Monitoring your home

[robogobucks]

We are new and plan on going to Florida for winter, How do you monitor your home when you are away? Especially the furnace, in case it goes out.

[tatest]

When away for two years I hired somebody from the local security company to check the house regularly. This in addition to the company monitoring the alarm systems full time.

I gave this person authorization to spend on my behalf for emergency repairs as needed.

I also hired somebody for property maintenance, he and the security guy were each aware of what the other was doing, and could coordinate to do minor things at a lower cost than calling out a $100/hour tradesmen to take care of a 10 minute job.

My brother also did this for his Michigan and Florida houses as he moved back and forth between the two seasonally. That is, when he didn't have relatives house sitting.

The technical monitoring is great, and you can "keep an eye" on almost everything, but if there is a problem you need to have some plan for taking care of it.

[dodge_guy]

I too have the Honeywell WiFi T-stat and it is great. You can set it up for vacation mode so it goes to a predetermined setting. the only issue is you can`t adjust any settings when its set to that mode. the other nice thing is when it`s all set up it will send you an Email alert if it drops below (or above when on A/C) a set temp.

Actually I just turned mine on to warm up the house a bit this morn. from my chair with my I phone. Yes I`m being lazy, but it`s nice to be able to check and adjust when and where you want.

[robogobucks]

Thanks to all for the feedback, I will follow up and do my research, You are all very helpful

[Hank_MI]

Our furnace failed last year. I just bought an Emerson Wifi thermostat. Like the Honeywell you can check and control the temp via a phone app. It will send an email alert if it goes into heat mode and can't bring the temp up after, I think, 5 minutes. Also ends an email alert if the temp drops below a set point.

[SCVJeff]

Bob Shaw wrote:
I've got the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat. It allows me to check and set the thermostat via my iPhone. All I have to do is keep my Wi-Fi router going over the winter, and get the free app for my iPhone. There's no monthly charge for the app. If you'd like more security, and you have an old iPhone, there's an app where you can use the camera from your iPhone as a security camera via Wi-Fi. You can access it remotely from your phone.

x2
The honeywell allows you to set temp threshold both high and low, as well as a time setting for how long the temperature sits at the limit before delivering the alert email

[GMandJM]

ncrowley wrote:
You should think about turning off the water and winterizing your home so you do not have an issue if you lose the heat.

Yes, good advice. We do this.

Water intrusion sensors are in case of a flood or sewer backup.

[dons2346]

neschultz wrote:
SimpliSafe

We have several temp & water sensors. I believe its $25/month for the monitoring and alerts, which we suspend it when we aren't in Fla.

X2

[ncrowley]

You should think about turning off the water and winterizing your home so you do not have an issue if you lose the heat.

[Bob_Shaw]

I've got the Honeywell Wi-Fi thermostat. It allows me to check and set the thermostat via my iPhone. All I have to do is keep my Wi-Fi router going over the winter, and get the free app for my iPhone. There's no monthly charge for the app. If you'd like more security, and you have an old iPhone, there's an app where you can use the camera from your iPhone as a security camera via Wi-Fi. You can access it remotely from your phone.

[dan-nickie]

neschultz wrote:
SimpliSafe

We have several temp & water sensors. I believe its $25/month for the monitoring and alerts, which we suspend it when we aren't in Fla.

Same for us.

[GMandJM]

We use a PhoneAlert system at our condo.

It will call if the furnace stops and the temperature goes below 45F and/or if the power goes off. It also has a water intrusion sensor.

It does require a landline phone.

Our house has a monitored security system. I've looked into SimpliSafe and am considering switching to that.

[Dick_B]

We have several internet cameras one of which is capable of viewing the indoor thermometer. I like the idea of the freeze alarm as well. We also shut off the water and heater.
I've considered the internet t/stat but am concerned about being hacked. Before we changed closers our garage door would open on its own; possibly from a stray radio transmission!

[neschultz]

SimpliSafe

We have several temp & water sensors. I believe its $25/month for the monitoring and alerts, which we suspend it when we aren't in Fla.

[tjfogelberg]

We bought a freeze alarm that connects to the phone line. (No monthly fees). It will call us at 3 different phone numbers if the temp drops below 55 degrees. We have a lockbox on the inside door and can give the code to the heating guy if he needs to get in. There is also one with a red light that turns in (place in window for neighbor to see) if temp drops. We also shut off water and turn off Hot Water Heater and softener. Works great. No worries.