Topic: New sensor WH45, 5 in 1 PM2.5 PM10 and CO2, Temp + Humidity

[wardie]

So on noise gate... I’ve had mine running in our master bedroom for a couple of weeks now. When I set it up I could hear it if I’m within say 1/2m of it, every minute doing the fan thing. I put it opposite end of the room to our bed at table height, so about 5m away. We live in a quiet neighbourhood so at night it’s silent. The first couple of nights we didn’t notice it and I haven’t done ever since, but I have slightly dodgy hearing. After a couple of nights my Mrs (who has asthma but very good hearing) said “one of your gadgets (!) is making a fan noise” so she could just hear it and I explained. However all I did was hide it behind a table-top picture out of direct line of sight/sound and now neither of us can hear it. Position doesn’t seems to have impacted airflow readings changes. So in summary I would say if you have very sensitive hearing you may be able to hear it in a quiet room, but with a bit of careful placement you can.

Also as an interesting aside, looking at the data I’ve really been surprised by the overnight CO2 build up just two of us in a room with doors closed. Well over 2000 ppm sometimes by morning. Time to leave a door or window open. Observe data -> change behaviour. Tick.

[galfert]

Interesting idea to try it out in the bedroom and check CO2 levels. I don't think I could live with it though in the bedroom because I'm extremely sensitive to the noise now in the living room a whole 30 feet away. I have a cubby furniture unit in the bedroom and I might try it out inside of one of the cubbies. I'm curious to know the CO2 levels while two sleep in the room.

[capripot]

Not compatible. Ambient consoles require Ambient branded sensors. But other way around is no problem. Meaning that if you had an Ecowitt HP2551 or GW1000 and wanted to connect Ambient sensors then that works...

  Good to know. I would have understood that earlier, I definitely would have chosen Ecowitt. Thanks for your answer!

[wardie]

Anyone noticing the temp sensor is spiking +2C on their sensor when it does the daily self-test / cleaning cycle? See graph here, I get this every day and it correlates with when I first powered on the sensor at around 9-10pm one day and then the more audible self test happens...
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[galfert]

Anyone noticing the temp sensor is spiking +2C on their sensor when it does the daily self-test / cleaning cycle?

Yes, I noticed. I was wondering when someone else would notice. Here is my spike.


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[Mandrake]

Oh yeah!
I had never noticed that until now. I guess I have been not paying attention to those values!
How interesting and makes you wonder just what its doing in the self clean cycle to generate that much heat!

[Rover1822]

Oh yeah!
I had never noticed that until now. I guess I have been not paying attention to those values!
How interesting and makes you wonder just what its doing in the self clean cycle to generate that much heat!

It's just gas

[galfert]

Family went for a little vacation. We just got back two days ago. Here is the last 7 days of data for the CO2 sensor. Amazing to see the difference of what CO2 we produce while living in the house versus when we were gone.

click to expand this 7 day graph...
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[billfor]

I received my WH45 today and placed it next to  my WH41. Like a couple of the screenshots in this forum that have both, the WH45 is more than half the PM2.5 count of the WH41. Which is correct and why are they nearly 2x off? I've read that the WH45 has auto calibration however if I look up the actual AQI from the weather service it is the WH41 that is correct and not the WH45. WH45 seems to read too low.

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[Autofill]

I got mine also, today.

As for your question in terms of the discrepancy, this normal and its actually mentioned on the ECowitt website. They use a different sensor and thus the deviations should be expected. I would trust both of them, but the WH41 is known to overestimate numbers a bit.

[billfor]

It is a really big difference though. I mean the two readings are not even in the same ballpark imho.

[Mandrake]

If your WH41 has been outside and in use for some time, I would ensure that you give it a good cleaning/blow out as I notice that it tends to gather crap after a while.
This is a issue for a sensor sucking in air!
I do this when its in need of the occasional charge and I notice the values are always lower straight after it settles down again.

[Rover1822]

I look up the actual AQI from the weather service it is the WH41

If you are looking at low levels like you exhibited, your really can't compare to a local weather service, as it is not located where you are.

[Rover1822]

Hah!, you want to see high numbers?  I hit 466 ug/m^3 on my PM 2.5 just now cleaning out my fireplace. Usually I'm in the 12 - 15 range. Having a dog also will boost your indoor numbers

Now, that will go down, and I will probably have to change my air filter for the furnace and my HEPA filter

[billfor]

I moved everything outside from 4pm to 8pm and the WH45 does seem to be more accurate than the WH41 (comparing to a local source), so I adjusted my WH41 down.

[Rover1822]

I moved everything outside from 4pm to 8pm and the WH45 does seem to be more accurate than the WH41 (comparing to a local source), so I adjusted my WH41 down.

I view these devices as more locale comparative as opposed to something like pressure which will extend over a larger geographic region (all things considered) . Quite honestly these are not high end units, and comparing them to nearby other monitors is fraught with error. I view them as more informative than accurate when viewed against the other units that are out there in the market with that purpose. Considering some pay thousands for an AQ measurement device and the equipment is actually better, it is hard to compare. But, it does deliver relative information, for a price point that is achievable by more. I would not think of publishing my data on these (either version), other than out of the relative interest. For me, I get the data I need, AQ is better or worse, that it does provide.

edited for typos

[Autofill]

for the WH41, this is the accuracy:

>100ug/m3, ±15%
<100ug/m3, ±15ug/m3
(at 25°C ±5°C)

for the WH45 (PM2.5), its actually the same as the WH41. That's a bit surprising. 

[Phil23]

I'm curious to know the CO2 levels while two sleep in the room.

I had the same thought 2 years ago & built my own Voc/C0² sensor based on this project which uses a Micro I'm fond of for many projects.

https://geoffg.net/AirQualityMonitor.html

Certainly proved we were drowning in our own expired air after a few hours.
Also provided an accurate link to broken sleep once VOC levels got high.

The most interesting part of that experiment was related to the sensor height placement, as early in the piece I discovered that the VOC's were low for a period then climbed steeply after some hours.

Basically it was pooling in the room & once the pool reached sensor height, the values climbed.
Once the sensor was set at about pillow height, all was confirmed that my 2:00am disruption was once levels hit a given point.

Currently have my 2 week old WH45 sitting in the B/Room & it's showing a similar situation,(even though higher on a chest of drawers).

Regards the WH45's sensors, the Sensirion SP030, I bought 2 of them to play with a few years back, but to date have only read them from Sensirion's evaluation software.
The data sheets well worth a look.

All up, it's worth chucking a CO2 in a bedroom for a few nights, it can lead to resolving how much a door or Window needs to be cracked to keep the levels from building.
 

Cheers

[Phil23]

Interesting to add a chart to the above, and consider some facts.

I hit the sack early last night, before 9:00pm,
MrsC was about maybe an hour or more later.

I was up at 6:00 & my better 1/2 almost an hour later.

Cheers.


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[kheller2]

Can the ambient AQIN be used with the PM2.5 outdoor sensor as well?  The web page seems to imply you can do that, but you can't use both eh AQIN and the PM2.5 Indoor sensor (as it seems to replace it).

[billfor]

On the Ecowitt web portal? I use the WH41 and WH45 at the same time but I don't use the portal. I have both 2.5 ppm values (one for indoor and one for outdoor). They are separate metrics that are reported into the GW,

[kheller2]

I mean on the Ambient WS-2000 console. 

[horseflesh]

Got my Ecowitt WH45 today. I decided to plug it in outside first, to see if it needed calibration. I put it in an open box to shield it from the breeze, and found that the CO2 level settled in at about 290 PPM. That's disappointing, pretty far off from the expected 420. I'll leave it out there for the rest of the afternoon and see what happens but I guess I will have to poke that calibration button.

[Autofill]

Maybe you live beside a lot of plants 

[kheller2]

Interesting how the one page says "250-350 ppm: background (normal) outdoor air level" then for the calibration says it should be 420ppm +/-10 outside.  Maybe that is normal in China.     I've gotten my AQIN CO2 down to 550 in the house with the windows open.  I never took it outside.  It would be cool if there was an outdoor version.