temp alarm

Is there an inexpensive alarm to warn that the GH temperature has dropped?
How bout a back up heat source that uses no electricity and comes on automatically?

Had the power go out this week,see this link http://davesgarden.com/t/368373/

We have some remote temperature things made by Oregon Scientific. One sender in each greenhouse & the receiver in the house. The receiver can moniter 3 senders. You have to change channels to view the temp of each sender. One channel has an alarm that sounds when the temp drops to 38 degrees F. We got ours from Dakota Alert, Inc. PO Box 130, 112 W. Main, Elk Point, SD 57025. They have lots of different alarms.

I also have this same system. I bought mine locally for $14.99 for the base unit and one sensor unit. You can order them online here http://www2.oregonscientific.com/cablefree/thr138.html

The one we have is model JTR168LR. $69.95. I wouldn't even think about the price. Last year we would have lost an entire greenhouse without the alarm feature. Temp was -10
outside, fuel jelled up so furnace quit. Alarm went off giving me time to restart the furnace before anything froze!
(This was a 20' X 80' house for of bedding plants nearly ready to sell!)
Bernie

WOW that would have been a REAl disater!

I will try that link,but what can I do if I'm not home?

Is there any kind of back up heater?

I'm at work sometimes 12-15 hours at a time

Went to the link,can't find where any of them have an alarm
It says you can buy them at Boat US

We have one in town,maybe I'll stop there

I just bought a gas-powered back-up generator that kicks in to power the heater if the electricity goes off. If the alarm goes off because the power is out, you have to have a solution. Right?

We had a power outage for a couple of days a few years ago, and precious little we could do about it. Lost lots of plants.

We have a small generator for each greenhouse. As far as being away when the power goes out, we have someone here at all times, cannot afford to lose plants. This is 95% of our livlyhood. Heard NC has 1 millon without electricity, hope they get back on line soon!
Bernie

We have a generator,just haven't wired it to come on automaticly when the electicity goes out,probably a good idea........

... and I have the ultimate in alarms for a drop in temperature: I have a cage in the middle of the green house with two macaws in it. If the temperature drops 10 degrees, I, and the rest of my neighborhood, know about it pretty quickly!

LOL Planter Rik!
I bet that IS the ultimate alarm.

So I have to put Ariel,my blue and gold out there...

She's not gunna like that!

After my GH heater blew the circuit breaker a couple of weeks ago, I was sick over it! The temps went into the 20's so now I have naked brugs & nanners! Today my DH decided I needed my present early. It is made by GE, got it at Target for $39.00. A remote type alarm up to 100 feet. Sure wish I'd had this before.



Saw an ad tonight that they are on sale this week-end at Radio Shack for $29.95, same thing!!!!

This message was edited Saturday, Dec 14th 1:14 AM

OOOHHH,they just opened a Target up here!!!

Check out this URL. It's what I ordered. Not arrived yet.

http://www.technika.com/Sper/s800025.htm

Hey,thats the best price I've seen....

That one has an audible alarm, the ones I have from Target do not - temp only. But I keep it near my computer where I can see it often.

Remember you get what you pay for. I think our alarms have 300 feet range. All our houses are pretty far from our house. You need a sound alarm during the night. Thats when the probelms will come about also! (Murphy's Law?)
ßernie

We had an alarm put in our greenhouse when it wasa wired. The electricians had it and put it in, so I don't really know the name of it or what it cost. I suppose if Iwent and dug the bill up I could find it. It has a piercing noise, can hear it in the house during the daytime and that is about 300 feet away. Ours is a temp. alarm. Since we have 2 heaters in there and only one is the primary one-the other is set to turn on if the temp gets about 10 degrees lower than what the first one is set. For a power outage, we have a small alarm in the house that goes off. We hear it at night, because it has gone off then. We have had it for many years, bought it first when we had confinement hog buildings and a power outage could have been disasterous in that situation.

My GH is attached to my garage so theres only about 20-30 feet from my GH to bedroom.
Twice so far the electricity has gone out and I slept blissfully unaware the the furnace was not running......

I gotta get one and I have to STOP procrastinating
And that one looks like my best bet

My remote alarm arrived today. It gives me the max and min temp since I last reset the values. Is was easy to set up. I callibrated it against a precision thermometer and found there to be less than 0.5 degree difference. I also noted that the response time for a temperature shift was slow. When I moved the system to a window (brrrr) my precision thermometer read the new temp in less than 10 seconds. The RC unit took almost 10 minutes to drop down to the new temperature, a drop of 15 degrees. This large lag time may be a real liability if you select this unit. I will contact the dealer to see if this is a defective unit or if that is characteristic of the unit. I'll let you know.

Thank you for the update. I was planning to order this model and am interested in what the dealer has to say.

I received the following response from the dealer:
"This product's sensor is built within the unit, rather than a probe sensor, so to speak. Because of this, the reading
depends on the environment. It will take time to stabilize if the monitor is moved into a different environment, hot or cold. This unit depends on the temp. of the plastic housing.

Thank you,

Terrie
Technika.com"

I had hoped for numbers, measured lag values, not statement of the obvious. Of course it takes time to stabilize, BUT HOW LONG does it take? Sounds like a salesman, not an engineer. I wish I had done more research before making the purchase. Oh well. (short form of the Serenity Prayer)

Thanks for the update, Padre.

This doesn't trouble me too much: temperature changes in the greenhouse will probably be no more than five degrees over 10 minutes, even if it is falling fast. I still have an outdoor thermometer that I can see through the window (which looks into the greenhouse).

For me, I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantage. Namely, if I had to pay four times that price, I simply couldn't get an alarmed temp monitor now.

I REALLY need some help finding affordable bench-length heating mats and cables (used would be fine, if anyone has some to sell or trade) and some input on electric heating systems (min. 16K BTU). The gas bills have gone so high, and the electric has remained so low that Pursestrings is determined that the greenhouse heat needs to be electric. But I s'pose this should be in another thread....