Monitoring your Air Quality. Chris writes -

With allergies and asthma I’m interested in both the indoor and outdoor air quality. I heat with a Quadrafire woodstove. It is suppose to be a clean stove. I was interested in the impact on both my inside air (ie. ash/dust) and outside air (smoke). New York State monitors the air quality at several locations around the State. Certified Allergy & Asthma Consultants in Albany NY published daily pollen counts. I have several weatherstations collecting data ( KNYREXFO1 [barn roof], KNYCLIFT1 [garage roof]),

There are several citizen group projects that are developing open source equipment (e.g. Air Quality Egg). There are several recent discussions about adding a Particulate sensor. The Egg Project aims to give citizens a way to participate in the conversation about air quality. It is composed of a sensing device that measures the air quality in the immediate environment and an on-line community that is sharing this information in real-time. It is a community-developed, open source project that is driven by people who care about the air they breathe.

The $290 DC1100 Pro Air Quality is a true Laser Particle Counter with two different size ranges. The small channel (0.5> Micron) should see bacteria and mold. The Large channel (2.5> micron) should see dust and pollen. The LCD display constantly shows bargraphs and values for the small and large particles. The unit saves 30 days of air quality data. I ordered the unit with the PC Interface Option and connected it to an Arduino Ethernet so I can automatically log the data to Pachube. That way air quality alerts can be triggered and sent to twitter and my cell phone.

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