Dyson, like Apple, doesn’t make products for nerds like us who are willing to go through that level of effort. Their prices are high because their products are simple and “just work” without much fiddling.
I've never claimed that it does not filter, just that it is a fraction as effective as the alternative at 5x the price. We heat with wood in the winter and some smoke escapes when you open the door to tend the fire. My $100 unit filters the living room back down to the baseline in ~15 min.
I recently got into building DIY air quality sensors. Any kind of smoke hangs around in a room for many hours well past when you can smell it. My house periodically spikes in air pollutants (still looking for the cause but we are moving soon anyways). The one night when PM2.5 spike from safe levels of below 12 ug/m^3 to over 1000 for one night was the worst sleep everyone in our house got. It seems that it was the equivalent of smoking something like 44 cigarettes in a day. Don’t smoke, especially indoors. It’s a bad time.
If that's sarcasm, you aren't providing enough context for me to pick up what you are putting down. If not, then the honest answer is "I don't know for sure, I'm still researching it."
From what I can tell, PM2.5 isn't the end-all be-all metric and sensors can give false readings. That's why I'm building multiple devices with different types of sensors and monitoring multiple metrics. PM10 and PM1.0 are also concerns, as is CO and CO2. I am researching which VOC sensors to get because unfortunately not much info is readily available. But from the research I've read PM2.5 is the most prevalent and damaging in typical households (CO being a big exception, but that's also monitored by regular household CO alarms). I can tell when someone has been frying something in the kitchen from my bedroom sensor for example, and it lingers for a while. I can also tell when outdoor air quality is poor, and then my indoor air filter and closed windows do help. I am still learning about all this, but in general this data has been helpful to figure out when to open windows to avoid headaches.
I plan on publishing my findings at some point, but currently I am still waiting on parts and PCBs and working out the software to make it more usable without having to run to grab a USB cable to flash new firmware on the sensors. I was inspired by https://www.airgradient.com/diy/ but those plans are outdated and the dashboard is proprietary so less than ideal. I am working with simply integrating my sensor network with Home Assistant so I have to do very little with frontend stuff. It was very quick to set up notifications to my phone so I don't have to look at sensor screens all the time.
> but those plans are outdated and the dashboard is proprietary so less than ideal
Have you looked at open source smart vivarium projects? Several seem to have good front-end.
This may seem weird, but the reason I first started to explore air quality and sensors was to build a smart vivarium for a reptile.
I didn't go through with that project but it was a waking call for me. Animals need so much environment control to thrive and humans are animals.
So instead I focused on adding sensors and filters to my own home. Nothing fancy so far, just a mix of product that work with google home and smart sockets.
Thanks for mentioning our DIY sensor building instructions. Can you please let me know what exactly is outdated so that I can update it.
Also I am more than happy to give people trial access to our dashboard. Just PM me via the support form on our website.
are you able to share anything / willing to work with anyone? I'm just getting through the research phase and am looking to coat my house with sensors - its been a struggle finding quality writing in the research and it looks like a graveyard in the world of pcb design.
They charge high prices because of marketing. Suckers are willing to pay more than their products are worth because marketing has them convinced it's better.