I recently bought one of these air quality monitors and got to take it out for some measurements!

I'll share some findings in this thread.

CCing @CO2Guerrillas here, in case they would like to share.

A very quick intro:

This device measures:

-CO2 concentration
-relative humidity
-atmospheric pressure
-temperature

I spent ~$200 on Amazon. It pairs with your phone and you can watch data come in every minute or so.

https://t.co/aoXjyq8kdu
A lot of covid transmission is airborne. So, having clean air is a must for reducing transmission.

A great way to see how much clean air you are getting is to measure CO2 concentration.

Too high -> you could use more ventilation -> open some windows!
So, I walked around town and took some measurements.

Outdoor CO2 concentration should be about 400 ppm. I haven't calibrated my device yet, so I measured ~470. Close enough.

<800 is good for indoors. Something like 2000 is very bad.

https://t.co/oZAkVnr9ts
For a reference: inside my apartment I quickly get ~1000 ppm if I don't have windows open. Maybe ~1500 if things get bad.

If I crack some windows, even just barely, it gets down to ~600 ppm very quickly, and my heater can keep the apartment ~70 F no problem.
First stop: a small shop in Harvard Square. It is about 60 ft long, 20 ft wide, and usually has ~3 people in there.

CO2: 937 ppm.

Not great, not horrible. Surprisingly (to me), this place had the highest CO2 on my trip. It did have a purifier, which was nice.
Next stop: a very similar store, but it has less business and only ~1 person in there most of the time.

~700 ppm. Still good.
Plant shop around the corner, which was a bit larger in size, maybe 2-3x, but also maybe ~4 people in there on average.

650 ppm. Not bad!

Fun fact: this shop is 103 years old now.
Next stop was interesting: a paper store that was split into two completely separate rooms. Both the same size, and both had ~2 people in there. One had the AC blasting, the other had it off.

Basically the same results in both: 650-700 ppm
Next stop, a 2-floor CVS which is usually pretty busy. Picked a spot near the center of the store:

620 ppm. Still not bad!

The doors open often, and the AC was on.
Next stop was the Harvard bookstore.

560 ppm.

Very nice! Especially since my device reads ~470 outside.

Took this sample in the essential ideology section.
I was skeptical about the low values, so I went to another section (science books now).

520. Still good!

The whole store had their AC up very high. I could see many of the signs shaking due to airflow inside. I assume they were piping in outdoor air.
Overall, I was impressed with most places! I expected worse, but I also didn't go into any of the more dangerous areas, like restaurants (we still have indoor dining in Boston).
A side note: CO2 concentration is just a proxy for air quality. Not perfect, and many other things matter too.

Follow these people instead of me to get some real science:

@kprather88 @jljcolorado @ShellyMBoulder @CO2Guerrillas @jksmith34

More from Tech

These past few days I've been experimenting with something new that I want to use by myself.

Interestingly, this thread below has been written by that.

Let me show you how it looks like. 👇🏻


When you see localhost up there, you should know that it's truly an experiment! 😀


It's a dead-simple thread writer that will post a series of tweets a.k.a tweetstorm. ⚡️

I've been personally wanting it myself since few months ago, but neglected it intentionally to make sure it's something that I genuinely need.

So why is that important for me? 🙂

I've been a believer of a story. I tell stories all the time, whether it's in the real world or online like this. Our society has moved by that.

If you're interested by stories that move us, read Sapiens!

One of the stories that I've told was from the launch of Poster.

It's been launched multiple times this year, and Twitter has been my go-to place to tell the world about that.

Here comes my frustration.. 😤

You May Also Like