Weather Station Hardware > Air Quality Sensors
Ecowitt WH41 Air Quality Sensor (PM2.5)
Mandrake:
Hi Folks I thought I would share my review of the Ecowitt PM2.5 sensor I have been playing with for the last few weeks.
The device is a Fine Offset design and as such integrates with the various weather stations that one can purchase though this may depend on firmware and restrictions with the various clones. In my trial I have this paired with a Ecowitt HP-2550A (equivalent of an Ambient Weather WS-2000 for US based folks) weather station and also a Ecowitt GW-1000 which is a displayless IP logger.
The device in itself is a fairly modest in size (10lx7hx7w CM's) but feels solid in build and weight.
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As an optional extra if you don't or cant integrate it into your weather station you can purchase a small battery operated LCD display from Ecowitt.
The display has an inbuilt temperature and humidity sensor as a bonus for your side table. The display shows the instant Micrograms/M Cubed measurement and Max value. There is also a 1 hour and 24 hour reading displayed. In the middle is a coloured bar that indicates the AQI calculation based on the instant reading.
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The PM2.5 sensor comes supplied with 2 rechargeable batteries which keep the device going at night time. On the top of the sensor is a small Solar panel which recharges the batteries during the day. The sensor battery level is reported in the small monitor and also in the data sent to your phone if you use the WS-View app to look at the GW-1000 live data. In order to keep the sensor operational the sensor has a MicroUSB port in the bottom (with a supplied USB cable) which allows you to charge the device fully periodically if your local sunshine levels are low. It was suggested this should be undertaken every 20 days or so by Ecowitt. So far in my test (14 days) in the UK during springtime (approx. 12 hours daylight per day) the battery level reported still shows full and I have not felt the need to recharge via the USB yet.
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I don't have any local calibrated air quality sensors to compare with my measured values which is unfortunate though in general I have been impressed by what I have seen. For instance today the weather is settled and calm with high pressure and as a result the air quality is poor as expected. I live in a suburban area near popular schools and busy roads so this goes hand in hand with reduced air quality.
As mentioned if you have the Ecowitt Gw-1000 data logger you can upload the data from the PM2.5 sensor to ecowitt.net which stores the data on-line for your viewing and graphing etc. If you have other Fine Offset sensors and weather station kit it will capture this data as well and upload etc. allowing you to have a comprehensive place to store your weather data and graph etc
What follows is some screen snips taken from ecowitt.net covering my PM2.5 sensor data. As you can see today the AQ is moderate due to high pressure.
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Hopefully somebody will find this useful, but I have been impressed and very happy that this integrates with my weather station.
You can purchase these from ecowitt.com online direct or via Amazon.com
txweather.org:
Thanks for your review!
bthoven:
Thanks for the review. I plan to buy just the sensor (433Mhz version) and hope the sensor data can be captured with rtl-sdr usb dongle.
galfert:
--- Quote from: bthoven on November 05, 2019, 09:49:19 PM ---Thanks for the review. I plan to buy just the sensor (433Mhz version) and hope the sensor data can be captured with rtl-sdr usb dongle.
--- End quote ---
The GW1000 you just ordered will see this PM2.5 sensor....it will see up to 4 of them.
bthoven:
Thanks. You are right. I will test with my rtl_433 too because I may get the data by mqtt to display on other devices too.
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