↓ Skip to main content

DIY Air Purifier and Air Quality monitor

·238 words·2 mins·
Author
Tuco Imad

An average smog-filled day in wintery Sarajevo
#

The story begins simply.

I got sick of the perpetual Sarajevoan smog-filled winters and I decided to tackle that by solving two issues:

  • Figuring out pollution level in the room
  • Purifying pollution in said room

And I did actually purchase a Mi Lite 4 purifier.

Launch image

The flaws of factory-built purifier
#

Honestly, the sensor wasn’t as precise. Funnily enough it was, because of the software, not hardware.

Inside of it is Plantower PMS5003. Pretty solid sensor!

Plantower PMS image

But I decided to go with Senserion SEN54, because in it I get very accurate with self cleaning and nice measurements of:

  • PM1.0, PM2.5, PM4, PM10
  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • VOC

SEN54 image
SEN 54

I also realized, since I am very often in my room and ventillation isn’t optimal, nor do I like to ventillate, becaues of bad outdoor air, I also needed a CO2 monitor, which I decided on Senseair S88.

Senseair S88
Senseair S88

And with that I connected them via ESPHome (and one ESP8266) and crimped all the wires connected it all up and:

The purifier part (seen above)
#

I realized, what if I just take the Mi’s filter (which is like 6x cheaper than the price of the purifier itself) and just put on top of it a nice quality bathroom fan (with more pressure and not loud, 38dBA max).

And - it worked great.

And that’s the story how I DIY’d the purifier.