It’s a LOONG time since I first manually built my home environmental monitoring system from scratch - Still using the home assembled emonGLCD, Jeenodes etc
What I’m looking for is a way to data log and report about about 6 different temperature sensors (air and pipe/fluid) and the state of 4 different fans/pumps/signals.
I can put in contactors to give me a zero volt switch for the states and happy to use DS18B20 sensors.
I want it hard wired to the internet for online reporting / monitoring.
Which hardware should I go with? - I DON’T need a heat meter or in-flow temperature sensors.
(Worst case I have even have a couple of unused emonPi’s (at least 4-5 years old) about IF that makes sense)
Update: I have an electricity meter with pulse output already monitoring the consumption, so also want to include that as an input.
If you have a couple of Pis, one of them for the logging. Temp sensors - for 6 I’d use an ESP device (an D1 Mini in my case) with Tasmota. For the states, that is a bit more tricky and I’ve never yet found a good solution (other than monitoring the energy use).
If you want to access the data outside your LAN, then possibly sync with emoncms.org, or use one of the tools for secure access to the local Pi.
Happy to buy new hardware as this is for a customer site (GSHP doing cooling via the MVHR) so rather than use my own bits, ideally looking for a set of new bits ‘off the shelf’ and like it via the net to emoncms.org
I have the GHSP supplier and the MVHR supplier interested as both want to see how it performs.
I can package it all up in an IP box to hide it away, though the simpler it is, then the more I can replicate it for other sites… Our plant rooms are always have spare hard wired data access ports and power outlets installed specifically so we can do this kind of thing
We’ve got at least 2 (if not 6 )other sites where we’re going to put this in…
Really need to hard wire everything and mains power it to eliminate any connectivity / reliability issues.
The initial issue is more than 3 temp sensors, but you could break out additional GPIO Pins of the Pi in the emonPi to do that. Pulse input is easy enough as well.
Other devices, depends how they communicate; Modbus, M-Bus, Serial - they are all possible to integrate.
I’ve gone for the emonTX with Wifi (built in emonBase) + emonVS with the ability to add on 6 more DS18B20 sensors, I’m using the CT’s to monitor state of pumps for the moment
I’ll have a look at the heat pump code as the use one of the Temperature inputs for the heat meter …
My hammer (if you only have a hammer, everything is a nail) is a home automation (HA) system. I use Home Assistant, which ultimately has great reporting capabilities but difficult to get there. It will run on an RPi, but for the cost of an RPi these days you can get a refurbished computer or use a retired computer.
The software between your HA and your sensors could be MQTT which works hand -in-glove with Tasmotized ESP devices and Home Assistant. MQTT and Home Assistant can run an RPi, or so I’m told. In theory one ESP-12F could handle all you sensors, but I’d recomend at least two or one for each sensor (The cost about US$1 each and need a 3.3V power supply)
