Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Frozen Pipe Alarm”.
Winter is coming so it’s time to prepare your pipes so that they won’t freeze this year. I took an extra step and designed a sensor that will alert me if the pipes are getting too cold to make a basic temperature sensor. I took a thermistor and wired. It in series with a 10k resistor together they make a voltage divider when the temperature changes so does the voltage at the center pin this voltage change can easily be monitored with a microcontroller such as an arduino. Before you can use this sensor, you need to calibrate it. You can do this with a simple glass of ice water insert the thermistor into a small plastic bag, then submerge it in the ice water. The water should be just above. The freezing point now use the analog read function to measure the output voltage. This is what the sensor will read when it’s almost freezing, so i use this as the value to trigger the alarm.
The alarm can be anything i just used an led and a buzzer wired together. In parallel, i soldered the parts onto a small piece of perf board. Then i mounted them inside a project enclosure now you’re ready to set up the system start by drilling a small hole in your wall, insert the thermistor and try to position it near the center of the pipes. Next mount the alarm someplace, where it can be seen and heard if the temperature around the pipes ever gets near freezing the alarm, will let you know so.
You can remember to leave the water dripping. You can set up as many sensors as you have analog input. Pins on your microcontroller! Well, that’s how to make a basic pipe monitoring system for your house, thanks for watching and check back next week for more diy hacks and how to’s .