Published since April · 2026
Bali Air Dispatch
Anonymous, non-commercial

Bali Air Dispatch

A practical guide to installing your own air-quality monitor in Bali.
Edition XVII
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Circulated anonymously
Bulletin · Install
Every new monitor sharpens the public record
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Install · A Practical Guide

Set up a monitor.

There are fifteen public air-quality sensors across Bali at the time of writing. The island has 4.4 million residents and 5,780 km². The argument for adding one more is straightforward: every additional monitor turns a guess into a number, and a number is the only thing a regulator, a school, or a journalist can act on.

The cheapest reliable PM2.5 sensor capable of contributing to a public network costs about as much as a long weekend in Seminyak. The data it produces — once it joins one of the international platforms — is auditable, timestamped, and impossible to politely walk back. It becomes part of the historical record this site already aggregates.

Bali's monitoring blind spots are not the fault of any one platform. They are the cumulative absence of small decisions to install. North Bali (Lovina, Singaraja), the eastern regencies (Karangasem, Amlapura), and the inland mountain belt (Bedugul, Kintamani) currently appear in our data as silence. A single sensor in any of those places would change that.

What follows is a short comparison of the four platforms most practical for Bali, then a generic install checklist that applies to all four.

A
The four practical options
As of April 2026

Every option below publishes data to a public network this site already reads. Whichever you choose, your readings will appear on the Live Monitor map within one refresh cycle of going online.

Indonesia · Subscription
Nafas · Indonesia-built
Subscription model · contact for pricing
A Jakarta-based company that installs PM2.5 + temperature + humidity outdoor sensors and runs the most popular consumer air-quality app in Indonesia. They handle installation, hardware replacement and notifications themselves.
Hardware
Outdoor PM/met sensor (vendor-supplied)
Pollutants
PM1 · PM2.5 · PM10 · temp · humidity
Power
Mains; outdoor enclosure
Internet
WiFi + cellular fallback (varies)
Public data
Yes · nafas.co.id share-link, app, this site
Refresh
~15 minutes
Best for
Schools, hotels, neighbourhood associations who want install + service handled
Fully managed. Real Indonesia-side support. Bahasa Indonesia interface. Already part of this site's live feed.
Pricing is not published; consumer route is now app-led with the older self-service web dashboard retired. Best to contact via their site.
nafas.co.id →
USA · Buy outright
PurpleAir · Most public-network friendly
USD 269–299 + shipping & import duty
A Utah-based community sensor that has become the world's largest public PM2.5 network. The two PurpleAir units in Bali (Jimbaran, Klungkung) provide some of the longest continuous datasets we have. Their public map updates every 80 seconds.
Hardware
Classic ($269) · Touch with screen ($299)
Pollutants
PM1 · PM2.5 · PM10 · temp · humidity · pressure
Power
USB · 5V outdoor-grade adapter
Internet
WiFi 2.4 GHz
Public data
Yes · map.purpleair.com (default opt-in)
Refresh
Every 80 seconds (the fastest of the four)
Best for
Households, businesses, anyone who wants the data to be unambiguously public
Simple install. Open data with raw CSV downloads. Strong global community. Already part of this site's live feed.
No Indonesia distributor — order from the US site or AliExpress; expect ~10–14 day shipping and modest import duty.
purpleair.com →
Switzerland · Buy outright
IQAir AirVisual · Polished hardware
USD 269–299 (indoor) · USD 800+ (outdoor AVO)
A Swiss company with the largest commercial air-quality network in the world. Their Pro line is the most refined consumer hardware in this list — colour screen, app-friendly, frequently used by hotels and clinics. Public data goes through the iqair.com map.
Hardware
AirVisual Pro (indoor, $269) · AVO (outdoor, ~$800+)
Pollutants
PM2.5 · CO2 · temp · humidity (Pro) · adds NO2/O3 on AVO
Power
USB-C; battery option
Internet
WiFi 2.4 GHz
Public data
Optional · opt-in to "contributor map"
Refresh
10 minutes
Best for
Indoor hospitality (hotels, restaurants); outdoor scientific deployments where budget is not the constraint
Best-built consumer hardware. CO2 sensor included. Already part of this site's feed when public-contributor mode is enabled.
Public data is opt-in, not default. Their AVO outdoor monitor is significantly more expensive than the alternatives.
iqair.com →
Thailand · Open hardware
AirGradient · Open source · regional
USD 165–249 · DIY kit or assembled
A Chiang-Mai-based company building open-source air-quality monitors specifically for South-East Asia. Their hardware is the easiest to source from this region (no trans-Pacific shipping) and their data flows into OpenAQ — a fully public, research-grade aggregator.
Hardware
ONE Open Hardware kit ($195) · ONE Pro pre-built ($249)
Pollutants
PM1 · PM2.5 · PM10 · CO2 · TVOC · NOx · temp · humidity
Power
USB-C
Internet
WiFi 2.4 GHz
Public data
Yes · OpenAQ + AirGradient global map
Refresh
10 minutes
Best for
Schools, makerspaces, anyone who wants open hardware they can open up and modify
Cheapest credible option. Ships from Thailand (much faster than the US). Open hardware + open firmware. Most pollutants per dollar.
DIY kit requires light soldering or screw-together assembly. Their previous Bali deployments (Ubud Rozendal, Balangan, Kopernik) all went silent in 2025 — suggests the network needs active maintenance.
airgradient.com →
B
At a glance
Side-by-side

A side-by-side of price, refresh cadence, public-data behaviour, and shipping reality for Bali.

Sensor Approx. price Public data Refresh Indoor / outdoor Ships to Bali
Nafas
 Subscription Default · public ~15 min Outdoor Indonesian company
PurpleAir Classic
 USD 269 Default · public 80 sec Outdoor From US · 10–14 days
IQAir AirVisual Pro
 USD 269 Opt-in 10 min Indoor (Pro) · Outdoor (AVO) From CH · ~14 days
AirGradient ONE
 USD 165–249 Default · public 10 min Outdoor From Thailand · 5–8 days
C
How to install (any of the four)
Five steps · about 30 minutes

The mechanical install is the easy part. Picking the right spot is what determines whether the data is meaningful.

  1. Pick a spot, not just a wall.

    Three to six metres above ground, away from a kitchen exhaust, away from a chimney, away from a busy parking spot. Direct exposure to outdoor air, but sheltered from horizontal rain. A balcony rail or a north-facing eave is usually right; the inside of a kitchen window is wrong.

  2. Power, then mount.

    All four options need 5V USB. Run the cable through a window or a wall pass-through and seal it with silicon. The unit itself mounts with a single screw or a zip-tie; nothing is heavy.

  3. Connect it to WiFi.

    Each platform has its own setup app. PurpleAir and AirGradient use simple captive-portal flows; IQAir and Nafas use first-party apps. All four require 2.4 GHz; some 5 GHz mesh routers will refuse the pairing — temporarily disable 5 GHz or use a guest 2.4 GHz network during setup.

  4. Register and name it.

    Give the sensor a descriptive name ("Ubud — Jl Raya Goa Gajah") rather than the default hex string. Set its location accurately. Mark it as public when prompted; this is the toggle that lets us — and everyone else — see your data.

  5. Wait twenty minutes.

    The first reading appears on the platform's own map immediately. Within one refresh cycle of this site (5 minutes), it will appear here too. We do not curate or approve; if your sensor is on the public network, it is on this map.

What happens after.

Your sensor's hourly and daily readings become part of the public record. They are downloadable from the source platform as raw CSVs, queryable through this site's archive, and citable in any future report on Bali's air. We do not own the data; you do.

If your sensor goes offline for more than two weeks, it will appear in the Archive of Silence on the homepage rather than disappearing without record. The historical readings remain.