Good air quality is one of those things you take for granted until you don’t have it. Many places have degrading air quality due to pollution or natural disasters and Australia is no exception. Even here on the farm in the middle of nowhere we are impacted. A few years ago, bush fires were so bad that the smoke from hundreds of kilometres away came our way and ended up affecting us so badly we had to drive to the coast for a few nights. On top of that my other half is asthmatic and is affected even worse. For that reason I wanted to have an early warning system for the farm, so we would know the air quality was deteriorating before it got critical.
I got hold of an air quality sensor that monitors the level of particles smaller than 2.5 nanometers, CO2 levels, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds, temperature and humidity. Below is the journey, which didn’t quite go to plan. Enjoy.