I am looking for recommendations on a air quality monitor that works with HA.
I’m based in the UK, something easy to purchase here and sensibly priced. (No additional hub required). I already have Wi-Fi devices and Zigbee available.
As a minimum I want Carbon Dioxide (CO2), other air quality monitoring sensors would be a bonus.
I don’t have the time at the moment to buy components and build one for ESPHome, so needs to be available off the shelf and pretty much plug and play.
ikea VINDSTYRKA zigbee, has PM sensor and backlight, but no CO2
switchbot WoTHPc (meter pro co2) bluetooth, has CO2, but no PM or backlight
this was posted on reddit earlier @ https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1kxikct/weve_just_soldered_and_tested_a_fresh_batch_of/
devices with CO2 sensors are generally pricey no matter where you can find them.
see also @ Best CO2 sensor
Exactly. If they are sensibly priced, they are probably inferring CO2 from a cheaper sensor like VOC and no good.
I chose to buy a Netatmo weather station with several indoor units. Not cheap, but if you get a discounted set you will have a good weather station as well, so the price is easier to justify.
I also own an Awair Element, which has a nice combination of sensors and a nice case with easy to read display. During Covid the price spiked to the absurd, I do not know if it returned to normal.
I also own some Apollo Air1 devices. You can somewhat choose which sensors you want. They offer a broad selection of sensors. Note that CO and Methane can react to other gasses as well. Use an aerosol nearby and both will spike.
I think all very good choices, but none are sensibly priced.
Note that I think that CO2 sensors are very much worth the investment though. Most people do not realize they have headache inducing levels in rooms they are in. If you have teenagers who keep their windows and room door closed a lot you’ll definitely lean to appreciate them. That is partly why I have so many.
How does this interface with HA? does it require their app? work locally only? is it wifi/zigbee/bluetooth or ?
It is a wifi indoor base station (proprietary connection to other units), cloud based, a downside I forgot to mention. You can use Homekit for local access though, but for me that proved less reliable. I still have it as a backup.
The Awair element allows for local wifi access if you enable it. The Apollo is local wifi.
EDIT: I checked and it seems from history the Homekit integration with Netatmo is pretty stable now. Maybe I experimented with it at a time it was a bit buggy?
Not trying to derail the thread, but what exactly is your end goal for the sensor? There’s a lot of misconceptions when it comes to indoor CO2 levels and there may be cheaper/easier ways to achieve what you’re after. Long/short: CO2 levels have to be HIGH for it to ever actually be an issue or concern; the only real reason for measuring it indoors is using it as a proxy for occupancy.
I strongly disagree. These are real life measurements from a room where a teenager lives. Those spikes are enough to make you feel bad. The drops are when windows are opened to counteract. And it has been worse… I tell my kids to ventilate, they won’t listen, but they do listen when they see this. The joys of puberty…:
It may differ how well the house is insulated though, and if you open windows regularly. People often forget to open windows and they should do that often. I live in a normal, modern, highly insulated house.
Those are normal fluctuations I’d expect to see based on occupancy, but it’s nowhere near any kind of dangerous limits. As an example, OSHA (the US’s workplace safety agency), anything under an AVERAGE of 5,000 PPM is considered fine.
When folks report feeling the effects of high CO2 levels, it’s generally other pollutants (or honestly, just odors) in the air causing this and of course is very real. Fresh air is great, but it’s also very energy-intensive to condition that air, so it’s important to only bring in the minimum you really need (outside of when the weather is amazing outside, of course 
). Where I live, we really only get a few weeks of weather like this but I always look forward to opening up the house as much as possible.
You may very well be right. But if in real life these CO2 levels are always accompanied by other contaminants inducing headache and other ill effects, then it is a very useful indicator. Even if the CO2 level itself, in isolation of other contaminants, is safe. Because that is a useless lab situation.
The ill effects on the people are real, and the CO2 levels are the only sensor that correlates to it. That is real life experience. And as you can tell from the posts above, I have loads of air quality sensors. Both useful ones and senseless ones. I can honestly tell you the CO2 ones are the only ones I really care about, because they serve a real purpose.
By saying these levels I show are “normal” to see in homes you prove my pijnt. Because when the spikes happen, air in those rooms is actually bad. I’d rather follow recommended levels for classrooms. The levels shown here are used by many European governments as well:
Apollo Air-1 is very good.
I find myself getting very tired and lethargic in the afternoon, while working in my home office (a small box room with a tiny 50cm square window that is at head height).
I’m concerned that perhaps CO2 is becoming high. It should be an easy thing to check, with a reasonable bit of kit.
Would also like to see how CO2 is overnight in our bedroom.
Its a timber frame house built with a log of insulation, so pretty airtight.
I was looking at the Apollo MSR-2 with Co2 MSR-2 mmWave Multisensor for Home Assistant (LD2410B) | The Pi Hut
I decided to purchase the MSR-2 monitor, which has now been in use for a week.
I seem to be regularly getting up close to 2,000ppm CO2, once up to almost 3,000.
Looking online at recommendations, this is definitely getting into the numbers to cause drowsiness.
Will continue to monitor, and try to open the small window more and see how it effects both the data, and how I feel.
At some point will try this in our bedroom too, see what it shows overnight.
Further research has shown studies that have directly linked lower cognitive ability with higher Co2 levels https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4892924/
Cognitive function scores 15% lower for 945ppm Co2
and 50% lower with 1,400ppm Co2
I wonder what affect > 2,000 would have on cognitive function…
