Recording cellar temperature and humidity

[uncle tom]

My cellar #2 is now nearing completion, and I want to install the means of measuring and recording the temperature and humidity to check the changes over the course of a year.

Most systems now seem to work on the basis of probes that connect to the USB ports of a PC or notebook, which would mean installing a dedicated device for the purpose, as the cellar is twenty miles from home. I imagine that if I tucked a small notebook inside a Vesuvio box, it's own heat generation would keep it adequately dry and snug in an otherwise unheated cellar.

I wonder how likely it is that a device that was doing absolutely nothing else, would run for a year without crashing along the way? - or if there's a smarter way to do this without shelling out £200 or so on a new notebook (although I suppose I could use it as an excuse to replace my existing one..)

Anyone have any ideas on this?

If anyone else is doing this already, I'd be interested to hear your experiances.

Tom

[g-man]

When I was in college, I had a debian (linux) install on my laptop that had an uptime of over 3 years and i used it to run as my network firewall. (and it was a very barebones laptop that costs me 300$ back 3 years ago)

I can't imagine it not having the same stability if you had a usb temp and humidity device plugged in and sending data to a log file to which you could ssh into the machine and check.

Or perhaps a background script that simply tail -f the log and grep for keywords to send via email warning messages.

i dont know how to connect across 20 miles though.

does your new cellar have internet capabilities?

[RAYC]

would something like this work? or something a bit more fancy?

Presumably you don't ned real time visibility - i.e. you are happy to just download the data to pc every 2 to 3 months?

[uncle tom]

Rob,

Thanks for those links - they look like interesting toys.

I had a hunch there would be a smart way forward, as I'm sure there are a lot of companies who need to be able to prove that certain items have been stored within prescribed temperature and/or humidity limits.

Unless someone has had good results with a different gadget, I'll probably order the 'fancy' device next week to play with..

Tom

[PhilW]

Slightly more expensive, but given the distance to your celler, you might consider something like this, i.e. to allow on demand remote access and/or regular data upload over GSM/GPRS to home PC and alarms via SMS. This was the first I found doing a quick check as I was sure someone would have made a GPRS one available, so there may be similar capability for better value and/or availability in UK.

Phil.

[smisse]

The below link shows some info on sensors used in logistics. These are created to record for long sea journeys so 2 of them should be sufficient to make exchanges let's say every 2 months.

http://dsi.dhl-innovation.com/en/produc ... nsor/index

I can check what they cost if this would be something of interest.

[differentdave]

I use a internet enabled monitoring device for temperature and humidity. It checks and records the levels every five minutes, it emails and texts me when either number go outside of the the range that I set up (if humidity goes below 55 or above 75% I am notified) You can download excel files which contains historical data as well. You need to have wireless internet access where your cellar is located and you need to purchase 2 devices (humidity/temp sensor for cellar and a weather clock which doubles as a router for the sensor). The clock comes with a temperature probe which displays info on clock display.
Here is the link of the exact device I purchased http://www.ambientweather.com/latx60uset.html Cost was 50 USD for the clock and temperature sensor AND the wireless humidity/temperature.
System works awesome, some folks at winebeserkers turned me on to it, here is the thread discussing the device. http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic ... ity+sensor


I probably have zero credibility around these parts with some however trust me this is a solid investment for the cellar especially for 50 bucks.

[differentdave]

just oto clarify no computer/laptop is needed once device is setup initially
Website stores temp/humidity data for 30 days (you can download excel file once a month to retain data for archival purposes)
The clock is very cool (displays three days of weather as well as weather alerts for your local area (as well as weather alerts for others areas which you can control)
At 50 I was unable to find another solution which was as robust or as easy.
I have build 4 very high tech computer server rooms in my professional life and have installed systems to monitor temp/humidity/smoke/water/etc and I have found this little device more reliable and built better than the thousand dollar plus systems.

[SushiNorth]

I use a internet enabled monitoring device for temperature and humidity. It checks and records the levels every five minutes, it emails and texts me when either number go outside of the the range that I set up (if humidity goes below 55 or above 75% I am notified) You can download excel files which contains historical data as well. You need to have wireless internet access where your cellar is located and you need to purchase 2 devices (humidity/temp sensor for cellar and a weather clock which doubles as a router for the sensor). The clock comes with a temperature probe which displays info on clock display.
Here is the link of the exact device I purchased http://www.ambientweather.com/latx60uset.html Cost was 50 USD for the clock and temperature sensor AND the wireless humidity/temperature.
System works awesome, some folks at winebeserkers turned me on to it, here is the thread discussing the device. http://www.wineberserkers.com/viewtopic ... ity+sensor


I probably have zero credibility around these parts with some however trust me this is a solid investment for the cellar especially for 50 bucks.

That's going on the holiday/bday list.