Hooking up the heating is mandatory in a climate where snowfall and frost occur every year. This year, one of my ultrasound instruments did not have the heating plugged in. There was a heavy snowstorm, with 20 cm falling in 24 hours. The WS80 iced up, snow covered the entire instrument, and I had a second WS80 in the same town to which I had put heating before the snowstorm.
The second WS80 worked smoothly during the heavy winter precipitation at around 0°C. The first instrument succumbed to ice, hung up the wind speed on one value for 1 hour, then started showing wind gusts of 120-140 km/,h, which certainly did not occur.
Interestingly, by this time the WS68 had completely iced up and the wind vane and blades had stopped rotating, and so had the Barani Wind without heating. The WS80 worked smoothly and the heater passed the test. If anyone cares about reliable and continuous measurements in the cold half of the year, hooking up the cable together with the heater is the only solution. There is a reason why all instruments from professional companies such as Vaisala, Gill, Lufft, Thies, have sensor heating options to remove snow and ice from the transmitters.
The truth is that ultrasonic anemometers are more reliable than rotary anemometers in cold climates, but it is mandatory to have a heater. Otherwise, during a heavy snowstorm and when the temperature is at or below 0°C, the measuring instrument will ice up after some time and consequently show incorrect values.
A cable must also be connected to the WS90 if the instrument is to function faultlessly throughout the winter period. This year to one WS90, I did not connect a heating cable for a test, it rained freezing rain and erroneous wind speed values started to appear. Surprisingly the snowstorm did not ice the WS90, but the intensity was not as high as in April when I had a WS80 in the same location. In any case, the WS90s at either location will have a heating cable hooked up, as the likelihood of icing on the measuring instrument, even outside mountainous areas, is high in winter weather and not worth giving up.
It should also be added that although Ecowitt gives a maximum of 20 m cable to the power supply, this can be circumvented very simply. Buy a suitable extension cable, e.g. 20 m or 30 m, and run two cables, so that the power supply can be provided from the house or garage, for example. Of course, we insulate the plug from moisture so that there is no short-circuit in the extension cable, and we put the power supply unit in plastic packaging or foil, for example, so that it is not so exposed to the weather, even though it has an IP standard.
