RuuviTag - Use cases
What does RuuviTag measure?
RuuviTag measures :
Temperature
Air humidity
Air pressure
Acceleration
What can RuuviTag be used for?
Why would I purchase a RuuviTag? What can it be used for? Is it worth its price? These are things that went through my mind, when I first heard about it and and considered getting one. There are probably many answers to these questions, but here are some examples.
I previously owned an electronic thermometer for outside use, that had normal AA-batteries. When winter came and the temperature went below freezing, the thermometer stopped sending values to my indoor unit. When I brought the thermometer back inside, it warmed, and started working again. So either the device or the batteries could not handle the freezing temperatures. RuuviTag sounded an like a proper solution to replace this thermometer. And it was - I’ve never had any of these problems with RuuviTag. Because the RuuviTag’s measured temperature can be viewed from my phone, I can even see it while still in bed in the morning. Maybe I’ll just stay in bed, if it is too cold outside. Of course because you can not only see the current temperature, but a history of it, you can see how cold it was during the night.
At first I bought a 3-pack of RuuviTags. Obviously one I placed outside, one in to the sauna, and one in the bedroom. You can even set a temperature alarm, when a limit is reached. I did that for the device I put in sauna, so I know when it is hot enough. Of course as a added bonus I can see the humidity of the sauna. The humidity sensor could be used to measure cellar or attic spaces, where people are not constantly present to see if something is wrong. The custom alarm limits are useful here too.
Everyone needs to decide for themselves, if the device is worth it or not. Personally I’ve been so satisfied that a couple of years later I bought another 3-pack. One is now in the fridge, monitoring its temperature.
The next step
I also setup Grafana graph on a Raspberry Pi, so I can view all six RuuviTag’s measurements on a large graph on my computer. Which is nice.
These measurements could be then sent to a server in the cloud for example. This would enable you to see the measurements even when you are not home. We’ll look in to this in the next part of the series. Subscribe to get it in your email as soon as its up!