- [Adam] In this video
I’ve got the second generation Eve Room.
It’s an Apple HomeKit-enabled
indoor air quality monitor.
If you’re thinking of buying the Eve Room,
here’s a quick roundup of what it does,
and more importantly,
how you can use the information
to improve your air quality.
I’ll reveal some of the hidden sources
of VOC emissions around the home,
and I measure the effectiveness
that a typical home air purifier actually has
on improving your air quality,
which might surprise you.
I keep my video concise for you.
So if the video helps you at all,
please hit the Like button,
I really appreciate that. Thanks.
Briefly, the first-generation was all plastic.
Now you have aluminium,
and an always-on E-Ink real-time display.
This gives quick-view information
without needing to open the app or ask Siri.
There’s no more double A batteries,
instead Eve Room is USB-powered,
giving a six-week cycle from a full charge.
Or leave it plugged in,
but it’s hard to stand up this way.
Eve Room collects three metrics:
Humidity, temperature, and air quality.
I’ll show you how I was able to improve my air quality,
which has helped me,
because I no longer wake up every morning
with a stuffy nose.
The main function of the Eve room
is to measure Volatile Organic Compound emissions.
So, what are VOCs?
I imagine them as little bad guys
floating around in the air.
The Eve app measures them in parts per billion.
Less than 250 is considered low,
and above 2000 high.
Eve Room presents air quality
with a one to five-star quick reference,
or you can delve into the app
and geek-out on as much data as you like.
There’s basic data in the Home App,
and lots more in the dedicated Eve App.
That reminds me, if you already have any Eve devices,
such as the Eve Cam,
Eve Energy smart plugs and more,
you can now access the Eve 5 App
not just from your smartphone,
but on your desktop too.
I can’t find it in search from Apple’s App Store,
but you can navigate to it
from the Eve blog page like this.
I’ll place a direct link in the description for you.
For disclosure, Eve sent me this for free
and I’ve been using it for a few weeks
so I can give you some proper informed feedback.
Here, I’m monitoring the air quality in my bedroom
which I measured to have a floor area
of just 6.3 meters squared.
We see a steady build up of VOC emissions
during a few hours of binge watching
my favourite TV series.
Eventually I decide to do something about it.
You can add automation to trigger an air purifier
when emissions get high,
in combination with a smart plug.
But here’s why you may not want to do that.
I manually turned on this readily-available air purifier.
It’s an active carbon air purifier and HEPA filter unit.
You can buy ones like this for around $50,
always noisy, no matter what it says on the box.
Here, I let my air purifier run for a whole hour.
It flattened the curve
and prevented further degradation of air quality,
but was unable to restore the air quality
to a better condition.
So even in a small room,
automation wouldn’t work for me
because the air purifier would need to be always-on.
Method two was free!
My low-tech solution of opening a window
restored air quality to five stars
in just two to three minutes.
I calculated the cost of replacing any heat loss
to be insignificant compared to
constantly running the air purifier.
Maybe my air purifier isn’t big enough.
But a bigger unit would use more power,
and cost more.
So the window wins, every time.
Typical sources of VOCs can include paints,
cosmetics, cleaning products, humans,
furniture and more.
I swapped out a duvet which helped
immediately reduce levels in my bedroom.
The more you use the Eve Room,
the faster you’ll learn which things
are negatively contributing to your air quality.
Next up, I want to lower my humidity.
Oh, and hit Subscribe
if you want to see more videos like this one, thanks.
So, after a few days I learn my normal
average room humidity is around 55%.
I want to lower it by 5%.
Because, this will make my life complete.
Actually my research suggests
healthy indoor relative humidity levels
to be between 45 and 55%.
I wanted to lower mine
to make an environment less appealing
to dust mites and other crawlies.
Again, you can set up automation here,
using the app to trigger intermittent power
to an electric dehumidifier.
Check out the Eve Energy,
which can turn lots of your everyday devices
into a smart device, or a smart lamp.
Anyway, I don’t want the noise
of an electric dehumidifier,
and opted for trial and error to find the right solution
to maintain a balance without powered appliances.
I’m using the UniBond AERO 360 Moisture Absorber
with replaceable refills blocks lasting three months.
Placed under my bed, this gave me exactly
the 5% humidity reduction I wanted.
Made exclusively for Apple HomeKit,
and with 100% privacy protection,
Eve accessories are the only devices I personally use
to connect to my home hub.
Just like the Eve Cam I purchased last year,
the Eve Room does not harvest
any of your personal information,
you don’t have to create an account,
or give up your e-mail.
Many features work in Apple’s Home app,
and the Eve App does not require registration.