Due to some pressure about climbing (at my age!) to maintain the 10 year old Davis Vantage Vue I bought some Ecowitt sensors to work smarter and access from ground level which led to designing and 3D printing a solar shield that would accomodate a Ecowitt WN32 Temperature / Humidity transmitter.
It is loosely based on many similar shields currently available. Printed in white and painted flat black internally, there are two top plates, seven ventilated plates and two plates for holding and accessing the sensor. For maintenance the access plate has a threaded cap and basket for the WN32 which slides through the bottom plate.
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After comparing the results over several months in a spreadsheet reading were in concert with the Vue and which is now decommissioned.
After reading some articles on helix solar shields I thought I might give that a try. This turned out to be a bit more difficult as each plate has to link up to the one above. This was overcome by putting split in each plate print and printing a spiral starter that twists the plate on assembly to meet up with adjacent joint assisted with a sleeve. The stand offs on each plate also had to be raked so on assembly they appeared vertical for the threaded rod. The access plate, cap and basket is similar as before. Outside was painted gloss white and inside flat black. A WN31 was added for comparison.
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That was 12 months ago and today I was able to extract that data and compare daily temperature average, high and low and compare difference over the year. The results were mostly 0.0º C up to 0.1º C different for Daily Averages. Daily Highs were 0.3º C different a few times but mostly varying between 0.0º C to 0.2º C. Daily Lows had a 0.0º C to 0.1º C difference.
So for what it is worth my helical solar shield design gives much the same results and my standard design and differences explained by minor calibration differences between the two sensors or shading.
