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I thought the Sensibo Elements air-quality monitor was pointless — until this happened
Thanks to this sensor, I discovered a pretty boneheaded mistake that may have been adversely affecting my health
There are certain things not taught in schools, like where to store your paint cans. Here in Michigan, it gets pretty cold during the winter — too cold for extra paint to live in the garage or an outdoor shed. So I stuck mine in the basement. Remember that as you read the following Sensibo Elements review.
The Elements is a smart-home device that measures not only overall air quality, but also things like total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), particulate matter (i.e., dust), carbon dioxide, ethanol, temperature and humidity. Once connected to your home Wi-Fi network, the Elements feeds these measurements to your phone and alerts you if one or more pollutants exceed recommended levels. Needless to say, this is important information to have, especially for anyone with asthma, a compromised immune system or other health concerns.
Although I own a carbon monoxide detector, I've never given much thought to indoor air quality. But I was curious, so when Sensibo offered to send me an Elements for review, I said sure.
After a quick and painless setup, I found a home for the device, an all-white square about the size of a sandwich, with a colored LED in the center and a simple (but sort of flimsy) plastic stand that keeps it upright.
At first, I found myself fairly annoyed by the Elements. Every so often it would flash an alert on my phone, usually something pertaining to TVOCs, but always with the same recommendation: "Consider opening the windows in Rick's device at Default Home." Hideous grammar aside, it's winter in Michigan; I'm not opening the windows.
Meanwhile, the green light on the Elements itself would often shift to orange (bad) or even red (very bad). When I consulted the app, this was always due to TVOCs. But, like, why? According to the app, these compounds often result from activities like cooking, cleaning and painting. There did seem to be an occasional correlation between kitchen use and TVOC alerts, but the latter also appeared at other times.
For weeks I just kind of ignored them, because it's not like I could stop cooking or cleaning, but then it dawned on me: Whenever the furnace kicked on, TVOC levels would rise. OK, but why? According to the interwebs, a gas furnace can indeed produce VOCs, along with particulate matter (a big reason furnaces have filters). But then I had a second thought: paint. We had over a dozen old paint cans sitting just a few feet from the furnace. Yes, I'm dumb. It honestly never occurred to me this might be a problem.
A few days ago, we hauled all the paint out of the storage room. And guess what: Not a single TVOC alert since. Could this also have something to do with a recent warm snap and the furnace running less often? Possibly. But I had TVOC alerts every single day, and now I have zero.
Just to be sure I wasn't imagining all this, I tried to review the TVOC logs from the past several weeks. Unfortunately, the app limits you to just hourly and current-day graphs — unless you subscribe to Sensibo Plus, which costs $4.99 per month or $2.49 if paid annually. Argh, another subscription? Fortunately, I was able to leverage a free two-week trial and get a better look at the history. See for yourself:
Another gripe I have is that while the Sensibo app tells you a bit about the various pollutants it's monitoring (specifically, sources and side effects), it doesn't tell you what to do about them. Yes, the aforementioned TVOC alert suggested opening windows, but that was just in the alert. The app itself offers no recommendations for dealing with excessive VOCs or anything else.
However, Sensibo offers other products, including air purifiers and AC controllers, and the Elements can trigger those to activate under certain conditions. If there's too much dust in the air, for example, the purifier would kick on until levels decrease. Too much humidity might trigger the AC fan to blow. I can see the value in that kind of automation, to say nothing of the peace of mind afforded by the Elements itself.
That said, I have mixed feelings about the product. Did it knock some sense into me regarding potentially harmful TVOCs? Absolutely. Do I feel like it was borderline accidental that I connected the paint-can dots? Also yes. I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about the Elements if it was priced more affordably, and I especially don't like having to pay a monthly fee to get a little extra data the app is already collecting anyway.
Still, if you're eager to monitor the air quality in your home (which, based on my experience, is probably a good idea), the Sensibo Elements is worth a look. It's easy to use and good at what it does.
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