotally I've read that a poorly-ventilated kitchen range can expose you to unsafe levels of particulates. I dont know if that's true or not, but it might be helpful to know because most people dont think of kitchens as unsafe places to breathe.
Especially if you have a gas cooktop, it can be a big problem. And if you burn food or cook on higher temps, there's a lot more stuff that'll end up in the air you breathe.
Nice, I like the case. I made a little air quality project with a Sparkfun micromod carrier board running an ESP32 pulling data from a Sensirion SCD30 and Bosch BME680. Data is sent with MQTT to a Raspberry Pi running Node-Red and then to Grafana. I'm sure there is a better way but I don't know JSON. Sensor data should be kept secure or else you will broadcast to the world if you are home, what room you are in, just from CO2 levels alone. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal until I looked at a week worth of time series plots.
Very nice build ❤
Parts hunting time for me, starts now👍🏻
DAMN! I was searching for air quality monitoring just YESTERDAY! Awesome video, just got another DIY project on my desk :P
I recommend to add tVOC sensor to your setup.
I find it the most important part of my air quality monitor.
Even when CO2 is fine tVOC can go oven 3 mg/m3 in my apartment and I feel that it affects my productivity.
Superb details Jeff & great video!
WES51 gang represent! I've had mine for many years and still love it, even after heavy use. I got one early enough that I have the nicer stand with the ceramic collar, rather than the cheaper/clunkier/noisier metal one they changed to later. Just finally replaced the very sad-looking sponge on it, which I should have done a long time ago!
I have a WCC100 which I believe is a fully analog 120v predecessor to the 24v microcontroller-based WES series. My sponge is also in need of replacement (and for that matter also the tip). Did you use a special soldering sponge or just a cut up kitchen sponge?
@@eDoc2020 DigiKey stocks (or at least did, at the time) proper first-party sponge replacements (right size and pre-sliced), and they were pretty affordable so I just added one to an order I was making already. For tips, I bought a kit of knockoff ones off amazon (couldn't stomach the Weller prices) and they seem to work just fine in terms of thermals and durability. It might be a different story with the newer "cartridge" designs that embed a lot more smarts in the "tip", but for this style of iron it's basically just a hunk of metal, and having the full selection of tip shapes has been handy.
I've just ordered the parts, so that I can make three of these. Looks create. I can see me creating my own endpoint on my K8s cluster, so that they can all feed data in, and make it available to Home Assistant somehow. That would help with my long term goal of having HA based home automation. There's been plenty of times that I feel sluggish and groggy, never thought about air circulation, and it's worth the cost to be able understand what the air quality is.
Apparently ESPHome has integrations for all the sensors, so it's easy to configure the board for Home Assistant through there!
@@JeffGeerling Got it working with ESPHome, just took a google search and someone had already done it. I now have three of these running, two connected to my HA with ESPHome and one with the stock firmware with wifi disabled. I don't like the case, turns out its too small if you use too many stand offs. So time for me to hit the CAD and build my own case for it.
@@colindawson4818 Awesome! Please share the case on Thingiverse if you do get a better one up for it. That's definitely the weakest point of the design.
I've considered just running mine bare with standoffs and a back plate.
Sound so great... but also so complicated.
Man this is great!!! Hope to see the radon gas + Geiger counter soon!!!! Fascinated by sensors, and I assume many others are too
What would be cool as well is to add a pressure sensor right inside your HVAC return to measure the air pressure when the fan is on, so you can get an alert when to replace the air filter.
That's not a bad idea; though depending on sensitivity, and the filter type, it could need changing even without a noticeable drop in air pressure.
I suggest a 3d print of a vent that points upward/downward and hides your vent fins but still allows you to get fresh air in the room
One option might be to mount a cover of some form (maybe even some art) an inch or two in front of the vent with standoffs. That would hide it while allowing a decent amount of air through.
You should tin the wires first, you do this after stripping, gently twist the wires so it stick is together, then solder it. Trim it and push into the board. Much easier to solder into the board.
Great video Jeff! Thanks for sharing!
If you turn up the temperature of the soldering iron you will find it much quicker and easier, it will also reduce the chance of heat damage as the contact time is reduced
You could change the temperature sensor to one that is outside the case to get more accurate readings.
awesome project, air quality is definitely important, i kept getting these micro faints at my new workspace, feels like your fainting but only for a split second, i couldn't figure out why, i tough it was diet or anemia or something like that until i stared open the windows for a few hours each day and the problem went away. I will try to build this project so that i can monitor the air quality in here.
now you just need to get your AC to turn off the vent during record and to just circulate air if the temp is fine, but the air quality is low
Sick building syndrome is real. I worked in an office that was in a vintage multi-story warehouse they rehabbed. Sealed it up tight. Had all the symptoms: drowsiness, mental fatigue. About a week before I left they handed out a survey to all employees inquiring if anybody had those symptoms. Apparently not imaginary. My old house, OTOH, is so leaky and drafty there is continuous air exchange.
Hi Jeff I discovered your channel after becoming interested in the things you can do with a raspberry pi! I love your channel you’re the best !
Great video, it's exactly what I was looking for. I was put off by the price of off the shelf offerings, specially since many want to use their own cloud service(and who knows how long they will be around). I just want to push the data to homeassistant.
Still not the cheapest devices around but hey, I can get full control over the software.
One thing an air purifier can help with is air circulation. I'm living in an old apartment with 10ft ceilings and without the purifier the air would get stale quickly. It also helps when I open my windows, because I'll just set the air purifier to its highest speed and within 10 minutes all the air in my huge room has been replaced. My air purifier also has a PM2.5 sensor built in as well as a humidity and temp sensor. I have them all hooked up to my Pi running on Home assistant. Now all I need is a cheap CO2 meter and I'm set.
I have an Xiaomi Air Purifier 2 in case anyone is wondering. I paid 120 euros for it which is really fair for what you're getting in return.
Loving the DIY gadget videos man!
A hubitat driver and app would be great so you could automate stuff such as starting a smart fan, alarms, etc.
For your vent, how about making a acoustic panels and removing any foam so it's just the fabric on the front. Then place it over the vent. That will give the appearance of it simply being something for the sound without stopping airflow.
Airflow would likely delaminate the fabric from the acoustic foam around it over time, but I'm thinking for now I may take some other advice and build a little white cover that stands off from the wall a bit.
That is pretty cool project indeed 👏👏👏
Great video, I made a DIY air quality monitor based on ESP32 that can be integrated in Home Assistant
Oh my goodness this is so cool!! I may do this!!
One thing that airgradient PCB could improve is to place that temp/hum sensor at the bottom of the airflow as the heat from the other components might throw it off a bit. Most if not all commercial sensors are constructed in that way.
CO2 is absolutely correlated with brain function, yup. I was having some pretty serious problems; saw a video of a guy trying to live in an enclosed space; his plants didn't absorb enough CO2, and he looked terrible. He gave some interesting figures though. Since then, I've had my window open and a fan drawing air in from it or across it most of the time. Being a converted attic, my room's volume is quite small and I'm in it almost all day due to other health problems, so I've got to deal with it. I'd like a CO2 sensor alone, don't need the other sensors.
Edit: Maybe other sensors too. The air in here gets weird when I open the little vent built in to the window.
I build something similar about 2 years ago when all the bathrooms on my building had to be renovated...
Designed a board for an esp-01, a PMS3003 and a dht12. Had 2 esp sendsing observations via MQTT and a a RPi 3B+ hosting the MQTT, InfluxDB and Grafana servers as containers.
One of the boards died about a month ago, but the 2nd one keeps going.
I wondered what that white thing was on your wall for ages, now I know!
Very cool project. I feel like using the breadboard to hold your pins is a bad idea though. That breadboard is a huge heatsink. If you didn't have such a nice soldering station it might take forever to make a solder joint. Even so, it looks like that slowed you down a lot.