Wonderous Breakthrough

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

BS-N

New Member
Nov 21, 2005
32
Northeastern Pennsylvania
I had an idea...set up a webcam and point it at my stove. Then, when I am at work, I could log in and view it.
 
Ok. That did it. I nominate you for the first charter membership in Woodburners Anonymous.
 
It's just a matter of time before you build a wireless-controlled robot that can stoke it for you on demand. "Hey BS-N, get back to work." "Not now, I'm stoking my wood stove."
 
Remote stoking could actually pretty damn handy with something like a gravity feed coal stove.

Say you'll be real late or not come back until a day or two later than expected. Log on, shake the grates and adjust the air from wherever you are and know that you'll come home to a warm house.



hrmmmmmm
 
Corie said:

I second that. Pellets are too easy. If Pellets were made out of Elm would they be harder to use?

I think so...
 
BS-N said:
I had an idea...set up a webcam and point it at my stove. Then, when I am at work, I could log in and view it.

Hey! You stole my idea! :)

I was thinking of asking Craig if his server could support a few of these for those of us who were interested in trying it. I'd need a longer USB cable until wireless web cams come down in price. I'm not sure what software would be required on Craig's server. I once used a 'free trial' service that came with my web cam before the novelty wore off. Then I started thinking about how weird it was to be broadcasting 'Mo staring at his monitor' to a bunch of strangers. :blank:

But I have to say that it was interesting watching others, if not a bit unnerving.

I've seen a bunch of 'Aquarium Cams' and lots of other 'Location Cams'. I think 'Stove Cams' would be cool. Craig? What say you?
 
What about this call up your home have it pickup after a few rings, over speaker phone tell rover to put two more logs in
Ruff ruff
 
I can just picture it now. All of the folks on HearthNet..."Hey Craig...Will ya go home and load a couple more logs...fire's gettin low! Craig, HEY CRAIG..." This about every 4 hours...

So would these web cams be of all different sorts of stoves? Maybe we could have one for all categories of Hearth appliances:

- The Fireplace cam...Complete with sleeping dogs.
- The Fireplace insert cam...Nice shot up at the secondary burn...Cats sleeping near by.
- The Free standing cam... (one each of cast iron, Steel, and Soap stone) Maybe we could use a Woodstock stove in order to cover catalytic stoves. Of course each would have the all important and exciting steamer on top.
- The Russian or Finish fireplace. Scheduled firings at 7am and 10pm.
- The Outdoor wood boiler cam. (login required and Proof of non-EPA employment)
- The Coal stove cams (hand fired and stokers)
- The Pellet stove. With BTU output graphs, temp read out, efficiency readouts (all digital of course) and scheduled loading times.
- The Corn Stove. Same as Pellet, but with hilighted clinker clean outs.

Craig...I think there's gold in them thar cams...Charge a few dollar subscription fee. This could be bigger than ebay and Runscape combined!!
 
BS'N,

Or, you can do what I do: work from home and have a webcam installed in your office so the boss can keep an eye on you. Little does he know that's a cardboard cut-out of me working away at the computer while I'm out stoking the boiler or splitting wood.
 
I like this idea. One could even have an infrared webcam so that you could see how it's burning and heating. Now I might have to add a couple servos on the dampers and ...
 
A classic Web Service app, similar to weather bug. "Fire bug"?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.