Systemic approach

With just two type of units, we are able to gather information that, otherwise, would be difficult to explain.

Here’s the scenario: at one of the properties at the Hideout, we installed:

1 smart baseboard thermostat in the Living Room, by Mysa

1 stationary camera COSO 7 in the living room

1 Environmental monitor COSO 5 in the living room

1 WiFi webcam in the loft, by Yoosee

1 stationary camera COSO 7 in the finished basement

1 Environmental monitor COSO 5 in the finished basement

We have electric baseboard heaters throughout the house, and 2 propane heater (1 in the living room, which we turned off, and 1 in the basement).

Both the COSO 5 detect and log in the cloud: Temperature, Humidity, Light level, CO and propane level, and both have a lamp connected so we can turn it on or off from remote.

The COSO 7 in the living room faces in, to take a snapshot every few minutes or to stream live video if we need to, while the one in the basement faces out at ground level, to show us if somebody is in the driveway or, for instance, how much it snowed.

On a side note, COSO 5s will send alerts to our phones through the Pushsafer app, in case propane gas level is too high or temperature is too low, and they can be added to Alexa as a generic ON/OFF lamp, and added to Alexa’s routines (we didn’t install Alexa in that house, but we have it in other properties and it works like a charm).

The COSO 5s log temperature, humidity, light level, gas level. From my phone, this is what the app was showing this morning for the Living Room COSO 5:

Notice that the latest data acquired is to the left of the charts, and the past is as you move to the right

The Mysa thermostat is set to 48 F. So we are doing good, but what was happening yesterday afternoon, when we had that spike in temperature and drop in humidity ? The heat wouldn’t kick in at those temperatures. What was happening, as the Light sensor shows, is that the sun was hitting the sensor straight on, so you see a “bogus” increase in temperature and decrease in humidity. Without the light sensor, one could have thought the thermostat is defective cause it kicks in with the temperature too high from setpoint.

In fact, the chart logged a spike in sunlight at 2:28 PM:

This below, instead, is what was going on in the basement:

Here we have a propane heater that is set to the minimum, hard to tell with those thick knobs, but it turns out to be around 49 F.

You can see two interesting things: the spikes from the past two days in the afternoon, again, were caused by the sun hitting the sensor: temperature goes up, humidity goes down. But the spikes this morning were definitely the heater turning on, as you see by observing an unusual behavior of humidity: it goes UP with temperature, instead of dropping. Well, that confirms that propane heaters, in fact, generate CO2 and, guess what, water vapor, which is detected by the sensor as an increase in relative humidity.

Notice that, for both ambients, there is not a significant change in the gas and CO levels detected: everything is working fine, no leaks of gas.

As a cherry on the pie, we were puzzled by the fact that the two COSO 5s are both next to a window, but face the opposite sides of the house. How would the sun hit both sensors at the exact same time, 2:28 PM ?

Well, here’s where the COSO 7s helped explain it: see the four snapshots taken by both around the same time (they are both set to take a snapshot every ~30 min, when they are not streaming):

Notice the sun showing at 2:28, coming from the left of the picture? That’s the front of the house, and the COSO 5 is set near a window at the right of the picture (not seen there). The left side is the front of the house.

Downstairs, the COSO 7 faces the front of the house:

You can clearly see that, at 2:30 PM, the sun was shining right into it. The COSO 5 downstairs is behind the camera, on a window that faces the opposite side of the other COSO 5. They were both hit by the sun being shining through the windows/ doors at the front of the house.

You may also notice a gap in the snapshots between 10 AM and 2 PM, that’s because for a while we were monitoring the cameras with live streaming, and in that time the snapshots are obviously paused.

Now we’ll ask you this: what other system do you know out there, that would help you diagnose the Environment in your valuable property from 200 miles away, with this level of detail?