Pet area ideas

[hunter69]

i want to automate a pet area I created for a puppy to stay in while I am at work. The area has a nice insulated dog house. It is a smaller house that has a light in it.
What I want to to:
1. Replace the light bulb with a heat lamp bulb designed for smaller dog house.
2. Control the bulb wiht a temperature sensor and motion sensor.

Whats available:
I have power in the area, wifi and zwave. Wifi signal is the strongest. Z wave might be hit or miss due to metal siding.

I am running HS4.

My thoughts:
1. Use a motion sensor to determine the area is occupied
2. Use a temp sensor to determine the temp of the dog house to trigger the heat lamp.

Looking for suggestions on products I could use to make this happen.

Thanks for sharing your ideas
Bill

[joegr]

I've be worried about a HomeSeer crash baking or freezing the puppy. I'd be okay with HS overseeing it and being able to adjust the set temperature (within limits), but I wouldn't trust it to be the direct control.

[hunter69]

Understood. I am reading how to do it safely. Homeseer will turn on and on a lamp module. The heat lamp is a low wattage heat bulb to help keep the puppy comfortable.

[Guest]

Also make sure the puppy cannot reach any of the wiring. They love to chew, especially when bored. A lot of house fires are started by dogs doing just that.

[outbackrob]

Pets and bulbs... Is it an outdoor rated bulb? What about using one of those pipe warmers used to keep outdoor plumbing from freezing? ...or a couple of them? They are like an appliance extension cord but they produce heat. You could use an outdoor Zwave appliance module to control it. Most Zwave motion detectors also read temperature so you could have multiple controls as to whether it is on or off.....

[Michael McSharry]

Suggest using low tech approach with a bimetal switch to control the lamp. They come in 5 degree thresholds and both Normally open and normally closed. You would want a normally closed one at perhaps 25C trigger point. It will remain closed and the lamp on until the trigger temperature is exceeded. It will then open and turn the lamp off. They typically have a 10 degree hysteresis so it will remain open until the temperature cools 10 degrees below setpoint.

Ebay is a good source with cost under $5. Get a few different ones so you can play with the trigger point to get what works for the pet.

I use them to turn on a fan in an enclosure when the temp gets to 90F to keep the electronics from getting too hot. I also use it in lab power supply so the cooling fan only comes on when it gets warm. It rarely comes on because the power supply is normally only providing milliamperes so does not hear up. The fan is annoying so don’t want it running unless the protection is needed.

if you want more flexibility then use the old styl Honeywell round thermostat. Same principle of temperature gradient of two different metals expansion rate and then a blob of mercury closes the switch. This approach lets you adjust the target temperature without replacing parts and will have less hysteresis for a tighter control band.

install a DS18B20 or DHT11 and a small micro such S Wemos D1 or Sonoff or Shelly to get WiFi temp reading back to HS for monitoring.

[vasrc]

Try something like this:
https://www.miller-mfg.com/product/98P-M.html

You could always monitor temp and provide on/off, but with the internal thermostat, it shouldn't be necessary. I screwed them into the floor and sides of the wall of an insulated house so they couldn't be chewed on. If you have a decent door on the house, it will be more than warm enough inside. Of course you could also put in a camera

Z