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    Air Quality Readouts for Homeseer

    I'm looking for a solution that will detect when air quality gets low (at the moment, I'm thinking to base this off of PM2.5), which will then allow the system to trigger an air purifier (a simple pure blue purifier, which is essentially just on/off).

    Alternatively, I can buy a Winix system for the same price that has this built in... but so far as I know, there's no easy way to integrate this into Homeseer. I love adding features to Homeseer, so my project for myself is to use that to make everything work!

    Does anyone have a suggestion for a piece of hardware that might work to help me achieve this? Air quality meters are common, but I haven't found anything under $200 that can connect directly via Z-wave. The technology is cheap, but the implementations right now are cornered by a single brand, and they are quite expensive!

    #2
    In case it's helpful, this is the ONLY z-wave solution I could find: http://www.mcohome.com/show.php?id=107
    It's currently around $240 on ebay (195 euro, I believe)

    Here's the Winix wi-fi enabled all-in-one. This unit isn't as effective as the pure blue air purifier, but it does have a PM2.5 meter built in... I just don't know how to connect the data readout to my Homeseer system, which is my aim (with no purpose other than to satisfy my curiosity.)

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...k_ql_qh_dp_hza

    In a perfect world, there would be a $25-$75 unit I could buy to measure the air in my home, and then trigger my purifier via a z-wave switch when it is needed the most. That's what I wanted, but not what I've been able to find so far.

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      #3
      There are two project gaining ground, but neither are cheap. The Uradmonitor A3 and purple air.

      I myself have had the A3 for a long time and I got looking environmental monitoring. I would not fit z-wave solution for longevity

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        #4
        I actually keep finding quite a few different solutions that work with wifi, but none that seem compatible with z-wave. If someone makes a plugin, then that would be awesome, but so far as I know no such plugin is in development.

        The top products I've found include...
        The Acer Indoor Air Quality Monitor
        The Awaire and Awaire Glow
        The Laseregg 2
        The Foobot

        These options are so expensive I might as well just get the zwave model. It actually seems a bit higher quality, since it has a nice color screen. It's just a lot to pay for a simple air quality meter...

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          #5
          Where do you find this Z-Wave device?
          Originally posted by rprade
          There is no rhyme or reason to the anarchy a defective Z-Wave device can cause

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            #6

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              #7
              The z-wave device I was referencing can be found on ebay here.

              As for an Arduino solution, I'd love to do something like this but I don't have a lot of extra time right now. Perhaps I'll do this anyway, though, and make it a long term project.

              $210 just seems like robbery, especially since I don't need the screen portion of the device (I have an old iPad 1 I'm going to mount to my wall to control everything). So perhaps I'll get the better air purifier (manual) and hope for the best moving forward with an Arduino solution.

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                #8
                This is an important one to note: The flow by Plume looks like a REALLY cool sensor (for indoors and outdoors) and it's being sold on the cheap because it's on pre-order ($140, rather than $200).

                I actually may end up buying this. The only downside is that this is Bluetooth, so I don't think there's any chance of making it work with Homeseer. That aside, it's a really useful tool if you're sensitive to air quality.

                Here's a link: https://flow.plumelabs.com/

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                  #9
                  This sounds like an interesting Arduino project 😀 Might give it a try.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Lucid View Post
                    The z-wave device I was referencing can be found on ebay here.

                    As for an Arduino solution, I'd love to do something like this but I don't have a lot of extra time right now. Perhaps I'll do this anyway, though, and make it a long term project.

                    $210 just seems like robbery, especially since I don't need the screen portion of the device (I have an old iPad 1 I'm going to mount to my wall to control everything). So perhaps I'll get the better air purifier (manual) and hope for the best moving forward with an Arduino solution.
                    Does that work in the US? The Z-wave frequency looks like Euro Z-wave, and I didn't think that worked with US Zwave gear.

                    It is nice because it has a dedicated CO2 PPM sensor, rather than trying to estimate it from VOC indications.

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                      #11
                      PS The new Awair Omni product looks very nice. It's aimed at business, so not sure about pricepoint, but seems to have all the right sensors and wifi connectivity: https://getawair.com/pages/awair-for-business

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                        #12
                        I had no idea there was a European z-wave, and that it was different - that's a really good thing to look into before buying!

                        As for the Awair, it's funny this came up, I actually came here after taking a second look at this and realized both this, and the Acer unit proudly boast IFTTT compatibility. This means you can trigger events, theoretically.

                        I've never done this before, but in the VERY least, a smart switch that is controlled via both Homeseer and IFTTT can be triggered, and an event could then make a readout appear on a tablet or phone (which was and is my aim still). I bet there's a much more direct compatability as well, since Homeseer boasts IFTTT compatability (again, I've never tried this... but I assume there's lots of flexibility here - perhaps a way to have a device like this report to a faux device (homeseer device) that then reports things like the exact PM2 quality, or at LEAST a "low" "medium" "high" quality readout.)

                        Not sure why it took me this long to realize this, but there you go... now, the ultimate solution here to me at this point would be a Homeseer plugin to support the Awair, and/or perhaps the brand new "Plume Flow" device coming out. I don't know where to start on making such a plugin, but that would be awesome.

                        Either way, the solution I need has been found. IFTTT can trigger my air filter. The solution I want is yet to come, however (the readout of all that beautiful data so I can see exactly what quality my air is on any Homeseer device).

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                          #13
                          Plantower 3003 + MQTT

                          I do exactly this using the plantower 3003 sensor, a nodeMCU, and MQTT.

                          The sensor outputs 24 bytes (from memory) and the nodemcu (esp8266) reads that in on serial0, breaks it up into values then every 10 minutes uploads the readings via MQTT. I only have one running right now but plan to add a VOC sensor and possibly a co2 sensor and then populate the house with them when there's time.

                          The benefit of having them subscribed into homeseer is that I can automate warnings and of course control ventilation.

                          I plan to knock up something to run on the homeseer server to subscribe to the same data feed and write it into a database (probably mariadb) for some charting later on down the road.
                          Attached Files

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                            #14
                            Originally posted by GEN View Post
                            I do exactly this using the plantower 3003 sensor, a nodeMCU, and MQTT.

                            The sensor outputs 24 bytes (from memory) and the nodemcu (esp8266) reads that in on serial0, breaks it up into values then every 10 minutes uploads the readings via MQTT. I only have one running right now but plan to add a VOC sensor and possibly a co2 sensor and then populate the house with them when there's time.

                            The benefit of having them subscribed into homeseer is that I can automate warnings and of course control ventilation.

                            I plan to knock up something to run on the homeseer server to subscribe to the same data feed and write it into a database (probably mariadb) for some charting later on down the road.
                            That is awesome! I was very close to buying an "Awair", but I can't justify the $160 price tag as much as I want to... I think I may dig out my Arduino Duo and see what I can do with it. Your setup seems perfect with all three sensors!

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by GEN View Post
                              ... but plan to add a VOC sensor and possibly a co2 sensor and then populate the house with them when there's time. ...
                              What you described in your post is similar to the project I'm working on.
                              I have picked up ~10 x PMS5003, MQ-4 (Methane), MQ-6 (LP), MQ-7 (CO) & SHT31-D (Temp & Humidity). I'm using ESP-32's to do my Wi-Fi & MQTT work.

                              I wanted to add a CO2 sensor, but they all seem to be pricey.
                              Have you picked a CO2 sensor?

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