Remote Temperature Monitoring
 

I've been looking at remote monitoring solutions for camps and vacation homes. Some solutions will call you if the power goes out, if the heat fails, if it senses a water leak, etc... Others will actually allow you to "call ahead" and turn on the heat or A/C before you arrive. One example is from sensaphone at http://www.sensaphone.com/sensaphone-400.html

I was wondering if anyone had experience with these types of solutions and what they do or don't recommend.

i have a sensaphone
 

it works great. I use it to monitor my house when I go on vacation in the winter. They are expensive, but you can save a lot on eBay - got mine for <$100

For the devices that let you control the heater/AC - they work on the thermostat line. If you have electric baseboard heat (like I have) they can't control the 220v to the heaters directly and a relay system would have to be installed.

Here's what we use
 

We bought one of these about 4 years ago:

http://www.thermostatshop.com/cem24-series.shtml.

It's a "talking thermostat" that lets you check conditions at the remote house, raise and lower the temperature, etc. It worked so well that we bought a second one for our primary residence.

I would note that the manual was not that easy to understand. And I would agree that having a professional HVAC guy install it is probably the way to go. I did it myself, and it took a fair amount of hand-holding to get things working right.

The model we bought did not have the built-in freeze alarm. I don't think it was offered at that time. So when we went south for the winter this year, we supplemented the thermostat with one of these:

http://www.smarthome.com/7001.html

I liked this one a lot. Very easy to install and program.

But if you want the whole combination of remote-control thermostat plus freeze alarm, it's probably cheaper and easier to get one unit that does everything.

We have that very one, Looney and love it! I can't say enough good about it. It is easy to install and works great. Ace Hardwares carry them. I think these are the ones the NH Electric Coop carries too. At least they did. Before that, we had a complicated one, I think it was a Honeywell and I didn't like it.

Highly recommend
 

I would highly recommend getting one. Saved my "butt" twice in the last three years. Got the call in the middle of the night that the heat went off and I was able to avoid disaster. Worth every penny for piece of mind. BTW, I got mine on ebay and saved about 75%

newbie

I have used:

Skylink Wireless Temperature Alert System

Product Part #: AD433TEMP

(Qty: 1 x $129.20)

http://www.safemart.com/ under freeze alarms. Works fine and was easy to install into a telephone jack. Good luck

When we built our house we had Knight Security in Wolfeboro install a system from Home Automation Inc.

http://www.homeauto.com/main.asp

It provides all sorts of control and reporting from our heating/cooling system and is integrated into the alarm system.

We like being able to call from any phone when we're a couple of hours out to find out the inside temp. and then turn up the thermostat. If a door is left open or comes open, or there is a water leak in a water heater or the temp drops too low, it'll call us.

It was supposed to have the ability to be able to dial in via the internet and do all this also, but that never worked.

It failed once due to lightning and the system was sent back to the factory for repair. They were located in New Orleans and it was a couple of weeks before Katrina.

It is expensive when it dies, but overall we love the system and would do it again.

HAI is good stuff, been using it in my homes for many years, and used to be a distributor of their gear as well.

Remote temperature monitoring (and control)...
 

I installed a FreezeAlarm (Intermediate model) a few years ago for remote temperature monitoring and it works great. I paid about $180 for the FreezeAlarm, buying it online. My only problem with the device was when I installed a regular 9V battery for the backup power. One time the power was out for a long time, and the battery wore down, resulting in a bunch of calls to tell me that the battery was dying. If you use the recommended lithium 9V battery, you'll be fine.

I also installed Aube thermostats with a remote telephone control which allows me to turn the heat up or down before I head up to the lake during the winter months. I have forced hot water heat with 4 zones and a single controller will drive all four thermostats just fine. Aube has thermostats with the remote capability for all types of heat/cool systems. I paid about $50 apiece for each thermostat and they are fully programmable, and in fact are much nicer than the regular Honeywell types that you can buy at HomeDepot. The telephone controller was about $80.

I bought the thermostats at smarthomeusa.com, not to be confused with smarthome.com. Smarthomeusa.com had much better prices.

Connecting the two remote control/monitoring devices up to the same telephone line, along with an answering machine took a bit of thinking, but it can be done.

BTW, we liked the Aube thermostat setup so much that I replaced the thermostats in my home away from the lake with the same thing so that I can also warm my home before leaving the lake in the winter time.

Remote Monitoring
 

Now that the season is back, people are asking about remote monitoring of homes and cottages. I sell and install security systems and do a lot of work around the Lake. I call them "security systems" instead of "burglar alarms" because burg is only a small portion of the systems capabilities. I can do low temp, low oil, water in the basement, and pretty much anything else you can think of. A lot of the standalone systems work well, but they usually don't let you know they are broken until they don't let you know of a problem.

A security system will allow you to know everything that is going on in your place when you are not around. One of our biggest misconceptions as a society is the smoke detectors that we all have. The detector only sounds in the house and needs someone else to call for the Fire Department. Many house fires are out of control by the time that event occurs. With smoke detectors tied into a security system, that call is made automatically and increases the odds of saving the structure.

Same with water...we can find out that there is water in the basement while at home (Bridgewater, MA for me) by the time I am able to find someone to check, I now have hundreds or thousands of gallons of water. With a security system, we can control water shutoff valves to save your basement from significant damage.

Now we don't even need phonelines to monitor the systems...we use cellular systems so there is rarely a failed communication. Everything has redundant power sources so the parts always work too!

If you want to chat about options for security systems, feel free to email me at jonathan@levisandsons.com

See you all on the Lake very soon!

Question
 

Can you share what kind of system you have -- and why it doesn't require phone lines?

I have HAI at my Lake House - The Internet Feature
works great. Your INSTALLER did not know how to
set it up. I use HAI via the Internet more than any
other way.