A fully designed low-cost sensing node for air pollution monitoring and calibration results for several low-cost gas sensors are presented. As the state of the art is lacking information on the importance of an active ventilation system, the effect of an active fan is compared to the passive ventilation of a lamellar structured casing. Measurements obtained in an urban outdoor environment show that readings of the low-cost dust sensor (Sharp GP2Y1010AU0F) are distorted by the active ventilation system. While this behavior requires further research, a correlation with temperature and humidity inside the node shown.