Just wanted thank all the friendly and helpful folks here at WXForum that were so instrumental in helping me decide to go with Ecowitt equipment, and with all the helpful hints of how to get it reporting on WU. After many years of buying - and disappointed with - cheaper / unnamed PWS stuff, Ecowitt fit the bill perfectly for my situation.
At first, I was going to pull the trigger and buy an Ecowitt HP2553 unit with the ultrasonic anemometer. After reading WXForum comments about the questionable reliability of ultrasonic anemometers, I decided to custom-build my PWS with everything contained in the HP2553, but replacing the ultrasonic with the the tried-and-true mechanical WS68 anemometer. So far, I am 100% happy with that decision!
I've attached some photos of the finished project, and a few of the stories getting these individual instruments up and running:
The first photo is the WH31 outdoor temperature / humidity sensor tucked up in a corner of a well-ventilated, north-facing, patio roof 10' away from the house and is always exposed to natural air flow. This sensor never sees direct sunlight and reflected heat from the deck is absorbed by a cool-decking surrounding the pool. The roof above is 2x6 insulated wall construction with layers of internally-constructed, radiant-backed Styrofoam - courtesy of the home builder's original design, and a ventilated concrete tile roof. Virtually no radiated heat gets near this sensor at any time. It's also well shielded from most rainfall, but admittedly, some very windy rainfall / thunderstorms might swirl some fine spray around the sensor during those rare events. In my estimation, the placement of this sensor for accurate temperature readings equals or exceeds any shielding a solar / radiant SRS100LX equivalent, or Stevenson shield could provide - power ventilated or not. In the background, you can see the anemometer and rain gauge.
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The second photo is the WS68 anemometer and WH40 rain gauge. The anemometer is mounted on a 12'H / 1.5"D steel pole - painted to somewhat blend in with the surroundings. Although, it is not the perfect 10m height, it does comply with the acceptable: Distance = 4 x (Obstruction Height - Anemometer Installed Height) requirement. My strict HOA rules would never allow anything close to a 10m anemometer. The WH40 rain gauge is bolted directly to the top of the cinderblock wall and away from any obstructions.
The 12' pole is bolted to a 9' steel angle-iron rod cemented 3' in the ground. It was also carefully placed vertically plumb to ensure level accuracy to the pole attached to the angle iron. Although the 12' pole is perfectly plumb in the vertical, it does slightly sway in >40mph heavy winds - enough to trigger an "all-in-one" unit with a rain gauge tipping bucket with false rainfall readings. This was the major reason I wanted a separate rain gauge unit from the all-in-one instrument designs. Ecowitt devices served this desire perfectly.
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For the WH31B indoor temperature / humidity / barometric sensor (not pictured), I did something to satisfy my own desire for accuracy:
One the nice things about the WH31B sensor is the cycling display for temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. Before I brought my PWS online with WU, I inserted the batteries in the WH31B, and took it to the nearest airport to calibrate it to their known, accurate barometric readings - which in my case was the North Las Vegas airport (KVGT). I noticed right away, the WH31B sensor was reading 0.096" low on absolute pressure compared to KVGT equipment. I compensated that into my WS2000C console, and later - compensating altitude difference to my location. After a couple of weeks of initial calibration, the WH31B sensor seems to maintain good accuracy and follows KVGT readings quite closely.
The WS2000C console is a beautiful piece of work - first rate in my book. Although WU doesn't recognize Ecowitt devices, WU does recognize the Ambient Weather WS2000 clone, which turned out to report my Ecowitt hardware to WU just fine. Big thanks go to "galfert" for that helpful hint and for his other helpful hints.
Both the outdoor WH31, and indoor WH31B sensors read only 0.6 deg F low from the factory (by a lab-grade mercury thermometer), and both were temperature compensated in the WS2000C console as such.
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This is certainly not a advertisement for the Ecowitt PWS, but I do love my new weather station and highly recommend it to any weather enthusiast!
WU: KNVLASVE511
