Personal Weather Station

[gdbontly]

I just installed my new personal weather station, an Acu-Rite Wireless Model #00615. Unlike my old one, this one measures wind speed (very important where we live!).



Note the wind speed when I took this picture at lunchtime today. This is a rare occurance this time of year! Later today, it's supposed to be gusting upwards of 50 mph! I don't think the Heat Index is very accurate; 142?



I picked up some plastic jack pads at Central Trailer Supply and attached the mounting bracket for the sensor. I used some nylon spacers to tilt it so the sensor would be level in the vertical. The pad is attached to the roof with heavy duty velcro. I'm wondering if I can leave the sensor installed while traveling? I'd hate to have to climb the rear ladder to remove it everytime we move (not that that's all that often at this point).

[rockintom]

Great addition Glenn, more toys!!! Yeah the other day in Moriarity when we were moving.....it was blowing 35 MPH with gust up to 65 MPH. I lost 2 totes that got away from me and slam into the fence and broke into pieces. I also saw a big piece of tin flying across the parking lot!!! Can you imagine what kind of damage that could to to the human body!!! Holy Cow! rockin'

[UFO Pilot]

Where did you purchase it? I am looking to replace my La Crosse weather station that has quit working.

[gdbontly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wthomas1 Where did you purchase it? I am looking to replace my La Crosse weather station that has quit working.

Home Depot for about $89. I looked at the LaCrosse models, but I wanted everything wireless. LaCrosse's wireless system had even more features than the Acu-Rite (some of which I didn't want or need), at a whopping cost of $250!

[UFO Pilot]

I bought my wireless La Crosse at Costco for $79. The suggested retail was $250. It worked great until I broke the wind speed sensor. Replacement parts are not available for it any more. Home Depot doesn't show your model online, I will look for it at the local store.

[KU9L]

We got the little brother of that one, no wind speed indicator. Weather Bug today said we were getting 61 MPH gusts and it felt like we were on a sailboat pitching back and forth during our 90 minute interview to possibly become RV campground managers. I am glad things are quieting down this evening as I still feel like we are swaying to and fro!

Dave

[gdbontly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wthomas1 I bought my wireless La Crosse at Costco for $79. The suggested retail was $250. It worked great until I broke the wind speed sensor. Replacement parts are not available for it any more. Home Depot doesn't show your model online, I will look for it at the local store.

I'm glad you posted your experience with the La Crosse, especially about replacement parts not being available. As it turns out, the Acu-Rite did not live up to its expectations. Yesterday's winds were gusting up to 50 mph. The Acu-Rite never showed more than 24 mph. It appears that it only records sustained winds, so today I'll package it back up and return it. Oh well.

[KU9L]

Yeah, it probably has an averaging accumulator in it. However, the way they have you mount it is probably not accurate either. As someone who has installed dozens of wind generators, wind speed can only be accurately measured when the sensor is mounted 30 feet above all surrounding objects for 500 feet. Otherwise the wind will swirl and tumble which adds, subtracts, multiples, and divides the actual wind speed to give you a totally inaccurate reading. It will make a small 600 watt wind generator in a 28 MPH straight-line constant wind to only put out 50-75 watts because all of the power is in the smooth constant laminar straight air flow.

When the wind hits the coach it tumbles straight up (the part you feel when the wind hits it) which cancels out part of the wind that flows over the coach to hit your whirly-bird sensor. The only ones I've seen on a coach that are even somewhat close to being accurate are the ones mounted to a mast on the ladder that the owners slides up about 5-10 feet when they are parked. In that configuration it is probably accurate to within + or -- 5-10 MPH, however 90% of the NWS remote monitors are also mounted too close to the ground so they get lots and lots of tumbling anyway. And those accumulating sensors aren't very fun in my opinion since they miss measuring the peak gusts, but they do it that way because they have cheap bearings and the thing can't accelerate fast enough to catch up to see the peak gusts EVEN if it was mounted high and clear above the coach. Still, they are fun to play with if not too frustrating!

Dave

[BigV]

You may have that wind issue with any wireless weather station. I don't think any provide a constant data stream. When I was researching them they all had some time of reporting interval. I'm pretty sure the acu-rite is every 18 seconds.

You may have to go wired to capture gusts.