temp sensors

[flyingcow]

my innova is about 50ft from the house. I've got 18gauge wire run between boiler room and house. would like to run extra thermometers between the 2 places. i.e. Be able to monitor my tanks, which are in the basement of house, from the garage. Would rather not cut the ones supplied by tarm, as I want to leave those down in the basement. Also want to be able to see what the temp of the boiler room from the house. Might even hook up some other bells and whistle, once I find time to research my other possible idea. I've pulled (2) 18gauge 7wire thru the 1 1/2 conduit. Only got another 10gauge wire in conduit, so I've got extra room for add ons. Would like too find temp sensors and led gauges that have connectors for the wiring. Any thoughts?

 

[pybyr]

there's a nifty Azel, I think called the DS-60, that Hot Rod or Joe Brown clued me into, and that I bought, but have not hooked up yet.

it allows monitoring of two points all by itself, and potentially many more with some pretty generic sensors and switching of sensors. it is smaller than you'd even guess based on the photos

(broken link removed to http://www.azeltec.com/catalog.0.html.0.html#DIGIT-STAT)

 

[taxidermist]

there's a nifty Azel, I think called the DS-60, that Hot Rod or Joe Brown clued me into, and that I bought, but have not hooked up yet.

it allows monitoring of two points all by itself, and potentially many more with some pretty generic sensors and switching of sensors. it is smaller than you'd even guess based on the photos

(broken link removed to http://www.azeltec.com/catalog.0.html.0.html#DIGIT-STAT)

How much did this unit run you?

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

Pybyr-

Did you hook up your Azel temp sensor? I'm looking for a way to monitor my tank temps and this looks like a good way to do it.

Thanks

 

[RobC]

houseneeds.com they were better priced and quick delivery / in stock..
nofo said you could use cat5 to extend the 10" leads.... There was a post on this a couple of weeks ago....
Rob

 

[mole]

Hi Flying Cow,
I went the cheap route with a system that does the job, but without any bells and whistles. I scrounged a thermocouple reader (OMEGA Thermocouple Thermometer Model 115JC) off of ebay for $9.99. These are expensive new, but you can find them cheap on ebay because they are old technology. It docks 10 thermocouples and reads one of them at a time via a selector switch. I then bought 200' of cheap type J thermcouple wire from Davis Instruments (www.davis.com item #PYJ205502). This was $.15/ft. Rather that buying thermcouples, I made my own bare wire thermocouples by twisting the ends of the wire and taping the twisted end with aluminum foil tape to the surface of the item to be measured. I bought a dozen type J thermcouple connectors on ebay for $20 which connect the thermocouple wire to the Thermcouple reader.

In my storage tank, I ran the thermcouples wires behind the EPDM liner, and mounted them to the face of my foam board insulation attaching each twisted wire to a quarter (for heat transfer) mounted at "top", "middle" and "bottom" of tank. This was my primary purpose for the thermcouple reader. I used the remaining seven ports for the desireable but optional temperatures like "Boiler to tank", "Tank Return to boiler", "to forced air Hx" "from forced air Hx" etc. These sensors were simply taped to the pipe surface with foil tape and then insulated over very well.

I get accurate readings, a surprisingly fast response time, and for or a grand total of under $100, I can see what's going on anywhere in the system. The only shortcoming is the it doesn't do any datalogging.
Hope that's helpful.
JR

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

Thanks for the info. Are the Azel probes submersible?

 

[mark123]

I was thinking of putting an automotive temp. sending unit into the boiler and electrical temp. gauge in my bathroom wall. I would need a 12 volt transformer as well. I would like to know when the water is hot enough for a shower/bath. I assume a long run of wire would not be a problem. This would only cost around 30 dollars.