Best Options for Remote Home Temperature Monitoring During Long Vacations

[climberbob]

I'm looking to monitor the temperature inside my house when I'm on Long vacations. Does anybody have any suggestions that would work for that?

 

[Rene T]

SimpliSafe does a good job, I have a freeze sensor for my basement that I monitor the basement temperature using my IPhone nearly daily from 1400 miles away. From the factory, it is set to signal a problem when it gets down to 41 degrees. I have a choice to set it at 32 degrees. The lowest mine typically gets is 43 degrees . I did change mine to notify me at 32 because I know it will never get that low but it could get as low of 41 constantly notifying me. I didn’t want that.
I also have smoke detectors, entry sensors, moisture sensor on my basement floor and a motion detector in my living room. They also have cameras that can be mounted anywhere .

 

[Boat Bum]

I use Blink.

 

[Jackiemac]

Ikea have started doing very inexpensive sensors.... i think they are still trying to get their software right but much cheaper than some others I believe.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?q=temperature%20sensor

 

[poohbear]

Any "smart" thermostat for your heating & HVAC connected to internet would work such as a Honeywell. As a retired HVAC tech I would say stay away from the NEST brand but it might have improved

 

[Domo]

I've had great results using Wyze pan and tilt cameras. Cost is less than $40 at Home Depot, they need your WiFi signal at home. You can view camera from anywhere using their apps. You do not need a subscription for basic service and event recording. I can connect to the cameras "live" on iPhone, Mac and Android tablet.

If I need to check on the temp inside my house I'd simply place one of these cameras on the kitchen counter aimed at a thermometer... and then go on my trip, knowing I can check every time I want...

I use my backyard camera to monitor my pool to make sure it's circulating and nice and clean and the front yard cam to verify deliveries/etc. Here's a shot from a few moments ago...

 

[UTTransplant]

When we first moved into our house in a new-build development, we added ring cameras and sensors. Lots of random people were around the neighborhood, and we were gone for long periods. The house came with a Nest thermostat, and we also added two water sensors. One water sensor is in the mechanical room, and one is on the dehumidifier in the basement. The one in the mechanical room caught a small leak in the whole house humidifier which my son fixed for us. The one on the dehumidifier is in case the pump which moves the water to the drain ever fails. And we are in Iowa which means the humidifier is really needed in the winter upstairs while the dehumidifier in the basement is needed all year. So in addition to the thermostat control, add some other sensors too.

 

[richclover]

I'm looking to monitor the temperature inside my house when I'm on Long vacations. Does anybody have any suggestions that would work for that?

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I had one in my house and one in my camper. Now there’s one in the house and the second one is in the garage. I added water sensors under sinks. It uses WiFi and has been reliable.

 

[DonTom]

I'm looking to monitor the temperature inside my house when I'm on Long vacations. Does anybody have any suggestions that would work for that?

As long as you have an internet connection, you can use what I use and I control my heat and cold and look at the house temps from anywhere, at each of my houses.

You can buy these on Amazon or at Home Depo. They work perfectly and are easy to set up.

Be sure your house uses five wires for the thermostat cable, best to use all five, but it will work for most functions with 4 wires, IIRC.


Honeywell Home RTH9585WF1004 Wi-Fi Smart Color Thermostat, 7 Day Programmable, Touch Screen, Energy Star, Alexa Ready, Gray:

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I've had a couple different "smart" digital thermostats, i.e. wifi/internet connected with an associated app I can use to view/change the status at any time. From anywhere. You don't need the top-of-the-line $$ models either.

 

[Derby6]

I couldn’t get one of those Honeywell smart
Thermostats to power up at my place. It’s frustrating and I gave up. I’m sure it can be done I would just have to hire a technician to pay him for a couple hours to get the power correct.

 

[Derby6]

If I need to check on the temp inside my house I'd simply place one of these cameras on the kitchen counter aimed at a thermometer... and then go on my trip, knowing I can check every time I want...

Neat idea. I might try that next year.

 

[John From Detroit]

There is a system called Smart Home .. includes a Digital door lock. Thermostat. Outlets. Light switches and even cameras.. My apartment has the "Smart Rent" version (Door and HEVAC only though (I believe I can add) I have multiple cameras from other companies.

Oh with Smart rent I can lock, unlock, turn ip/down and if Maintenenc comes in ) (or someone uses a guest pass) DING>

 

[DonTom]

I couldn’t get one of those Honeywell smart
Thermostats to power up at my place. It’s frustrating and I gave up. I’m sure it can be done I would just have to hire a technician to pay him for a couple hours to get the power correct.

Can you explain the issue? Did you have five wires to deal with? If they were the wrong color it could get a little technical to figure out.

The colors should be:

Red (R): Typically carries 24V power from the transformer to the thermostat. May be labeled Rc (cooling) or Rh (heating), or both.

White (W): Controls heating. Connects to the furnace or boiler. For multi-stage heating, W2 may be used for the second stage.

Yellow (Y): Controls cooling (air conditioning). Activates the outdoor compressor. For multi-stage cooling, Y2 may be used.

Green (G): Controls the blower fan. Activates the fan independently of heating or cooling.

Blue (C): Common wire—provides continuous power, essential for smart thermostats. Often blue, but can be black or other colors.

In the house I owned a few years ago, located in Cold Springs Valley, NV (18 miles NW of Reno), it only had four wires and random colors. What I did there was to run a new five wire cable, with the correct colors from the furnace to the thermostat. In the process, I had to move the thermostat location, but it worked perfectly when I was done with the thing. My other two houses were easy. They came with a five wire cable, with the correct colors even though the old thermostat only required two wires.

The homepage online looks like this:

I am now at the "Treehouse" (lots of trees here):

Above is right now for here. See the weather for all week, and check outside and inside temps and control the entire thing from anywhere just as can be done from home right on the thermostat itself.

Reno is the "GreenHouse" (Green is in the street name).

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Derby6]

Appreciate it Don but I don’t exactly remember. Looking at what you posted I “think” it was the blue power wire that gave me trouble. I tried a few things but no dice. I forget how much power (volts?) it required but I was short. Never tried a converter. Just wasn’t into spending more $ trying and having to mount that in the crawl space. Lol

 

[DonTom]

I forget how much power (volts?)

It should be 24 VAC between the red and blue wires. In every house I have owned.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[poohbear]

I couldn’t get one of those Honeywell smart
Thermostats to power up at my place. It’s frustrating and I gave up. I’m sure it can be done I would just have to hire a technician to pay him for a couple hours to get the power correct.

Most can be powered by a battery if you don't have enough wires to power the stat from the furnace but I always hated doing that so would run a new thermostat wire. People would forget to replace the batteries so that led to it not working correctly when they got low.
There was also for awhile some thermostats came with a resistor you could wire across R to G and fool the thermostat into thinking it had the C wire for common.

 

[DonTom]

People would forget to replace the batteries so that led to it not working correctly when they got low.

Yeah, I had that happen many years ago during the summer at my Cold Springs Valley, NV house, before I changed to a Wi-Fi thermostat. Of course it happened when I was staying at my SSF house during my working years, and then had no way to check the other house all that often.

What the weak battery did was to leave on the A/C 24 hours a day for weeks and jack up my electric bill by a large amount.

I no longer will let a battery get too close to any of my thermostats!

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

Most can be powered by a battery

Not the Honeywell Wi-Fi ones. They run off the 24 VAC transformer in the furnace and rectify it to DC inside the thermostat at the needed voltage to run the thermostat. No room inside them for any batteries.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[TheBar]

I couldn’t get one of those Honeywell smart
Thermostats to power up at my place. It’s frustrating and I gave up. I’m sure it can be done I would just have to hire a technician to pay him for a couple hours to get the power correct.

I had the same problem. It was on sale at Lowes for $27 so I should have known they had problems. After I couldn't get it to work I called my HVAC company to install it. but it failed. They found most of that Honeywell model were defective. The HVAC call cost me 3x what the thermostat cost.