It's summer, we could do with this?? (temp activated wall plug for fans)

[MR GUS]

Have thought about this before but not found anything via searches other than people suggesting electronics for homemade units, ..beyond most folk I reckon.

 The idea is simple an intelligent plug with a built in sensor that responds to temp changes on / off.

 We Brits (not forgetting everyone else) suddenly find ourselves in a warm spell, (albeit briefly) ..& plug fans in like mad have them going all night wake up cold turn em off... wake up hot turn em on...
ultimately disrupted sleep due to heat cold.

So how about thermal response (either inbuilt or by via a base unit (eg oregon units) so you don't have to resort to leaving a fan on all night simply set the start / stop temp & the fan kicks in (most fans have a 1-2-3 setting which they come on at when plugged in).
If a room could be semi cooled via blown air from a small existing room fan then this is technically a cheaper answer than noisy plumbed in electricity guzzling / noisy unreliable Air con.

Anyone, (Yes, you KEN) seen anything along these lines on their travels?
My other thought was to remotely assist evacuating hot air from pre-existing housing stock attics & lofts to cool the shell of the building rather than having it continually heating over a period of days if incorporated into a vent

[KenB]

Mr. Gus,

There might be the problem that the temperature of the room varies considerably from floor to ceiling - especially if you are in an upstairs bedroom.

So, whatever temperature sensor you use, needs to be located at the right height, and preferably not adjacent to a wall that has been bathed in sunlight all day and is therfore warm.

It would be perfectly possible to have a small battery powered wireless temperature sensor that sends a signal to a remote controlled plug. In fact, last year I hacked a Lidls wireless plug, so that it could be turned on and off remtely via the internet - so the kit is out there and its cheap.

If it is specifically a bedroom you wish to cool, it would be better to have a retrofit blower fan in a window frame, that is clipped onto an existing opening light.

This would extract the hot air from ceiling level and replace it with cooler night air from outside.  Have it running on a photosensor so it starts after dusk, and continues until the room is comfortable.
In general in the UK there are only a few days of the year when indoor temperatures become unbearable.  Perhaps this is due to poor insulation, lack of window blinds or window sun awnings.  

I remember as a kid in the 60s - every High St shop had a sun awning when they were on the south facing side of the street, to keep the high summer sun off the produce and goods in the window.  

But I agree that fans are a cost effective way of providing cooling, by air replacement or just providing a cooling breeze.  A 40W fan can go a long way to providing comfort compared to a 3kW airconditioning unit - and is well within the capabilities of being powered by a couple of pV panels and a small inverter/battery system.

Perhaps a combined flexible solar pV awning and solar fan for shading those south and south west facing windows? Perhaps a venetian or roller blind made from pV strips?  The Evergreen Solar "String Ribbon" technology pV would be ideal for incorporating into blinds - and use a small motor to track the azimuth of the blind to that of the sun.

http://www.evergreensolar.com/app/en/home/




Ken

[Justme]

I think I am right in saying that a fan will not change the temp of the room. It will mix the upper & lower air so changing the spread of that heat & it will provide a cooling effect on humans due to evaporation but a sensor will just work on the air temp at its location. I would guess the plug in sensor would be low down (so in the colder part) & that when turned on it will bring the upper hot air down so raising the lower temps.

[MR GUS]

Thanks for your thoughts Ken, that's it in a nutshell, the kit IS out there & cheap, so why has no-one eg Oregon, (who sell units to other manufacturers) or in light of "POWA-saver" plugs really getting into the publics psyche has an existing manufacturer not jumped on this?
After all we all wish (generally) to utilise & adapt our existing paid for technology rather than buying new & expensive kit (not even including installation costs / woes) ..as well as not confuse the average joe!

I understand & agree with placement being pivotal to succesful cooling / partial cooling of area, which is why I was so impressed a few years ago when "Bionaire" started bringing out the round metal casing pivoting floor fans, they took it a step further & issued a simple pressed metal wall bracket for wall mounting (I have two of them) which does help out with air movement / little hands, unbfortunately it stops all & sundry operating it wityh the exception of on / off as the speed settings are up on the rear of the unit as is common with this design across the board.
at worst an in line speed controller lead so short arses can adjust it accordingly.

Found this though

http://www.lmimg.com/Thermostatically_controlled_outlets.asp  
..however as you say, needs to be in the right place to read & react correctly.

[MR GUS]

Just me, yes a single plug unit would muddle prospective buyers based on top / bottom temps (think water tank etc)
So the answer would / should be  along the lines of this which relays to the separate plug that a common ole house fan is piggybacking.

A moderately cooled / air moving in a room prior to you / nipper going to bed in a stiflingly hot room is surely preferable  to no fan, as is it's ability to turn off if the night air cools sufficiently.

The starck units I use are large enough (but quite diminuitive) for most eyes to see clearly the basic info required, ie current temp & humidity, wall mountable , not tacky a set of 2x AAA's last around 2 yrs.

[MR GUS]

..& maybe it's just me, however a visual display of the temperature seems to make you alot more resistant to turning up the heating a notch or three.

Oregon are doing a kind of 4 room sensor now base station for living room & mini sensor displays, which makes sense, however also seems sensible to tackle this sort of scenario & sell a versatile add on.

[MR GUS]

A quick google, found this on a "product growers" site dating from jan 2009 it appears B&Q were / are selling a basic version of what i'm after, although theres going to be alot of discrepency between low mounted wall sockets & upper reaches of the room.
It is however a start.

I'll try & find a link.

[Iain]

Hi
I Bought a plug in thermostat from Homebase, Made by timeguard Ltd. timeguard.com. Haven't tried it so don't know how good it is.
Iain

[MR GUS]

Thankyou sir! 

[Justme]

A thermostat kit for vivarium's would work too.

I used one to control an incubator once. It can be set with a very narrow temp band.

[tim_h]

I use one of the TimeGuard ET05 plug-in thermostats on the heater in my garage, it works well and seem quite accurate. It is a heating only thermostat, so would'nt be any use for a cooling fan, unless you wanted to open it up and hack the relay to be wired the other way!

http://www.timeguard.com/products/time/consumer-time-controllers/plug-in-electronic-thermostat

The first one  got was faulty and only worked for one night before reverting back to it's default temperature, when I complained to the electrical wholsaler, he told me that there had been a duff batch and mine should have been one of the "new ones".

[MR GUS]

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SMET05.html

Not 100% accurate (as low wall socket) though adjustable, will get one & set various lcd temp readouts around to tune it to the room, ..a bodge but surely a helping hand too!

[PhoenixAutosport]

I would use an old style houshold thermostat that works using a bi-metalic strip and a mercury tilt switch, old honeywell thermostats with the sliding piece along the bottom to set the temperature are this type, to change it to work the oposite way round you just unclip and turn around the mercury switch.
Best thing about these is the thermostat itself uses no power.
It is also not a problem that the fan doesn't cool the air as you will want the fan to keep running when it is warm