Instrumenting a new house with moisture/temperature sensors?
I’m building a new house, and I’d like to wire it up with moisture-content and
humidity and temperature sensors to track the ebb and flow of moisture through
the building envelope. Now is the time to do it, as the walls start going up.
Does anyone have any suggestions on techniques and equipment to do this?
Cost is certainly part of the equation (this would be a fun side project). On the
other hand, I can do electrical/electronic assembly and wiring to help keep the
cost down (as long as it doesn’t invoke too much time, the other variable).
EDIT: I’m specifically talking about wired sensors that would get buried in the
walls, e.g., to collect data on what is happening to the sheathing. For science!
Sensors in the living space I can worry about after I move in.
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Replies
You're trying to monitor areas you won't have access to later? Otherwise, just get battery operated HOBO meters and you can place them wherever you want.
Madelyne,
You can buy these sensors at buildingsciencelabs.com. They need to be installed in a very specific way to get meaningful data, but we can help you with that. The expensive part will be the data collection system. You could potentially use a good multi-meter to take manual measurements of temperature and a Delmhorst meter to take measurements of sheathing moisture content instead of using a data collection system. Measuring RH would be more difficult, but could be roughly calculated using the moisture and temperature data.
Madelyne,
The following links will give you some clues as to how you might roll your own scada system for home performance monitoring if you're into that. I haven't done this myself yet but plan to. The one-wire system is great for placing lots of temperature sensors around the building. Humidity is a little more involved. This stuff requires some PC and Arduino programming too.
http://www.robotshop.com/en/electronic-brick-humidity-temperature-sensor.html
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Maxim-Integrated/DS1923-F5/?qs=g%252bEszo6zu8PuaBJBj4p9Qg%3D%3D
http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3892
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10167
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/245
http://www.ourcoolhouse.com/scada.htm
http://www.weathertoys.net/weathertoys/main.html