Saw something really cool @ Home Depot today.

[Firefyter-Emt]

Well, I stopped in to get a price on how expensive concrete wire was so I can make myself som killer tomato cages before it is too late (They are tied to stakes which I hate)

Anyway... I found a wireless (330') remote weather station. This has a sensor that can go out side (I am thinking in the coop) and the main "station" can go inside. My office window over looks the coop and is about 75' from the house. The awesome thing is that this will display humitity, temp (with a max hi/lo) and indoor temp which is a bit useless, but what the heck.

The unit is said to last 12 months on a battrey and is just $29.00. I am thinking that this is close to a vital thing to have here in New England. I can keeps tabs on just how low the temp will get, yet monitor the humitity to see if there is too little airflow. I want to try to get away without heat and from what I have seen it can be done with my six girls in thier 4x6 coop.

Any thoughts?? I can try to get a SKU number for it, but they had a few there with diffrent options. Oh, and this can switch between three remote sensors if you have other places you want to monitor. (If you can find the sensors for sale!) I think this would be great sitting here at my desk so I can see what it is like for the girls out there and keep the warm and as draft free as I can.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100583371

 

[morelcabin]

As long as they are in a draft free coop they won't need heat

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Draft free, but enough air flow to control humitity. That is the balance that makes it ideal. If they can warm it to say 45 degrees, but only at 90% humitity then it needs to have more "draft" in the form or airflow. This is what I want to fine tune and not just "guess" they are ok in there.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I have been comparison shopping models for this very purpose... I feel the need to have one in the hen house to monitor heat mostly, because when it's too cold for them, my home heat pump will not be working, so i'll know.

anyway... onpoint.. it seems that most of the ones I've found have problems with range, the main problem being seriously OVERestimating how far these things will transmit.

You can find a ton of reviews at amazon for a variety of products.. the one I'm looking at is here: Taylor 1456

It seems that you would want to remember location, location, location.. not near a cell phone, wireless modem, metal roof, aluminum siding.. etc...
my plan is to mount the receiver approximately 25 feet from the hen house with only 1 window between them

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

We have one in our coup. It's good piece of mind to check the coup temp before we go to bed in the winter time. You can also set alarms on ours to notify you if temps fall below or raise above set limits.

 

[dangerouschicken]

We have one that cost about $125 and doesn't work. It sort of predicted weather and kept track of stuff, but then it just died. And no, it's not the batteries :|

 

[Gunslinger]

Excellent idea, I plan on putting one in my coop too.
I was thinking of using X10 wireless modules to activate a light or fan remotely if needed as well.

 

[ams3651]

great idea, i understand what you mean about humidity. Up here you have to take humidity into consideration, not just temps.

 

[punkin]

I have one in my greenhouse. It is by LaCrosse Technologies. The greenhouse is about 250 ft away from the house. It works great! I got it around Dec. last year and it was less than $30.

 

[jenjscott]

So, is this remote something we could put in an incubator?