Home Temperature Monitor / Alarm

**pajeff02** · 10-06-2014, 03:01 AM

After our experience in January with a frozen pipe at the Beaver house, I would like the ability to remotely monitor the temperature and to have an "alarm" notice sent to my cell phone if it were to fall below a certain point. We have a wireless internet connection at the home, but no land line telephone. I am not really keen on anything that requires a subscription or monthly monitoring fee, although given the consequences of our experience earlier this year, I could be talked into it.

Searching the intrawebs, I found this wi-fi based device: TempSpot - WiFi Temperature Sensor

Recommendations?

**wileyCoyote** · 10-06-2014, 06:08 AM

...i beleive there are quite a bit of solutions to choose from now, ...my dad installed a remotely accessible thermostat on his furnace, and it communicates through the home's wi-fi network to the internet, ..where alerts/status can be monitored either from a weblogin or his smart phone... so far, he really likes it, i believe it is a honeywell brand he installed..

..one more thing to keep in mind, ...i'd advise putting the power for the wi-fi router and/or internet modem on a UPS, so that you can maintain the remote connectivity, for some time, in case of a power outage...

**theorangeguy** · 10-06-2014, 07:18 AM

You can use a nest to actually control the temperature remotely...it's a thermostat that you connect to your wireless network and you can control it from a phone, tablet, or computer. It also let's you monitor the temp remotely. Works great and even learns habits after you use it for a little while. You can do all kinds of cool stuff with it.

**pajeff02** · 10-06-2014, 05:51 PM

Damn good idea to use a battery backup on the wi-fi. I never considered that.

I looked at the Nest thing down at Lowe's a few weeks back. We have a standard dial type thermostat right now -- sort of the "keep it simple" approach. We had a digital one before that crapped out on us and the heat quit working.

**theorangeguy** · 10-06-2014, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by pajeff02

Damn good idea to use a battery backup on the wi-fi. I never considered that.

I looked at the Nest thing down at Lowe's a few weeks back. We have a standard dial type thermostat right now -- sort of the "keep it simple" approach. We had a digital one before that crapped out on us and the heat quit working.

I've been using the nest since they came out...have one at our house in Nashville and one in our camp in the smokey mountains and I have had zero issues out of it. It's not your run of the mill digital thermostat...we see a good 1-3 feet of snow at our camp on any given week in the winter and anywhere from 30 degrees down to 2 or 3 degrees during most winters and we have yet to have an issue...before I installed one in our camp it was a nightmare. Had to do all kinds of prep work to keep pipes from bursting...found some really cool rv stuff to pour down the pipes while looking for a solution.

**pajeff02** · 10-07-2014, 02:25 AM

Zach will be installing "antfreeze" in our system as a precautionary measure, and we do shut off the domestic supply line when we leave, however, there is still a feed to the furnace and that is what bit us in January. I watched the vid on the Nest site last night. Can the learning feature be turned off?

**theorangeguy** · 10-07-2014, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by pajeff02

Zach will be installing "antfreeze" in our system as a precautionary measure, and we do shut off the domestic supply line when we leave, however, there is still a feed to the furnace and that is what bit us in January. I watched the vid on the Nest site last night. Can the learning feature be turned off?

yep, you can turn that feature off if you want to. Here's a easy run down on how to do it.

https://support.nest.com/article/How...ble-thermostat

**ITLXLR8** · 10-07-2014, 06:44 PM

This is made for gun safes, but it will do what you want. No monthly fees.

Liberty Safes - Accessories - Security and Care - Safelert Monitoring System

**pajeff02** · 10-08-2014, 06:19 PM

^^ That is pretty cool.

**pajeff02** · 01-31-2015, 09:24 AM

I purchased and installed the Wi-Fi Temp Spot monitor just over a month ago at the Beaver house. It has worked perfectly. Every two hours it reports in to the cloud and I can log in and see the temp reading from my phone or computer. If the temp drops below 45 degrees, the unit loses connectivity, or the battery gets low, it sends a message via text and email. Also, if the temp drops below 47 degrees, it starts uploading temp data every 20 minutes, rather than waiting for the 2 hour interval. I set the temperatures, notifications and everything by plugging the unit into my laptop and running the setup utility from the software I downloaded from their website.

My only bitch is that the product literature makes it sound like it will call multiple numbers... not true unless you then purchase a monthly subscription. I was able to get around this by downloading SMS Forwarder on my cell phone. Now, my phone automatically sends any Temp Spot alerts to our neighbor, Dawn and my daughter. Very cool having peace of mind after our pipe break last year.