Whole Home ➜ Indoor Air Quality ➜ Air Quality Monitors
Best Air Quality Monitors for Home
Accurately track temperature, humidity, and invisible CO2, CO, radon, PM 2.5, and VOCs with an indoor air quality monitor to make sure your air is as healthy as you think.
The Airthings View Plus is the best indoor air quality monitor overall. It tracks the most important indoor air quality parameters including VOCs, PM 2.5, CO2 and radon, which sets it apart from many other options. Made by CERN scientists, and RESET certified, this is the most accurate monitor available for homes, and is what I use downstairs. Use code INTERIORMED-10OFF for 10% off through their website here, or check the price on Amazon here.
The Awair Element is an ultra-accurate residential home indoor air quality monitor that is RESET certified. While it doesn’t track radon, it does monitor indoor VOCs, PM 2.5, CO2, temperature, and humidity, with an easy-to-read screen. I use one in my office upstairs, where radon isn’t a concern, but high carbon dioxide levels which make me sleepy are. See my video about it here.
Wildfire Smoke Monitor
This is the best air quality monitor for wildfire smoke. It’s the only Temtop brand product I recommend, because it doesn’t have a gimmicky formaldehdye sensor (which don’t work in the residential low-cost level of monitors) and it does almost as well measuring PM 2.5 as scientific-grade air quality measuring instruments (it gets a high 0.91 score on AQ-SPEC; read more below). It’s not as accurate at measuring PM10 (big particles like pollen) and it doesn’t measure VOCs, but it gives you a super-accurate PM 2.5 reading, one of the primary concerns of wildfire smoke.
A hygrometer tracks humidity levels. Mold grows best above 60% humidity, so this can help keep you informed about your home’s levels. This is a simple and inexpensive way to aim for between 40-50% humidity, so that you’re still comfortable, but mold isn’t.
This multi-room monitoring system tracks radon, VOCs, and mold growth potential for you, reporting results continuously through the app. This is a good option if you’re not too worried about wildfire smoke or cooking particles. Currently only available on Amazon.
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More About Indoor Air Quality Monitors
Why would I need an indoor air quality monitor?
They can literally save your life, by detecting radon in your home, or alerting you to high PM 2.5 levels, which are linked with heart disease and cancer. They track indoor VOC levels, which can exacerbate asthma and respiratory symptoms. Using one, you’ll see how quickly carbon dioxide builds up in a closed room, and how much better you feel when you ventilate. Finally, they take the guesswork out of air purification and ventilation; knowing when to turn up your air purifier or open a window even when it’s cold is just as useful as knowing when your indoor air is healthy, and you can relax.
How to choose an accurate indoor air quality monitor
Air quality monitors operate on an invisible level, so it’s important to know they’re doing the job correctly and not giving you false readings. Look for brands that have RESET certification for their commercial models, NRPP approval for radon monitors, and that are otherwise made without gimmicks. For example, steer clear of readers that say they can read formaldehyde levels. Formaldehyde is incredibly difficult to measure in a residential air monitor, so companies that do not have this are potentially more likely committed to providing accurate information and data to you.
Another place to look is AQ-SPEC. This database compares low cost residential air quality monitors to the super-accurate, super-expensive air quality monitors used by scientists to see how closely their readings match. The scores range from 0 to 1.0. A score of 0 means they don’t agree at all. A score of 1.0 means they agree perfectly. A score of 0.5 means they agree about half of the time. Choosing an air quality monitor with a score as close to 1.0 is ideal. It’s interesting to see how inaccurate some of the models are. One of the cons of this list is that it hasn’t tested all available models, and most of the ones it has tested with good readings are still very expensive in the $600+ range (Air Quality Egg), discontinued (Kaiterra Laser Egg), or difficult to use in a home. I expect this will continue to change as the need for in-home air quality monitoring continues to rise.
Whole Home ➜ Indoor Air Quality ➜ Air Quality Monitors