Radon update: my basement is (currently) safe from this scourge

So an update on the earlier radon gadget. I received the BLE sniffer widget, but, wow, its a bit complex to use. Keeping an eye on the basement Radon, and you can see, it fluctuates quite a bit. We are well under the ‘safety’ limit (which there is some discussion on, some being of the opinion there is no safe limit, others that if its similar to the outdoor levels you can’t do much better).

In Europe, the consensus seems to be 100Bq/m^3 is the threshold to start mediation. Here in Canada the consensus is 200Bq/m^3. My peak is 53Bq/m^3, with an average around 30. So good so far. But its deep-winter here, once spring starts and ground-water flows, maybe I’ll have an issue.

So, worried about your basement? A little more bluetooth gadgetry and you can know for sure. And yes, that test you did once years ago is meaningless, you need to test all the time, see my results.


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3 Responses to “Radon update: my basement is (currently) safe from this scourge”

  1. Nicolas St-Pierre

    I’ve run mine for over a year now. My long term average has been 115Bq/m^3. The highest daily peak has been 600, and highest weekly 185…

    I’ve used the older handheld version of Airthings to get the results.

  2. Robert Carey

    Well…. I wasn’t worried about this crap before, but I am now. Thanks Don!

  3. DJ Jackson

    Yup! After reading the post and looking up Atlanta/GA radon levels, I see I live in an area with spots of high radon levels (insert joke about the south here). A few days after installing the Airwave, I woke one morning to an alarm and a flashing red circle from the device; it was ~300Bq/m^3. I thought to keep in the basement, but a little further from the furnace exhaust (not sure if that is an issue).

    Airwave is still in the basement and in an area with little airflow. After ~month of readings, I am at 65 Bq/m^3 average. I’m looking forward to the summer months. There is a lot ground water in my area – Love that Georgia clay!

    Don, get the BLE Sniffer going so we can integrate with HA. I just got the home alarm panel talking to HA via MQTT (thanks for the help). It was cool firing up the o-scope again.

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