Aqara Air Quality Monitor: What Are Your Expectations and Needs?

Aqara Products
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Hello everyone,

I’m Scallion, one of the developers working on Aqara’s air quality sensors. We are constantly striving to enhance our products to better meet user needs and improve overall experience.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the following:

  1. What are your expectations from an air quality sensor in terms of features and performance?
  2. Are there any specific scenarios where you would like to see improvements in air quality monitoring?
  3. How important is the integration of air quality data with other smart home devices for you?

Your feedback is invaluable to us as we continue to develop solutions that align with your needs. Please feel free to share any additional thoughts or suggestions you might have.

Thank you for your support!

Best regards,
Scallion

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I think accuracy is important.

If you are not familiar with the following blog post, you may find it interesting: Ikea Vindriktning Air Quality Sensor Review and Accuracy

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Thank you, Scallion, for your initiative and for taking an interest in user feedback. As a smart home user and a potential customer for your air quality sensors, I would like to share my thoughts:

Expectations regarding features and performance:

  • Accurate and reliable measurement: The most important thing for me is the accuracy of measuring various air quality parameters, such as PM2.5, PM10, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), temperature, and humidity. Reliability and consistency of data are crucial.
  • Wide range of measured substances: I would appreciate it if the sensor could detect the widest possible spectrum of harmful substances, if technically and economically feasible.
  • Fast response: The sensor should react to changes in air quality as quickly as possible so that I can take timely action (e.g., turn on an air purifier).
  • Clear and understandable data: Information should be presented clearly in the application, ideally with historical data and trends. The ability to export data would also be great.
  • Alerts and notifications: Customizable notifications when defined limits for individual air quality parameters are exceeded are very important to me.
  • Long lifespan and low energy consumption: The sensor should have a long lifespan and should not significantly burden the home network or battery (if battery-powered).
  • Calibration option: I would appreciate the option to calibrate the sensor to ensure maximum accuracy.

Specific scenarios where I would like to see improvements in air quality monitoring:

  • Kitchen: Monitoring VOCs and other pollutants generated during cooking.
  • Children’s room: Special emphasis on monitoring PM2.5 and allergens.
  • Bedroom: Optimizing air quality for better sleep.
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Thank you so much for your detailed and valuable feedback.
Your insights as a smart home user and potential customer are extremely important to us. I will definitely discuss all your suggestions with our development team to see how we can enhance the features and performance of our air quality sensors to better meet your expectations.

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My expectations when it comes to an air quality monitor is that I want it to be capable of measuring as many values as possible, for example, PM0.3, PM1.0 PM2.5, PM10, VOC, CO2, CO, NOx, but I know it would cost a lot.

A specific scenario for me is having choice to power the monitor with both battery and USB-C will be very convenient, but you might have to consider isolating temperature and humidity sensors from other components that might cause heat themselves. As I found that some of my hardwired air monitors have some discrepancies in temp and hum (the reading is a bit higher than it should be).

Integration with other devices and platforms is vital. Especially, Matter and full compatibility with Home Assistant. I wouldn’t love to buy a device locked up in its proprietary platform.

And lastly, I would love to see an air quality monitor from Aqara that can opt to contribute the air quality data to open-source air quality databases like OpenAQ. This will be very helpful for the public.

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I Think 2 options should be added here, one with and one without a e ink display, for example as mentioned by @jaroslav.S most people would want one in a few rooms, me it would be living room with display that posibly blinks when amber or red and beeps like crazy if purple. The kitchen I am not sure about as i think that should be a combined smoke/voc alarm so maybe not relevent. but bedrooms yes, I also think pm 10 is important as some times the vac filter looks clean but when using it my current sensor will let me know via a blinking hue light in orange that the pm 10 levels are up… so I wash the filter.

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