My adventures in Woodstove Monitoring

[neil_s]

Would a small video screen showing a view through the glass doors of the stove almost serve the same purpose?

I was thinking with the popularity of home security systems it would be fairly easy to do.

I love what you are doing.

How long before you are tying it into controlling the woodstove?

It would but you'd lose the temperature, unless you were using a thermal camera. You'd also lose the proactive notifications.
I wanted the device to reveal the invisible data (temperature/rate of change of the temperature)

As for controlling the stove. I've thought about it. Honestly, I am staying away from active control for now for two reasons:

Safety: If a monitor fails, you just lose data. If an automatic air-intake motor fails, or the power cuts out, you could be stuck with a stove running wide open.

Retrofitting: Every stove has a different lever, knob, or damper. Building a robot hand that fits all of them is a pretty big engineering challenge.

 

[Fargo]

Another thought. I think someone else commented on this, but would it be possible to have a wireless sensor at the top of the chimney? Either magnetic or maybe clip onto the rain cap somehow? I think chimney sensor data could be valuable to monitor the actual heat at the top of the chimney to get a better idea of how warm it is for drafting and also how quickly creosote might be building up. But I think it would need to be wireless. I don't want to have to put more holes through my room or drag wires around the house.

 

[neil_s]

Very nice! I like this idea. I just got my first stove installed a few weeks ago and I'm looking for a way to monitor the stove remotely. My stove is in the basement and I work out of the house. So I'm always around and running downstairs to check on it every half hour or so. I have done some over night burns, but like others I'm worried about burning down the house. So I appreciate something with an alarm that can be on the unit as well as remote.

The lamp box is nice looking and provides me with the basic info I need at a quick glance. I don't like installing everything on an app that requires me to share all my personal data. But I'm not entirely opposed to an app (Android please). Having an app that provides temps and an alarm on my phone while I'm away from the house, and unable to monitor the box or the stove itself, would be nice.

I would be interested in this. How is the data being transfered. Is it bluetooth or wifi? Wifi would be nice for a whole house system. (Especially if you had a little desktop app for Linux) Also could you use 2 (or more) lamps? One in my bedroom and one in my office? Finally I think it would be good if you had multiple (2-3) inputs . So I could measure stove top temps, flue temps and other. I have a double wall pipe, but I'm nervous about drilling a hole in it, so I am tempted with the magnetic sensor that could be used on stovetop or pipe and maybe later add a 3rd sensor with a pipe probe.

Thank you! your use case is exactly why I built this.

To answer your questions:

1. Privacy: Luckily, the app is very lightweight on personal data. It just needs an email + password to login, or you can use Google/Apple login if you prefer. I have builds ready for both iOS and Android.
2. Connectivity: It uses WiFi, not Bluetooth. Bluetooth just wasn't good enough for reliable whole-home coverage (especially from a basement).
3. Multiple Lamps: The architecture is actually set up exactly for this. The sensor publishes the temperature to the network, and you can have 'N' number of lamps subscribed to that publisher. So if you wanted a lamp in the bedroom and another in the office both listening to the same stove, you can absolutely do that.
4. Multiple Inputs: That is definitely on the roadmap since so many folks have asked!

Let me know if you'd be interested in beta testing this, I'd be happy to figure out a way to get a unit into your hands to try out."

 

[begreen]

I like the way you are developing this. In some households like ours, there are multiple people running the stove. My wife runs it very differently than I do. The visual indicator would appeal to her. She's not a numbers person.

 

[neil_s]

I like the way you are developing this. In some households like ours, there are multiple people running the stove. My wife runs it very differently than I do. The visual indicator would appeal to her. She's not a numbers person.

Thank you!

I am beta testing this and looking for volunteers. Please reach out if you'd like to help beta test.

 

[bigealta]

I'm happy to beta test if you are looking for help with that.
I'm almost always at home and mostly heat my house in NJ with a jotul f400.

 

[all night moe]

Very cool and I like it.

It could also be very useful for indoor wood furnace/boilers too. What not better for monitoring a unit in the basement.....even basement stoves like previously mentioned.

Some are running outdoor units. This is the direction I'm headed. My regular stove use would be sporadic like say for shoulder seasons. So not needed there for me. With an outdoor water heater I will be temp probing the lines coming into the house under the kitchen. A hard line with a display on the kitchen wall. Something to tell me when I'm loosing water temp.

Maybe post a link in the furnace/boiler forum, to this thread, will gain you some more traction.

 

[neil_s]

I'm happy to beta test if you are looking for help with that.
I'm almost always at home and mostly heat my house in NJ with a jotul f400.

Amazing! send me your email address and I'll reach out to you with instructions!

 

[neil_s]

Very cool and I like it.

It could also be very useful for indoor wood furnace/boilers too. What not better for monitoring a unit in the basement.....even basement stoves like previously mentioned.

Some are running outdoor units. This is the direction I'm headed. My regular stove use would be sporadic like say for shoulder seasons. So not needed there for me. With an outdoor water heater I will be temp probing the lines coming into the house under the kitchen. A hard line with a display on the kitchen wall. Something to tell me when I'm loosing water temp.

Maybe post a link in the furnace/boiler forum, to this thread, will gain you some more traction.

Great idea! thank you!

 

[Catskillsvc]

I would like to help beta

Thank you!

I am beta testing this and looking for volunteers. Please reach out if you'd like to help beta test.

are still looking for help beta testing? I've looking for something like this to check temps while away from house or just in bed. I really like the look of the oru!

 

[neil_s]

Not a full time burner. I use stove top temp to run my Jotul F500 V2. I would love a magnetic stove top probe with the app. I could do without the light. I don't do overnight burns because I am a nervous nelly. The few times I tried I ended up not sleeping because I was always getting up to check on the stove. I was keeping my husband up too. I am petrified of over firing. If I had an app that I could check to monitor the stove top temp at night from bed I would consider overnight burns. It would also be great not to have to get up from the couch to check stove top temp and just look at my phone. I would like to be able to set a temp in the app and the app would alert me to when the stove top hit that temp so I know it's time to close the air some or if the stove is getting close to over firing.

Hey, I'm so sorry I missed this! You asked for a magnetic probe with an app where you set the temp and it alerts you. That's now built in the app. The mount is a magnetic thermocouple, no drilling, and the alerts are tunable in the app so too hot or too cold are based on your preferences.

 

[neil_s]

Very nice! I like this idea. I just got my first stove installed a few weeks ago and I'm looking for a way to monitor the stove remotely. My stove is in the basement and I work out of the house. So I'm always around and running downstairs to check on it every half hour or so. I have done some over night burns, but like others I'm worried about burning down the house. So I appreciate something with an alarm that can be on the unit as well as remote.

The lamp box is nice looking and provides me with the basic info I need at a quick glance. I don't like installing everything on an app that requires me to share all my personal data. But I'm not entirely opposed to an app (Android please). Having an app that provides temps and an alarm on my phone while I'm away from the house, and unable to monitor the box or the stove itself, would be nice.

I would be interested in this. How is the data being transfered. Is it bluetooth or wifi? Wifi would be nice for a whole house system. (Especially if you had a little desktop app for Linux) Also could you use 2 (or more) lamps? One in my bedroom and one in my office? Finally I think it would be good if you had multiple (2-3) inputs . So I could measure stove top temps, flue temps and other. I have a double wall pipe, but I'm nervous about drilling a hole in it, so I am tempted with the magnetic sensor that could be used on stovetop or pipe and maybe later add a 3rd sensor with a pipe probe.

Hey Fargo, I'm so sorry I missed this. It seems like all my Hearth.com emails ended up in spam.

The devices communicate over wifi. The product works currently where you can have multiple lamps per kit, so you can have a lamp in your office and another in the bedroom and they'll talk to the same sensor on the stove burning in your basement or your living room.

I'm putting the first non-prototype, real manufactured units on real stoves this fall and I'd rather have people from this thread running them than anyone else. If you're up for testing one and telling me where it falls short, DM me and I'll set it up.

 

[begreen]

The wifi link is a great feature. Will lower cost units be available with a plain black base instead of wood? The wood base is very nice, but a simple base can be too.

 

[neil_s]

The wifi link is a great feature. Will lower cost units be available with a plain black base instead of wood? The wood base is very nice, but a simple base can be too.

They could be in the future. I'm thinking of a bunch of different form factors for the lamp, including small desktop mounted lights as well as nightlights, etc.