Guidance on choosing low-cost sensors to monitor indoor and outdoor air pollution
Understanding air pollution levels can help you address potential health risks by taking action to reduce your exposure. This website aims to help Australians choose low-cost sensors to monitor indoor or outdoor air by providing:
- detailed guidance for households, community groups, schools, local governments and researchers on what to consider when looking for a monitor
- a selection tool (below) to help you choose a suitable product.
This guidance does not cover indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) monitors, often used to check whether indoor ventilation is adequate. Learn more about CO2 monitors and ways to improve indoor air quality at Clean Air Stars.
How to use this tool
Make your selections below, then browse the list to find the right monitor for your project. (Read more about these categories and numbers.)
- Decide whether you need an indoor or outdoor (stationary) device. A small subset of products can be used both indoors and outdoors. There’s also a growing number of hand-held portable devices.
- Decide on your budget. This tool only covers devices less than AUD$10,000.*
- Decide which pollutants you’d like to measure. PM2.5 is a key polluting particle. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a commonly-measured polluting gas.
*Prices given are a rough guide only. Contact sellers for accurate, up-to-date pricing.
Price is for base model unit to monitor PM only. It does not include a cloud subscription fee for data. This hand-held monitor can be used with a wide range of sensor heads to measure up to 30 different pollutants.
By Wicked Device. Units for this curriculum-oriented product are available on a subscription basis. Indicative price is for 2 years’ subscription for the base 2022 model with PM and NO2 sensors (buyers can choose from a variety of additional sensor types). Organisational subscriptions available. Indoor and outdoor versions available.
A weather-resistant monitor that can be used for stationary or mobile applications.
This outdoor monitor can be mounted on a vehicle for mobile monitoring. Indicative price is for base model unit with PM and NO2 sensors. Devices are customisable with the option to choose up to 5 sensors per unit. Sensors can be replaced.