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Elitech RC-5 USB Temperature Data Logger Recorder 32000 Points High Accuracy?
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Having a thermometer is handy, but the best way to know for sure is with a temperature datalogger. I have one of these off amazon, but I'm waiting for the price to come back closer to what I paid to order another.
This will let you keep tabs on the temps even when you can't check.
If you're in the ideal incubation range (mid-70s to 80ish F), and it's stable, then yeah, it's a good spot. Much warmer, and you risk contam growing faster than the mycelium.
If it's high-60s-to-mid-70s F, then it's more ideal as a fruiting chamber, but will still work.
And if you follow the guide, you should have good success no matter what variety of cube you grow.
I use this to monitor my temperatures, (the price got jacked up, I paid about $20 for it, maybe wait for prime day or after), but there are models that track RH as well.
If you're unsure of what the temp is you can either get a cheap pack of thermometers off amazon, or if you want to be able to see what temp it was, for example, while you were asleep, then you want a temperature datalogger like this.
But yeah, those jars are toast, I'm sorry to say.
The basic structure would be
- Estimate heat transfer coefficient of box (this is probably hard, depending on geometry and material)
- Assume inside of box is uniform temperature at 0C (because ice melting point, and we'll assume heat transfer within the box is fast compared to through the box). This will also assume that ice shape is irrelevant. It might as well be a pile of cubes.
- Assume outside of box is outdoor temperature
- Heat transferred = transfer coefficient * temperature difference * time
- Divide heat transferred by the specific heat of fusion of ice, and you have a required mass.
That said, I don't actually recommend doing it that way. I recommend just doing the experiment. I recommend the Elitech temperature data logger -- it's cheap and pretty simple. You connect it to a computer, set the data acquisition rate (e.g. 1 minute), and then when you're ready to deploy it, you hit the start button, toss it in the box. Come back later, retrieve it, plug it back into the computer, and you have a nice graph of temperature as a function of time. It can do insanely long acquisition sequences (three weeks a 1-minute resolution).
You can extrapolate to some extent from temperature -- if ice is 32F, and you get 6 hours at 62F, you should get around 3 hours at 92F. Or 6 hours if you double the ice loadout.
Oh, and you can use the temperature module to confirm that your outer edges are actually as cool as they should be. You want to avoid the case where it's cold enough by the ice block, but a few layers of food away it's actually 45 degrees.
Once you have some fruits, you're gonna want to clone a favorite.
Mini-mason jars and agar blend, or pre-made, sterile plates (I order mine from a guy on etsy, Tip of the Cap Mushrooms, very good quality plates).
I find a temperature datalogger to be very hand when starting out, so that you can monitor the temps of a space when you're asleep or at work or out or whatever. I use one of these, I had been waiting for the price to drop back down to $20 to order more, but I'm finding that the one I have enough, the colonization space I use is stable enough. I might get one with a humidity probe and use that for monitoring fruiting...
Is it really that cold where you live right now?
I highly recommend a temperature datalogger. This bad boy has been more than worth the investment, and I'm considering getting more.
I hang one of these temperature data loggers from my pack. I won't use it forever, just until I am pretty confident that I have my sleep system dialed. Pop it into your USB port in your computer when you get home and you can see exactly how cold it got and for how long. Then adjust your system. Thats my thinking anyway.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQSCZF2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Co7oFbZPBAAYJ
Last week I found an older post of yours that got me thinking about temperature data loggers. Of course I wanted to see how cheap of devices there are out there. I found this which is kind of cool since there is a display, it's a recorder but no Bluetooth. Elitech RC-5 USB Temperature Data logger Recorder 32000 Points High Accuracy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQSCZF2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Jri.BbZGVRK0S.
I like that watch that was posted in this thread, I wonder if there is an affordable watch that has temperature and compass features and also records data over time?
hmm this seems like an OK low tech solution, thank you!!
I just wanted to rig my house, wasn't looking for like a hobbyist build-your-solution-from-assembly-language-and-pins solution.
They have plugs, but this is what I was referring to - - https://topgreener.com/product/in-wall-smart-wi-fi-outlet-15a-120v-with-energy-monitoring-white/
If the basement is all on one circuit, you could try this - - https://sense.com/
I use this temperature sensor as well. It can produce nice graphs, measure at whatever interval you want - - Elitech RC-5 USB Temperature Data Logger Recorder 32000 Points High Accuracy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQSCZF2
This is what I use:
https://www.amazon.com/Elitech-RC-5-Temperature-Recorder-Accuracy/dp/B00MQSCZF2
Weighs 1 ounce with the battery and allows you to set the intervals it records the date/time/temp at.
I would think that anything non manual is going to be expensive unless you build it yourself. You'd need multiple temperature probes, some sort of communication between the readings and a datalogger. Using a computer would simplify things, but you'd be doing at least some low level programming, and measuring multiple points without having wires running all over your house means communication, which means power sources and other complications.
If you're not against crunching a little data yourself, just compiling some spreadsheets together, then I'd grab some simple temperature data loggers. Here's a temp only for super cheap:
And here's temp an humidity. Not terribly expensive, but adds up a bit for four. Still, I doubt you'll get much cheaper (providing you can get them in EU for similar price):
USB temperature logger:
Or temp/humidity monitor if you only want to check min max:
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