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I live in an apartment in Phoenix Az with 2 kids and the people below me smoke so much that their blinds are stained orange. It’s especially prevalent in one area of my apartment. The complex told me they’ll let me change units but can’t guarantee the people I’m near in the new unit won’t smoke and I’d have to pay for movers and go through the hassle of changing my address everywhere. The only other option is for me to get over it and stay in this unit but even my clothes smell like smoke at this point it’s humiliating. I already brought in a note from my dr that the smoke is detrimental to my asthma but they said since they offered me to move, they did their part.

What air purifier can I get to help this?

Hey guys! I have a few questions about ozone generators. What metrics of the machine I should watch for? What is the best saturation of the ozone? Should I leave the apartment or only the room while the generator is producing ozone? For 20-30m2 sized rooms how much time should the generator work and how much time should I air out the room? What about the plant? Should they handle a 30-60min ozone exposure once a week?

I have a moldy smell. I also have a machine that takes out the moisture out of the air, but that smell of moisture isn’t going away.

Hi members of the Merced community, I am a student who did online researches to put together a story map regarding CAFOs and methane emissions. The reason for this was because I wondered about how people of San Joaquin Valley are affected by agricultural activities happening all around them and limited my research to just Merced County. If you are interested, please click on this link.

I came across an archived post on this subreddit today that helped me realize there was a problem and couldn't comment, so I thought I'd share my experience. I was seeing a spike in VOCs every morning that would taper back down throughout the day. It would usually get about as high as 2100 ppb, but would then gradually fall. It's cold out, but not freezing. However, we did have a cold snap with a freeze a few weeks ago.

It turns out our heat exchanger had a few holes in it, possibly made worse by the recent freeze. Most of the bad gasses were still escaping outside, and you could smell it near the unit when it was running, but apparently it was still allowing some VOCs into the house. We saw a spike in the morning because the heat would warm up the house in the morning, but never needed to run as long the rest of the day. The carbon monoxide detectors in the house were never triggered, but the VOC detection could have saved us from a much larger problem. We're getting a new unit on Monday.

I have one of those air things radon electric detectors. I put it 24 inches off the floor and 3 feet from all of the walls. I did this around the sump pump and got a reading from 2.5 to 4.5. I then put it on the other side of the basement And got a reading of 1.1 to 2.2. I then took it and placed it next to the crack between the wall and floor elevated about an inch. The reading was 48. All of these measurements were done for two weeks each. I know the other readings in the basement are slightly high, but the crack really has me very concerned! What are anyone else’s thoughts on this?

also, during the summer, my CO2 is 900 to 1400. Now during the winter, it’s anywhere between 500 and 800. Why is it higher during the summer? I would think that it would be the opposite.

Hi All,

Was thinking of buying an Awair Element Co2 monitor in the hopes it would give us an indication of whether we are getting second hand smoke into our home from our neibour (We share a party wall and do not mind that they smoke but are on a difficult fertility journey so want to resolve anything that could be causing us issue).

I am tempted by the Awair Element CO2 Monitor but am mindful that it doesnt explicitly detect nicotine. Would a Co2 or VOC spike be enough to indicate if someone is smoking?

Any advice is extremely appreciated

My qingping2 is equipped with Sensirion sensor. By default it outputs TVOC index

Explanation by qingping

VOC index" is a TVOC representation method proposed by Sensirion. The index takes the average concentration of TVOC detected by the sensor in the past 24 hours as 100 points and uses the 0~500 points to represent the relative concentration of TVOC in the current environment

AirGradient provides a good technical explanation about the limitation of low cost sensor and why index is used: https://www.airgradient.com/blog/accuracy-sensirion-sgp41/

but I still dont fully get a few things:

1. What specific class of VOC does the Sensirion TVOC index is meant for? Is it dangerous compound like formaldehyde, or does it also include harmless VOC like gas emitted by a certain ripe fruit?

2. It's been weeks and my TVOC index stays at around 50. How can I identify the source?

The sensor is placed in the living room, and I made sure to let air exchange happens. CO² and PMs are all going down during air exchange, but not TVOC.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hey! New to this subreddit but been struggling pretty bad during the last two air quality warnings here in LA over the past week.

I had asthma as a child but haven’t really struggled with that in a while. This doesn’t feel like wheezing but more so a really itchy/scratchiness in my chest that as the day goes on I got a headache and fatigue. The first time was last week 12/5 when there was the no burn warning place (could see the smoginess from my balcony) and yesterday with the Malibu wildfire. I’m in south LA so not necessarily in the smoke path so the reaction seemed a little excessive. Like it almost felt better when I was outside!

I’ve only been in my apartment since July so still seeing how this place fares throughout the seasons but in general it doesn’t have great ventilation/airflow and can be pretty stuffy. Most of the time we just run fans and open the windows to help but obviously on bad air quality days that’s not an option. I’ve been in SoCal for 4 years but haven’t had much experience with wildfires so this is all pretty new to me.

Basically just wondering if these symptoms seem like a sensitivity to the bad air quality? If so what can I do to help with that? We have central air so does that just need to be run occasionally? If not I guess I’ll just have to go get checked out, lol. tyia!

Editing to add: I’ve also been a plant parent for years and have had mystery trouble with all my plants in this apt since August. Yellowing, looking fried (even though there’s not a ton of sunlight) so I wonder if this could point to dry air? Not sure!

Hello is it worth it to buy a low level co monitor like the Forensics Detector Fast Low level monitor? Ive read avg household co without gas stoves range from .5-5ppm and even 9-10ppm are acceptable/possible depending on duration. I feel like something like this would cause an alarm more often than needed but I want to be safe. They cost significantly more than the regular ones.

Also, is it worth it to get the combination CO/gas monitor like the one from kidde or first alert or just get the standard co alarm. Any advice is appreciated.

Co2 at night is going over 2500. I sleep in a tiny bedroom and I can leave the door open.

I hate opening the window because it leaks noise and cold air and that disrupts my sleep.

I bought an air purifier and it made basically no difference. I plan on returning it. Doesn’t seem to be helping to circulate much air between rooms

I’m thinking maybe a cheap fan could help air circulation between other rooms?

So far the only solution is opening a window in my bedroom and a second window in the living room to get the air exchange. But like I said, I get cold.

I have an Air things wave plus and it’s been a week, I’ve calibrated it by putting it outside, and the VOC levels inside my house are consistently around 900 to 1000 ppb. I have noticed a chemical smell and have had some respiratory system issues and headaches. I’m pretty sensitive to chemicals, but I’m wondering if readings like this are typical for apartments with vinyl flooring. Thanks for any help.

Hello all. I found a used Winix air purifier at a thrift store today. They were wanting $35 for it. I did not open it up to check for filters. It did come with a remote.

My concern is that I can't find any info on this thing online given the info I found on the sticker.

Model WACP450

It also says air cleaner and not purifier.

It's also a plasmawave model.

Should I go back and buy it for $35USD? I was just about to buy a honeywell purifier here next month for $150.

For baby, what is the ideal humidity at room when sleeping? Same for temperature.

Is it need to be also the same on winter or summer?

Wondering what everyone's experience with iqair purifiers has been? I'm considering buying the bullet and buying one. I'm very sensitive to something at the house I'm living at and I'm constantly stuffy, itchy eyes, and generally feeling off in this house. I've used cheap jeoa filters bru it's just not enough for the house that's 2000 square feet. If you have used any other or have any other purifier recommendations let me know. I like that iq air has the hyper hepa filtration and I'm concerned about super fin particulate. We also have propane oven with no outside ducting, and are getting new floors installed so I'm worried about VOCs.

I have a PMS5003 as part of Enviroplus kit, attached to a Pi Zero W. Sometimes, after I restart the device, the measurements show a step change and keep at the new levels consistently. An example session with a restart around 9:30 is below. I'm not restarting the device, just stopping the script with CTRL+C and restarting it. Does anyone have a similar experience? What could be the cause?

https://preview.redd.it/pt8fu7ux2t5e1.png?width=1202&format=png&auto=webp&s=8013abfbe2d342fad1ad17c65dfe7dae128d2bc3

Hi guys,

Whenever heating is on for a prolonged period of time I start getting drowsy. I have a mast cell disorder (an allergy of sort) and I believe this is the medical explanation for me not feeling well.

But the question is what exactly am I reacting to? Here is a quick list of what it is not:
- VOC reading is low, like 0.5 for PM2.5
- CO2 reading is acceptable (around 700-900)
- radiator and the entire apartment are crispy clean, no dust anywhere, no pets,
- isolated air circulation

Heating is done by a gas boiler, however a few moths ago I got the electric heater out and still felt not ok when it ran for the entire day.

I am wondering if it has something to do with the oxygen? Like the energy in hot air is doing something to it which is making it harder for cells/mitochondrias to deal with it and thus I wake up feeling week? Or perhaps the volume of oxygen reduces as such for some reason?

My other guess is something in the apartment is reacting to the increase in temperature, starts emitting some crap that is not being picked up by the VOC reader and which I react too. Though this is a less likely reason, I think, as in summer temperature goes way above what I am getting now with heating and I feel ok.

Any ideas? Cheers!

Given that it's allowable to add a few drops of bleach to water to purify it for drinking, I can't imagine water that you would be allowed to drink could not also be used in a humidifier.

Are the recommendations not to use bleach in a humidifier just an abundance of caution for idiots who are going to put too much in?

Hi all,

I'm a little desperate and hoping someone can help. Long story short, I recently bought a house and after a spray foam installation in the attic, there's been a horrible smell in my home (and attic) that's persisted for months and caused me to feel ill to the point I can't live there. The installer refuses to admit he did anything wrong, though he admits to still smelling it. I got a VOC test on the air done and it came back with high levels of chloroform, benzene, ethylbenzene, dioxane, and dichloropropane.

Has anyone ever had experience with this happening after an installation? Is there something I can do to fix it? For added context, we're pretty sure they left the furnace on during install and also that it's still off gassing, which is why the smell is so bad in the house. I had one person recommend dry icing or removing the roof deck, doing a bake out, using a bio hazard sealant, installing an ERV, and adding a HEPA filter and bipolar ionization system to my HVAC. If this will fix the issue I'll have to figure out a way to do it, but it's so expensive, and I'm worried about it making things worse.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this, I'm sad and stressed this is happening and appreciate all insights.

as I speak its currently been above 4 for the past few days and ive been noticing it steadily increase the past few months.

house has a crawlspace then only a ground floor. Im renting and no work has been done on the house recently. is this something worth reporting to my landlord?

it should be noted ive never owned an air monitor that monitors radon, so it may have always increased around this time.

https://preview.redd.it/thb603l09p5e1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13126ef91eacc6daa1f2f016bb3ac3f0a772af92

https://preview.redd.it/vdhsm3l09p5e1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=311b2971654831a5c686e405b2a5a1f648600f44

https://preview.redd.it/xr7s93l09p5e1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=adae11ab647f0d8961c8ab932733449cbf11ad31

New to the whole monitoring thing, but recently I've been getting worried about the air quality. Since I am new, I am not exactly sure what I should be monitoring in general. I imagine this can't be healthy in the long run.

I have two machines, both FDM (uses the filament rolls not resin), and they both sit in my room and are running nearly constantly.

I've got a Levoit air purifier with the VOC filter that I keep on while I am printing. Just starting to worry if that is enough as I want to get more printers and turn it into a farm.

Any recommendations that can do general monitoring that would be useful for me?

Appriciate the help :)

About a month ago I stained a piece of wood outside on a cold windy day. By the time I stained the surface and came back to wipe off the extra, it had soaked into the wood. I had the pice sitting in my indoor craft room for a month and the smell never went away so I trashed it about 2 weeks ago. Even though the piece is gone, it still smells like stain in that room. I’ve tried jacking the heat up to 80 over night and then keeping the window open during the day with the door closed, but when the window is closed, I can still smell it when I open the door to that room. I’ve also hung a few carbon filter bags in the room. Any other suggestions for getting the smell out after the source has already been disposed of? Is it better that I keep the door to that room open for circulation? I keep it closed to isolate the smell.

Hello, the street in front my mother's house was coated with bitumen a week ago. The house and especially the air intake and exhaust of the ventilation system are 25 feet from the street.

From my research it seems there are emissions of both VOCs and Polyciclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon, which are both cancerogenic, from fresh bitumen/asphalt during several months.

I wonder if I have reason to be concerned for her health and if there are mitigation measures that I could implement.

I work in a Fortune 500 company, but there’s no OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) department. Every day, as soon as I enter the office, I feel unusually sleepy, and the air just doesn’t seem as fresh as it does outdoors. I’ve informed my superior, but they insist everything is fine.

What are some affordable and reliable ways I can measure the air quality myself? Specifically, I’m looking for tools or devices that can detect issues like CO2, humidity, or other potential causes of this drowsiness. Any advice would be appreciated!

Please help. I got the AirPura UV714. It is an all metal body so no offgassing possible like from plastics, and I did NOT have the UV function on. It is just the Super HEPA and the 18lb activated carbon canister (pure coconut shell carbon and coconut shell has never bothered me). Just used it for the first time tonight and ran it high speed for first 30 minutes as instructions say to do when it's new and bad headache hit pretty quickly, so did scratchy throat and clearing throar. After the 30 mins, turned it off and headache and throat issues went away. Later I turned it back on on the lowest power and speed (very low) and the headache and sore throat came back, along with itchy eyes. NOT a dusty room and it's sitting on a hardwood floor away from furniture. No pets or smokers here. What could be the issue?? Please share your thoughts!