Wifi Thermometer

[Mick]

Hi,

Like a prune I allowed the van to freeze last week cos I was away. Tried to shower the dog after a run on the common but it was frozen-amundo. Luckily I got away with it and it's fine. the heating now comes on at 6 at night goes off at 7 in the morning. all sorted but...

Now I am looking for a thermometer for the van that can give me alerts via an app. It can connect to my van wifi, possibly has a probe, a temp display in the van and work on battery.

This below is great but you can't get it in the UK and it's £150 which i could live with cos I go skiing and it does get cold.

Best WiFi Thermometer & Wireless Remote Temperature Monitor 2018

Anyone got similar? Any ideas?

 

[Fish]

What heater do you have @Mick

 

[Mick]

Eberspacher with a timer.

 

[YellowHound]

• Sen.se

 

[Fish]

Webasto and Ebo heaters are really not suited to what you suggest, rather than on/off with a thermostat they run continually putting out less heat as they near their target temperature and then going through a cooling cycle and turning off if and when the ambient drops. The rotating control is not a thermostat in any real sense, a position near its lowest setting would obviously do all that at lower ambient but by no means would that be anywhere near as low as the + 3 deg setting that one normally sets tubes at.

dieseldriven heater on 'constant' operation will go through many starting procedures (ie. pre-run, glow-plug heating and pump dosing).

Alone the glow-plug will reach it's nominal number of life time cycles (365 i think) pretty fast and the whole idea dies.

If 240v is at hand a greenhouse frost heater placed in the engine bay will do. Designed for 'outdoor' use and with built-in termo sensor and easy to fit into confined areas.

 

[Deaky]

The Eberspächer easystart call remote will send you a text message at a set temperature. You can text it back to turn the heater on.

 

[Mick]

Webasto and Ebo heaters are really not suited to what you suggest, rather than on/off with a thermostat they run continually putting out less heat as they near their target temperature and then going through a cooling cycle and turning off if and when the ambient drops. The rotating control is not a thermostat in any real sense, a position near its lowest setting would obviously do all that at lower ambient but by no means would that be anywhere near as low as the + 3 deg setting that one normally sets tubes at.

dieseldriven heater on 'constant' operation will go through many starting procedures (ie. pre-run, glow-plug heating and pump dosing).

Alone the glow-plug will reach it's nominal number of life time cycles (365 i think) pretty fast and the whole idea dies.

If 240v is at hand a greenhouse frost heater placed in the engine bay will do. Designed for 'outdoor' use and with built-in termo sensor and easy to fit into confined areas.

Fish thats why I want an independent thermostats that is not linked to the van's heating. If it gives me a warning then I'll turn the heater on rather than have it come on every night at a set time.

240v is at hand & i'll look at the greenhouse heater but i do not need it in the engine bay but the living area.

 

[Mick]

The Eberspächer easystart call remote will send you a text message at a set temperature. You can text it back to turn the heater on.

I did look at that but it had some limitations. It needs a dedicated SIM and won't link to my van WiFi.

 

[Mick]

• Sen.se

Bluetooth is no good for what i want to do.

 

[Fish]

Fish thats why I want an independent thermostats that is not linked to the van's heating. If it gives me a warning then I'll turn the heater on rather than have it come on every night at a set time.

240v is at hand & i'll look at the greenhouse heater but i do not need it in the engine bay but the living area.

What about a small oil heater?.

 

[Sturge]

Why not look at server room temperature monitors

Just googled "wifi server room temperature" and found this - HDT-WIFI-T WiFi Temperature Data Logging Sensor (Thermosense Direct)

No experience of that particular one, but something along these lines may achieve your aims, along with logging of what the temperature was doing.

 

[Mick]

Why not look at server room temperature monitors

Just googled "wifi server room temperature" and found this - HDT-WIFI-T WiFi Temperature Data Logging Sensor (Thermosense Direct)

No experience of that particular one, but something along these lines may achieve your aims, along with logging of what the temperature was doing.

Eh up I knew I'd get an answer that should do it.

Comes with an Android app, will connect to my MiFi and the cloud is free for the number of times I use it.

 

[gmaster]

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but what do you mean "you allowed the van to freeze"?

 

[PukkaT6]

Sorry if I'm being stupid, but what do you mean "you allowed the van to freeze"?

I think they think of their van as an actual being ha

 

[Phil_G]

Do you absolutely need it to be a phone app? if a wireless weather monitor would do, that would be much cheaper.
There are many options on the bay, for example, under £9 :
Weather Station Wireless Thermometer LCD Display Temperature Humidity Gauge | eBay



Some have settable alarm levels, some can remotely switch stuff on & off, some do humidity too... lots of options.
Heres one:
LCD Wireless Weather Station Clock Digital Temperature Humidity Meter | eBay



There's even one you could leave floating in your fresh-water tank:

New Wireless Digital Floating Swimming Pool Thermometer Bath Spa Temperatur X3V6 | eBay

Note though that 'wireless' in this context means 'without wires' via a 433mhz RF link, its not WiFi. Do you need it to be Wifi?

If so, you could use one of these Sonoff home automation controllers, just ignore the switching capability (or use it to switch in a dehumidifier, heater etc):
Sonoff TH16 Temperature and humidity Monitoring WIFI Romote Smart Switch Wireles | eBay



I'm sure that with a bit of ingenuity it can be done for very much less than the £150 you mentioned.

I've not tried this particular smartswitch (Sonoff), but I am familiar with its chipset (homebrew Alexa-controlled stuff) and for about £12 you can buy the Sonoff TH10 smartswitch, the AM2301 temp/humidity sensor is about £4, its a very simple mod to run off 12v rather than 240v, and so it seems that you can have phone-based remote monitoring of temperature & humidity via your router for under £12, with the option of remotely controlling a heater/dehumidifier inside your van.

Edit: I've ordered a set to try, total £11.44 I'll let you know...

Cheers
Phil

 

[alec]

SeNdTech | Inkpen | SMS Alarms

This crowd use sim cards which might be a good option, they've a relay that you can activate remotely to turn on/off equipment.

 

[Dellmassive]

+1 for the SONOFF

I've got one running in the garage via WIFI on 240vac (your need to mod it to run on 5v USB or 12vdc to run on the van)

its got a nice APP for the phone and can be setup for temp/humidity alerts. (providing its in wifi range)

Sonoff TH16 Temperature and Humidity Monitoring WiFi Smart Switch for DIY Smart Home(16A)


I've got one of these too in the shed,

SensorPush Wireless Thermometer & Hygrometer

its good for £50 but only has Bluetooth connection to your phone, unless you buy the gateway for £100! extra . . . . . . and then you need a WiFi connection too....... and power for the gateway.