Radon levels swing, spike or change wildly. Is this normal?

Stack Effect

Updated over a week ago

You've started measuring with the Pro and the radon levels swing or change wildly. Is this normal?

The short answer is yes.

Radon levels change
Not only can radon levels change drastically during a 48-hours measurement, but it is quite normal. Radon levels change rapidly for many reasons. For accurate results always view weather forecasts prior conducting a short term radon test and do not test during rainstorms, high winds or snowfall. Just the stack effect alone often naturally changes the concentration levels to spike wildly.

If you’ve started your radon test and a severe weather event occurs, you should continue running the test. Testing for a longer period of time will help compensate for any sudden changes in radon levels caused by weather.

External factors and tampering alerts

Another explanation is that someone is opening windows, doors, or changing the ventilation in some way during the measurement to try to corrupt the data.

External factors such as the weather can also greatly influence the radon concentration. Make sure you review the weather history when analyzing a suspicious measurement.
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 If the Corentium Pro has been moved during the test, you'll see an Event or a Tampering Alert. For more in-depth information on the alert, you will need to use the CRA desktop software and review the excel data in conjunction with the graph.

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