We purchased the Saratoga house in '91 which had a thick shake roof installed in the late '80s and it was time for a roof replacement. The cabled Davis VP1+ station was installed on a tripod on the roof (as the only clear sky-view around the house) and had always suffered +4F temperature readings due to the position (despite the 24Hr FARS). I'd been wanting to split the Davis ISS and put the temp/humidity FARS down on the North side of the house at 5ft elevation to more accurately indicate the temperatures, and the re-roofing gave me the opportunity (and a few extra challenges). I talked with Davis tech support (very helpful) about extending the temp/hum sensor cable and they said keep it to 25ft or less, so I'd cut a Davis 40ft extension (6P6C RJ12) and reterminated it with a RJ12 socket as the extension from the controller to the ISS mounted on the wall.
During the roof removal and installation, I had to switch to a wireless Davis VP2+ system on a tripod in the back yard for conditions. Unfortunately, it's a 'green dot' system which was only partially compatible with the VirtualVP software, so while Weather-Display worked fine, WeatherLink 6.03 could collect conditions but error trying to upload the graphs/NOAA reports, so the saratoga-weather.org website had to be modified work with the temporary VP2+, and my other weather programs (used for testing the templates) were only partially functional. So, from July 29 to August 5, the roof replacement was done (a new metal 'shake-lookalike') was installed. I disassembled the old VP1 FARS from the ISS and cleaned the parts.. lot's of grime from being on the roof for 12 years. Unfortunately, my cleaning of the temp/humidity sensor with a small brush likely dropped some grime into the sensor which then indicated 100% humidity. I tried ordering a replacement from Davis-- out of stock and obsolete, and the VP2 sensors wouldn't work. I found that WeatherSpares in the UK had some left, so purchased and waited for Royal Mail+USPS to deliver the new sensor. It finally arrived on July 27, and a replacement FARS fan and anemometer were installed to replace the original ones. I also ordered an additional temp/hum sensor for when this one fails in the future
Now my VP1+ install has new temp/hum sensor and a better placement and a new 24hr FARS fan (cabled), a new anemometer/wind vane (mounted 7ft above the roof), and is working quite well! My CWOP stats show that my temp/hum readings are better aligned with my neighbors (and match better with the VP2's temp/hum too).
The second anemometer/wind vane is for the Davis VP2 system used as backup. It's a wireless system and I'm pleased the new metal roof still allows the wireless signal to work from the anemometer transmitter mounted on the tripod.
Yes, you do see solar panels -- as part of the reroofing we decided to install a 5.2KW (AC) solar setup (Sunpower panels/microinverters) and got the go-ahead from PG&E to operate on September 6th. On sunny days, we generate about 26KWh and it's nice to see the meter running backwards at about 3KW
Here's the before and after pics of the station now.
Direction
Looking: | Original
Feb. 2004 | Current
Sept. 2016 |
| North |  |  |
| East |  |  |
| South |  |  |
| West |  |  |
FARS Location
North | |  |
Best regards,
Ken
