Weather Station Hardware > What Weather Station Should I Buy?

What to get to resist wind/rain/wildlife

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src:
Newbie. What to get?

We live on exposed moorland in the UK. We get a lot of winds > 40mph, and a lot of rain, and putting those together we get a lot of horizontal driving rain. We also get quite a lot of mist and fog. And some ice/snow in winters, occasionally horizontal driving snow and snowdrifts. I'm wondering what kit will withstand this without water penetrating.

We are also situated between two nature reserves and so have a lot of birdlife, including some larger birds which like to perch on posts and similar e.g. buzzard, barn owl, short-eared owl, magpies and more. I'm wondering how a weather station will cope with a buzzard landing on its anenometer or rain gauge...

I want to be able to import data into Home Assistant. I got an Ecowitt 868MHz GW1102 kit from eBay but unfortunately the WS68 appears dead.

https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=45267.msg459287

The GW1100AE, WH32D, WH40A are all working.

The question arises as to what to buy to replace the WS68. Do I simply buy a replacement WS68 or would it be sensible to buy something different?

Are the ultrasonic WS80 (or WS90) better than the WS68? The specs say they are more accurate, which seems a plus, but perhaps more important is which is more suited to my climate and wildlife, i.e. which is less likely to be damaged by water ingress or wildlife.

The requirement for a heater supply for the WS80/90 is troublesome as I won't be able to run a cable from the house to my intended location. However I might be able to rig up something with a 12V lead-acid battery and a solar panel.

Or should I be looking at something else altogether different, perhaps another brand?

Your recommendations?

Thanks

broadstairs:
Personally I prefer rain separately from wind so my suggestion is  WS80 and separate WH40 so they can be placed better. You will likely need a PC so you can update f/w on  the WS80, if you don't already have one, the WS80 needs the very latest f/w so if you go that route make sure it has been updated as UK suppliers may not have the latest installed on their stock. The heater is only necessary for the really cold times.

Stuart

Mattk:
You could look at something different but might be dependent on what you expect to pay to meet those conditions? In cold conditions then you would need to support the power requirements and more so with the higher end hardware?

src:
Thanks Broadstairs. I'm unclear whether you recommended the WS80 because it is better in general (e.g. more accurate) or because it is better for my circumstances (wind/rain/birdlife). Anyway you've prompted me to look more closely at it and I can see advantages.

It should cope better with birds perching on it, compared to having a heavy bird land on one of the cups of a WS68

I read that it is better at reporting wind gusts and we do have very gusty winds here.

I think I can solve the heater power supply problem without bothering with a solar panel. I have some lead-acid batteries that I use in the summer for electric fencing but don't use at all in the winter. What I can do is continue topping the charge up from time to time over the winter to keep them in condition, and in rotation keep one of the batteries by the WS80, connected via a 2A fused cable. Most of the winter they won't be drawing any/much power, but in colder spells I can rotate the batteries more often, probably daily (If they are running continuously they will draw 24 Ah / day which is quite a lot - some car starter batteries are rated less than 48Ah so would not last two days).

The prices at https://shop.ecowitt.com/ look better than Amazon/eBay etc, even allowing for carriage. Any other suggestions?

src:
Price comparing took me to Aliexpress. They don't have the Ecowitt WS80, though they do have the Misol-branded WS80 (433 MHz only) at £91 including postage. (I'd have to buy another GW1100 at 433MHz)

However the Ecowitt Aliexpress shop has a sale, 50% off many items, including the Ecowitt GW2001 package of both WS90 Wittboy + GW2000 for £144.84 with free postage, i.e. hardly any more than the Ecowitt WS80 alone if bought elsewhere

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005276861462.html

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