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[RSI]

Current status of my temp module. So no chance of getting it before the weekend-

Lenexa, KS, United States    11/10/2011    3:16 A.M.    Departure Scan

RSI-
Checked your weather station. I see the "cold front" came through by you at 6PM yesterday. It came through here at 2 am this morning. So about 8 hours from Central Wisconsin to Western Pa.

Also just checked your temp link. I see two logs now. The second one looks better as you can see the actual range of operation.

My weather station was doing something weird Wednesday. If you look at the temperature of the sensor I put out the window, it was 10° lower than the weather station was reading. (weather station was wrong) Yesterday they were withing 1/2° pretty much all day. The only thing I can thing of that would have caused that is the weather station sensor was probably plastered with snow. Or maybe it was 10° warmer 30' higher up?  Lol

The second picture is the weekly view. The boiler I have the probes on apparently cycles a lot.

The stupid computer did a windows update this morning and shut off so it quit logging then.

[Ridgekid]

My weather station reports warmer temps, especially if the sun i shining. It's mounted 10' above my roof line which is two stories.

I'm still going to use the daily average reported for my wood consumption report.

[jackel440]

oldchenowth-

And we are thinking outside the box? That's a tall order. I know many power plants use them to monitor their boilers. Over a period of time all you can see is if there is fire in the box because the lenses gets dirty pretty fast. With wood burning I imagine this would occur a lot sooner due to creosote build-up. I also bet the cost of one of these cameras are very expensive.

How were you going to attach it? Drill a hole through the door? Just curious.

I know I have done a lot of things to improve my "monitoring" of our OWB, but this one I'll have to pass on.

Here is an idea.Get a blast gate valve like I installe on my furnace's gasification chamber door.Mount the camera to it.Have an actuater open the slide gate and the camera could look through the glass and see the burn.Then the actuater would then close the blast gate.Ta Daaa!!!http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=642.105

Here on page 8 you can see the blast valve with the sight glass.Just mount camera in fron of it.

[RSI]

oldchenowth-

And we are thinking outside the box? That's a tall order. I know many power plants use them to monitor their boilers. Over a period of time all you can see is if there is fire in the box because the lenses gets dirty pretty fast. With wood burning I imagine this would occur a lot sooner due to creosote build-up. I also bet the cost of one of these cameras are very expensive.

How were you going to attach it? Drill a hole through the door? Just curious.

I know I have done a lot of things to improve my "monitoring" of our OWB, but this one I'll have to pass on.

Here is an idea.Get a blast gate valve like I installe on my furnace's gasification chamber door.Mount the camera to it.Have an actuater open the slide gate and the camera could look through the glass and see the burn.Then the actuater would then close the blast gate.Ta Da!!!

How good would that work in the firebox though? Is there enough fire to light it enough for the camera to see anything?  If I open the door on mine just after it was running the smoke is so thick you can't see through it even with a real bright flashlight. A while after it shuts down though it would probably work if you can get light in there.

[Ridgekid]

I got it! Here's what I had to do to get this far-

1. First I had to get my router to recognize it. In order to do that I had to hook my laptop directly to it and set the TCP to the default of the module (192.168.1.50) then I could go in and change it to my LAN IP address (192.168.xxx.xx)

2. Next- I connected each temp sensor one at time. I used the User interface to rename sensors to a name (instead of a number) and save it. I then tagged the sensors for the slot I had reserved.

3. Next I had to make a cable to connect the sensors. I'm putting four on each cable run (you can daisy chain them). If you recall my graph (pdf file) I posted I now have the first four sensors connected. Air in/ out of air handler and Water in/out of HX.

4. I set up one of the relays to react with sensor 3 temp by indicating if the Green Dragon was in stand-by or a Burn.

The first issue I noticed was my meat thermometer was only 1-2 degree difference, but these digital ones are 8 degree difference. (reading low) I don't think I can calibrate them. ??

This temp module is a "server" and I need a place to post my temps. Kinda like my weather station. any ideas?
It has data logging capabilities, but only as a text file. I want to save in Excel so I can graph. I opened the file in excel but it did not format it correctly.

OK that's all I got for now. Thanks goodness its the weekend so I can sleep in!

[Ridgekid]

Another update: This is to report temps I am seeing on the four sensors on line:

Air in/out HX  When fan is running I get about 70-72F in and 130-135F out
HX- When Idle I see a 2F drop across the heat HX. With the fan on I get a 15F drop.

I've decided to use all three relays provided. One when tell me when the Green Dragon is in Standby or a burn, another will tell me when the air handler is on or off and finally I will use the third to show if we are using HW to the house.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I got the senors within 5F of actual. When I thought the aluminum tape I was using might interfere with the reading I went with a wire tie. WRONG, that made it worse. So I wrapped the sensors a little better with the aluminum tape. EXCEPT for the air handler sensors. I just poked a hole in the duct work (Fiberboard) and push the sensor in and taped up the opening.

With any luck I hope to have my temp page posted some where before the end of the weekend. Cross your fingers!

[Ridgekid]

Sample page:


Air Handler In   67.7 °F
Air Handler Out   72.0 °F
OWB to HX   178.2 °F
HX to DHWX   175.6 °F   < this senor is reading 2F low. Not sure if it can be changed.
DHWX to OWB   177.2 °F
Well Water to DHWX   58.3 °F
DHWX to HWH   156.5 °F
HWH to House   137.6 °F
Green Dragon   STANDBY     < this relay is controlled by OWB to HX temp (on) and DHWX to OWB Temp (Off)
Air Handler Fan   OFF     <This relay is controlled by Air handler out temp. >125F on <125F off
HW being used   NO     <This relay is controlled by HWH to House. <140F Yes <140F NO
Current Time: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:30:50

[RSI]

I think insulating the probes will help. I have just been using electrical tape to strap the probe on and how tight I gets it makes a difference. I will probably try the aluminum tape.

To get more accurate readings on pipes you could just get some of the DS18b20 chips and use them instead of the probes. One less layer of metal would help a lot.

[RSI]

Here is a ebay listing for some. http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-4-DS18B20-18B20-Digital-Temperature-Sensor-/370544609262?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56462e07ee
That is all that is inside the probes you have.

[Ridgekid]

Thanks RSI.

Here's a real good picture of my heat load when the air handler and HW is being used: If you read it right, you can see I'm pulling 30F out of the OWB water before it returns to OWB when the air handler is on and HW is being used. Since my DHWX is downstream of the HX I am only putting 162F water into my HWH. Hence why I use my HWH as a storage tank and not using a mixing valve.

Air Handler In   73.6 °F
Air Handler Out   133.1 °F
OWB to HX   179.2 °F
HX to DHWX   162.6 °F
DHWX to OWB   149.3 °F
Well Water to DHWX   52.0 °F
DHWX to HWH   162.6 °F
HWH to House   146.8 °F
Green Dragon   STANDBY    
Air Handler Fan   ON    
HW being used   YES    
Current Time: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:51:31

Due to the limitations of Excel, (255 line limit) I was able to create this chart. It reflects two hours of operation after we woke up this morning. It was flat lined all night.

http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?action=media;sa=media;in=162

[Ridgekid]

RSI- Thanks for the link. I opted for option two. Wrapping insulation around transmitters. They seem to be within 3 degrees of actual now. I can live with that.

I posted pics in the gallery.

[R W Ohio]

Ridgekid, the numbers that you posted look a lot like the ones that I see on my monitoring panel, thanks for the post.
RW

[Ridgekid]

Thanks RW.

It sure gives a clearer picture of how much heat load you have on your system doesn't it?

[R W Ohio]

Isn't it neet to watch the temps change from point to point when the OWB comes on.

[Ridgekid]

It sure is!!