flsenior Posted December 12, 2012 Posted December 12, 2012 I am trying to find a way to receive an alert whenever power is lost to my refrigerator-freezer and/or when the inside temperature drops below a certain level. My concern is that a long electrical outage would start a meltdown in the freezer section which would lead to water leakage onto the wooden flooring in the kitchen. Conversely, I would want to know when power is restored. I am not enthused about the SH Freezer Failure Sensor as it requires a wire to run from the inside of the freezer between the frame and door gasket. I would like to avoid any compromise to the integrity of the door seal. No matter how low the risk. I am using a ISY 99.
Vyrolan Posted December 12, 2012 Posted December 12, 2012 My concern is that a long electrical outage would start a meltdown in the freezer section which would lead to water leakage onto the wooden flooring in the kitchen. Conversely, I would want to know when power is restored. I am using a ISY 99. Well there are the Insteon wireless leak sensors if you just want to detect leaking water. If those appliances are 120V, you could put a SynchroLinc on them to know if they stop getting power. There's a bigger issue though... If you're concerned about power outages...if the power is out, nothing Insteon-related including the ISY will be on...and so you won't be getting any alerts.
flsenior Posted December 12, 2012 Author Posted December 12, 2012 The power outage wish is obviously not possible. However, I do still wonder about wireless temperature monitoring of the freezer. I suppose battery power is the limiting factor given the freezer temperature. On the other hand there is an available power source (interior light socket). I have the leak sensors on back order and will use one. The drawback is that exterior leakage comes long after everything has thawed inside.
chris932 Posted December 19, 2012 Posted December 19, 2012 I would try to run the cable through the back somehow. That light for e.g. has to be wired somehow. And if the power is on but the freezer's compressor failed? Insteon doesn't seem the way to go, a CAI Webcontrol is something like 1/3 or 1/2 the price of an IOLinc.
apostolakisl Posted December 19, 2012 Posted December 19, 2012 A webcontrol board would do the trick, but you would need to have it on a UPS (as well as your ISY and your router/modem/gateway). You also would need to find a wired pathway into the fridge. The Lacrosse technology wireless thermometer/humidity sensors work quite well, even when closed up in a fridge. The battery lasts many many months (perhaps more than a year). However, I have yet to figure out a good way to get the data out of the receiver and into something else (like ISY) automatically.
arw01 Posted December 19, 2012 Posted December 19, 2012 For the wire, there are extremely flat wires about 2 sheets of paper thick that would be great for getting the sensor into the fridge. But as another member suggested, getting through the light wire might be an option if you can fish it properly.
arw01 Posted December 19, 2012 Posted December 19, 2012 The Lacrosse technology wireless thermometer/humidity sensors work quite well, even when closed up in a fridge. The battery lasts many many months (perhaps more than a year). However, I have yet to figure out a good way to get the data out of the receiver and into something else (like ISY) automatically. I have been thinking about this. I have a couple of the wireless modules that post the temperature to their servers and can be pulled down. Can the ISY be programmed to poll a website with some of the extension modules? Refresh this page to get the latest values for your TX-60 devices. Name Probe Device Hum Last Seen Batt Link Greenhouse 31.2 °F 30.2 °F 86% 12/18 10:19 PM OK 100 % Shop 64.5 °F 45.6 °F 64% 12/18 9:25 PM OK 100 %
apostolakisl Posted December 19, 2012 Posted December 19, 2012 The Lacrosse technology wireless thermometer/humidity sensors work quite well, even when closed up in a fridge. The battery lasts many many months (perhaps more than a year). However, I have yet to figure out a good way to get the data out of the receiver and into something else (like ISY) automatically. I have been thinking about this. I have a couple of the wireless modules that post the temperature to their servers and can be pulled down. Can the ISY be programmed to poll a website with some of the extension modules? Refresh this page to get the latest values for your TX-60 devices. Name Probe Device Hum Last Seen Batt Link Greenhouse 31.2 °F 30.2 °F 86% 12/18 10:19 PM OK 100 % Shop 64.5 °F 45.6 °F 64% 12/18 9:25 PM OK 100 % ISY can receive data via GET commands. I don't believe any module is necessary to do that, but it might require the network module. If you want ISY to initiate the conversation it would need to be generated by an ISY network module posting to your server which then runs a script that separately runs a GET posting of a value to an ISY variable. In other words, you can't query a table of values and then have ISY parse it out.
paauto Posted December 24, 2012 Posted December 24, 2012 One consideration is running the wire through the condensate drain in the referigerator or freezer. I have a sub zero refridgerator and a seperate subzero freezer. Both have a drain in the back alon the wall that runs to a pan under the unit. The drain is at the bottom of a sill that collects the water that results from the automatic thaw cycle in both units. You could potentially run a wire through that drain pipe into the units without compromising the door seals. Will probably require taking a few things apart, but shouldn't be too much of a problem so long as the wire is water proof. Just a thought.
Recommended Posts