Should I put a thermometer in the loft?

With the external temperature hovering around -2C and nighttime temps below -8, should I be concerned about the pipes in the loft? The house was built in 2004 and is well insulated.

MM

Reply to
MM
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Thus spake MM (kylix snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

My house is now 42 years old, brick built throughout. I've had a thermometer up in my loft for several years - a wireless one that I can monitor downstairs (thinks: must get some new batteries for it :-). It sits just above my cold water storage tank, about 5 feet above the roof joists. I have rockwool insulation underneath tongue-and-groove floorboards fixed across the joists, except underneath the CWS tank, which sits in the roof space directly above my airing cupboard containing my hot water tank. The coldest I've ever registered up there is about -1C, but if all your pipes are properly lagged you should be fine.

Reply to
A.Clews

Do you know, only the other day I was wondering whether there was such a thing as a wireless thermometer! I did a bit of Googling and found some far too fancy wireless gizmo for the garden. It measured windspeed, dew point and a load of other stuff. I would only need to monitor the temperature.

So what make/model is yours?

MM

Reply to
MM

My local lidl has a wireless weather station in that has inside and outside temps. You can put the outside one in the loft if you want. They were about £10.

They also had ones with built in digital picture frame and a complete weather station with rainfall, etc.

Reply to
dennis

In message , MM wrote

Example Maplin

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I regard Maplin as expensive toys for boys shop and you should be able to get similar elsewhere for around half the price.

I have a couple of Lidl or Aldi indoor/outdoor remote thermometers that probably cost a lot less than £10.

Reply to
Alan

I got one almost like this

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it was being replaced by the new model you see here and was discounted. Cost me a tenner :)

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Thus spake MM (kylix snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

The one in my loft was made by Huger but it's about 5 or 6 years old and obsolete now. As other posters have said, there are lots of others on the market now, and quite cheap too. I have a Lidl one, bought last year, in my back garden.

For other models, see (for example)

The one in my loft (which I relocated last night to the floor close to my CW tank) is measuring 7.7C now (8am) (I keep the base station in my kitchen), which is actually a bit on the warm side in my opinion, but I think it must be getting some heat from the airing cupboard almost directly below, so I'd better move it to get a more realistic reading. The outside (Lidl) one is measuring -1C (the base station for that is in my dining room).

The optimum positions for monitors and base stations is best found by experimentation. You need to site them so as to avoid interference that might block the radio signal from sensor to base station. Keep away from metal objects for example, and the fewer solid objects like brick walls in between, the better. The Lidl one in my garden I keep in a small plastic food container with air/watertight lid, bought for a few tens of pence in my local hardware store. I also put a silica gel bag inside for good measure. This does tend to make it a bit slow to register temperature changes but it protects it from rain etc. It's sited in a shady spot about 20 feet from the house, with just a window between it and the base station.

Reply to
A.Clews

Thus spake MM (kylix snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

By the way, make sure you buy one that stores maximums and minimums (in the base station). Very useful for measuring peaks and troughs! The one in my loft measured a peak of 45C during a hot summer spell.

Most of them can usually run two or three monitors on different channels, so you could have one base station with monitors in both your loft and your garden, for example, though in general they seem to be supplied with only one monitor and you have to buy extra ones separately. My Huger (two monitors) turned out to be hopeless for outside use for some reason - it seems better at picking up a signal from above rather than horizontally from more than about 10 feet. The Lidl one works fine in that regard.

I've also used mine for measuring the max/min temperatures in my fridge-freezer! Spent a very geeky weekend drawing up a table of temperatures in different locations within the fridge and freezer compartments at different thermostat settings, and they varied quite markedly. I really should get out more :-)

Reply to
A.Clews

Thus spake snipped-for-privacy@denturessussex.ac.uk ( snipped-for-privacy@denturessussex.ac.uk) unto the assembled multitudes:

Sorry, that should have been -1.8C (I misread it as -1.0).

Reply to
A.Clews

Good to know. We have a Lidl in Spalding, though these special offers, which the weather station no doubt is, are usually gone in a flash. I'll try tomorrow (Monday).

MM

Reply to
MM

MM

Reply to
MM

Actually, I just checked the Lidl web site for the Spalding branch and the "Radio-controlled Weather Station" they show is £39.99 They didn't show a cheaper model.

MM

Reply to
MM

I got one of those a few years back. Often have it a shed but it's been in the loft for a few weeks. There's no water up there, but I've been taking crude measurements of temp. at various places to see how effective the insulation is. When the air temp. in the loft was -1, the top of the loft hatch was +5!

Reply to
PeterC

I've just been up in the loft to check since I hung a greenhouse thermometer up there yesterday. It read +2.5C. I noticed that while the builders lagged the pipes with that preshaped foam rubber tubing, they'd not bothered to treat the elbows and junctions, so I added some spare insulation around them. I also ripped up some of the loft insulation to wrap around, well, blanket in really, the pipes to and from the two water tanks. I'm going to get some more of that foam rubber stuff tomorrow because I also noticed that the overflow pipes (to the outside wall) are not lagged at all. A few drops of water in there building up, then freezing, could mean an overflow causing flooding.

MM

Reply to
MM

I have a pair of Atomium wireless weather stations (now obsolete). One of the remote sensors is hanging from a screw outside the back door, site chosen because its in shade most of the time. It's been there for over a year and is unffected by any variety of weather. It's reading

-3 at the moment.

Reply to
Peter Johnson

Measured our tank fed cold water the other day 4C. The tanks are insulated so is the pipework and there is no insulation under the tanks but the building underneath is not heated to living temps only keep the frost and damp out temps. Overnight lows recently have been near -10C. Of course the incoming water won't be 4C probably over 10 which will tend to stop things freezing and 4C water has the highest density so will collect at the bottom of the tank.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

I know, I was in the shop and they were there, they may be leftovers from previous weeks. They don't keep the stuff forever and sometimes send it back to their distribution depot but I have no idea when it happens.

Reply to
dennis

Or perhaps you need some better loft and/or cylinder insulation..

Reply to
BartC

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@DENTURESsussex.ac.uk saying something like:

I've been doing that with a wireless Lidl one for years, but the low temps I'm interested in seeing, kill the button cells with a degree of regularity. I might just drill a hole and use a K-thermocouple instead.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Thus spake BartC ( snipped-for-privacy@freeuk.com) unto the assembled multitudes:

I've left the space immediately below the storage tank clear of insulation on purpose, to help protect the tank and its pipework against freezing. That's why it's warmer in that area. The relocated monitor now measures 1.7C (7.45am). Outside temp is -2.3C.

Reply to
A.Clews

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