Topic: Long Distance Install of Ultrasonic Heater?

[doabbs]

My trusty Ambient Weather WS-1401-IP is starting to show its age (UV degradation of the plastic, no longer getting UV Index, Temp readings getting inaccurate)

I'm located in Northern New England and from Nov-Apr temperatures are below freezing and we get a considerable amount of snow on average.

I'm considering the new Ultrasonic based wind sensor systems and noticed that there's a requirement for a heating element?

The current station is mounted about 200' feet from the our barn in the middle of a field.  There is no power out to the unit.

Looking for tips/recommendations on if it's worth going to Ultrasonic given this limitation? 

The current system is heavily used for automation with Home Assistant on our farm. 

[Rover1822]

I don't know the current draw of the heater element, but 200' is a fair distance, and you would need to take voltage drop into account and size your wire accordingly.  Maybe someone else will chime in with the draw in amps.

If I had to make a guess, I would say you might be better off with just a regular non ultrasonic. For just the pain of running the wire.

[BoDuke]

I doubt that it would be worth the effort to get power 200 feet to an ultrasonic weather station.  Plus, who knows how long the ultrasonic weather station, which costs more, will last.  Do you happen to know how old your WS-1401-IP is?

[olicat]

Hi!

The advantage of the long cable would also be that instead of the 12V at the end, perhaps only 9V arrive at the sensor (with 0.75mm wire diameter) and thus the heating does not run at maximum power. This then leads to less distortion of temperature and humidity when the heating is in operation.
At least Ecowitt recommended that I reduce the voltage to limit the influence of the heating.

Oliver

[Rover1822]

Thanks Oliver, some more data to store in my head

At least Ecowitt recommended that I reduce the voltage to limit the influence of the heating.

For me, that would be more of a reasons to go with a standard cup based anemometer in the OPs instance. But, I do like the ultrasonic as well, not so fond of their response to have you drop the V on the heater. That info may really help some others in the forum that are seeing issues with the temp readings.

Of course that means using a different power supply unit for those with shorter runs.

[doabbs]

I doubt that it would be worth the effort to get power 200 feet to an ultrasonic weather station.  Plus, who knows how long the ultrasonic weather station, which costs more, will last.  Do you happen to know how old your WS-1401-IP is?

Installed my WS-1401-IP on December 2, 2014