Here's a home automation-ish problem I've got right now:
We live in an on older (70ies) apartment building, with a wonky central heater, and people with varying levels of tolerance for heat and cold. Some of us suspect the heater is kind of broken, because it's hot when it's warmer out, and sometimes seems to pump out less heat when it's cold.
So... it'd be interesting to collect data: interior temperature for all 6 apartments, and exterior temperature in the shade. And do so cheaply. Ideas?
pros
- You can retrieve folded historical data for sensors from the api (min/max/avg/interval etc)
- You can set a callback that POSTs every reading (every 45s)
- cheap, additional temp/humidity sensors are $15
cons
- range could be a real problem. Manufacturer states 100m open air 30 inside, which is inline with our experience (with a fully extended antena). Apartment walls could be a showstopper.
How about a raspberry pi with a bunch of DS18B20 1-wire temp sensors - stupidly cheap if you can handle the wiring.
I'm sketching out the design for a raspberry pi-based central heating controller with a web interface, mix of sensors and an lcd display - should cost around 75-85UK pounds, including the pi
We live in an on older (70ies) apartment building, with a wonky central heater, and people with varying levels of tolerance for heat and cold. Some of us suspect the heater is kind of broken, because it's hot when it's warmer out, and sometimes seems to pump out less heat when it's cold.
So... it'd be interesting to collect data: interior temperature for all 6 apartments, and exterior temperature in the shade. And do so cheaply. Ideas?