Tuesday November 23, 2021; 9:48 AM EST
We have an Airthings Wave Mini, which is an air quality monitor, in the basement where we work. The key pieces of information it provides are the amount of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the air and the risk for mold growth. It sounds like knowing the amount of VOCs is a good thing, but the problem we are having is relating what Airthings says it measures as VOCs to what we have in the basement. In short, none of the items they list as producing VOCs are present in our basement and yet we see the graph go up and down. #- The obvious correlation seems to be the furnace and air conditioning, and yet the Airthings site makes no mention of these items in their documentation. Another correlation seems to be when we are actually in the basement because that means there are usually computers or televisions running, not to mention our own breathing. What I've found disappointing is that Airthings does not provide any information about how to interpret the data collected by the Wave Mini to make decisions. They provide a dashboard of graphs showing the data over time, which makes sense, but should I be more concerned about spikes or averages over time? The use of graphs suggest I should be most concerned about averages, but averages can be skewed. If the numbers go down while we are not in the basement but go up when we are in the basement, is that a problem? #
- So, what to do about this? We are talking about a basement, so it's not like I can open a window. I am thinking that if there is a problem the best we can do is a get an air filter, which then begs the question, which one(s) to get given the space? #
Tuesday November 23, 2021; 9:48 AM EST
- We have an Airthings Wave Mini, which is an air quality monitor, in the basement where we work. The key pieces of information it provides are the amount of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the air and the risk for mold growth. It sounds like knowing the amount of VOCs is a good thing, but the problem we are having is relating what Airthings says it measures as VOCs to what we have in the basement. In short, none of the items they list as producing VOCs are present in our basement and yet we see the graph go up and down. #
- The obvious correlation seems to be the furnace and air conditioning, and yet the Airthings site makes no mention of these items in their documentation. Another correlation seems to be when we are actually in the basement because that means there are usually computers or televisions running, not to mention our own breathing. What I've found disappointing is that Airthings does not provide any information about how to interpret the data collected by the Wave Mini to make decisions. They provide a dashboard of graphs showing the data over time, which makes sense, but should I be more concerned about spikes or averages over time? The use of graphs suggest I should be most concerned about averages, but averages can be skewed. If the numbers go down while we are not in the basement but go up when we are in the basement, is that a problem? #
- So, what to do about this? We are talking about a basement, so it's not like I can open a window. I am thinking that if there is a problem the best we can do is a get an air filter, which then begs the question, which one(s) to get given the space? #