Discover the origins of AirGradient, which began as a volunteer project in Northern Thailand during the harsh "burning season" of 2019. Learn how this effort evolved into a company focused on providing open source air quality hardware, measuring critical metrics like PM 2.5 and CO2 to safeguard classrooms
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Chapters
00:00 Welcome
01:04 Meet Achim: From Siemens to Thailand and a Wildfire Crisis
03:20 Burning Season 2019: The School That Sparked AirGradient
07:50 DIY to Open Hardware: Arduino, ESP32, PM2.5 + CO2, and Dashboards
12:24 Values: Repairability, Ownership, and CC BY‑SA Licensing
16:40 Global Takeoff: Hacker News, Jeff Geerling, and the Kit Era
20:16 ESPHome vs Native: Building the Official Home Assistant Integration
32:26 Works with Home Assistant Platinum: Local‑First and Privacy by Default
36:40 Open Culture, Community, and Academia: Why Sharing Pays Back
41:45 UNICEF Laos: ML Air‑Quality Forecasts + Open Map Integration
44:55 Roadmap: Larger Displays, Portable Monitors, and More Pollutants
46:27 Safeguarding the Mission: Foundation Plan (Switzerland)
49:45 Achim’s Home Assistant Setup: Z‑Wave, ESPHome, Geofencing
56:16 Real‑World Use Cases: Factories, Schools, and Ventilation Control
01:01:58 Accuracy Matters: Calibration, Pitfalls, and Transparent Limits
01:05:19 Wrap‑Up and Where to Buy
This episode was made possible thanks to our sponsors
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Hosts
Phil Hawthorne
Twitter: @philhawthorne
Bluesky: @philhawthorne.com
Rohan Karamandi
Twitter: @rohank9
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