Importance of Air Quality

[Updated February 2024] We breathe in about 11,000 liters of air a day. Air allows us to live life and do all the cool things that we do. However, not all air is created equal. If you’ve been in a room without ventilation or a functioning air conditioning system, you know how stale and unpleasant the air can get. Fortunately, air quality meters can help.

Poor air quality can be caused due to various reasons which include dust particles, dirty air ducts, clogged air vents, dirty HVAC filters, smoking, pets, and many more. It’s important to have an air quality meter at your home or office to avoid serious respiratory problems and worse health effects.

Why Air Quality Meters?

• A new generation of air quality monitors is now being offered to provide real-time air quality readings
• There are wide varieties of options available with different form factors and features
• Air quality meters give useful information about the quality of air in your office, home, or greenhouse
• It’s easy to use you can connect them with a wall socket or some runs with the battery.

Air Quality Meter Buyers Guide

Know What’s in Your Air?

Poor air quality can impact your health and comfort in many ways, including respiratory health, sleep, focus, mood, and immunity. You can use different air quality meters and their features to sleep better, control your allergies, increase productivity, or improve your general health. After our research, we give you actionable insights and recommendations that we hope will improve your air quality.

What follows are some of the reasons why you should consider buying an air quality meter:

Easy breathing 

Breathing is, for the most part, an unconscious action. All of us do it without thinking much about it, but in case your indoor air quality is low, breathing can feel like trying to suck air through a coffee stirrer. Even if you don’t realize it, your body does. Living in bad air quality puts a lot of stress on your body, heart and lungs. It can even make climbing a flight of stairs a physically tiring task. If you breathe clean air you breathe easier and you give your body the oxygen it needs.

Better sleep

Our respiration changes when we’re asleep such that our breathing rate decreases and becomes much steadier. Having good air quality while sleeping is as important for you as you when you are awake. If you sleep with something covering your mouth you may not be comfortable and will spend most of the night tossing and turning. Irritation while breathing in oxygen and airborne allergens affect the quality of your sleep which can lead to sleep disorders like sleep apnea. If your home air is clean then you won’t have to worry about any breathing problems so you can wake up feeling refreshed.

Elimination of allergens

It has been reported that somewhere between 10 and 30 percent of the population in the world suffers from allergies. The most common allergens are:

• Dust
• Animal dander
• Mold spores
• Cockroach debris
• Pollen

Getting rid of allergens ensures that you’re not sneezing up a lot or suffering in your own home. To keep allergens at bay you can do frequent vacuuming, maintain your home’s ventilation and air conditioning system up-to-date while also filtering out the particles from outdoor air to provide you with clean air. It’s important to choose the right type of filtration method and having it properly installed, will have a big impact on how clean your air is.

Reduced odors

Whether you cook fish, forget to clean your cat’s litter box, or have roommates who eat bean burritos exclusively, odors are always a bad problem. The smell of onion breath or B.O. isn’t anyone’s cup of tea; but bad smells also have a very real effect on your mood, thoughts, behaviors, and dreams. Bad odors can leave you uncharacteristically grumpy and irritable. While good smells like flowers improve your mood, reduce stress, and lower your heart rate.

Old filters, even HEPA filters, will not be able to remove odor and sprays. All they may do is just mask them for a while. The key is to break down the organic material (VOC’s) in the air that causes the smell in the first place.

Balanced humidity

For a good balance of humidity, you need good indoor air quality. Humidity is the amount of water present in the air, which affects all aspects of your environment. If your home has a high level of humidity it can feel stuffy, moist and generally difficult to breathe.

Low humidity can lead to cold and dry conditions that lead to static shock, irritated skin and frequent nosebleeds.

Reduced energy costs

The important factors which are required to maintain the air quality are proper ventilation and airflow, moderate humidity and carbon dioxide levels. All these factors go toward optimizing your HVAC system and ensuring that it doesn’t work too hard to keep your home healthy. This leads to low costs on your utility bill.

Best way to use an Air Quality Meter

An indoor air quality meter is designed to sit in a common area of the home like your kitchen, bedroom or family room. An air quality meter will constantly monitor the conditions of the indoor air. These measurements are then displayed on an interface or dashboard that is built into the device itself. Some air quality meters have a companion app for your smartphone or tablet.

Now let’s see the Top 5 Air Quality Meter in 2024 

Between 100-200 price range

CO2Meter AZ-0004 Indoor Air Quality CO2 Meter

The CO2 Air Quality Monitor has sensor helps you measure the CO2 levels in your home that is very accurate. Move it from room to room to test CO2 levels in your house. It can reveal if your home’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system is operating properly. High CO2 levels indicate inadequate or closed return air ducts. Lower levels of CO2 indicate that there is fresh air and it’s wasting heating or cooling energy. In addition to its CO2 meter, the TIM10 has an accurate digital thermometer and relative humidity indicator.

Pros And Cons of Indoor Air Quality CO2 Meter

Awair- Air Quality Monitor

Awair captures the main factors of air quality compounds: dust, chemicals (VOCs), CO2, humidity and temperature. Also the sensor of  Awair tracks bad elements in your air and gives you suggestions to help you keep it safe and clean. It also provides the knowledge required to improve your environment and take control.

Pros And Cons of Awair- Air Quality Monitor

Foobot [New Model] Air Quality Monitor

Foobot can identify the invisible and odorless pollutants or compounds in your indoor environment and show them through its LED display. In one glance, the color and breadth of its glow will let you know whether your air feels more like a forest in the Alps or a freeway in L.A. It is a great visual device. Foobot includes sensors for PM2.5 (particulate matters), VOC (chemicals), temperature and humidity.

Pros And Cons of Foobot [New Model] Air Quality Monitor

Between 200-300 price range

Amprobe CO2-100 Handheld Carbon Dioxide Meter

The Amprobe CO2-100 Handheld Carbon Dioxide Meter provides you feedback with different levels of CO2, and it also gives useful information around temperature and humidity measurements. The built-in alarm warns against dangerous CO2 levels. The portable CO2-100 Air Quality meter is designed to measure air quality compliance in occupied spaces such as offices, production floors, schools or hospitals. This is very useful for verifying HVAC system performance and quality air ventilation control.

Pros And Cons of Amprobe CO2-100 Handheld Carbon Dioxide Meter

Dylos DC1100 Pro Air Quality Monitor

DC1100 features technology and engineering that allows indoor air quality monitor with an LCD screen. On-screen you will see small and large particle counts with a dynamic bar graph showing actual count reading. Dylos DC1100 has different timeline modes which include minute, hour, day and monitor to check your quality of air and keep it for 30 days for review. Dylos DC1100 Pro has all the features of the standard DC1100 but with increased lower sensitivity – detecting particles down to 0.5 micron. The large particle size range is calibrated to 2.5 microns and above.

Pros And Cons of Dylos DC1100 Pro Indoor Air Quality Monitor

Conclusion

Awair- Air Quality Monitor delivers high value for your money compared to other air quality monitors on the market. It has uncompromising quality with advanced features which helps keep your mind in peace. It tracks or sensors organic compound toxins, chemicals, dust, CO2, carbon monoxide, humidity, and temperature. It’s connected to an app so it’s easy to control.