The [PurpleAir](https://www.purpleair.com/) is one of many low cost devices that use laser optical particle counters to estimate particulate matter mass concentrations in air for PM2.5 and PM10. Other similar devices include the [Dustduino](https://publiclab.org/wiki/dustduino), [Speck](https://publiclab.org/notes/chrisbartley/04-15-2014/speck-particle-monitor), [Dylos](http://www.dylosproducts.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw5NnbBRDaARIsAJP-YR_IQiQC0876PaQmo6lWAuRPJ5FG3oh65dc7rsf95xSqDd0Wdqrs6OYaAsxtEALw_wcB) and more. The PurpleAir costs around $200 and provides real time air quality data that can be used to understand indoor or outdoor environments and conduct environmental investigations on air quality. **The intention of this page is to create a central location to discuss successful (and unsuccessful) use cases of the PurpleAir and problem solve together. Please contribute any experiences you've had with the PurpleAir. Perhaps consider visiting https://publiclab.org/simple-air-sensor to see the start of a barebones kit that is kicking off the development of a well-supported, open source air sensor similar to the PurpleAir.** ## Why use one? Every state in the US is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency to create air quality sensor networks to monitor the six pollutants that the EPA defines as hazardous - Ground-level ozone, Carbon monoxide, Sulfur oxides, Nitrogen oxides, Lead and Particulate Matter. Read more about [particulate matter](https://publiclab.org/wiki/pm#Background+Information) here. However, due to the huge cost upwards of $25,000 associated with Federal Reference Method (FRM) and Federal equivalent method (FEM) sensors, most cities only have a handful of sensors, sometimes just one, measuring each category of pollutant. In addition, FRM sensors often have a lag of several months for quality control before the data is publicly accessible. Optical sensors provide a way to get near real-time data on the particulate matter in your home or community and to have autonomy over the locations being monitored. ##How it Works [This page](https://publiclab.org/wiki/optical-pm) does a great job of explaining how laser optical particle counters work in detail. But, the most important things to know when deciding to use an optical particle counter like the PurpleAir is that: 1. The data the PurpleAir (and other optical counters) produce is an _estimation_ of particulate mass concentration that relies on several assumptions for shape, diameter and density. The quality of your data will depend on those assumptions as well as environmental considerations such as humidity, light and temperature. 2. Because of the fact that optical counters rely on these assumptions, the data produced by them are _not_ FRM or FEM certified. That being said, there have been a number of academic studies that have quantified the performance and limitations of some of these optical sensors to help you choose which one to use depending on what you are trying to sense and what level of performance you are looking for. The EPA has an excellent summary of these studies in this table [here](https://www.epa.gov/air-sensor-toolbox/evaluation-emerging-air-pollution-sensor-performance). A higher R^2 value means better performance. [This page](https://publiclab.org/wiki/optical-pm) has some more links of studies to check out if you scroll a bit. [Here](http://www.aqmd.gov/docs/default-source/aq-spec/field-evaluations/purpleair---field-evaluation.pdf) is a study specific to PurpleAir. ## Use Cases - PurpleAir maintains a [map](https://www.purpleair.com/map?#0.27/0/-30) of every user's data from around the world. Check it out. - A use case in [Utah](https://www.good4utah.com/news/local-news/dirty-air-monitors-are-they-telling-us-the-whole-truth/382744964) - A use case in [California](https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/09/my-new-favorite-gadget-a-purple-air-air-quality-monitor/) - [This facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/purpleair/) includes people who own a PurpleAir and discuss their experiences - [This blog](https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=33031.0) has some dialogue about various use issues Please add your experiences with PurpleAir too! ## Suggestions for conducting particulate matter investigations [This page](https://publiclab.org/wiki/general-environmental-monitoring-study-strategies) summarizes important considerations before starting an investigation. To add onto those, specifically in regards to air quality, here are some suggestions. Before ordering a sensor, check out the data that is freely available to you online. [Visit your state's department of environmental management website](https://www.epa.gov/home/health-and-environmental-agencies-us-states-and-territories) and their air quality section. With some poking around, you can find their ‘Air monitoring network plan’ which will show you the _exact locations_ of all of their different FEM/FRM sensors and what pollutant they are measuring. This can help to identify gaps in their monitoring network that you may be interested in. [AirNow](https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.main) has national daily data from FEM monitors. You can search for your zip code and see the live air quality forecast. This can be used to help inform your day to day movements especially if you are an asthmatic. You can also download data* from FRM monitors [here](https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/download-daily-data). This is really cool because you can specify what data you want and it will generate an Excel file for you. You can then start making plots and figures to compare different time periods and locations. [Check out this post](https://publiclab.org/notes/jiteovien/08-01-2018/air-quality-data-visualization-no-coding-necessary) which used this online EPA data to create some visualization of the monitoring in Rhode Island. *NOTE: As mentioned earlier, the FRM data has a lag for quality assurance reasons. For example, the most current Rhode Island data is for May 2018. (It is August at the moment this is being written). Everyone, whether or not you own a Purple Air has free access to the Purple Air's database of global sensors. Read more about this in the activity [Download & Analyze your Purple Air data](https://publiclab.org/notes/jiteovien/08-28-2018/download-analyze-your-purple-air-data?_=1535473842). ## Questions Questions can be either frequently asked questions, or "next step" challenges we're looking to solve. [questions:purpleair] ## Activities Activities show how to use this project, step by step. [activities:purpleair] ## Other things to know about using your Purple Air The PurpleAir sensor has two 'channels' that measure data. Channel A and Channel B. Each channel has a 'primary' and 'secondary' data set. The data that Channel A measures is described below: PrimaryData - field1: PM1.0 (CF=ATM) ug/m3 - field2: PM2.5 (CF=ATM) ug/m3 - field3: PM10.0 (CF=ATM) ug/m3 - field4: Uptime (Minutes) - field5: RSSI (WiFi Signal Strength) - field6: Temperature (F) - field7: Humidity (%) - field8: PM2.5 (CF=1) ug/m3 This is the field to use for PM2.5 SecondaryData - field1: 0.3um particles/deciliter - field2: 0.5um particles/deciliter - field3: 1.0um particles/deciliter - field4: 2.5um particles/deciliter - field5: 5.0um particles/deciliter - field6: 10.0um particles/deciliter - field7: PM1.0 (CF=1) ug/m3 This is the field to use for PM1.0 - field8: PM10 (CF=1) ug/m3 This is the field to use for PM10 particles/deciliter is a particle count per volume measurement. ug/m3 is the particle mass concentration - the popular method of measuring particulate matter. Channel B measures the exact same primary and secondary data. This is likely just done for robustness just in case one of the channel fails or has an error. These setup instructions are included with the Simple Air sensors and can be reprinted Purple_Air_Instructions.pdf ...
Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
purpleairfan | "these are very helpful, thanks so much!! " | Read more » | almost 3 years ago | |||
bhamster | "Hi @purpleairfan! You might find some ideas in this related question and its comment section: https://publiclab.org/questions/eustatic/01-20-2021/h..." | Read more » | almost 3 years ago | |||
warren | "Just noting also a big round up of notes on humidity and fog with optical sensors here: https://publiclab.org/questions/sarasage/08-10-2021/is-the..." | Read more » | about 3 years ago | |||
hansley10 | "Thanks for sharing these great tips about blog commenting. Keep up the great work. best server for small business " | Read more » | about 3 years ago | |||
seankmcginnis | "@eustatic & @amocorro - I was able to create a scheduled Python script that calls the API and returns the data on 10 minute intervals (PurpleA..." | Read more » | about 3 years ago | |||
amocorro | "@seankmcginnis also shared these helpful links today - how to get the data for Purple Air. API for PurpleAir https://api.purpleair.com/ Looks lik..." | Read more » | about 3 years ago | |||
amocorro | "@lesbreathe Mary Jo asked a similar question today! " | Read more » | about 3 years ago | |||
priyanikhandelwal | "Hi, me and a friend were working on a project similar to this and we wanted to figure out how a sensor like yours sends alerts to a device (phones ..." | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
eustatic | "A five minute epa threshold is 35 * 12 = 420 ug/m3. If a measurement hits this high, we know within 5 minutes that it has exceeded an hourly thresh..." | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
Tanzol | "Hope they do not cause breadcrumbs error " | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
theuntoldrecipe | "I m always learn ur post " | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
theuntoldrecipe | "gud Information, i M very Glad Bcoz I read Ur Information. " | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
Buboy82 | "lyricsfic will provide song lyrics, mp3 and music for free to the millions of people who use the internet all over the world. For more info : http..." | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
bhamster | "I'm definitely not programming-savvy but found this blog post about setting up notifications using PurpleAir data. It uses a third-party platform, ..." | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
eustatic | "Answered. and Update:: this works. We do additional things I will not write here, but this works. " | Read more » | over 3 years ago | |||
shmoo | "Hi Liz, Thank you for your comment. Yes, you are correct. I meant PurpleAir rather than Pure Air, well spotted. I tried 3 times to politely chat..." | Read more » | almost 4 years ago | |||
liz | "Hi @shmoo, great to hear from you. Sorry to hear you are having these air quality impacts. Neighbor relationships and lifestyle differences are rea..." | Read more » | almost 4 years ago | |||
azma53443 | "you can check more detail from this website click here https://downloadfamily.com/free-download-snapchat-apk-latest-version-for-android-ios-pc/ " | Read more » | over 4 years ago | |||
stevie | "From Mallory on the Purple Air team: "When a user registers their PurpleAir sensor, they select the location that they want the sensor icon to appe..." | Read more » | over 4 years ago | |||
eustatic | "Thanks, Stevie. in the past, we've had surveyors for companies releasing PM trespass onto private property and reset the sensors. this was for imp..." | Read more » | over 4 years ago | |||
CheapFlightDealsToday | "Airlines Reservations, Travel Deals and Flights Tickets Deals 30% OFF American Airlines Reservations | American Airlines Flights Delta Airlines Res..." | Read more » | over 4 years ago | |||
CheapFlightDeals | "Cheap Flights to Florida Cheap Flights to Las vegas Cheap Flights to Newyork Cheap Flights to Chicago Cheap Flights to Miami Cheap Flights to Denv..." | Read more » | over 4 years ago | |||
joyofsoy | "Yes. In my opinion. They’ll catch the particles. The speed will depend on the degree of mixing , ventilation and the size of the restroom. You may ..." | Read more » | over 4 years ago | |||
joyofsoy | "We shared this on Twitter and got this response: my students have easily detected vaping signals on similar low-cost pm sensors. that being said, ..." | Read more » | over 4 years ago |