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Smart oil tank monitor with no subscription

wexfordman2

Hi,

Anyone any thoughts on an oil tank monitor talks to smartogine app giving usage, but also alerts to sudden decrease (theft or leak) ?

Looking for one without a subscription

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uck51js9zml2yt

Oilpal

Have one but not fitter yet.

Gets good reviews on boards

Tweaky

I have Oilpal and it does everything that you ask.
Gives alerts when oil drops below a certain limit and even alerts you when the tank is filled. Have it just under a year and find it to be pretty accurate.
In fact it was accurate within 2 litres when it came to how much oil went into the tank on my last fill.
Easy to fit the only thing is the range between the gauge on the tank and the receiver in the house is impacted by walls etc .

wexfordman2

Tweaky wrote: »

I have Oilpal and it does everything that you ask.
Gives alerts when oil drops below a certain limit and even alerts you when the tank is filled. Have it just under a year and find it to be pretty accurate.
In fact it was accurate within 2 litres when it came to how much oil went into the tank on my last fill.
Easy to fit the only thing is the range between the gauge on the tank and the receiver in the house is impacted by walls etc .

Thanks all, ordered ine Sunday night, so hope to have it soon. I reckon my tank was syphoned, ordered half a tank end of Nov, was empty last Sunday. Checked the tank, and it was empty below the level of the outlet pipe, which is imoossible normally.

wexfordman2

Tweaky wrote: »

I have Oilpal and it does everything that you ask.
Gives alerts when oil drops below a certain limit and even alerts you when the tank is filled. Have it just under a year and find it to be pretty accurate.
In fact it was accurate within 2 litres when it came to how much oil went into the tank on my last fill.
Easy to fit the only thing is the range between the gauge on the tank and the receiver in the house is impacted by walls etc .

Have it installed now, waiting for first bit of data to come through. Can I ask a frew questions as some things seem a bit unclear

1) Notifications, does it give a notification if oil level drops quickly (theft/leak etc).
2) How are the notifications sent, it appears to me to be email, but I was hoping it would be via text, or preferrably through the app ?

maxamillius

Considering getting one, are they good?

wexfordman2

maxamillius wrote: »

Considering getting one, are they good?

Have mine installed, very easy install. Only up and running now thiygh, so just starting to get some data in.

Couple of initial observations

1) I primairly.got.it to alert me in case of leaks or theft.
2) The alerts, apparrantly are via email, which to be honest is pretty useless, to receive an email saying that your oil is being stolen or.your tank is leaking.
3) the graphing will be handy, but not justification enough to buy it on its own.

Unless the alarm or alert notification is via SMS or push notification, I see little benefit to this over a standard oil tank gauge to be honest.

I am a bit dissapointed with it due to this, and it irks me no end to see a device with enough capabilities to provide extra usefully functionality but them just not bothering to inclement it .

In fact, if it was me, i would add a small bit of extra hardware to add a relay outlut that can be wired to your local alarm panel.

Most people want these to monitor for theft imho, but it's not up to scratxh. As it stands.

Alanstrainor

Having an app for this device that does not push notifications is crazy. Why have the app at all? What an incredible oversight, it seems mind bogglingly stupid. But as a stop gap you could mark the emails sent from this device as priority and include a notification on your phone for them. I'd be interested in getting something for my tank, currently I have no gauge and have to look in the top like a pleb.

wexfordman2

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Having an app for this device that does not push notifications is crazy. Why have the app at all? What an incredible oversight, it seems mind bogglingly stupid. But as a stop gap you could mark the emails sent from this device as priority and include a notification on your phone for them. I'd be interested in getting something for my tank, currently I have no gauge and have to look in the top like a pleb.

Yeah, i agree, and it can/could be implemented by software as well, no additional hardware required. I might give them a shout and ask them what the email address that it comes from is, so I can try and setup some sort of alert for it.

Alanstrainor

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Yeah, i agree, and it can/could be implemented by software as well, no additional hardware required. I might give them a shout and ask them what the email address that it comes from is, so I can try and setup some sort of alert for it.

If you already receive the emails now, just mark that address as priority and take it from there. This can absolutely be added in the app, easily too. I would say they hired a third party developer who wasn't too fantastic... or maybe they went and did it in house and failed to grasp how these things should work.

Tweaky

noreply@oilpal.com

this is the address used to alert you for sudden drops in your tank.

Alert is only by email. As you say SMS or push through the app would be a lot better

maxamillius

Thanks guys, basically I bought a house a year ago, oil heating, still not used to it and anytime I go to check the tank, it’s too late!!

Have ran out 3 times. As you say without push notification via txt it’s not really worth it.

Might just get a standard oil tank gauge for now.

Appreciate the responses

Tweaky

maxamillius wrote: »

Thanks guys, basically I bought a house a year ago, oil heating, still not used to it and anytime I go to check the tank, it’s too late!!

Have ran out 3 times. As you say without push notification via txt it’s not really worth it.

Might just get a standard oil tank gauge for now.

Appreciate the responses

You can set a base volume level on your tank - 25% for example - it will email you every day until you fill it with a reminder to fill. So not too late to do something about it - even if you only check your email once a week you are covered
Works well for me

wexfordman2

Tweaky wrote: »

You can set a base volume level on your tank - 25% for example - it will email you every day until you fill it with a reminder to fill. So not too late to do something about it - even if you only check your email once a week you are covered
Works well for me

Mine said is used 14litres yesterday, so at least confirming that there is something going on with my consumption.

That being said, that level of a drop should trigger an alarm to be of any real use, no point in having a system like this and it's inky purpose is telling me in out of oil

garion

I've had mine for 2 years and it works well. I refill the tank 3 times each year and have never ran out since I got OilPal installed.
The readings aren't totally accurate but it's probably +/- 50l which is fine for me. I have the low volume limit at 20% which gives me plenty of time to refill. Like most people I check my email regularly during the day so I personally don't feel there is a need for an SMS. Push notification would be nice but the "app" is essentially just a repackaged version of the website so I've a feeling this would prevent the ability to do push notifications.

I've contacted them numerous times about enabling IFTTT integrations as a means to improve smart home capability but each time I've been told it's not on their radar.

I do think there's a lot of potential with the product that's not really being realized. It doesn't look like the hardware or software has changed much in the last 2 years which is disappointing.

For me though, it does what I need it to do so overall I'm a happy customer.

snowstreams

As regards IFTTT integration, would it not be possible to use the emails to trigger something in IFTTT?

IFTTT integration is a no brainer. Thats where all the useful notifications would go.

tipperary

The oilpal unit can now be integrated with home assistant - https://community.home-assistant.io/t/oilpal-watchman-ultrasonic-oil-tank-level-reading-for-home-assistant/113134

It basically reads the data directly from the oilpal modem. I have it set up for a few weeks now, working no issues. Added benefit that I am no longer limited to accessing through the oilpal website, so if they stop trading or stop supporting the unit, it should still stay accessible.
Should be possible to set up some alarm through home assistant also.

john_doe.

tipperary wrote: »

The oilpal unit can now be integrated with home assistant - https://community.home-assistant.io/t/oilpal-watchman-ultrasonic-oil-tank-level-reading-for-home-assistant/113134

It basically reads the data directly from the oilpal modem. I have it set up for a few weeks now, working no issues. Added benefit that I am no longer limited to accessing through the oilpal website, so if they stop trading or stop supporting the unit, it should still stay accessible.
Should be possible to set up some alarm through home assistant also.

Excellent I never knew that. Oilpal working well for me last year or so

Dr4gul4

Has anybody order one of these of late ? Tried to place an order a while back, and it kept being refunded ..

The high horse brigade

Is this suitable in a rented house? Is it a permanent install or how does it attach to the tank? Would I be able to remove it easily?

Dr4gul4

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Is this suitable in a rented house? Is it a permanent install or how does it attach to the tank? Would I be able to remove it easily?

If the current tank has a spot drilled out it should be ok, if not landlord Q. and leave it when you move.

Dr4gul4

tipperary wrote: »

The oilpal unit can now be integrated with home assistant - https://community.home-assistant.io/t/oilpal-watchman-ultrasonic-oil-tank-level-reading-for-home-assistant/113134

It basically reads the data directly from the oilpal modem. I have it set up for a few weeks now, working no issues. Added benefit that I am no longer limited to accessing through the oilpal website, so if they stop trading or stop supporting the unit, it should still stay accessible.
Should be possible to set up some alarm through home assistant also.

Just installed and set up mine in HA

% set tank_type = {
"value": 1

Set your tank type value to anything except 1 is you dont have a round tank.

I'll report back when all the data is flowing back in, value seems a little high right now, nothing excessive, given it's only installed.

john_doe.

Dr4gul4 wrote: »

Just installed and set up mine in HA

% set tank_type = {
"value": 1

Set your tank type value to anything except 1 is you dont have a round tank.

I'll report back when all the data is flowing back in, value seems a little high right now, nothing excessive, given it's only installed.

Anyone care to share their visualisation of this in HA?

tech

apart from Oil Pal what other options are there?

Dr4gul4

john_doe. wrote: »

Anyone care to share their visualisation of this in HA?

My Lovelace displays like this .. altho there's about 100 ltrs in the diff between the app and the HA calcs ..

Shefwedfan

I am just wondering would this detect a leak.....e.g if I left for a week without turning on heating would it register that the oil has dropped down a bit.....

randombar

Looks like oilpal gone the way of the dodo, just wondering is there alternatives out there (someone I know looking for a recommendation)

wexfordman2

You can use the oilpal device with home assistant

randombar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121012563#Comment_121012563

I can and I am, this is for a friend who just likes oil pal.

wexfordman2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121012569#Comment_121012569

Any chance you could give me the bits of the config.yaml file to get this working. Had it working ages ago, but stopped working about 6 months ago, I think due to breaking changes in HA formatting/upgrade. Ive tried to update and change the format to no avail, and the link/guide is quite old and a mixutre of differnt bits of code etc is confusing to identify what the final code should look like.

Regards,

Eamon

randombar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121038499#Comment_121038499

scrape:

- resource: http://192.168.1.65/diag.htm

scan_interval: 60

sensor:

- name: OilPalData

select: 'table:nth-of-type(2) td:nth-of-type(5)'

unit_of_measurement: 'Litres'

value_template: >-

{% set modem_values = value.split(' ') %}

{% set tank_temp = modem_values[1] %}

{% if tank_temp != "Data" %}

{% set tank_depth = modem_values[0] | int %}

{% set tank_dimentions = {

"height": 106,

"width": 67,

"length": 175,

} %}

{% set tank_volume = {

"value": (tank_dimentions.height - tank_depth) * tank_dimentions.length * tank_dimentions.width / 1000,

} %}

{% else %}

{% if states.sensor.oilpaldata.state == "" %}

Waiting for first reading

{% else %}

{% endif %}