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!

__________________
86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

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.

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Go to eBay and search for "USB thermometer".

__________________
-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

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.

__________________
KLK, MCSE

1990 500SL

I was always taught to respect my elders.
I don't have to respect too many people anymore.