Weather Station
I’ve always been interested in the weather. It has always been fun trying to predict what will come up, and has been useful in one of my previous employment positions. About a year ago a friend of mine sent me a link to a good deal on a weather station, a Lacrosse WS-2308 (the link is to a revised model.) It is a great little starter model that is easy to set up and provides all of the basic data outside of a radar (which I think would be frowned upon if I tried to install one on the roof.)
I’m using a program called WUHU to upload real-time sensor data to Weather Underground as well as a couple of Amateur Radio (Ham) based weather sites. When I originally installed the outdoor sensor I had it wirelessly send data to the base station, which has 2 major drawbacks. The first is it requires the batteries to be changed every 6 months or so. Second, and more importantly in my opinion, is the data is not sent as often, every 36 seconds as opposed to every 8 seconds. When the weather warmed up a little outside I went ahead and ran the hard wire between the sensor unit and the base unit.
Right now I have the temperature unit installed just below the eve of my house, which keeps it nicely out of the direct sun so I don’t get temperature spikes. Overall the accuracy seems to be very close to other nearby stations. The only time I’ve seen accuracy problems is if I open my garage door and the garage temperature is significantly warmer than the outside air. In that case I see a spike while the door is open and for a couple of minutes afterwards if the air is still. I am open to suggestions on ways to improve the accuracy.