What I’m confused about is the value of an air quality monitor over just getting an air purifier. A monitor will only benefit you if you act on its readings by a) buying a purifier, b) avoiding areas with pollution. If you install the monitor at home you don’t really have the option to avoid it so a) is the only viable path to impact I see.
Most people can access pollution information about the city they live in and some can access it even more granularly (e.g. Berkeley has tons of PurpleAir monitors that can be accessed by app). The right decision rule is probably “if your city average pollution is high ish, just get an air purifier”.
I think most of the cognitive effect that op is talking about is due to high CO2 conc and an air purifier is not going to have very much affect on CO2 levels because HEPA filters can’t filter CO2 out of the air like they can for impurities.
In that case what would a person do with the information from a monitor? The only suggestion from the post that seems specific to having a monitor is “stop working and take a walk when CO2 is high”, which is only useful if CO2 is generally low (if CO2 is perpetually high you can’t avoid working during that time).
A monitor will only benefit you if you act on its readings by a) buying a purifier, b) avoiding areas with pollution. If you install the monitor at home you don’t really have the option to avoid it so a) is the only viable path to impact I see.
Eh it’s gonna depend on the particulars of each living situation but I think there are a bunch of dials/levers the monitor can cause you to adjust:
Usual/common
Central air (is that the right term?):
temperature
speed (including off/on)
which vents are open
Windows
Doors open/closed/cracked
Fans (potentially even a cheap USB-powered one)
speed
direction
Air purifier (+quantity/price/quality/speed/noise)
(De)humidifier (idk if these have an affect on air quality but plausible)
Which room you work in (ik not everyone has this or other choices on the list)
Plants (I think the effect size is usually too small but not certain)
Potentially also:
Moving (residences/cities)
When you work/move/go elsewhere
e.g., going to the library if C02 hits 1000 ppm when roommate is having friends over
Wearing a mask (at least potentially idk)
Which cleaning/scent products you buy and use
Which appliances you buy (like electric vs gas stove)
More important than “tweak each dial 2%” though, is that I think during some small but non-trivial proportion of user-hours (5-10%?), the user would discover that their working environment is bad enough to warrant a more dramatic change than “crack a window and turn on a fan,” which they wouldn’t make without direct immediate feedback from a monitor. I’m not certain though of course, and certainly could be wrong about this!
What I’m confused about is the value of an air quality monitor over just getting an air purifier. A monitor will only benefit you if you act on its readings by a) buying a purifier, b) avoiding areas with pollution. If you install the monitor at home you don’t really have the option to avoid it so a) is the only viable path to impact I see.
Most people can access pollution information about the city they live in and some can access it even more granularly (e.g. Berkeley has tons of PurpleAir monitors that can be accessed by app). The right decision rule is probably “if your city average pollution is high ish, just get an air purifier”.
I think most of the cognitive effect that op is talking about is due to high CO2 conc and an air purifier is not going to have very much affect on CO2 levels because HEPA filters can’t filter CO2 out of the air like they can for impurities.
In that case what would a person do with the information from a monitor? The only suggestion from the post that seems specific to having a monitor is “stop working and take a walk when CO2 is high”, which is only useful if CO2 is generally low (if CO2 is perpetually high you can’t avoid working during that time).
Open doors, windows, consider working/sleeping somewhere else, turn on a fan etc.
Eh it’s gonna depend on the particulars of each living situation but I think there are a bunch of dials/levers the monitor can cause you to adjust:
Usual/common
Central air (is that the right term?):
temperature
speed (including off/on)
which vents are open
Windows
Doors open/closed/cracked
Fans (potentially even a cheap USB-powered one)
speed
direction
Air purifier (+quantity/price/quality/speed/noise)
(De)humidifier (idk if these have an affect on air quality but plausible)
Which room you work in (ik not everyone has this or other choices on the list)
Plants (I think the effect size is usually too small but not certain)
Potentially also:
Moving (residences/cities)
When you work/move/go elsewhere
e.g., going to the library if C02 hits 1000 ppm when roommate is having friends over
Wearing a mask (at least potentially idk)
Which cleaning/scent products you buy and use
Which appliances you buy (like electric vs gas stove)
More important than “tweak each dial 2%” though, is that I think during some small but non-trivial proportion of user-hours (5-10%?), the user would discover that their working environment is bad enough to warrant a more dramatic change than “crack a window and turn on a fan,” which they wouldn’t make without direct immediate feedback from a monitor. I’m not certain though of course, and certainly could be wrong about this!