Topic: BloomSky Facing North

[hankster]

Just putting this out there as an FYI. I really had no place to my BloomSky facing north permanently so about a week ago I put in on the pole that also holds my Davis Vue on the north side of the house. It is below the roof line of the house so only gets a bit of direct sun early morning and late evening. So far the battery has remained at 100% charge but to me that is not that surprising as it does come with a fairly large solar panel. The only disadvantage is my UV readings are low since it does not get direct sunlight.

[VaJim]

Just putting this out there as an FYI. I really had no place to my BloomSky facing north permanently so about a week ago I put in on the pole that also holds my Davis Vue on the north side of the house. It is below the roof line of the house so only gets a bit of direct sun early morning and late evening. So far the battery has remained at 100% charge but to me that is not that surprising as it does come with a fairly large solar panel. The only disadvantage is my UV readings are low since it does not get direct sunlight.

not sure I understand what your point is.  I was able to position the solar panel south and turn the bloomsky itself at any direction I wanted (carefully). ...but I guess your point is your limited choices of placement...?

[waysta]

Now that my Bloom Sky is back on a wood stand near ground level (about 4 ft above gnd) where I can get to it, I rotated the stem again (leaving the solar panel pointed south) to the point more towards the west this time.  For now (no leaves yet) that gives me the least amount of nearby homes and the most sky coverage.  Most of our weather comes in from the west too.

The rectangular image is a little hard to think about while pointing the camera.  There is quite bit of a spherical equivalent of a full sky image missing on all four edges.

I agree about the UV, not only is not clear what the UV numbers mean anyway, but pointing the sensor with respect to direct sun exposure must have some effect on the readings.  I guess for now they are just wide angle relative numbers without much other context.

[hankster]

Just putting this out there as an FYI. I really had no place to my BloomSky facing north permanently so about a week ago I put in on the pole that also holds my Davis Vue on the north side of the house. It is below the roof line of the house so only gets a bit of direct sun early morning and late evening. So far the battery has remained at 100% charge but to me that is not that surprising as it does come with a fairly large solar panel. The only disadvantage is my UV readings are low since it does not get direct sunlight.

not sure I understand what your point is.  I was able to position the solar panel south and turn the bloomsky itself at any direction I wanted (carefully). ...but I guess your point is your limited choices of placement...?

Yes, it located on the north side of my house and wouldn't get any direct sunlight if I pointed the solar panel south. I could remotely mount the solar panel but would have to fab a mount. The main point is, having the solar panel facing south is not that critical.

[VaJim]

Just putting this out there as an FYI. I really had no place to my BloomSky facing north permanently so about a week ago I put in on the pole that also holds my Davis Vue on the north side of the house. It is below the roof line of the house so only gets a bit of direct sun early morning and late evening. So far the battery has remained at 100% charge but to me that is not that surprising as it does come with a fairly large solar panel. The only disadvantage is my UV readings are low since it does not get direct sunlight.

not sure I understand what your point is.  I was able to position the solar panel south and turn the bloomsky itself at any direction I wanted (carefully). ...but I guess your point is your limited choices of placement...?

The main point is, having the solar panel facing south is not that critical.

,,,thanks

that's what Bloomsky told me when i first called them about the device.  It is kinda funny for all the other major Weathermakers (Rainwise, Davis, etc) all recommend the solar panel to face south.

[Dennis Rogers]

South you get the most sun. In the southern hemisphere you point the solar panel north to get the most sun.

[hankster]

Just putting this out there as an FYI. I really had no place to my BloomSky facing north permanently so about a week ago I put in on the pole that also holds my Davis Vue on the north side of the house. It is below the roof line of the house so only gets a bit of direct sun early morning and late evening. So far the battery has remained at 100% charge but to me that is not that surprising as it does come with a fairly large solar panel. The only disadvantage is my UV readings are low since it does not get direct sunlight.

not sure I understand what your point is.  I was able to position the solar panel south and turn the bloomsky itself at any direction I wanted (carefully). ...but I guess your point is your limited choices of placement...?

The main point is, having the solar panel facing south is not that critical.

,,,thanks

that's what Bloomsky told me when i first called them about the device.  It is kinda funny for all the other major Weathermakers (Rainwise, Davis, etc) all recommend the solar panel to face south.

Most of the weather out there have very small solar panels so they need all the sun they can get. The BloomSky one is huge, if I remember the specs correctly it can put out over 1 amp in full sun. Even if BloomSky goes under, at least some part of it will be useful for something else.

[Dennis Rogers]

It does say on their website in the Q&A section you need a mini of 1 hour of direct sunshine a day so 7 hours of sunshine a week to keep the battery topped up.

Nice to know it does not need direct sunshine all day.

[Dennis Rogers]

Does not mention that the solar panel charges up the battery at all, so since the solar panel is so big it maybe running on solar power and bypassing the battery.

After all don't need a solar panel as Hugh as this unless it's powering the station and not the battery.

If this is the case then they could have it running 24/7.

The battery gets used at night and powered and charging the battery by day