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    Wondering about alternatives

    I have an interesting task that I'm automating. I have an indoor pool and it's crucial that the room temperature be set higher than the water temperature in the pool. As long as the room temp is at least 2 to 3 degrees higher than the pool water temp, I can avoid having condensation form in the room. There are dehumidifiers to handle moisture in the room but they become ineffective at least or marginally effective by running constantly at best. (they're quite loud) The pool room furnace is fed by a propane tank as is the pool heater. If I heat up the pool to something balmy like 75 degrees or more, I have to make sure the furnace temp is raised accordingly. This part is easy. The hard part is remembering to continually check the water temperature as it cools down and adjust the furnace temperature down with it so I'm not keeping the room unnecessarily warm which wastes propane like crazy! Having twin two year old boys makes remembering to check/adjust the room temp a challenge sometimes. Even forgetting for a couple of days can make a big difference in the propane bill.

    The solution I am currently using is a Homeseer Hometroller SE Pro with a Z-wave thermostat on the furnace that heats the room, (this furnace is dedicated to this room only and doesn't impact the rest of the house) and an Oregon Scientific water temperature sensor that broadcasts the water temperature of the pool. I have a Z-Troller receiving signals from the thermostat and an RFXCOM RFXrec433 unit receiving data from the Oregon Scientific sensor (THWR800 Sensor) I'm currently working on setting up the event to have the Hometroller keep the thermostat 3 degrees higher than what the Oregon Scientific water temp sensor is reporting.

    In reading an interesting post by another user, he mentioned that his home automation setup is designed such that it still works even if his computer goes down and Homeseer is no longer controlling it. He achieves this by setting up his various automations to work independently of the HS unit so the HS unit is really just a monitoring device. (I'm guessing that he sticks with a single proprietary brand for each setup but I don't know for certain.)

    I don't know if my pool room temperature problem is solvable by any other means (other than me having a brain transplant to maintain a better memory but that's not why we all enjoy home automation . . .) but I was curious to see if any of you out there have any other ideas aside from what I've implemented. My Z-wave thermostat simply won't talk to the Oregon Scientific unit without the Homeseer software working in between. Any solutions you could think of that would allow me a fail safe system in case my Hometroller ever fails on me?

    Just curious here. I'm interested to see what others come up with for possible alternative solutions should my current setup ever fail or need updating.

    #2
    The biggest problem you are going to face is that most autonomous alternatives are older than HS, and HS is the growth path. The rest are quite a bit more expensive.

    I use Stargate to control critical tasks, with HS as backup. But Stargate's days are numbered and I'm actively planning for how I will accomplish the same thing with HS when it expires.

    I'd recommend that you focus on how to detect that HS has a problem so you can intervene quickly - or better - have the problem resolve itself, by restarting HS or rebooting the HS computer, for example.
    Mike____________________________________________________________ __________________
    HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.548, NUC i3

    HW: Stargate | NX8e | CAV6.6 | Squeezebox | PCS | WGL 800RF | RFXCOM | Vantage Pro | Green-Eye | Edgeport/8 | Way2Call | Ecobee3 | EtherRain | Ubiquiti

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      #3
      HS is quite reliable. It doesn't sound like this is mission critical, so I don't see the value in dropping HS. If your computer is crashing, it is probably not HS causing the problem.

      -BD

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        #4
        Definitely not mission critical. And I'm not looking to drop HS. I'm actually quite impressed with HS. I was just looking for alternatives to how I'm implementing this particular automation . . . in the name of getting a creative conversation going. The more I read about what other people have done/are doing with HS and HA in general, the more ideas I get for other HA tasks.

        I don't know of any other way to monitor water temperature other than with the OS water temp sensor so that my furnace can react to it. That said, I'm not the end all of knowledge on what's out there by any means. Thought I'd challenge somebody to come up with a better or different mouse trap, so to speak.

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          #5
          Originally posted by aviatordave View Post
          I don't know of any other way to monitor water temperature other than with the OS water temp sensor so that my furnace can react to it. That said, I'm not the end all of knowledge on what's out there by any means. Thought I'd challenge somebody to come up with a better or different mouse trap, so to speak.
          You might consider 1-wire. There is at least one method described to monitor water temperature with it.
          https://forum.crystalfontz.com/showt...rature-Sensors
          Mike____________________________________________________________ __________________
          HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.548, NUC i3

          HW: Stargate | NX8e | CAV6.6 | Squeezebox | PCS | WGL 800RF | RFXCOM | Vantage Pro | Green-Eye | Edgeport/8 | Way2Call | Ecobee3 | EtherRain | Ubiquiti

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            #6
            Very Interesting! Thank you. After reading the page for the link you sent and following another link to the manufacturer's site;
            http://www.crystalfontz.com/product/WRDOWY17.html
            I think there would be a definite possibility to have a hard wired solution . . . Not immediately sure how I would get it to speak to HS but I like the concept!

            Any other ideas? Anybody?

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              #7
              Originally posted by aviatordave View Post
              I think there would be a definite possibility to have a hard wired solution . . . Not immediately sure how I would get it to speak to HS but I like the concept!
              There are at least 3 or 4 1wire plug-ins.
              Mike____________________________________________________________ __________________
              HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.548, NUC i3

              HW: Stargate | NX8e | CAV6.6 | Squeezebox | PCS | WGL 800RF | RFXCOM | Vantage Pro | Green-Eye | Edgeport/8 | Way2Call | Ecobee3 | EtherRain | Ubiquiti

              Comment


                #8
                Not that it's the prettiest of solutions... but from suggestions here on the HS forum, I successfully for many years with a saltwater fish tank used a 1wire sensor, in a test tube. Inexpensive and pretty easy; test tube a few inches long that's wide enough for the sensor and wire, and then silicone sealant. Slide the sensor with wire to the bottom, and fill with the silicone. I then mounted the sensor in the sump in the basement so only the bottom couple inches were in the water. Never had a problem with it. Test tube glass was pretty thin so the temperature response seemed reasonably quick from the charts from when heater (or even the lights) were on.

                The sensor was connected to my 1wire network via one of the RS232 1wire controllers, and used the MCSXap1wire app, with the MCSXap plugin. MCSTemperature was used for charting.

                -Mike

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