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Personal Weather Stations


mick
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There's been some mention of personal weather stations in various threads over recent days so I thought I'd start a thread specifically for that topic.

I've had a weather station for the past 5 or 6 years but only since late 2011 have I been able to properly collect our local weather data. I began with a low-cost Watson type weather station when I lived in Selby but I found it frustrating that the temperature readings fluctuated so much in direct sunlight. However, I enjoyed the whole thing so much that by the time we moved to Conisbrough I had decided to invest in a much more costly Davis VP2 Plus weather station. The VP2 has proved much more accurate and, with its fan aspirated screen, far less prone to temperature fluctuations.

I also have an Oregon Scientific WMR200 station that records temperatures and rainfall at our caravan but like the Watson, it's nowhere near as accurate or as reliable as the Davis model. It frequently loses contact with the outdoor sensors even though they are located within feet of the receiver.

If someone were to ask what benefits there are from having a weather station then I'm at a loss to respond. I just enjoy recording the changes in our local weather and comparing it from day to day, month to month, and year to year.

So I've had experience of three different models of personal weather stations and if you'd like to discuss anything or ask any questions then I'd be happy to reply. I'd also be interested in hearing about your own set-up's and reasons for doing it!

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I was involved with the installation of a weather station at my sailing club, we only needed wind speed and direction but it came with the rest anyway.

We had the same problem with temperature, the sensor is on the side of the starters box on the roof of the club, because the cable wasn't long enough to put it round the back of the box. it therefore caught the early morning till about 10:00 and being black, rose in temperature quite spectacularly. I solved the problem by putting a margarine tub over it, with ventilation hole each side.

My own, so far uninstalled system, is partly due to my interest in the weather for sailing, partly to see what conditions we actually get in figures and partly because of a general interest in the weather.

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My experience with weather stations is somewhat mixed. When mine was up and running is was great. But living out in the sticks we experience a lot of power outages. Many of them are just for a few seconds, but over a period of 4-5 years they were responsible for destroying 2 UPS's, 1 computer and 2 weather stations. The first was a cheap one and not really up to much but the second was an Oregon Scientific WM100 which was great until it failed to work after yet another power cut.

At the time I was also monitoring and downloading EUMETSAT information and images from various geostationary and orbiting weather satellites via a large satellite dish. Sadly, this also bit the dust after the receiver card in the PC got fried by the large power surge that also did for the last UPS I was using to protect the whole lot.

For anyone interested in this kind of thing, here's an article (in PDF format) I had published in the "Group for Earth Observation" quarterly magazine...

contrails.pdf

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The electrical failure after power cuts/surges was common here in this area of Norfolk we lost several bits and pieces like digital TV adaptors and PC power supplies.fortunately last year they replaced many poles and rewired them with insulated bundles of cables instead of the old four wires one above each other, we've not had a problem since.

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drmalesis said:

...I've just given up now... :(

I'm sorry to hear you've given up on the weather station Duncan - I used to enjoy visiting your site and viewing the webcam. I'm also surprised, if not somewhat alarmed, to learn that you've lost so much gear through power outages. We get relatively few power outages and the latest one was as a result of workmen digging up the road and disturbing supplies, but it cost me the PC power unit. I've replaced the PC power unit and thought it was a good idea to add a UPS to protect the computer and weather station but after reading your account I'm now wondering if I'm as protected as I believed I would be.

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mick said:

I'm sorry to hear you've given up on the weather station Duncan - I used to enjoy visiting your site and viewing the webcam. I'm also surprised' date=' if not somewhat alarmed, to learn that you've lost so much gear through power outages. We get relatively few power outages and the latest one was as a result of workmen digging up the road and disturbing supplies, but it cost me the PC power unit. I've replaced the PC power unit and thought it was a good idea to add a UPS to protect the computer and weather station but after reading your account I'm now wondering if I'm as protected as I believed I would be.[/quote']

 

\ said:

 

...I've just given up now... :(

Hi Mick,

The power supply isn't too bad around here at the moment, but we went through a bad patch when we were getting several power cuts a day. With the power being supplied over overhead lines, they are really susceptible to high winds, heavy rain and electrical storms. The main transformer is on a pole just behind the house and you could hear it tripping out. There were a couple of days in 2013 where the power dropped and kicked back in several times in the period of a couple of minutes. It was this day that did the real damage. The poor PC didn't even finish rebooting before it lost power again.

Anyway, sadly neither the cash nor the will is currently available to start again, but I've not given up hope of resurrecting it at some point in the future as and when finances allow. I couldn't afford the Davies weather station last time around, but that will be my first choice if I do start again...

Duncan

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drmalesis said:

...There were a couple of days in 2013 where the power dropped and kicked back in several times in the period of a couple of minutes. It was this day that did the real damage. The poor PC didn't even finish rebooting before it lost power again...

That's what did it for me too. The power had been off for a few minutes and then there was two attempts to put it back on in quick succession - neither of which succeeded. There wasn't even enough time for the PC to begin booting. After a couple of hours when the power was eventually restored, the PC was completely dead. I'm just glad that was the only damage.

I would certainly recommend the Davis model. Mine's the wireless version but the cabled version is quite a bit cheaper if you can accommodate the wires. In the past I've had a lot of problems with cables - I was always cutting through them with the lawnmower or edging shears. I had to fit a new fan above the temp/humidity sensor this summer and the Davis replacement part was something like £50 or more (yikes!). I just got a similar fan off eBay for £4 and glued it inside the old Davis fan casing. Apart from that I've also changed a battery - not bad for over 3 years continuous use.

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Hi Mick, I couldn't find this thread on the front of the forum went back to your post telling me about the new thread, here I am.

Sad to here you guys are having power issues, we had them in the 70's but it's not good when a computer is firing up and a power surge comes in, my son has a surge protector on his computer, as we still have the surges every now and then, not good you computer getting fired Mick good you had a back up.

I would love to get your brad but they are pretty dear over here, $500 plus, our problem with digital weather stations is they can't handle the hot summers here, this one is our third weather station, lashed and paid a bit more for it., we can cop 50 degrees in the sun .

AS you will see we had our first hot summer day still in spring, wasn't inside the new air-con passed in flying colours, a nice 24 degrees not outside, I stuck the old air-con remoter has a temp gauge in it, in the sun was 38.1 and out under the pergola was 33, still at 3pm 35 degrees and 29 outside.

Going to be a degree cooler tomorrow,, I will be working on my station building terminus, pic to follow in a new thread.

Tony from down under

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I think with your tree cover your wind speed indicator must under read in some directions.

The temperatures are quite cool compared to when I worked in Saudi 50c plus was common. But I'd like a little of your heat now.

Their mains is even worse we all had electromechanical voltage regulators as the mains was supposedly 240v live to neutral 120 live to earth. But I saw the mains in 240v often drop to below 100v and occasionally up to 290v!! You could hear the regulator winding up and down all the time.

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TheQ said:

I think with your tree cover your wind speed indicator must under read in some directions....

It's very difficult for many of us to locate outdoor sensors in ideal locations. My anemometer is clear of buildings but still slightly below roof line so depending on the wind direction I'm going to be slightly out too. One day I will get round to fixing it to the house eaves and above the roof line for greater accuracy. My temperature/humidity sensors are also to a small degree sheltered by surrounding fences and buildings, although nothing too close, but it will impact on the accuracy of recordings. However, whist my recorded data might not accurately compare to official weather stations I am able to collect data that allows me to compare conditions in my own garden all year round which to me is the whole point.

I have a cheap outdoor temp/humidity sensor fastened to a north facing brick-built garage wall which receives no direct sunlight, sending data back to an indoor display unit located in the kitchen. This outdoor sensor rarely compares to the data from my weather station and can quite often record higher temperatures than my Davis set-up even when the Davis is in direct sunlight.

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I know what you mean Mick with the difficulty of choosing a site. I know it's supposed to be 30ft above ground level and In clear air to register the same as the Met office, But I also know some Met office site do not meet those rules. On Benbecula, in the outer Hebrides, I lived in a 3 story barrack block which looked down on the met office building and mast. So if they had an south easterly wind they had no chance of having a correct wind speed reading, although it did record the westerly at 126MPH one night as there is nothing between it and Canada.

My own site, wherever I put it in the garden will have some wind distortion as the garden is an old orchard. It will have to be near the railway shed, so It's likely it will have clear wind east, south east, (eventually south when I've trimmed some more trees) disturbed wind due to Orchard from south west through to north, and badly disturbed from the North east due to the house. My current Intention is to cut the nearest tree to the shed down leaving a 10ft tall Stump and strapping scaffolding pole or an old sailing boat mast to it to get some height. The other trees in that line will be cut down to 3ft stumps and encouraged back into being a hedge.

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