Remote Temperature Monitoring

[sluggo]

My family has a ski house in Vermont that is used primarily on winter weekends and holidays. Typically the house is unoccupied during the week.

The heat is a oil fired, multi-zone, hot water, baseboard system controlled by by standard, old school, manually operated wall thermostats.

During our stay over the Christmas holiday, the boiler shut off and required a manual restart by pressing the reset button on the blower. If we were not at the house, the system would not have restarted and there could be significant freezing damage. Even though the system has operated properly since that event, the shutdown shook me up a little.

I would like to install some type of remote temperature monitoring to notify me of impending freeze ups so I could contact friends in the area to reset the furnace, or call the furnace service company. We have reliable Wi-Fi available via DSL service, but the cell service in the area is not good.

My house in NJ has Honeywell Wi-Fi setback thermostats that will (and have) automatically notify me if the temperature drops below a certain level. I could install this type of thermostat in the Vermont house, but our lifestyle doesn't suit the setback type of program and I was looking for something simpler and hopefully cheaper than those units.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with remote low temperature monitoring? Any advice? Thanks.

 

[JMJNet]

I installed this one in October last year:

Emerson Sensi 7-day Programmable Wi-Fi Smart Thermostat, No C-Wire Required for Most Systems ST55 - The Home Depot

DIY your smart home with the Sensi smart thermostat. Compatible with most residential HVAC systems and so easy to install—no common wire (c-wire) required in most applications. You can trust Sensi as

www.homedepot.com

It is the cheapest I found. I think it can warn you on temperature drop if you program your apps correctly.
It is tied into the IPhone homekit (I don't need a hub) but I think it can also link to other type of home automation hub.
You can research it before buying it to see if it meets your need.

The button in this one is not as fancy and not touch screen but I have always used my IPhone to change the setting, programming, etc.
Install is easy but you need a certain wire to power the unit.

 

[HonorAndHonesty]

I would say its likely that a Wi-Fi thermostat that alerts you if the temperature falls below a set threshold would be the easiest solution to your dilemma and probably the best value. There is a Wi-Fi freeze alert I found for 50 dollars, though it doesn't alert you until the temperature reaches 38°f and it doesn't appear that number is adjustable.

The problem I see with that particular sensor is if the house reaches 38° in one particular spot, that doesn't give you much cushion if a pipe is located in a cold wall. Plus by the time the house reaches 38° then you would have much less time to react to the problem. The other thing I didn't like was the unit ran off two AA batteries, so you would have to remember to stay on top of changing them, I dont know if that units server alerts you if it loses contact with the equipment if the batteries went dead or otherwise malfunctioned.

 

[Imp4]

Google wifi temperature sensor and you'll find a million choices....

 

[MNgopher]

If you have WI-FI (which it looks like you do), you have a lot of options.

You can get setup with a smart thermostat (allowing you the ability to remotely monitor and adjust the temp in the unit). I'm relatively happy with the Ecobee unit we are now using (the remote temp sensors are helpful in getting the heat to do what we need it to versus the thermostat location). Seeing that you have a multizone setup may change your abilities there, and I don't have any experience with that type of heating setup (only forced air).

Or you could just get a remote temp sensing (and often humidity) unit. No direct control of the heating, but will tell you what is happening at the property anways...

 

[Donald]

I am in a similar situation with a retirement home we have yet to move to. I bought Samsung SmartThings. Hub and sensors. I have a water sensor next to everything that uses water (toilet, dish washer, washer, HW heater). Almost all of their sensors provide temp in addition to the main function. I have one in crawl space that does RH. Alerted me to dehumidifier not working. Light bulbs and outlet that can be set to go on or off via dusk/dawn or a specific time. It knows what time dusk/dawn is. Adapter to garage door opener I use to let in service people.

 

[Donald]

I would also get your boiler serviced. Something is marginal. It will fail again.

 

[JHZR2]

I would also get your boiler serviced. Something is marginal. It will fail again.

Agree. Could be the nozzle, could be bad fuel, filters, etc.


OP, in the old days a “winter watchman” could be used to turn on a light, or enable an answering machine or something.

These days, some sort of WiFi camera might be good. I have an Amazon blink camera and it gives a temperature report.

For something with an automatic alarm that reports to you, I’ve seen them for computers and other things. Should be readily available. IIRC some baby monitors have that capability, if nothing else...

 

[BigCahuna]

Does your home in Vermont have an Security system?. If it does, you can get a free standing temp monitor unit that would report to your Alarm company. And they in turn would call you, and tell you they got a low temp alarm. I used to install them on Fire Sprinkler systems in remote locations. The standard was if the temp in the selected area got to or below 40f, it would send a signal, to alert somebody.,,

 

[Lubener]

My home's security system keeps me updated with temperature and any water detected.

 

[ironman_gq]

just about any IoT home system (nest, simplisafe, or similar) can have push alerts set at min/max temperatures, water sensors for broken pipes, door/window sensors, smoke alarms, cameras. You can even get light switches and program it to make it look like someone is home.

You can basically set up a whole home security system with push notifications to your phone on a reasonable budget as long as you have reliable internet.

 

[spasm3]

PM member WWillson, he has a remote system he uses in a camper for power and temperature alerts.I don't remember the brand.