Monitoring pipe temperatures

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  • paulockenden
    Automated Home Legend
    • Apr 2015
    • 1719

    Monitoring pipe temperatures

    What does everyone use for monitoring / logging various pipe temperatures?

    Ideally I'm looking for something wireless, but that's not essential. Need to be able to log maybe four or five places.

    Any recommendations (or things to avoid) would be greatly appreciated.

    P.
  • dty
    Automated Home Ninja
    • Aug 2016
    • 489

    #2
    I might need something similar soon to decide when to power a secondary return pump.

    Comment

    • bruce_miranda
      Automated Home Legend
      • Jul 2014
      • 2307

      #3
      Your Orange Pi OT monitor?

      Comment

      • paulockenden
        Automated Home Legend
        • Apr 2015
        • 1719

        #4
        That's one part of the equation. But I’d like some sensors that I can stick on various pipes around the house, probably battery powered and all feeding into some kind of database.

        Pretty sure there are people here that have done this.
        Last edited by paulockenden; 3 June 2018, 11:08 PM.

        Comment

        • bruce_miranda
          Automated Home Legend
          • Jul 2014
          • 2307

          #5
          Oh around the house. I thought they were all close to the system. If battery then it will have to be some low powered radio. This might be a stupid idea, but I have used it - use an old HR80 or similar as a temperature sensor. I used to use this to measure my loft. Without it needing to drive a motor, the batteries last a long time. And your HGI80 will feed these straight into Domoticz.

          Comment

          • paulockenden
            Automated Home Legend
            • Apr 2015
            • 1719

            #6
            For monitoring pipe temperatures you need something that'll report more frequently than an HR80.

            Comment

            • Ian_W
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Dec 2017
              • 13

              #7
              I've used BlueMaestro Tempo disc sensors for logging room temperatures - they're fairly inexpensive, at least relative to other things I considered, and seem to work quite well. The logging interval is configurable to a maximum rate of once per minute (possibly not fast enough?). An iOS or Android phone is needed to collect the data from them, via Bluetooth.

              They're free-standing, designed to rest on a horizontal surface, so might need a bit of fiddling to make them work effectively/accurately on a pipe.

              Comment

              • G4RHL
                Automated Home Legend
                • Jan 2015
                • 1580

                #8
                Originally posted by paulockenden View Post
                What does everyone use for monitoring / logging various pipe temperatures? P.
                I can’t resist it! My hand!

                Comment

                • Edinburgh2000
                  Automated Home Guru
                  • Dec 2016
                  • 134

                  #9
                  Originally posted by dty View Post
                  I might need something similar soon to decide when to power a secondary return pump.
                  I've used one of these:


                  It has a pipe temperature sensor on the end of a ribbon cable which you strap onto the pipe. The Auto version is very clever at running only when it needs to. It also learns over a seven day period your hot water usage and so pre-empts the need to warm up your pipework.

                  I know I sound like a salesman for Grundfos - which I promise you I am not - but I was very pleasantly surprised how well this works. I had thought I would need a timer and some clever temperature sensing kit on my pipes but I don't need any of that.

                  Comment

                  • smar
                    Automated Home Sr Member
                    • Feb 2018
                    • 57

                    #10
                    How about an arduino based system using something like MySensors (https://www.mysensors.org/)? I haven't used it specifically for pipe temperatures, but have a few of these dotted round the place monitoring temperature and humidity etc, posting to an mqtt broker. The system has been quite robust, and reporting can be as frequent as you need.

                    Comment

                    • bruce_miranda
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Jul 2014
                      • 2307

                      #11
                      Any Wi-Fi based device is likely to eat batteries

                      Comment

                      • marcinp
                        Automated Home Lurker
                        • Jan 2018
                        • 2

                        #12
                        What about EmonTH / EmonTX from http://www.openenergymonitor.com/ ?
                        Or if bluetooth - have a look at ones from http://inode.pl

                        Comment

                        • DorrisMancer
                          Automated Home Guru
                          • Nov 2017
                          • 129

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Edinburgh2000 View Post
                          I've used one of these:


                          It has a pipe temperature sensor on the end of a ribbon cable which you strap onto the pipe. The Auto version is very clever at running only when it needs to. It also learns over a seven day period your hot water usage and so pre-empts the need to warm up your pipework.

                          I know I sound like a salesman for Grundfos - which I promise you I am not - but I was very pleasantly surprised how well this works. I had thought I would need a timer and some clever temperature sensing kit on my pipes but I don't need any of that.
                          That's interesting. I have a UPS15-50N for DHW circulation, running from a timer, but it's noisy so I've been wondering about building a pipestat from an HR92 and controlling the pump with a BDR91 so it is only on when needed, but the "Grundfos COMFORT PM AUTO" might be a better solution. Is it quiet?
                          The documentation shows the temperature sensor fitted close to the flow outlet of the DHW cylinder, but I would have fitted it on the return - please can someone explain.
                          Last edited by DorrisMancer; 8 June 2018, 01:35 PM. Reason: Grammar

                          Comment

                          • bruce_miranda
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Jul 2014
                            • 2307

                            #14
                            I guess you do what you want. But the use case for such a temperature sensing pump must be to work out to run a pump only if there is demand for HW from a Tap.

                            Comment

                            • Edinburgh2000
                              Automated Home Guru
                              • Dec 2016
                              • 134

                              #15
                              Originally posted by DorrisMancer View Post
                              Is it quiet? The documentation shows the temperature sensor fitted close to the flow outlet of the DHW cylinder, but I would have fitted it on the return - please can someone explain.
                              Yes, the pump is extremely quiet.

                              The documentation is quite helpful and can be sourced here:


                              There is also the two page brochure which gives an overview but does not explain the technical operation in any detail.

                              Essentially, the pump is fitted on the return leg close to your DHW tank and has an inbuilt temperature sensor. The ribbon cable has another temperature sensor which you strap onto the outlet pipe from your cylinder, so that the pump knows both the flow and the return temperatures. You can then operate it in one of three modes:

                              1) Continuous (i.e. the pump just runs all the time);

                              2) Temperature control mode "...With temperature operation, the maximum temperature measured at both of the sensors is stored and the pump automatically adapts and calculates the gap between Tstop and Tstart. The pump switches on when one of the sensors has a lower temperature than Tstart. The pump switches off when the Tstop temperature range is exceeded on both sensors."

                              3) The "AutoAdapt" mode: The sensor on the ribbon cable .. "and the temperature sensor incorporated in the pump are used to detect when hot water is tapped. The detected tapping events are logged and used to predict the consumption pattern. The AutoAdapt function automatically controls the on/off behaviour of the pump according to this pattern. .................The pump needs two weeks to adapt when hot water is tapped. This means that the pump starts up in temperature mode [for] the first two weeks even if you have selected AutoAdapt."

                              The pump assumes that usage is repeated weekly and uses the first two weeks of data to learn when you use the hot water in your house. It then warms up the pipework just before you need it.
                              Last edited by Edinburgh2000; 8 June 2018, 02:16 PM.

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