Jan 1 jpaada continues:
Yeah, I noticed the same thing. Air humidifiers (ultra spray) have a negative effect on air quality (PM2.5 value). Air quality drops to zero quite quickly. The same is not noticeable with an evaporative humidifier (ufox). The air does not return to good condition very quickly when you stop humidifying. I personally doubt that it is a measurement issue. Can it really be that there are so many small particles floating around. However, a humidifier is almost a must in dry, frosty weather if you do not want other respiratory problems. I have an air purifier as a measuring device, which also reports almost the same PM2.5 values. So it is correct in terms of measurement, but is it correct in practice? So does the humidifier pollute the air in the home? I have not noticed any problems with air humidification (ufox and ultra models) over the years. The sauna is next to the tasting room, which is where the measurement is. The humidity of sauna or showering does not change the values much.
TapaniV responds:Yes, that's exactly what it is. It's worth reading the articles linked above. I've read the same thing years ago and that's why I bought Ufoxes. An ultrasonic humidifier "evaporates" all the small particles in the water into the air along with the water. Ufoxes, etc. that work by boiling water, produce clean water vapor and the impurities remain in the water container of the device (which should be emptied and washed regularly). We have three Ufoxes and two Stadler Form Freds in our house, all of which work by heating water and produce clean water vapor. Ruuvi Air does not react to these in any way. Only the humidity in the air increases.
JSt59 replied:
@jpaada So technically correct, but is it correct? It is not!
I think this ultrasonic humidifier thing is being thrown around like a cat trying to catch a cold, and it seems like no one wants to do anything about it. Let’s just cite the same study, which clearly states: “The bottom line: People should use clean water in their humidifiers.” We did not find that distilled water purchased from local grocery stores produced particles.”
In Finland, tap water is clean, I don’t know about Canada, where distilled water is also sold at the local grocery store. 
Tap water contains lime, which is probably the biggest reason for false alarms. Whether it is harmful to health when inhaled in small quantities, I don’t know. The studies don’t say anything about the actual health effects, It might be, it’s not, it’s!
If it’s not possible to turn off the PM 2.5 alarm on the Ruuvi Air device, I think it’s a useless rebellion. After all, the purpose of the device is to draw attention to the actual air quality, mainly CO₂ concentrations, and not to hunt ghosts. Now the group is wasting energy by running the ventilation at overspeed and opening the windows, which increases unnecessary energy consumption.
In my opinion, modern ultrasonic humidifiers are the best way to humidify the air in a room in the cold. They have descaling, automation, and other niceties that the UFO humidifier does not have.
The UFO humidifier is basically a kettle that boils water on a heating element, wasting energy. You could just as easily put a large pot of water on the stove to boil, and the end result is the same. The fact that UFO does not appear in Ruuvi Air does not mean that the UFO kettle is any better in terms of health.
V12 responded:“A UFO humidifier is basically a kettle that boils water with a resistor, wasting energy…”
Without energy, can you imagine that water droplets produced by ultrasound turn into water vapor that increases air humidity? Evaporation of water requires exactly the same amount of energy, whether that energy comes from the surrounding air (which lowers its temperature) or is produced by electricity. Whether the energy is used to heat the water, which becomes water vapor (and also raises the air temperature) or whether the energy is used to heat the air, which lowers its temperature due to the evaporation of water droplets, is probably more of a semantic debate.
Henri clairified with: In Ruuvi Air, the air quality index includes both PM2.5 and CO2. The device also measures both PM 2.5 and CO2 separately, and alarms can be set for each of these separately.
JSt59 I misspelled “alarm” in my post. I meant the light on the side of the device that indicates where you are going. It works for us during the warm season. When there are more people in the apartment and the light starts to change from green, it’s time to increase ventilation. Increased carbon dioxide causes unnecessary headaches and heart palpitations.
In the winter, when the skin dries out and the eyes dry out, the light glows red, precisely because of these “wrong” humidifiers, and the danger they cause to health. I personally have not noticed that ultrasonic humidifiers have caused any health problems. I would believe that their benefits, however, outweigh the supposed harm.
However, quite a lot of these ultrasonics are sold..
and
@V12 Humidifiers consume quite a bit of electricity. UFOX consumes 0.16 kWh/h, but it does it all the time. I have experience with them. It was once the first humidifier in our household. The only memory is that the resistance did not want to clean the limescale using proper methods… But it got its way.
We raise the basic humidity level during the winter season with a Beurer LB55 vaporizer. At the end of winter with two ultrasonic humidifiers. They regulate the humidity balance of a two-story apartment brilliantly, on/off depending on the prevailing conditions.
I don’t understand, Ruuvi Air is a great technology, why should kettles be used as humidifiers? It’s like buying a Ferrari for the yard and riding a horse to work. 
Ultrasonic humidifiers we use:
Timer (hour)
Timer on/off
Adjustable steam level 30-90%
Humidity sensor
Downloadable app
Water filter
Antibacterial filter
Ufox
Adjustable steam level 1-2
TapaniV reports:I have an ultrasonic humidifier that I bought as a little experiment. The fact that it cools the air is also one of the reasons why I don’t want to use one in the winter. The Ufos help with heating the house, since they are constantly on in the winter.
I have made the Ufos smart by plugging them into a smart socket. Home Assistant monitors the situation using RuuviTags/Air and turns the Ufos off or on depending on the situation. And HA also tells me if they run out of water. If the electricity consumption drops to zero without permission, an alarm goes off on my mobile phone.
I can also track my electricity consumption using Home Assistant. The Ufos in my room was probably on almost 24/7 in December. The electricity consumption has been 81.63kWh, which is 5% of the total consumption of the house.
henri Staff clairifies:The operation of that light cannot be adjusted at the moment, because it is built into the device’s software and the light currently only shows the combined index. The light can be turned off or dimmed using the button on the bottom (a pin is required) and in the future also from the app. We will investigate in the future whether there is an easy way to change this so that the light can show the desired size.
Without taking a position on whether small particles are dangerous or not, from the point of view of measurement they must be identified if they are in the air.
There is quite a lot of discussion and some research on the subject. The US environmental authorities and consumer safety authorities are also taking a position on the subject and recommending the use of distilled water in air purifiers. If distilled water is put in an ultrasonic humidifier, will this PM 2.5 problem go away?
Even if a product is sold a lot, it does not directly mean that the product is good or safe. We learn about things and a lot of research will also be done in the future. Small particles are still largely unrecognized in the everyday lives of ordinary consumers, and many everyday activities produce a lot of them.
continuing
There was also good discussion on the matter here for and against, as well as reports on various studies The case against ultrasonic humidifiers
It seems clear that fine particles increase when using undistilled water, but what their health effects are on minerals has yet to be studied to a great extent. It also seems clear that in general fine particles are not at all health-promoting particles.
New products are brought to the market very quickly, but research is slow and possible health effects will also become clear later. At this point, every consumer must decide in practice what to do and consider how to respond to the authorities’ instructions.
JSt59 answers with
@henri Thanks for your answers!
I think this discussion about the bad atmosphere caused by humidifiers has gone a bit down the wrong path.
Finns are always asked to favor Finnish work. I absolutely support this. But…
When I have bought a fairly comprehensive amount of Finnish high-tech for my own needs, and I am not immediately satisfied with one function, an argument begins about how I have made mistakes in my previous purchases. I should buy new equipment or distilled water to make the pump of the hundred happy. Some engineering jargon and English-language studies are presented to support the arguments. This is not how it should be.
Americans are suspicious of everything, and probably with good reason. Even the hotel soap says: “Do not eat”. My aunt, who has lived in the United States for almost her entire life, is afraid of everything. A 90-year-old can’t drink tap water after moving to Finland because he’s afraid it’ll kill him…
I’m a total lazy person, so I’ve automated everything in my home. I’m a bit confused whether new technology is being built for those who want to build their own stuff around it and track this and that, even irrelevant things, or for us ordinary bunnies.
Couldn’t the Pelle Pelottomats of their own life build their own gadgets, and those who want to sell them would focus more on the wishes of ordinary bunnies.
The cardinal sin of forums like this is that if you make a wish, earnestly, you’ll start getting life advice. I don’t need that!
In another community, I praised the robot vacuum cleaner I bought. A month-long argument began about how my purchase was hacked and it started stalking the cat. And we don’t even have a cat! 
Henri responds:
Your wish for a feature has been registered, and it will not be belittled in any way, at least not by Ruuvi. Ruuvi manufactures products for ordinary consumers, but not all features can always be implemented and not all needs are always known immediately. At the moment, the functionality of the light cannot be changed, but in the future it may be possible to change it to show the value desired by the user. The index is built to show the two most important and most accurately measured air quality parameters. There are always compromises in all combinations and not all influential things are always clear. Products and the industry are also constantly developing enormously and by measuring things we always learn more. For example, in this case, that ultrasonic humidifiers produce something so radical that affects the measurement of fine particles.
As a company, we also do not take a position for or against any other purchases, and at least my messages should not be interpreted that way.
However, each user draws their own conclusions and it is not the intention of Ruuvi, at least not to take a position as objectively as possible and also to reveal various relevant information. A very large part of Ruuvi’s customers are located in the USA, so we also have to follow what their authorities instruct and how they explain things. This forum is also read by many Americans, even though the discussion is in Finnish. For this reason, we should not belittle how things are going in the USA, even though it might be irrelevant for the Finnish consumer.
Yt. Henri, Ruuvi
V12 responds: The danger of fine particles is real, whether you take a stand on it or not. Limit values have been set for the concentration, and for good reason. It is very good that there are affordable particle meters available that you can use to monitor the air quality of your own environment, and in particular, you can pay attention to things that worsen air quality. Whether a reading is absolutely 2, 2.2 or 3 is probably less important than whether the reading changes suddenly. In that case, you can find out the reason for it. Just like I did on New Year’s Eve, when the normal PM2.5 reading of about 1 microgram/cubic meter jumped over 80, from which it returned to normal in less than a day.
Fine particles are harmful, regardless of what the particles are, minerals, soot, etc. They bypass the body’s normal defense mechanisms and their effect on the body is not exactly known.
TapaniV adds: I know this is getting off topic now, but I need to have the last word 
I appreciate Ruuvi’s products and trust them. I think the current method of calculating the air quality index is good. If the RuuviAir light is yellow, I can trust that there is a good reason for it. If the reason is that I just heated the fireplace or cooked food in the house, then the bad air quality is clearly my own fault. However, I have to cook even though it worsens the air quality, and when it is -16°C outside and electricity is expensive, I do heat the fireplace, even though I know it spoils the air quality. But the point is that I think RuuviAir’s current solution is good.
The fact that ultrasonic humidifiers are popular does not mean that there are no problems with their use. If you don’t feel like reading studies on the subject, it is enough to read this thread, where the matter has already been referred to in Finnish more than enough. I don’t want to use those, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how it is.
JSt59 adddedI returned the “polluting” humidifiers. Not because they “polluted” the climate, but bec ause they kept dropping the internet connection for reasons I couldn’t figure out. I got my money back without a hiccup.
I replaced the humidifiers with Dyson humidifier/fan/air purifiers.
Now RuuviAir is happy!
I also installed a water filter in the faucet
Minä arvostan Ruuvin tuotteita ja luotan niihin. Minusta nykyinen ilmanlaatu-indeksin laskentatapa on hyvä. Jos RuuviAirin valo on keltainen, niin voin luottaa siihen, että sillä on joku hyvä syy siihen. Jos syy on se, että lämmitin juuri takkaa tai talossa laitettiin ruokaa, niin huono ilmanlaatu on selvästi omaa syytä. Pakko se on kuitenkin ruokaa laittaa vaikka se ilmanlaatua heikentääkin, ja kun ulkona on -16°C ja sähkö on kallista niin lämmitän kyllä takkaa, vaikka tiedän sen pilaavan ilmanlaatua. Mutta pointtina nyt se, että minusta RuuviAirin nykyinen ratkaisu on hyvä.
