The Other Side of Cleantech — Air Quality Monitoring

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We focus almost all our time on technologies that help to keep our air and water cleaner, and our climate more livable. However, there’s a whole other side of cleantech that we don’t tend to give second thought to — environmental monitoring technologies.

How do we know technologies are clean? How do we know the air is cleaner? (Well, other than by noticing when it’s not black or grey.) Invisible no-named technologies and companies just tell us so. Well, maybe not exactly, but that’s how it seems.

I recently ran across one such company — TSI Incorporated. TSI offers a whole ton of technologies in this arena, from indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring equipment, to filter testers, to ventilator test systems, to particle counters,… and much more.

How’s your air quality?

I’m not going to lie, I think I’ve become a total cleantech nerd — all these things sound super interesting to me, and I’m very curious to play with them all… if only I knew how or where to start. Oh yeah, there’s another obstacle — they aren’t exactly cheap. What seems to be the most basic indoor air quality meter runs for $590.

Still, I wonder how one might benefit me. As the site notes, we spend over 90% of our time indoors (according to an EPA study). I actually sit at home almost all day… sometimes, it is all day. If I were to test my indoor air quality, perhaps I’d find some things out that I could address to improve my health and life, and that of my family members. Another note from the site: “Recent studies claim that over one third of the buildings in the United States have air quality problems.” Yikes.

Of course, outdoor air quality is important, too. We’re thinking about buying a place. Currently, we live quite close to a busy road, some of the building right around us burn coal for heat in the winter, but then we’ve also got a big park right across the street. All this has me wondering how the outdoor air quality in different places would compare, and it sure seems like it would make sense to buy and live in a location with good air!

Anyway, any of you ever buy or use any such products? Have any info to share on such things? Want to see us cover this sort of thing more?

Zachary Shahan (2291 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on your favorite social network, go to: zacharyshahan.com


  • http://www.facebook.com/tom.hall.75248 Tom Hall

    On outdoor air quality, I encourage you to check out airnow.gov and follow up with the air pollution control/air quality management agencies with jurisdiction in a given area. Local, state and the federal government all do rather extensive ambient outdoor monitoring and there’s lots of historical data to work from. The U.S. EPA also offers the EnviroFlash service, which emails you daily air quality forecasts or alerts by zip code. EnviroFlash apps are also available.

    • http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Thanks, looks useful. Unfortunately, I’m not in the US.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vincent-R-Valles/1019001163 Vincent R. Valles

    Healthier indoor air is paramount for our family’s good health, particularly for those who are susceptible to breathing ailments, children, infants and seniors. This could be the result of an imbalance between the negative and positive ions found in all home environments. Particularly, where homes or buildings are insulated to save energy or winter cold. There is a permanent solution to maintain a healthy home environment, made from natural ingredients that continuously maintain’s indoor air quality and remove’s odors, Air-ReNu a paint additive that only requires one application, works 7/24/365 year after year.