House remote temperature monitoring

Joined
Dec 16, 2009
Messages
131
Location
Rhode Island
I'm planning to be away for a week in February and was thinking about getting some sort of temperature monitor that worked over wifi. I'd like to be able to check in on the house temperature and possibly get an alert sent to my smart phone if the temperature falls below a set point to indicate a heating failure. I see a few options out there and some mixed reviews on wifi connectivity issues. Has anyone had any personal experience with these devices? Wifi thermostat seems to be out as this is an older house without the power/common wire.
 
Run the proper wiring for a wi-fi thermostat... even if is just temporary?

When I installed my wi-fi thermostat, I used the old wiring to pull in the new wiring... same path, same holes.
 
In some instances, you can substitute the Green (fan) wire for the Blue (common) wire.

 
I have a COR thermostat in my beach house. Works well from a smart phone. Give lots of data and allows program changes remotely. It is especially useful during the hurricane/tornado season for checking the house for climate changes from damage. 🌪️

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If you want to start building a "Smart Home" setup, you can purchase a Hubitat Smart Hub, and an appropriate temperature sensor.

After that, you can add switches, plugs, etc. to control most anything in your home.

That being said, the "cheap web camera pointed at a thermometer" should work well as long as you'll check your phone every few hours or so (and could also function as a cheap burglar alarm if it detects movement).
 
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No power or common wire on my setup, but the Ecobee thermostat has an adaptor to get around that. Works well in our home. Adds in the capability to control the thermostat in addition to monitoring indoor temps. Sure is nice warming the house back up before we get home :)
Food for thought...
 
These suggestions that only allow monitoring over the local wi-fi network are useless unless he's somehow remotely connecting to his away network. Otherwise he's going to need one that connects to the Internet.
 
I really didn't care much for this stuff.
I do now and have them in every house. The uses are many. Had that bad virus and couldn't even get out of bed to change the thermostat and this wifi thermostat and phone app was a life saver.

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If this is predicated on your heating system quitting during the winter the likely cause will be that the power is out. Then you won’t have the connectivity to begin with.
 
I just leave my HVAC off when I'm not home. Hasn't caused a problem yet, but even in the middle of the winter it's sometimes 60 degrees when I get home if I have been away for several days.
 
Installed a Google thermostat which uses a Nest app. Very straightforward. The boiler uses a 24v 2 wire thermostat.
The unit (Google stat) reminds me of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 
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