I have a specific type of clock in my bedroom. There are several old people reasons to have this particular clock. This clock projects the time onto the ceiling. Now that I’m waking up in the middle of the night semi-frequently it’s nice to be able to glance quickly at the time without fumbling for my glasses. I’m able to see what time it is without being fully awake which is a plus.
The other feature the clock has is a thermometer. The bedroom isn’t near the house thermostat so it’s nice to know the temperature inside the bedroom. This way we can know the answer to the question “Is it cold in here or is it me?”
The least helpful feature is the outside temperature. If I’m going out and want to know what the temperature is or is going to be I’ll look at my phone. I won’t be running into the bedroom to look at the ceiling. To be clear this clock isn’t that high tech. It’s not connected to the internet. It’s not hooked up to WiFi or cellular networks. There was a little rectangle that was supposed to be placed on the outside of a close by window that recorded the outside temperature. It worked well for awhile until the battery died. I never replaced the battery.
Fast forward to now. We moved. We are now about 50 miles from the old place. That little rectangle with the dead battery is probably still on our old bedroom window sill. I didn’t move it. Now out of the blue, 50 miles and 6 months removed from the old sensor, the clock is giving me outside temperatures again. And it’s accurate. The only explanation I have is maybe I’m being haunted by a dead meteorologist.
What makes it more unlikely than just possible compatibility is where the clock is in relation to any other houses in the area. These things are only supposed to work within a few feet of each other. The next house is much further than that.
Nah, can’t be this. I’m going with the dead meteorologist.
Or maybe it’s one of those “Homeward Bound” stories, where the old sensor has been slowly making its way back to you and just got in range. Probably a good samaritan changed its battery.
When you say it’s “accurate”, do you mean it’s accurately registering the temperature at your new house or at your old one? Maybe 50 miles apart isn’t far enough to really tell the difference.
Is there anything else in the house with a wireless temp sensor? Those things are pretty standard off-the-shelf components and they don’t have a huge range of assigned frequencies. Might be picking up temp data from something else that just happens to share the same sensor.
Though a bit tangential, I’m reminded of this bit from Steven Wright:
I have a switch in my house that doesn’t do anything. Every so often I would flick it on and off just to check. Yesterday, I got a letter from a woman in Germany. She said, ‘Cut it out’.
Obviously it’s displaying the average of the temperatures at your old and new locations. Please move somewhere else so we can see what it does when it has three temperatures to work with.
I think it’s reading temp from your phone, car, refrigerator, the TV, the microwave..
Now, see, I’m not techy enough to know how that might work.
I have a fear all the tech companies are boondoglin’ us anyway. Not ghosts, just nutty assemblers somewhere with a joke in their heart. Just effing with you.
Serious suggestion: wrap it in foil and see if it stops. Assuming it does, make a “wall of foil” on three sides and move that until you figure out the directionality of the signal. Then go look in that direction.
One possibility: previous resident happened to have same/similar sensor, forgot it when they moved?
