Performance of Consumer-Grade Air Pollution Measurement Devices in Residential Environments

摘要

A developing trend in consumer electronics is production and use of inexpensive (<$300) devices to monitor airborne contaminants of health concern. Most of these devices monitor the mass concentration of PM_(2.5) and PM_(10) particles, temperature, relative humidity, and some include volatile organic compounds or other pollutants. This study focused on four consumer devices: the Air Quality Egg 2, Blueair Aware, Foobot, and Speck that use optical sensors to measure airborne particulate matter concentrations. The devices were collocated in three residences over 7 consecutive days in each residence. Household measurements were compared against established optical sensing devices including two Personal Data RAMs (passive pDR-1000, Thermo Fisher), a DustTrak DRX (TSI Inc.), and gravimetric mass measurements using two Personal Modular Impactors (PMI, SKC, Inc.). A follow-up study in one residence included a collocation of Foobot, Speck, and the pDR-1000 in the kitchen (near source cooking exposure) and bedroom (residential exposure away from a source) combined with time-activity behaviors in the residence over 14-days. Overall, the results show inconsistent performance of consumer grade devices relative to reference methods. For example, in one household, the Foobot registered a Pearson's R~2 of 0.565 when compared to the DustTrak DRX for 1-hour averages, while the Speck showed poor associations (R~2=0.206). Similar results were shown in the cooking study with poor associations from the Speck compared with the pDR-1000 (R~2=0.003), while the Foobot had a strong association with the pDR (R~2=0.830). Among the investigated sensors, the Foobot was most correlated with the reference devices, but the cooking study indicated its limitations regarding maximum loading capacity. Overall, the data show the utility of the consumer-grade air quality measurement devices, allowing for wide-scale deployment; however, further testing is needed to determine their applicability in field studies.