Air quality in your home is important. Did you know that air pollution is the 4th highest risk factor for death globally? Don’t want to be breathing that bad air do we. That’s why companies like Foobot exist. Their new Air Quality Monitor could save your life, depending on how bad the air pollution is in your house after all.
The Footbot device stands no taller than around 17cm and has a depth of around 7cm. It’s not very wide meaning it will sit quite comfortably in a corner, although I wouldn’t keep it there. It has some cool flashy LED lights making this look quite futuristic. I would definitely keep it on display. Makes for a great conversation starter too.
The whole thing is made from plastic, with a cutout on top and bottom. The whole thing looks like one large radiator grill and is pretty unobtrusive. I will say that the blue LED light that emits from it is rather bright, and could be off putting in dimly lit rooms. Foobot does allow you to control the brightness of the LEDs to save any kind of glare.
The Foobot Air Quality Monitor primarily measures for three things: Volitile Organic Compounts (VOCs) are toxic chemicals that can be found in things like cleaning sprays, Particle Matter (PM) are particles that cannot be absorbed by your body like aerosols and dust and finally Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which we all know comes from breathing out right among other things. The Foobot also looks out for temperature and humidity, as some of the above can get worse in hot temperatures.
Overall the air quality of my house is great. The app will give you a score, and based on the parameters of each segment means how clean the air is in your house. So for example, I was floating around 120-126 PPB which is the measurement for a VOC. Anything below 150 is great, and anything above 450 is poor.
The Foobot will give you a visual reading on your air quality, with blue being good, amber being not good and red being you need to make some changes. As I said above, air pollution can kill. Now I’m not sure if you’re living in the Foobot red that you’ll die, but it’s a good indication of the bad stuff you’re breathing in.
The app keeps a track of your air quality, and saves it so you can look back over it and track certain events like a house cleaning day for example where polish among other things are being used. It’s a nice way to stay on top of the potential toxins you could be breathing in.
A nice feature is the fact that there is an IFTTT channel. What this means is if the Foobot app detects a problem with humidity, the Foobot can turn on a smart plug that the dehumidifier is plugged into and rectify the problem without you having to lift a finger. The age of automation is upon us. There is also some Alexa support to so you can ask Alexa for the latest pollution readout.
The Foobot Air Quality Monitor is a fun, smart way to keep on top of pollution in the home. Okay, it probably won’t save your life if there is a horrendous Carbon Monoxide leak going on, but it certainly will keep you on top of the types of sprays being used around the home, as well as aiding people with allergies to certain types of airborne muck. For any more information, please visit the Foobot website.
