I picked up an Arduino prototyping board the other day. For my first Arduino project I’m pretty much doing the Practical Arduino Appliance Remote Control project, with a few twists.

The project out of the box will allow you to use a pc connected Arduino board to turn on/off a remote control power adapter. I intend on using this to turn on/off my lounge room heater.

Why not just use a reasonably cheap timer power adapter I hear you say… well..

  1. I want this device accessible via a web browser (pc, phone etc) over the internet.
  2. I want it to not plug into a pc but instead be accessible over my home wireless network.
  3. I want it to track ambient temperature of my lounge room so it can be graphed by munin or mrtg

Moving on from that I would like it to automatically turn on the heater on weekdays around an hour before I get home from work but to only do so if the temperature inside is under a certain threshold.

Given that this device would technically only be relevant for the winter months there is nothing really stopping me from altering the code to interact with an air conditioner during the summer :)