Saw this on Reddit today. Still reading through all of the info about the sensors the chose, the format, and hopefully be able to find their ESPHome config for some tips:
Apollo AIR-1 Air Quality Multisensor Review - SmartHomeScene
It’s an interesting little device. The base version is not that much different than the IKEA VINDSTYRKA that retails for $49 USD. It contains the SEN54 compared to the SEN55 which adds a NOx sensor.
It is good to see more options in this space and I actually have been in touch with them from time to time.
My main concern is around the MiCS 4514 MOX sensor that on paper delivers quite some nice air quality parameters but in real life situations seems to be extremely inaccurate.
I think -especally for new players in the space coming more from other IoT devices- there is this inherent believe that once a sensor modules sends data, the data can be just displayed and used.
But how do you actually know the data is correct?
How does Apollo ensures that the monitors they deliver are accurate and well understood? What calibration and test process do they do? I have asked them a few times but so far did not get a good answer on that.
Adding to above, this study looked at the MiCs 4514 and their conclusion was:
Neither the MiCS-2714 nor the MiCS-4514 showed promising results in our field experiment considering the evaluation parameters shown in Table 4. After gaining a first impression about the usefulness of these sensors (MiCS-2714 Rs: 0.28–0.53; MiCS-4514 Rs: −0.49–0.39), their sensor output as a predictor for ambient NO2 and ambient CO is rather questionable.