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Comment by jansan | Hacker News Reader

My takeaway from the article: Buy the sensor, make sure air quality is in the "good" range (green light) and you will be fine. I think I will order a few.

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> Conclusion: [...] However, the defined cut off values for the air quality and its description as “Good”, “OK”, and “Not Good” are not based on science or international recommendations and create the false understanding that the air is good, when in fact it is not good at all.

Considering that the article was basically written by somone who is selling competing products I would take this statement with a truckload of salt.

I’m not selling anything and unless the writer is outright lying about the number ranges, I agree with them. The “green” range is way too lenient and the sensor will only help you keep away from really terrible air quality, most people would have it green always while doing nothing at all.

As I understand it "yellow" will indicate better air quality than "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" according to the US standard. I see a difference between "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" and "really terrible air quality" as you describe it.

There's acutely unhealthy for sensitive groups and there's long term unhealthy for anyone.

Convincing reasons exist to think that significantly lower levels than are acutely unhealthy have long term health impacts. On top of that, you don't really need a sensor to know whether or not your air has particulate levels that are acutely unhealthy, you just know it.

If you don't care or only want to know if your air is quite bad, sure, buy one of these. I don't think it's a reasonable level, but you do you.

Exactly. Recently I bought a very cheap CO2 meter. It is inaccurate, but still accurate enough for 99% of the people.

Which CO2 meter did you get, how accurate is it and how much did it cost? Agreed people just need a meter good enough to tell them when air quality isn’t good.

The brand is Simr, but I think there are only 3 or 4 meters that are sold as whitelabel and rebranded a thousand times. I think it was around $30.

Outside it measures around 400ppm so the base point is good. Inside it measures 480ppm with good ventilation. When someone farts it goes to 2000ppm for a while. So I think it measures 'alright'.

I'd pay $30 for a fart detector. CO2 accuracy would just be a bonus

Referring to acetone detectors with lousy linear lookup feature as “eCO2 sensor” is infuriating but do I must admit it’s an okay reminder for room occupants to open windows…

Agreed. I think I will buy at least one given that the cost is so low.

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