Hi Everyone ! First of all thanks a lot for creating this website, it helped me in selecting my indoor AQ monitor.
I’m interested in contributing data to the IQAir platform and wanted to confirm whether I need to purchase their AQ Monitor or if other monitors are also compatible. Their website states: “you can still join our instrument-agnostic platform today.” (IQAir | First in Air Quality)
If other monitors are compatible can someone please share my choices and what their experiences have been.
You’re welcome, and thank you for the kind words! I appreciate them.
For the IQAir platform you can, of course, purchase their own monitor. I’ve never used the outdoor version, but the indoor monitor integrates well into the app and I would assume the outdoor monitor is as easy to integrate with the map. As for other non-IQAir monitors, yes, some can integrate with the map!
I work with AirGradient (so please keep this in mind) and our monitors can be integrated with the AirVisual map. Now, with that said, there are a lot of problems with the integration and it’s far from flawless. For more information, please read the IQAir section of this blog post: Data Ownership and How We Help You Share Your Data. In short, IQAir is very protective of both its data and platform.
I believe that PurpleAir can also integrate with IQAir, but I’m not sure how effective this integration is and if it has the same problems as AirGradient. Therefore, if you want to see your monitor on the IQAir platform, I would probably recommend getting their own monitor as, otherwise, it’s hard to tell exactly how well the integration will actually work.
Thanks for your prompt and detailed reply, it answers the questions I had. You also bring up an important point of data ownership and open source (both of which are close to my heart) and I will definitely consider them when I choose the AQ monitor.