some observations on air quality, size of room, etc.

so... last night I returned home to my apartment and my Dylos sensor (it's a $300 laser-based particle counting device) was reading 18000 on the "small particle count". I think that is equivalent approximately to 175 on the standard AQI reading scale.

That's not too bad, considering that outside it was 300+ AQI, but I always start to get uncomfortable when the AQI is around 150, so I turned on my SmartAir Canon, and BOOM! (haha. get it?) the particulate count started to drop. 

picture stolen from the smartair.com website

And y'know? This thing really works. When the AQI was 300+ outdoors, the canon (located in my living room) was so effective that it was able to help clean the air in my bedroom down to "good" levels (maybe AQI of 60-70) over a span of 1 hour. 

The big problem with this? Well, perhaps it's my own fault: I have too much space. A single canon, on the worst day in Beijing (like right now, where AQI is nearing 500 in many places), is simply not enough to deal with all the air that's coming in to my apartment. 

That last picture is from me, sitting in the living room of my apartment, with the canon on full blast, and 450+ AQI reading outdoors. A 47.1 microgram/cubic meter reading is "unhealthy for sensitive groups" according to this chart: 

By the way, I can actually smell the difference between the treated air in my bedroom and that of my living room. Scary huh? It smells smokey / ashy in the living room. 

Since it's late, and I'm getting a bit lightheaded from all the pollution exposure today, I'm going to head into my cave bedroom, shut all the doors, and crank up all my filters up to full blast. 

See ya guys later! 

that ain't fog, folks

Signing off from hazy Beijing (picture to come), 

Fred