Fun thread, question I asked myself a few years ago as well, so hereās a long read. Maybe its helpful to someone.
Iāve used a CCS811 in my DIY in-ceiling KNX sensors (GitHub - defl/roomsensor: Arduino based multi-sensor for KNX network), running since 2017. These are easy to use for ESPHome as well Iād guess, not sure if there already is support for them. Before settling on the CSS811 Iāve tested a lot of other sensor components mentioned in this thread as well (no results data saved though, sorry), I do have serious space/power restrictions with KNX and the size of these boards. Picture from prototype board with CO2/VOC chip top right:
Picture from install in ceiling:
The sensors are self-calibrating as long as they see some fresh air once in a while, or so they claim. I guess that in a house thatās not unreasonable to expect. I wondered for a while about calibration as well (temp, RH), but in the end donāt use it.
Iāve found that these are not that useful for person detection, take below measurements from last 24h for example. Green line is a sensor in my bedroom mounted right above the bed, red is a sensor in a walk-in closet with open connection to the room, but with a window-vent in the passage, so will see a lot less of the room air.
First arrow is when I go to bed (with window-ventilation duct and door open), you can see a slow increase. After wake-up Iāve left the room and close the door, you can see the detection goes up for a while until over time all gets cleaned out. Very little you can conclude from this.
Baby room (same conditions), does not even register.
So scaling up to a worse-case scenario, closed room with a lot of natural gasses: toilets. The above sensors should also detect volatile organic compounds which definitely should register in certain uses Purple one was used, green one was not, and while you can certainly see the peak here, I find there is a lot of noise to this signal:
Finally, looking at all 15 sensors in the house:
The big purple one (e) is entrance hall. Blue (o) is sensor one floor up in hallway. These spaces are connected through a stairwell. You can definitely see a build-up downstairs until I open a few large doors we have there which wafts a ton of air over the sensor. (The space itself is connected to the toilet which always pulls air through the ventilation system). Shower room (d) always higher, but this room only has mechanical ventilation, no open windows.
If you want to know if massive RH and temp changes affect this (taking a shower, door closed, but with mechanical ventilation to high, air exit is right above shower so CO2 wonāt go in room much). Major effect can be seen:
So for all adventurous people above pursuing this, my conclusions are:
- It certainly detects somethingā¦
- Though what and how accurate that is is debatable
- Probably wonāt do what you expect
- Continuous (forced) air flow is probably needed for any sort of accurate use
- Iād not build it like this again, Iād place them in my ventilation channels and only use to steer valves that way.
- (I have a well ventilated house, both window and mechanical so probably wonāt run into problems anyway)