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plentz/air_quality.md

Last active November 26, 2023 22:15
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air_quality.md

I’ve been obsessing interested in air quality for the last 2 months (pretty much because I saw that famous DHH talk and the Awair Element gamify it - but I highly recommend it to check if the changes you’re making are actually working). Here are a few things to consider:

  • I recommend getting a ultrasonic one just because the maintenance is just way easier. And your should REALLY think about maintenance (you don't want a filter you need to change filters every month and have a hard time cleaning it). The ones I recommend are:
    • Levoit ultrasonic 300S: huge 6L tank, good for bedrooms and smaller rooms, super easy to fill and clean. Works with Alexa and Google.
    • Levoit ultrasonic LV600S: huge 6L tank, generates a lot of umidity, ideal for bigger rooms, decently easy to fill and clean. Works with Alexa and Google.
  • if you care about PM2.5 and you live in a city with “hard water” (eg: Toronto), an ultrasonic humidifier might generate a white mist. Here’s what turning on a Levoit ultrasonic humidifier do to your PM2.5 levels (that big drop is when I turned it off). Get one with an evaporative system - basically, those ones that have a fan (this one from Honeywell is super quiet, but requires way more maintenance - [super important when making the decision of which one to buy] - if it’s not for a big room). “but Plentz, you can buy a water filter to remove those minerals from the water and use the “more efficient” ultrasonic humidifier”. hmm, kind of... unless you’re willing to install a reverse osmosis filter (which is usually pretty big and probably not an option for a condo), a regular water filter will do nothing to improve the PM2.5 problem.
  • remember to clean and change the filters (if it's a evaporative one) of the humidifier frequently (to increase the lifespan of the humidifier filter, make sure to flip it every few days to avoid allowing the top to become super dry).
  • an air purifier really helps. It will not make any miracle, but a robot vacuum to remove some of the dust from the floor every day + a good air purifier should do the trick. Get a good one, not an expensive one (I have the Winix 5500-2 [super silent], but that Coway Mighty seems to be pretty good too).
  • check and change your condo/house filters. Even with the air purifier and robot vacuum running every day, this was the drop I saw after removing the old “stock” filter and replacing it with a new one.
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