Monitoring equipment

Hope my memory is correct, but i believe someone posted a link to a remote/wireless thermometer eiether here or on heatinghelp.com that was on e-bay. I'm looking to do the same thing, Just installed my underground lines to OWB last weekend, buried some 18/4 wire as well for that purpose.

muleman51 said:

Where can I get monitoring equipment for water temps and exhaust temps. It would be helpful to be able to know what's going on. Are infrared thermometers accurate enough, do they get to the right place to record.

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Assuming that you don't want to go as far overboard as I've gone, the infrared units are fine. Be aware that you can't get a reading from a reflective surface such as a copper pipe, Either spray a little section flat black or put a piece of masking tape on it and it will work fine.

The wireless units are cool, but they have temperature limits that preclude their use for some of the things you might want to measure.

Be aware that infrared guns must be used carefully to get decent readings. In particular, you must understand that the reading zone is a cone extending from the meter to the object being measured - it is NOT reading the tiny spot that the lazer hits!. That means that, depending on distance, if the item you want to measure does not take up the entire area of the cone, you are getting an average of everything in side that cone's area.
Obviously, the area of the cone gets larger quickly as the distance gets larger! This is why these thermometers have specifications like 12:1, or 14:1 etc. - that is related to the shape of that cone.
Otherwise, the emissivity of the item being measured is important - as Nofossil indicated.
With that in mind, they can be accurate!

muleman try omega engineering, www.omega.com they have in house techs that will understand your questions and can set you up with test and monitoring to fit a budget