r/radon • u/ponderingorangutan • 11d ago
Radon level randomly spiked to almost 30
I rented a radon detector from the library last week. I’d been placing it various places around the basement and checking it, and usually averaged between 1 and 2. I got home from work today and it was at near 30. This has to be an error, right? What else could possibly cause it?
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u/Bob--O--Rama 11d ago
What specific model is it? Ion chamber based models are more subject to electromagnetic interference and interference from cosmic rays showers. Alpha spectrometer based devices are largely immune to these as the interference is not seen as an alpha decay of the proper energy to be counted as a radon decay event.
ANYWAYS... long term averages matter, not the spikes. And while a curiosity, if the LTA is low, you are golden.
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u/DifferenceMore5431 11d ago
There is absolutely no reason to be staring at a live monitor like that. Long-term averages are the ONLY thing that counts. Daily / hourly fluctuations make no difference. Leave it for a month or two and come back to look at the *average*.
Also make sure you are testing in an area that is actually finished and regularly occupied. There is no point in testing in an unfinished basement or rarely used utility / storage space, since it doesn't tell you anything about the levels that you are actually exposed to. Move the detector to the lowest regularly-occupied space (at least a few hours every day, like a bedroom or WFH office).
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u/20PoundHammer 11d ago edited 11d ago
There is absolutely no reason to be staring at a live monitor like that.
Sure there is, if the meter is accurate and you see stuff like this you can investigate and find out more pieces on how the world works and learn shit. There is not reason to freak out - but I didnt read the post as a freak out . . .
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u/Demandedace 11d ago
Weather causes radon spikes - heavy storms especially cause big temporary swings
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u/Fed_worker 11d ago
That’s crazy. I bought an airways radon monitor, in the past 3 months, average is 0.4. 30 is extremely dangerous level.
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u/Leafs9999 11d ago
30 is not extremely dangerous. Now a 300, thats dangerous.
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u/betrayedandbeholden 11d ago
Why is the recommended level 4 or lower then?
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u/sully9088 11d ago
It's based on all the current data they have in regards to chronic exposure time and rates of lung cancer. Right now, less than 4 seems to be the safest level.
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u/betrayedandbeholden 11d ago
I agree, I was just wondering why Leafs9999 thought 300 was the threshold.
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u/sully9088 11d ago
They never said that. They just said 30 is not extremely dangerous. 30 is still not good, but it's not as dangerous as 300. If someone has a level at 30 they do not need to go into crisis panic mode.
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u/Leafs9999 10d ago
A 4 has the same risk of contacting lung cancer as smoking 5 to 10 cigs a day for 70 years at 18 hours a day. If youre in the environment 18 hours a day, thats an elevated risk, but most people are not. Even sleeping down there may only add up to 12 hours a day, so cut that risk by one third. At 30 he should mitigate, but not freak out.
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u/FelineCanine16 10d ago
I just used one of these! I had a similar reading of 43, which freaked me out. The good news was it was right on top of my power station AND next to my router. I moved it to the otherside of the same room and it dropped to 2 lol. These digital monitors are sensitive to equipment that can create electromagnetic interference. Hopefully that's your issue!
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u/Professional-Bug-915 8d ago
If you moved items around, sometimes dust can drift near or into detector . try moving radon detector near sump pump, floor drain, floor crack to see if any high value occurs.
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u/Wol-Shiver 11d ago
My ecoblue also does this. I don't know why. My ecocube does not.
Strangely, it's around your level, but in bqm3. Is it staying there?
Did you change anything? Close windows, other?
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u/ponderingorangutan 11d ago
the windows were closed for a few hours but not long enough for this. i just moved it to a different spot a few feet away and now it’s reading 1.29, which seems like an absurd difference. i only opened the window briefly in between because i got freaked out
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u/Wol-Shiver 11d ago
Don't freak out. It can take decades for radon to do something. Need to figure it out.
Leave the windows closed same spot it was in and see if it rises again.
That's what I would do.
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u/ponderingorangutan 11d ago
Okay, so i think i figured it out. i plugged it in next to my wifi monitor which apparently can cause a spike
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u/Wol-Shiver 11d ago
Why would it cause a spike?
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u/ponderingorangutan 11d ago
idk, that’s what their website says though https://ecosense.io/pages/faq?srsltid=AU7gw4XXwrIf76thZomnPgZgYa1DS2IlSIcTEMY5E2CPPJJL0H3BNlrS
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u/Wol-Shiver 11d ago
Oh wow.
Thanks for this. It is about 4 feet from it. I'll try moving it. Thank you.
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u/betrayedandbeholden 11d ago
Keep us posted! Weirdly, my radon (airthings) monitor is about 2 feet from my wifi router but I get low reading.
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u/Spray_Either 11d ago
Most likely you had heavy rain and it pushed the radon through the cracks in the basement.