remote temperature gauge.

[backdoorchicken]

we have one that worked hit and miss. our coop is 175ft away from the house.

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I have been using a remote thermometer in my coop for two years now.


In fact, I can tell you as I sit here typing in my computer/living room, that it is 55 degrees in the main henhouse. Temps over the past 24 hours have ranged between 59 degrees and 39 degrees in the henhouse.


I love the thing! During the summer, it warned me when the hens were having to endure conditions too hot -- when I saw it hit 100 degrees several days in a row, I went out and bought another fan for them. Last year during the ice storm, I was able to monitor the cold as well.


Remote temp readings remind me and my wife to bring the chickens warm treats during the winter, and cool treats during the summer. We time the arrival of their warm milk or oatmeal treat with the temp inside the henhouse during the winter, and we make sure that when the temp reading goes high during the summer that we get in there with ice water or cool watermelon or whatever cool treats we have.


I installed the remote thermometer when we originally built the coop, and have never been without it.


One problem that you could have is that the thing can run out of battery power at the most inopportune times. The remote sensor is a transmitter, and it takes power to send transmissions back to the receiver inside the home.


Some models are more frugal with the battery power than are others, but eventually all must have their batteries replaced (or can fail due to excessively high or low temperatures) -- unless you are a skilled electrical worker (or know one) who can wire the remote thermometer to run off of AC. (My brother is a skilled electrical worker, and he did that for me). He wired it then we hung it on the wall, high enough that the birds could not mess with it -- or on it.


In the 2 and a half years that I've used that remote thermometer in the henhouse, it failed only one time -- when we had a power failure. Since mine has been modified to run on AC, it is subsceptible to power failures. If the power failure had lasted long enough, I would probably have run to WalMart and bought a battery powered "backup" remote sensor to put in there. But power came back on in a few hours, and so I didn't bother.


But since you reminded me, on the next trip to WalMart, I think I WILL go ahead and buy a back up, battery powered unit -- just in case we have a power failure in the worst of weather conditions.

 

[sablevulpe]

Favorite brands? Sources online for these? I want to buy one, but i'm not even sure where to look for them!

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

I bought mine from amazon.com, but later found the same thing at WalMart.


The one I use for the chickens is an Acurite.


The one I use for the greenhouse is a LaCrosse Technologies.


I use two different systems (each with their own remote transmitter and their own in-house receiver) because they run on two completely different frequencies. Doing that, I don't have to figure out how to program the dag-blamed receiver to read signals from multiple remote transmitters.


Yes, I KNOW that some of the receivers are supposed to receive remote signals from up to three different transmitters. But I could never get the stupid things to do it.


And heck, these things are so cheap and life is so short that I just decided to buy two independent units that run on two completely different frequencies, and set one up for the chicken coop and one for the greenhouse.


This means that I have two different receivers sitting on top of my shelf, side by side, and so I can always see both temps at the same time.


It works, and I'm happy...

 

[Barry Natchitoches]

Quote:
I bought mine at amazon.com .



Here's the LaCrosse Technology one that I use. It transmits on the 915 MHz frequency range, and has a transmitting distance of about 330 feet:


http://www.amazon.com/Crosse-Techno...IIOS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1289884361&sr=8-3



The Acurite that I bought is no longer being made (its several years old now), but my brother has this one in his coop, and he likes it. This one runs in the 433 MHz frequency range, and is good for about 100 feet only:


http://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Scient...EQ/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1289884361&sr=8-13


The reason why one transmits about three times greater distance than the other has nothing to do with either quality or price.

It is just do to the frequency range that the transmitting sensor is programmed to transmit signals at: my Acurite and this one from Oregon Scientific are built to transmit in the UHF range (ie, about 433 MHz) while the one from LaCrosse is built to transmit around the microwave range (915 MHz range).



As I said before, I ended up going with two completely independent systems -- one transmitting in the UHF range and one in the microwave range -- because I never could get the dag-blamed receiver to do right when I tried to set up one receiver to receive signals from both my henhouse and my greenhouse.


It was just easier (and, believe it or not, not a penny more expensive) to set up two independent systems.


Like I said, I set up these two independent systems, and so at any given moment I can tell you what the temp is in the henhouse, AND what the temp is in the greenhouse - both at the very same time.

...

 

[Carrie Lynn]

I bought the Weather Station brand at TSC for about $22.
Haven't put it up yet...

 

[Cebarmlds]

I have a Honeywell brand $24.00. It will only work 100 ft away, my coop is about 90 ft from the house. It's nice to know if the water is frozen in the early morning so I'll bring out a fresh gallon.

 

[woodmort]

I don't know why you'd care or want to know what the inside of the coop temperatures were but I have a Oregon Scientific remote temperature/humidity system to keep track of those two things in my greenhouse. This will give inside temp and humidity plus the same for up to 3 remote locations. I've had it for an number of years and it works great but, as I recall, it wasn't cheap. On the other hand I have an indoor/outdoor Radio Shack system with the remote about 100 feet from the indoor unit that works well too. and cost under $20 with a single remote--it will operate 2. I've had no problems with batteries(AA) in either unit but always change them out in the fall.

 

[Cebarmlds]

I had an oregon scientific and it didn't work so replaced it with the honeywell it also gives humidity readings in the coop. We've had temps get to 35 below or more, so it will be very helpful knowing the temp inside the coop.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Woodmort,
I can't speak for anyone else, but I am so worried about my hens, this is my first winter keeping chickens.
So, I will sleep better knowing the coop temp is not frigid. I'm less worried about my RIR and BA than my
little Bantam Leghorn. I have read over and over that given proper ventilation they will be fine. For me, it will
have to be a "seeing is believing" experience, then I'll be fine.
Just a bit neurotic