Automating a trace heating system with monitoring data

The Monitoring Experts

Simon Bell needed a way to automate turning his trace heating system on and off. He was already collecting weather data with his Davis Weather Station, and so he decided to use this as a trigger for the trace heating. His solution? When the temperature drops below a certain threshold, his monitoring tool sends a notification to a smart plug to turn on the trace heating.
Simon comes on the podcast to talk through his solution step by step.
Note that part of Simon's solution involves working with grid-powered power sockets. Before attempting this project, please read and understand the instructions and safety guidelines on the Tasmota project pages (links in the blog posts below).
Here are blogs Simon has already written about this:

• The Sonoff plug sockets: PRTG + Sonoff = Smart Meter and part 2, MQTT strikes back
• Monitoring a Davis Weather Station: How to keep track of the weather with PRTG
• Finally, the Trace Heating solution: How to keep warm (enough) with PRTG

Let us know your monitoring use cases, ask us a monitoring question, or just give us general feedback about the podcast:

GET IN TOUCH
Get in touch on Twitter: @monitoringxpert
Website: themonitoringexperts.com
Visit the Paessler blog for more from the monitoring experts.

Let us know your monitoring use cases, ask us a monitoring question, or just give us general feedback about the podcast:

GET IN TOUCH
Get in touch on Twitter: @monitoringxpert
Website: themonitoringexperts.com
Visit the Paessler blog for more from the monitoring experts.

Chapter

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. Simon's problem (00:02:27)

3. The Davis Weather Station (00:04:27)

4. Turning trace heating on using weather data (00:08:43)

5. Sonoff plugs (00:13:06)