Question about multisensor (Combustable Gases, CO2, CO/Carbon monoxide and air quality sensor)

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Hi all, does anyone know of any zigbee device that acts as a multi-sensor to detect natural gas, CO2, CO and is also able to provide measurements on air quality?

I was trying to find a sensor that has these 3 features built in, like many other sensors have the same multiple usage possibility (eg. "Tuya ZigBee Multi-Sensor 4 in 1" that I'm also using on my setup).

I found a couple of sensors available on aliexpress, but unfortunately these wont detect all of what I want:

  • Tuya zigbee photoelectric smoke alarm
  • Tuya zigbee smart gas leakage detector
  • Avatto zigbee gas detector

This one would fulfill most needs but is lacking natural gas detection and I dont need the temperature or humidity in it:

  • Tuya zigbee multi-detector (TVOC, formaldehyde, CO2, PM2.5, temperature, humidity)

Truth is I actually only need the natural gas sensors in the kitchen, so I was wondering if I could retrofit that Tuya multi-detector with a stand alone natural gas sensor inside the same housing.
I was also considering building my own multi-sensor from scratch (multiple sensors, circuit board, 3d printed housing etc), in case I was unable to find a good solution that meets all my needs, but it seems like a big project at this point in time for me, so retrofitting a natural gas sensor or printing a new housing for that specific tuya multi-sensor might be enough.

Also wondering if that particular sensor would be compatible with HE...

Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions about this topic?

I would really appreciate some ideas and brainstorming, since I kinda hit a wall on this topic with all the available sensors I found, and for me, this type of multi-sensor would be a must since I have kids in the house.

Thanks a lot in advance!

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Did you consider Airthings devices? Not exactly zigbee, but they might be able to monitor CO2, VOCs, PM2.5 and Radon (no gas). There is an app for integration in HPM

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Do you mean carbon dioxide (CO2) or carbon monoxide (CO)?

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The AirThings monitor CO2 levels. They will provide warnings if the levels are a level which might impact performance… I use this myself to turn on ventilation in the home when the levels are higher than certain levels.

@thebearmay’s integration has been working really, really well!

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Sorry I was asking OP :slightly_smiling_face:.

The topic title is confusing.

Edit: trends in CO2 levels can be used as one of the markers of indoor air quality. CO is deadly and if it’s detected, that should always be treated as a potential emergency.

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Any methane sensor for post-Mexican dinner monitoring, or would that be covered by the "natural" gas sensor?

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Methane is natural gas, in all senses of the word, so you’re all set.

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Lol, we dont eat mexican that often in the house, but I'll keep that option in mind :sweat_smile:

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Firstly, let me clarify something since I believe I haven't made clear, in my country the designation for the different type of installation is:

  1. "Natural gas" (GN) - applicable to mixes of hydrocarbons that contain atleast 70% methane (CH4), 28% ethane (C2H6) and 2% propane (C3H8). This is distributed through piped installations to the end customer and commercialized under the name "Natural gas".

  2. "Propane" (GLP) - applicable to mixes of hydrocarbons that contain atleast 70% propane (C3H8) and the other 30% divided between propylene (C3H6), butane (C4H10) and butene (C4H8) and other hydrocarbons.
    This is distributed through piped installations to the end customer and commercialized under the name "Propane gas".

  3. "Gas canister" - it's basically one of two, eiter the same mix used in GLP or the same proportion of butane instead of propane.
    In a nutshell its the GLP or Butane presurized to a canister and sold to the end customer. For some reason, it is mostly known by he name "Butane canister"...

Obs: other sorts of installations (burried or exposed tanks, for example) are not conmon here at all for home use - I cant remember to ever seeing one here besides commercial use.

So, dispite the fact that all of these gases are "natural per se" and saying "natural gas" seems kinda redundant in english (or even based on common sense because they are all "natural" gases), the fact is they are commercially named like that. Actually its commonly practice to use these designations throughout the majority of European countries.

Now that we established this, that is the reason I mention that I'm worried about detecting "Natural gas (GN)" since that is the combustable piped gas that I have installed in my house :sweat_smile:

This "Natural gas (GN)" is exclusivelly used for my individual gas water heater (I'm making the point to mention "individual", because in some countries its common to have a gas furnace or heater for the whole building you live in - this is not the case in my country where each house or apartment has its own).

So, considering this, let me re-phrase my main concerns when it comes to 'combustable gases':

  1. gas leakage - regardless of the detector if it detects any of those combustable gases it "should" work, but due to the fact I have an installation that runs on 70% methane, I would like it to focus on that - not sure if it would detect the other concentrations of gas so easily.
  2. exhaustion issues with burning gas - excess of concentrations of Carbon monoxide (CO) could occur for some reason and are deadly, so it would be good to measure that.

Other requirements would be:
To detect CO2 (anything that burns releases CO2) and provide measurements on air quality (ITVOC, PM2.5, etc)

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All I can recommend at this time is to avoid air quality sensors, based on the Tuya platform.
Most of these are of questionable quality and accuracy, and extremely chatty/spammy on top.

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