Smart home hardware comes in all shapes and sizes, and while picking out the best smart home lighting is fairly straightforward, our hardware choices start getting a little more limited when shopping for something like smart air purifiers and air quality sensors. With the growing awareness of the importance of indoor air quality, new players are arriving all the time, and this week, home furnishing giant Ikea joins those ranks with a sensor of its own.
In true Ikea fashion, its new smart air quality sensor gets a very Swedish name: Vindstryka. The tool measures the density of particulate pollutants (PM2.5) in indoor air, as well as volatile organic compounds like those coming from paints or plastics. A screen constantly displays the monitored ambient temperature and humidity as well, making it suitable for fine-tuning your home heating and cooling settings if you desire.
While direct integration with HVAC systems doesn’t seem to be available at the moment, Ikea is no stranger to smart air purification equipment. Its Starkvind line of standalone air purifiers (some of which double as coffee tables) is sold in several markets, hovering around the $200 price point.
Data from the new Vindstryka sensor can be accessed on the integrated display, or on the Ikea Home smart app. However, the $70 Dirigera hub is a prerequisite for the latter. Once set up correctly, your Ikea smart home system can automatically detect changes in ambient air quality and adjust the fan speed on connected smart air purifiers.
The app integration also allows the ambient air quality monitor to trigger other smart home devices, but Ikea doesn’t seem to be tapping into innovative developments in the smart home space like Matter. As a result, we don’t think the sensor will allow controlling devices outside Ikea’s limited ecosystem. If you’re invested in that, though, this new air quality monitor has a few handy features that might be worth adding. Ikea has yet to announce pricing, but with plans to hit store shelves in April, the wait shouldn’t be too long.
