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Radon detection and ISY


glacier991

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Maybe it is just the afterglow of being able to use discrete information from my wireless tags now that I am using polyglot, but my eyes are open to a wider array of possibilities. Which leads to this post..to check if anyone has trailblazed this yet.

RADON. My new home in my childhood state of Montana along the Rockies is no stranger to radon. I have a home brew extraction system in my summer schedule and in the gestation phase in my mind (  so far I have the fan module but really do not want to run the fan 24/7).

I had thought some kind of a radon level triggering device using ISY would be an ideal solution, but more of less shelved that for the time being. I did not do any extensive research. 

Now, having discovered that I can make most anything communicate with ISY, that notion has reappeared. My Google research has turned up an arduino hack of a commercial radon detector. Hmmm. arduino and raspberry are kissing cousins...maybe, maybe there is a possibility. Using a commercial radon detection device to control my fan!

Curious if anyone has wise suggestions or has a "been there done that" story to share?

Chris

 

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Chris

I found the link about airthings pi interface and that and its mobile app says that it’s possible to connect to the ISY. It would take a pi savvy developer to write a node server for version 5 of ISY firmware.

You could post a request for help along with links to the airthings pi story in the nodelink sub forum and also the polyglot sub forum. Developers there might choose to take this on. If someone volunteers, you will likely need to ship them the unit during development as they won’t have one.

Paul

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5 hours ago, paulbates said:

Chris

I found the link about airthings pi interface and that and its mobile app says that it’s possible to connect to the ISY. It would take a pi savvy developer to write a node server for version 5 of ISY firmware.

You could post a request for help along with links to the airthings pi story in the nodelink sub forum and also the polyglot sub forum. Developers there might choose to take this on. If someone volunteers, you will likely need to ship them the unit during development as they won’t have one.

Paul

I was not even aware of the 'airthings' device.  This is very interesting as my wife was talking about wanting to have a Radon test done.

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The $1300 model from Airthings claims "The standard deviation from the exact radon level is less than 7% + 5 Bq/m3 after 24 hours (US: 7% + 0.12 pCi/L) and less than 5% + 2 Bq/m3 after 7 days (US: 5% + 0.05 pCi/L)".   Pros use somewhat pricier loggers, like the RAD7.

 

My friends in the business say that you can't trust anything with a list price under $5K to report accurate values for readings under 20 pCi/L, and they wouldn't turn off mitigation fans just because you're getting a low reading at the moment.

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From what I understand, it’s normal for radon levels to fluctuate over short terms - and the only really accurate way is a longer term measurement (averaging the level over a period of a few weeks). This would make it pointless controlling the negative pressure fan based on the measurements.

In my case the fan takes so little power as well so I have it running 7x24.

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Wow. Great responses. As I spent the day investigating, I realized most of the things that have been offered. Take aways: radon levels are not an instantaneouly detected level due to measurement techniques: 2 Radon measurements are kind of Iffy on a cheaper device, other than on a general level (eg. 2 vs 3, not 1.5 vs. 1.8). 

Generalizing..find out if you need mitigation, then look into none vs. 24/7.

For now I will follow that advice. Later this year I will report back. Thanks all.

On to tilt with other windmills!

 

Chris

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  • 1 year later...

Airthings now has a sub-$200 "continuous" radon detector available (their "Wave" model) which purports to have and accuracy of <10% after 7 days, and <5% after 2 months.  Their website says it has Bluetooth connectivity to a free iPhone App that plots the data, and that it "works with IFTTT."

Does anyone know how I can get the data into my ISY using the IFTTT capability that this device boasts?  I've searched the Node Servers on PolyGlot cloud, and it's not obvious to me which one (if any) will work for this purpose.

More info on the Airthings Wave can be found at: https://www.airthings.com/wave - it's also available from Amazon for a slightly lower price.

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based on what I found here: https://www.airthings.com/resources/wave-mini-raspberry-pi

someone could write a node server for it.....   the question just depends on interest level, specifically whether a node server developer is interested enough to order one and create a node server.   Or if your need is more immediate, you could always hire one of the node server developers to develop it. 

Edit to add:  i just read deeper on the linked page.  It does require Bluetooth, which could be a limitation requiring a raspberry pi, or possible Polisy Pro (pro models have bluetooth but it hasn't been used yet.)

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  • 2 months later...

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