Topic: what weather station for my needs?

[tommydog]

I live in the far north of Scotland and am mainly looking for a weather station to monitor wind speed with a view to a wind turbine installation at a later date.  My plan is to leave the weather station erected for a year, so I can monitor every month. I would like something that can automatically produce summary graphs to show average and peak wind speeds per month.  It would also be useful if I could measure sunlight, as this will also give me an idea of viability of a solar panel install at a later date.  I am not bothered about measuring rainfall etc.

As I will mount the weather station on the roof, I have to think about power, as I don't want to have to frequently climb on the roof to change batteries.  I do have POE on my roof, but there don't seem to be many weather stations supporting POE.  One option I did find is this:

QWS-4000
http://www.iqtronic.com/products/ethernet-lan-ip-weather-station-with-storm-detection/

But I am not sure how good / user friendly the above product is?  As I say, I ideally want something that can produce summary graphs without too much tinkering. 

I forgot to mention, I have good outdoor wifi coverage (have quite a few outdoor access point), so I don't need anything with 4G.

What are peoples thoughts for my application?

[broadstairs]

Might be good to give us an idea of your budget. There are stations from a few pounds to 1000's of pounds.

Stuart

[tommydog]

Might be good to give us an idea of your budget. There are stations from a few pounds to 1000's of pounds.

Stuart

Ideally I don't want to spend too much.  Probably no more than £500, although I can be flexible.  If there is something at the cheaper end that is decent quality and will fit my purpose that's even better.

[Garth Bock]

For under 500 ($630 USD) you can find many inexpensive stations but some of them make you give up some things. The Vantage Pro2 transmitter sends a data packet to the console every 2.5 seconds. The weather conditions that are the most variable (such as wind speed and direction) are updated with each packet, while most other conditions are updated every 10 seconds. With the competition's stations, the update interval is much longer: 30 seconds, or even 3 minutes or longer. So if update intervals are not a problem there are other less expensive stations out there. The Davis is powered by a solar panel that charges a supercapacitor that provides power even during long cloudy periods. There is a lithium battery that provides support during extensive cloudy periods. This is far better than some stations that use AA or AAA batteries. The Davis console (6313) has graphing and can send the data to WeatherLink.com so you can access it via app where ever you are.

So you need to think if you need accuracy and quick update intervals or save a few pounds or Euros and go with a less expensive station.

[tommydog]

So you need to think if you need accuracy and quick update intervals or save a few pounds or Euros and go with a less expensive station.

Thanks for your reply. The Davis station does look nice.  Out of interest what do you think of the iqtronic QWS-4000 product that I posted?  Its only about 200 euro and advertises a refresh Interval of 1-10 seconds.  Looking at the manual, you can see data in real time, but there does not seem to be any nice graphing tools that collate / present data over the weeks and months.  I am not that techie, so not sure if it could be paired with something easily for that functionality?

[broadstairs]

Out of interest what do you think of the iqtronic QWS-4000 product that I posted?

The down side of that is that it is in the Europe with no UK distributors so making obtaining it more expensive especially if anything goes awry, customs charges etc. Also I'm not sure you will find much software to support it unlike Davis or Ecowitt equipment with both good software support and UK distributors.

Stuart

[tommydog]

Also I'm not sure you will find much software to support it unlike Davis or Ecowitt equipment with both good software support and UK distributors.

Yes I have not been able to find software for it.  It seems focus on collating raw data, where the processing of this data must be done manually. Not sure if anyone is aware of any compliant software with automatic graphing abilities?  Also have you heard of the unit before?  I ask this as I can't really find much information on it.  Does anyone know if the hardware is any good on it?  How does the hardware compare to the Davis?

[johnd]

TBH It's very difficult to offer an opinion on a device like this IQWS-4000 for several reasons. But a few comments off the top of my head:

• It's a different concept from most budget/prosumer weather stations on the market, being 'just' a set of wired sensors effectively and with apparently no inside display or data handling other than what you might write yourself
• It has the look of a cheap Chinese sensor set to my eye, but OTOH seems to be based in Czech Republic so no idea what to make of that - I may be doing it an injustice. But almost impossible to comment on robustness to storms or real-world longevity, whereas with their long production history Davis stations are generally good for 10-15 years and longer in some instances (with some maintenance and sensor element replacement along the way, as needed).
• There is apparently no rainfall measurement, which would normally be regarded as an essential sensor, but maybe that doesn't matter to you?
• There is no obvious radiation shield for the temp/hum sensor so likely to be substantial temp errors on sunny days. But again maybe this is not a priority?
• I'd be suspicious of the claim of UV measurement. There isn't any obvious separate UV sensor and typically the UV value is just roughly guessed from the light level in such configurations.
• Personally I'm never very convinced about the value of lightning detection on a station like this - good triangulated lightning data is readily available online
• The accuracy values are suspiciously good. What I mean is that they are probably best-case intrinsic accuracy figures from the sensor elements rather than real-world accuracy values, temperature being a case in point. But interesting that the pressure resolution is in mbar whereas the accuracy figure is in bar. 
• Wind direction is only 16 compass points rather than a continuous 350° scale, but again maybe that isn't a big deal for you.

Overall, I guess it's an interestingly different gadget and certainly might be good for wind data if you can make suitable data handling arrangements, though who knows about storm resistance/longevity. But comparing with other weather stations like Davis is not really an apples to apples comparison.

[tommydog]

Overall, I guess it's an interestingly different gadget and certainly might be good for wind data if you can make suitable data handling arrangements, though who knows about storm resistance/longevity.

The Davis stations look great, but they seem to come in well above £500. In terms of durability, don't need something that will last 10 years, as I only want to erect it for a year, although the winds can be wild here.  We are right on the cliffs by the sea and the storms can be crazy.  So it would certainly need to be up to surviving a storm.

One of the biggest things for me is data handling.  I did contact the manufacturers of the IQWS-4000  regarding this and they replied stating that "the device can send URL get with data to thingspeak.com.  Or you can use MRTG/PRTG software."  Do you know anything about these solutions and how user friendly they are?  I see thingspeak.com is free for home users.

[Wooks61]

Ecowitt range should fit within your budget. It is also well supported and a wealth of knowledge on this forum-
Take a look at.:
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=40730.0