WXforum.net
Weather Station Hardware => AcuRite Weather Stations => Topic started by: nincehelser on October 05, 2016, 02:55:59 PM
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Another apparently new thing Acurite has put out.
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https://www.acurite.com/solar-radiation-shield.html
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I gotta try it. I asked for it, so I must get one.
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I gotta try it. I asked for it, so I must get one.
I have mine in an old Oregon Scientific model. Works great for the tower sensor.
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Nice! Thanks for the heads up George!
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Just bought one! Looks better than my inverted plastic bowl!
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I haven't ordered just yet, but will soon. Let us know what you think Harold.
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I have one on the way! I will do some comparisons and let you know my results!
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Acurite is putting some good products out =D>
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Acurite is putting some good products out =D>
I was in Lowe's today and there was a huge Acurite display. Everything from 14" round dials for temperature to the new 5-in-1 weather station. The display must of been 8 ft high and 10 ft wide.
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I have one on the way! I will do some comparisons and let you know my results!
I've had mine up for 2 days now. I await your impression of it, as mine is less than favorable... It has one job to do (Clearly outlined in the name of the product) and it doesn't seem to do it very well at all..
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Mine arrived today. I will put it up tomorrow and let you know what I think of it.
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I wonder if it may be too small. I seem to have good results with mine but mine looks a little larger than the Acurite model.
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After poking around for a little bit this evening and considering trying to build my own again (better looking than my first homemade one) I came across some solar powered small fans. I ordered a couple and might just try to aspirate the AcuRite shield. I like the size and the way it looks. The order is shipping from China though (likely on the slowest boat possible), so don't expect an update on my progress for a few weeks.
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I have one on the way! I will do some comparisons and let you know my results!
I've had mine up for 2 days now. I await your impression of it, as mine is less than favorable... It has one job to do (Clearly outlined in the name of the product) and it doesn't seem to do it very well at all..
Hi A1. Do you find that it still heats too much.? And if so, how much does it decrease the temp by compared to temp from the 5in1?
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I plan on ordering one along with a tower sensor to compare with my 5-in-1. Very pleased with the 5-in-1 with the latest round of dual solar sensors that I got at the first of the year. Seems to be spot on for the most part!
Chris
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Hi A1. Do you find that it still heats too much.? And if so, how much does it decrease the temp by compared to temp from the 5in1?
I have a tower and the 5-in-1. The 5-in-1 (about 30ft above ground) has better temperatures (close or equal to neighbors within 2 miles) overnight and into mid-morning. At about 11AM local the temperature in it spikes up to 6 degrees warmer if it's a sunny day. About 1.5 hours later the temperatures drop back down. I've got a new dual panel unit (Ordered a couple weeks ago) to replace mine with (I bought the dual panels for it before I first put it up a couple years ago so it's one of the older units) I think the reason for the spike is the fan stops turning when the sun is directly in front of the unit and not directly into either of the panels.
My tower sensor (different location in my yard)was in a homemade shield. It gets direct sun from about 20 minutes after sunrise for about 30 minutes. When it hit my homemade shield the temperature would rise about 2-3 degrees over the 5-in-1 but would stabilize back down and equal within a degree once back in the shade. Overnight on the tower it was about 1.5 degrees warmer.
Now with the AcuRite Solar Radiation shield on it I'm spiking about 6 degrees (in a matter of minutes) and then remaining warmer longer once the morning sun hits it and it's back in the shade again. Night time still is about 1.5 warmer, but I kind of expect that. I'm just trying to deal with the direct sun on it for that 30 minute window in the morning. Hopefully I can help this out with the small solar powered fan I ordered to draw the cool air up into and over the sensor. The air is also usually quite calm in the morning, so no breeze to blow through the shield to help.
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I put one of my towers in the shield this afternoon. Two things: the tower's temp is now very close to that of the 5in1 when the sun is shining but humidity is lower by 10%+ (consistently) and more closely matches other nearby stations on both WU and CWOP. As night came, the tower is a couple of degrees warmer than the 5in1 and is closer to other stations around me. Using a Meteobridge, I'm reporting the tower's temp, humidity and dew point to WU and CWOP. The 2nd thing I noticed is that signal strength dropped from 2 bars to 1 bar with the shield. Don't know yet if this will be a problem, but I'm watching it. I will continue to monitor the shielded tower and report back.
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Harold, try aiming the tower with it's side towards the Smarthub. I've found that this raises the signal some.
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The insides of a typical tower sensor for reference. The antenna is at the top, not blocked either front or back.
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It's supposed to be omni-directional and it looks as though it is. Even though it's only plastic, I think the shield might be blocking the signal a little bit. So far, I haven't dropped off, though, even with only one bar showing.
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It's supposed to be omni-directional and it looks as though it is. Even though it's only plastic, I think the shield might be blocking the signal a little bit. So far, I haven't dropped off, though, even with only one bar showing.
Do you have it hanging from a metal hook or chain? It's possible that might be "de-tuning" the antenna a bit.
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Nah, it's hanging from a string tied to a branch on my birch tree about 50' from the hub. Same branch as before the shield, by the way. It's about 9' off the ground. Still have not lost signal even with only one bar.
If you don't mind, please explain again how the range extender (which I have) works.
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Hi A1. Do you find that it still heats too much.? And if so, how much does it decrease the temp by compared to temp from the 5in1?
I have a tower and the 5-in-1. The 5-in-1 (about 30ft above ground) has better temperatures (close or equal to neighbors within 2 miles) overnight and into mid-morning. At about 11AM local the temperature in it spikes up to 6 degrees warmer if it's a sunny day. About 1.5 hours later the temperatures drop back down. I've got a new dual panel unit (Ordered a couple weeks ago) to replace mine with (I bought the dual panels for it before I first put it up a couple years ago so it's one of the older units) I think the reason for the spike is the fan stops turning when the sun is directly in front of the unit and not directly into either of the panels.
My tower sensor (different location in my yard)was in a homemade shield. It gets direct sun from about 20 minutes after sunrise for about 30 minutes. When it hit my homemade shield the temperature would rise about 2-3 degrees over the 5-in-1 but would stabilize back down and equal within a degree once back in the shade. Overnight on the tower it was about 1.5 degrees warmer.
Now with the AcuRite Solar Radiation shield on it I'm spiking about 6 degrees (in a matter of minutes) and then remaining warmer longer once the morning sun hits it and it's back in the shade again. Night time still is about 1.5 warmer, but I kind of expect that. I'm just trying to deal with the direct sun on it for that 30 minute window in the morning. Hopefully I can help this out with the small solar powered fan I ordered to draw the cool air up into and over the sensor. The air is also usually quite calm in the morning, so no breeze to blow through the shield to help.
I can't really tell how well ventilated this new radiation shield is from the pics on the acurite site. It seems that it is somewhat effective from the comments seen here. I switched to using the temp/humidity data from a 3in1 as my official temp readings. This allows for a much greater air flow around the sensor. There is still some extra heating involved since the plastic does retain heat. However anything short of a FARS IMHO will show higher temps. I will hold off ordering this until I can see some more detailed pics of the design.
Thanks
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Nah, it's hanging from a string tied to a branch on my birch tree about 50' from the hub. Same branch as before the shield, by the way. It's about 9' off the ground. Still have not lost signal even with only one bar.
If you don't mind, please explain again how the range extender (which I have) works.
In a nutshell, it repeats the signals it hears, assuming the signals were present during the original scanning (If you turned off a sensor, it might be necessary to have the repeater re-scan... it locks onto sensors in the same time-based way the displays do).
As far as the SmartHUB goes, it operates on the first signal it can understand, so the repeated signal is likely ignored if the original signal is still in-range.
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Hi A1. Do you find that it still heats too much.? And if so, how much does it decrease the temp by compared to temp from the 5in1?
I have a tower and the 5-in-1. The 5-in-1 (about 30ft above ground) has better temperatures (close or equal to neighbors within 2 miles) overnight and into mid-morning. At about 11AM local the temperature in it spikes up to 6 degrees warmer if it's a sunny day. About 1.5 hours later the temperatures drop back down. I've got a new dual panel unit (Ordered a couple weeks ago) to replace mine with (I bought the dual panels for it before I first put it up a couple years ago so it's one of the older units) I think the reason for the spike is the fan stops turning when the sun is directly in front of the unit and not directly into either of the panels.
My tower sensor (different location in my yard)was in a homemade shield. It gets direct sun from about 20 minutes after sunrise for about 30 minutes. When it hit my homemade shield the temperature would rise about 2-3 degrees over the 5-in-1 but would stabilize back down and equal within a degree once back in the shade. Overnight on the tower it was about 1.5 degrees warmer.
Now with the AcuRite Solar Radiation shield on it I'm spiking about 6 degrees (in a matter of minutes) and then remaining warmer longer once the morning sun hits it and it's back in the shade again. Night time still is about 1.5 warmer, but I kind of expect that. I'm just trying to deal with the direct sun on it for that 30 minute window in the morning. Hopefully I can help this out with the small solar powered fan I ordered to draw the cool air up into and over the sensor. The air is also usually quite calm in the morning, so no breeze to blow through the shield to help.
I can't really tell how well ventilated this new radiation shield is from the pics on the acurite site. It seems that it is somewhat effective from the comments seen here. I switched to using the temp/humidity data from a 3in1 as my official temp readings. This allows for a much greater air flow around the sensor. There is still some extra heating involved since the plastic does retain heat. However anything short of a FARS IMHO will show higher temps. I will hold off ordering this until I can see some more detailed pics of the design.
Thanks
The shield is not as large as the Ambient weather model. In the case of sensor shields, larger is definitely better. I know, because I built a smaller version, and it was not near as effective as the current shield I am using, with large bowls, and painted glossy white. It does a very good job. If you can locate the acurite shield in partial shade, or aspirate it, that would probably be enough, but if you have it in the sun all day, like CWOP says, it may hold heat if you don't have a steady breeze.
Here are the ambient specs vs Acurite....
Outer Dimensions (WxLxH): 7.4" x 9.2" x 10.9"
Dimensions 7.5-inch Height x 5.375-inch Width x 4-inch Depth
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That's a great add to their product line...
Now if only:
1. You could submit the shielded tower's temperature and/or humidity sensors instead of the 5-1's to WU. If you have multiple sensors you should be able to pick and chose what sensor readings to send to WU. In AZ in the intense sun we have and exacerbated by the challenges posed suburban/HOA siting it stands to figure that your 5-1 readings may not be the best for WU reports. I.E. you may have your 5-1 30'ft in the air where it gets direct sun all day but want to submit your heat shielded tower sensor temp instead of the 5-1's 5 to 7 degree too high temp. Overall, this feature by itself could lead to many more gold-starred Acurite 5-1s on WU which could only be good PR even if a bit sleight-of-handish if you know what i mean.
2. You could set the 5-1 temp correction for 4 hr intervals so that you could in effect account for differences in direct sun exposure. That way you could 0 the diff at night and adjust it seasonally for the changes in daylight hours, customize it for the sun travel during the day etc.
3. You could add an after-market 5-1 shield for places like AZ. Something like a two-part ultra-white rubber.foam form fitting that you can snap around the main body leaving the solar panels and anenometer exposed of course.
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That's a great add to their product line...
Now if only:
1. You could submit the shielded tower's temperature and/or humidity sensors instead of the 5-1's to WU. If you have multiple sensors you should be able to pick and chose what sensor readings to send to WU. In AZ in the intense sun we have and exacerbated by the challenges posed suburban/HOA siting it stands to figure that your 5-1 readings may not be the best for WU reports. I.E. you may have your 5-1 30'ft in the air where it gets direct sun all day but want to submit your heat shielded tower sensor temp instead of the 5-1's 5 to 7 degree too high temp. Overall, this feature by itself could lead to many more gold-starred Acurite 5-1s on WU which could only be good PR even if a bit sleight-of-handish if you know what i mean.
2. You could set the 5-1 temp correction for 4 hr intervals so that you could in effect account for differences in direct sun exposure. That way you could 0 the diff at night and adjust it seasonally for the changes in daylight hours, customize it for the sun travel during the day etc.
3. You could add an after-market 5-1 shield for places like AZ. Something like a two-part ultra-white rubber.foam form fitting that you can snap around the main body leaving the solar panels and anenometer exposed of course.
For #1, you can....if you use Kevin's software. I use my tower sensor for my primary temp/hum sensor, and my 5 in 1 for rain and wind. If Acurite ever comes out with an anemometer only, I'll get it, along with a new rain gauge and do away with the 5 in 1.
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You can use a Meteobridge to min 'n match, too. I use my shielded tower to report temp/humidity/dew point and the 5in1 for wind & rain. Pressure, of course, comes from the hub itself.
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Was about to order, and it's sold out. :(
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I thought I would share my experience so far after a period of over a months use of the radiation shield. I was a bit doubtful when I first got it, because the thing is so small, I thought there was no way this would do the job, but now that I have tested it for a while, I really like it. I like the fact that it seems to get plenty of air circulating inside it, enough so that the daytime highs are 1 degree cooler than the 5 in 1, (sometimes 2 or 3) and humidity readings are much quicker to respond than they were inside my large homemade shield. I do notice as the sun rises in the morning, my temp reading is higher than everything by sometimes 4 or 5 F, but then it levels off and others catch up and pass me. This is in full sunshine all day. At night, mine cools down faster than everyone also.
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I've had mine for a few months and really like it. I use the temp & humidity data from the shielded tower sensor to report to WU (via Meteobridge).
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Bump...
Any new update guys now that it's been awhile, does this shield seem to be working? I'm reading mixed results here.