Quote:
Originally Posted by stevehull
Bill,
Good question! The key is to insulate the "back side" of the thermocouple or thermistor, so the dominant temperature reading is from the line you are trying to get the temperature reading from. Just a bit of foam or other insulating material will work.
Always measure at exactly the same spot and make sure that there is physical contact of the temperature reading transducer (thermocouple or thermistor) to the actual pipe.
Does this help?
Steve
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Thanks Steve.
I did use a piece of copper tubing insulating foam, but I still had inconsistent results. I think maybe I didn't have the thermocouple pressed up against the tubing enough. The thermocouples are very cheap. They seem to measure ambient air temps very well, but I'm fighting with them to do the same on water and refrigerant lines. Maybe a small piece of aluminum foil around the thermocouples might help. I'll keep playing with them.
The HVAC guy that came out to do a repair for me had a Fluke clamp-on thermocouple temp sensor the plugged into his Fluke meter. It seemed to work VERY well and was super fast to reach the measured temp once it was clamped on to a pipe. The only issue is that it cost $150. My dual channel thermometer with two type "K" thermocouples wasn't too much more than $20!
I guess you get what you pay for! :-)