Do you notice that air filters in Taiwan are insanely expensive compared to other places? What’s the deal with that?
Again, the worst air in Taiwan right now is outside the Formosa Chemical Plant. The wind direction even shows where it’s coming from. And by the way, not outside a coal burning power plant. Also by the way, an area where lot’s of agriculture is produced.
Am I getting too cynical , thinking that as it’s a rare rainy day down here , it gives them an opportunity to release more of whatever crap they release ?
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Not really sure why. I was shocked when I saw the price in Japan. Had to recheck my conversion. Not only that but they give you tax free in store and an additional 8% off for showing them either a happy go card or Taipei mrt easy card. They seem to have some cooperation with companies here in Taiwan. With the free delivery to the airport, I felt like I was taking advantage of them. Just make sure you allow at least two days for them to deliver it to the airport. I’d recommend anyone going there on vacation to pick one up especially with the terrible air we’ve been having. Hsinchu has been in the red all day on Taiwan’s epa air quality website.
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I think they probably do it it when less noticeable like when other areas of Taiwan are having a bad pollution day.
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That sensor is in a school at a busy intersection.
The chemical plant in Mailiao has its own coal power station. It’s massive, 4.2 GW.
I believe they also sell power to the grid.
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Awesome now. Ran 8k this morning in some crap. Maybe should’ve ran at night.
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What level does the AQI have to be for you to avoid exercising outdoors?
Usually 100 and over, and I head to the pool indoors. But I just really wanted to run yesterday. Ran again at night, actually, with my son.
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Is the PM2.5 measured from where the purifier is situated, or just the outdoors measurement downloaded from some generic location based web service? The reason I ask is with the Dyson purifier app, some of the metrics reported in it are, disappointingly, just downloaded from the web, not related to your home at all.
There’s a laser sensor on the back of the unit. It measures the actual indoor levels in real time.
High-precision laser sensor
…
The highly accurate Particulate Matter (PM) sensor detects
particles as small as 0.3 μm［1］ and instantly displays the AQI
on the OLED screen
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That makes the Dyson look like a children’s toy. I wonder about the longevity of Xiaomi Chi-crap though…
I figured at that price point with those features, it was worth giving it a shot. Like I said, the reviews seemed pretty good, too.
I’m guessing your Dyson was just a bit more expensive? 
Fair enough. Wife bought, dunno, I remember cringing when she told me the price, cos it was about 20-30% more here than in Sydney, but that was before I knew about what I call the ‘Taiwan tax’ on basically everything here - see the laptop thread for case in point.
The quality of some of these Chinese consumer items is hard to pick, definitely improving quite rapidly. I love the idea of the sensor…
Anyone have any experience with Xiaomi aftermarket support ?
I generally go with Japanese brands Iike Sharp . The advantage with xiaomi might be filter costs are lower?
Pretty sure most, if not all, modern air purifiers have a sensor of some sort. Almost guarantee your Dyson does, even if the app uses outside sensors for the readings. I think Xiaomi is one of the only ones that uses a laser sensor. Not sure what the others use.
I had originally purchased one from Costco. It also had a sensor and automatic mode, but didn’t offer the same information nor the wifi/app/remote control as the Xioami. And at 8500 NT, I decide to try the Xiaomi out and returned the Costco one. I like that the Xiaomi also shows the indoor temp and humidity levels. I just read that I can connect it to my Echo Dot, also.
They have a smart light bulb that is pretty cheap (~450 NT). Can also be controlled by the same app/Alexa and can change colors. Might get that just for shits and giggles. Looks like they make some really cool products and don’t have a cheap feel to them, even if made with chinesium.
The sensors used in these devices are crude. They are laser particle counters that work by estimating and they cannot tell what type of particle It is chemically or how big very accurately. Still they are very useful for automatic adjustment. The purifiers are probably using the same sensor components across brands.
You need other FAR more expensive and bulky technologies to do very accurate and comprehensive air pollution measurements. That is why the apps, quite rightly, are blending data from different sources.
Yeah agree as long as it is fit for purpose and at least correlating with the ‘actual’ level. On that horrible >150 Saturday night just passed the automatic mode on my Dyson was smart enough to stay on all night. Would like to see it quantified though, even if it is all just some bogus proxy measurement…
The Dyson app doesn’t really quantify anything, just categorises into broad categories e.g. ‘GOOD’. The other numerical quantities in the app are BS, can’t remember but stuff like outside humidity, which is just pulled from some web service. Clearly someone told the app developers to pad out the screen with some numbers so the app looked good in marketing brochures. I think it has got a pretty good filter though…