BillA's correct in one respect that the accuracy needed to measure temperature with certanty to less than one degree is beyond any average person. In water cooling a difference of 1deg C is a big deal. But most of us don't have a way of measuring a 1deg C difference. PERIOD. I'm really not going to get into all of the technical difficulty in doing it. Just say that temerature measurement is one of the least accurate basic things we measure. There are things less accurate but most are derived from the basics.
As an example we can measure:
Time +/- .000000000000005 sec
Voltage +/- .00000002 V
Mass +/- .0000002 kg
Temp +/- .00004 C
From NIST the people who calibrate the standards.
I personally don't care to know if I'm running colder than someone else. I agree it would be nice to be able to compare.
The only thing I can think of is using a ice bath. An ice bath is a insulated cup (styrofoam) filled with ice chips then filled with enough water just to cover. The ice and the water used should be pure not tap. Then while using keep stirring it. You can get 0 deg C +/- .1 to +/- .01 deg C using this method depending on your technique. In theory one could use this reference to see how much your temp sensor is off at 0 C. This correction can then be applied to all values. Realizing that most PN junction (diode) thermometers have a non-linerarity of about 1 deg C you can get close to being within 1 deg C.
Getting beter than 1 deg C readings is just well beyond what most enthusiasts will do.
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