Temperature logging for residential HVAC
 

I am installing a hot water radiant floor system. Just for fun, I want to monitor various water and air temperatures (hot water supply, hot water return in each circuit, room temperature, etc.). I was surprised when an internet search turned up few options for doing that for a reasonable price.

I did find this system: http://www.welserver.com/

It looks great. Seems like a good, common sense approach to me.

Anybody out there have experience with this sort of thing? Any recommendations?

This is a bit on the geeky side, but this is how the pros do it:

http://embeddeddatasystems.com/page/EDS/CTGY/TCTC

It isn't really for continuous monitoring, just logging - the good news is that you don't have to wire anything.

I've seen this used to monitor the environments of shipments, and "trouble spots" in buildings - even taped to a wall!

Those solutions both look pretty good. There is actually lots of this stuff out there. The buzz words are "pc data acquisition boards" or just "data acquisition". Here is an example:

http://www.measurementcomputing.com/cbicatalog/directory.asp?dept_id=559&top_id=557&dept_name=Temperature

A big issue is ease of use and software. So your needs in those areas will help guide you to a solution. It just depends how fancy you want to get.

Go to eBay and search for "USB thermometer". :)

Those are some slick devices. The collective knowledge of this forum makes it worth putting up with self-righteous jerks like myself. ;)

One thing I like about the Web Energy Logger (WEL) is the software that has already been set up for applications like mine. Those other things are so slick and so inexpensive, I might get one of each. Just for fun.

Thank you.

Search for a device TEMP05, it's basic and communicates with a serial port.

www.midondesign.com

Actually Temp08 is the new version, they also have software that reads the sensors.

You may need to write some code to collect the values.

I run it under HomeSeer (did my new Virtual PC running Homeseer only has 2 Serial ports, Dang MSFT Virtual Server).

It is relatively inexpensive, easy to run the wires, I use scrap cat 3.