Hi:
I’m a n00b, exploring various options for prosumer home PM monitoring.
Came across this study:
They seem to find Alphasense OPC-R1 the best/most accurate, followed by Sensirion SPS30 and then the Plantower PMS5003 at the bottom.
Does anyone know of any commercial/off the shelf unit that uses the Alphasense OPC-R1 sensor ? (I can’t find any with a google search). Does AirGradient have any plans to offer a prosumer unit with this sensor ?
Best regards,
-J
Hi @javadesigner, welcome to our community.
Please let me consult our team on this and we’ll come back to you soon.
Thanks!
Hi Tai - thanks for the reply.
The Alphasense sensors do seem to be at a order of magnitude higher price point ($500 vs $50) but could be something that prosumers (including me) would be interested in buying.
Hi @javadesigner! Thanks for your response. I believe Tai is away today but he’s consulted the team on this and will be back with a response.
You’re right the Alphasense sensor is quite a bit expensive while our focus is mainly on making affordable monitors. This becomes critical when we consider that most of the regions where monitoring is sparse are low-income.
But I understand your point here. Perhaps in the future, support could be added for other sensors, since everything is open-source - testing combinations and modifying firmware wouldn’t be too difficult.
The study investigated particle number concentration, not mass. The comparison between the two sensors may differ when considering mass concentrations. This distinction is important, as the relationship between particle number and mass depends strongly on the particle size distribution and composition.
The Plantower PMS5003 is not meant to provide particle number concentrations. Instead, it is optimized to estimate PM mass concentrations for typical ambient air pollution. It can perform reasonably well for mass measurements when the particle size distribution resembles that of combustion-derived particulate matter.
The authors of the study concluded:
“For studies requiring more detailed knowledge of the particle size distribution of the aerosol measured, the Alphasense OPC-R1 should be preferred, although our previous study also showed that this sensor was less suited to report PM mass concentration for the two sources of PM used here.”
The two sources of PM that the authors have used were candle and incense smoke (in both cases combustion).
Hi @javadesigner, I’ve consulted our hardware team. Currently, we have not tested the OPC-R1 ourselves yet. The price is a significant consideration in this case, but the idea of prosumer PM sensor is interesting anyway.
If we have further updates about this, we’ll let you know. Thanks!