Today I’m taking a look at a handful of products and product types that could potentially save your life. From the Smart Home category of Safety Sensors & Detectors comes a world of possibilities that are broken down into CO & Smoke Detectors, Water Leak Detectors, and Weather Stations & Air Quality Monitors. I’ll also take a look at Air Purifiers as a related product type. Read on for all the details.
Weather Stations & Air Quality Monitors
In the realm of Weather Stations & Air Quality Monitors is a variety of products that will help you to breathe easier. Poor air quality can be extremely detrimental to one’s health—and potentially even fatal. If you have asthma or related breathing issues, you’ll understand the importance of fresh, clean air, and you’ll want to have the appropriate sensors and detectors in place to make sure your home’s air is always clean and healthy.
Similarly, weather stations can alert you to temperature and humidity variations throughout your home, and this could lead to the discovery of drafts and other issues that are easily fixed once you become aware of them. A weather station could potentially even warn you of mould growth within your walls, making it a very useful device.
One example of an excellent air quality monitor is the uHoo Indoor 9-in-1 Air Quality Smart Sensor, which tracks 9 different metrics related to the air quality in your home. These include air pressure, temperature, humidity, volatile organic compounds (AKA, VOCs), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and airborne dust particles (PM2.5). If any of these levels in your home is not where it should be, the uHoo will let you know via its special app, which provides data, insights about that data, and tips to help you clean up your air. You can learn more about the uHoo Air Quality Sensor in Rae Chen’s review right here on the Best Buy Canada Blog.
Air Purifiers
Knowing there’s something wrong is the first step in solving a problem, but it’s not exactly a solution. That’s why you might also need an air purifier in your home. Air purifiers such as the Honeywell Air Purifier Tower with HEPA Filter (shown at right) help to clean and clear the air with fans and filters that remove dust, odours, mould spores, pollen particles, pet dander, smoke, and all kinds of other nasty allergens. These allergens can make your family sick, so getting rid of them is imperative. This particular fan boasts a HEPA filter that can remove up to “99.97% of microscopic allergens as small as 0.3 microns” in size, which isn’t bad at all. It also features a slim, tower design and continuous fan operation, as well as being able to electronically let you know when it’s time to replace the filter. Every home should have a fan like this!
Water Leak Detectors
A water leak might seem more like a potentially expensive issue of cosmetic damage than a life or death problem, but dampness can lead to mould, and that can cause some very serious health issues. Bottom line—you don’t want leaks or mould! Luckily, you can fight mould before it has a chance to attack by installing water leak detectors in parts of you home where leaks and frequent dampness might occur.
For instance, devices like the D-Link mydlink Wi-Fi Smart Water Sensor give you protection against leaks in such areas as under your fridge, freezer, or washer, as well as near your water heater, sump pump, or any other area that may be susceptible to flooding. And the D-Link doesn’t just detect leaks either; it also warns you about them both visually and audibly with an LED signal and a 90dB alarm—not to mention through push notifications on your smart phone. It also connects to your home’s Wi-Fi network (with no hub necessary) and is compatible with both IFTTT (If This, Then That) and mydlink.
CO & Smoke Detectors
Possibly the most important life-saving sensors and detectors I can discuss today are those that detect smoke and carbon monoxide (CO). These detectors can literally save your life, whether by warning you of a fire so you can quickly take action to either put the fire out or evacuate your home and call the fire department, or by warning you of a potentially deadly carbon monoxide leak. Since carbon monoxide feels just like regular air to the lungs, has no taste or smell, and also cannot be seen, it is one of the most insidious killers there is.
To protect yourself from these dangers, there’s the Google Nest Protect Wi-Fi Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Alarm. This alarm is so advanced that it not only knows when smoke or CO are present, but it also knows how severe the danger is and can even send you alerts to that effect via your smart device.
This detector is easy to install, has a variety of useful features, and it’s even fully compatibility with the Google Nest Thermostat and Google Nest Cam. What this means is that the thermostat can turn off your furnace if smoke is detected and the Nest Cam will activate to record the entire incident—a feature that’s great for insurance purposes. Imagine that!
The model I’ve linked to above is the battery powered option, but there’s also a wired-in version if you prefer not to deal with batteries (though the wired-in version does have battery backup).
There are also a variety of sensors and detectors that can warn you of the presence of radon—a deadly radioactive gas that’s been linked to lung cancer in cases of long-term exposure.
The Airthings Wave Plus Indoor Air Quality Monitor with Radon Detection is a great example of just such a unit. In fact, this unit doesn’t just detect radon; it also uncovers airborne chemicals (TVOCs) and carbon dioxide, as well as providing information on your home’s temperature, humidity, and air pressure. You can learn more about this excellent device by clicking on the link and reading its Best Buy product page.
As you can see, Safety Sensors & Detectors belong in everyone’s home—whether to save us from deadly threats or simply to make our lives easier and better in some way. Consider what your home needs to become as safe and healthy as possible, and give yourself the ultimate peace of mind with the appropriate safety sensors and detectors today!
