Recommendation for residential weather station

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accobra66

New member
Hi John:

I have been spending quite a bit of time researching residential weather stations and I am just not sure which to believe are quality units and which to stay away from. I live in Harvey across the street from Lake Superior and it would be really nice to know for sure wind speeds during a storm so I can at least justify why the house creeks. I have also thought of going with solar or wind turbine generation for a secondary power source so the ability to understand my true average wind potential would sure be nice.

I found the following unit which intrigues me:

http://tyconpower.com/products/files/TPS_ProWeatherStation_Spec_Sheet.pdf

Do you have any experience with battery powered units? If so, do you really believe I can expect 2 years of life out of the batteries if I mount the sensor station on top of my home?

I would also not mind something that I could connect to remotely when out of town (if tied in through my home PC I suppose).

Any help here would be really appreciated.
 
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frnash

Active member
Ambient Weather

Here's a 'nuther good source for serious weather stations: Ambient Weather.

I'm kinda partial to almost any of the Davis Instruments products, particularly the Davis Instruments 6153 Wireless Vantage Pro2 Weather Station with Fan-Aspirated Radiation Shield. (Out here in the Arizona desert the fan aspirated radiation shield is a necessity!)

Or maybe the Davis Instruments 6153-WIFI WIFI WiFi VantagePro2 Fan Aspirated Wireless Weather Station.

Or maybe the Davis Instruments 6153-IP IP VantagePro2 Fan Aspirated Wireless Weather Station.

Rock solid professional quality products, but pricey, easily up to $1000 or more!

One other possible alternative: The Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station. (A bit more affordable.)

If you visit the Ambient Weather web site, be sure to enter your email address where applicable to receive their best price on their products.

I have to admit, you got my attention with the TYCON Power Systems link, I have never seen their product, but I like the price. Now the big question: Is that too good to be true? Do they really have a quality product?

I'll sure will be watching this thread, and possibly doing a bit of research myself as well.
 
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fz583

Member
I have a Wireless Davis Vantage Pro 2 that I have had for five years with zero prolbems, I love it so much I bought my father one, He has had his for three years with no issues, If you go to accuweather.com they have a forum for Davis owners, They bought the forum a few years ago. It's a great product, Made in america, and proven many times over. Best bang for the buck.
 
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accobra66

New member
Ended up purchasing the Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station. Hopefully it is all it is cracked up to be for the price. Also purchased the Data Logger software that allows for all readings to be posted for remote viewing when I travel.
 
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millertime

New member
Good call. About a year ago, my wife bought me the Honeywell unit. It seemed nice, even though people had told me to return it and get the Davis(John said "go with the Davis"), so I installed it and have not been happy.

The unit looses signal with the remote sensors (which causes a "beep"), and the wind speed has never been accurate (on my third one). The one item that is nice is in contains a weather radio with S.A.M.E.

I don't want to come across as bashing Honeywell, they build some great products, it just seems this may not have been their best.

I am now going to replace it with a Davis and hope someone on craigslist will give me a couple bucks for the Honeywell.
 
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frnash

Active member
accobra66 said:
Ended up purchasing the Davis Instruments 6250 Vantage Vue Wireless Weather Station. Hopefully it is all it is cracked up to be for the price. Also purchased the Data Logger software that allows for all readings to be posted for remote viewing when I travel.
Click to expand...
Keep us posted on your experience with the Vantage Vue! I hope it's everything you want it to be, and plenty of "bang for the buck" as well.
 
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accobra66

New member
So far so good. My observations to this point:

1. What I thought was going to be an easy installation/mounting became a project. Had to fabricate my own mounting system since purchased system could not work with the way I needed to mount it to the garage. Currently sensor is mounted roughly 3' above the peak of the garage. This summer I will extend that pole to get the sensor mounted about 4' higher. Seems that 7' is the optimal number. Seems thus far the current location of the sensor may lead to wind speeds reading lower than that of what is hitting house (gut feel).
2. Initially installed the wind vane on incorrectly, wind direction was reading opposite 180 degrees of actual.
3. Have not installed software yet to enable logging/remote viewing. Just lack of time more than anything.

Overall I am impressed. Both the outdoor and indoor hardware seem to be very well made and the navigation through the screens on the desktop unit is pretty straightforward. Looking forward to getting the system set up on the my network.
 
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pete_w

New member
Helped a friend setup a Vantage Vue a few weeks ago with the data logger. He's forwarding the weather info CWOP (citizen weather observer program).It's kind of nice they make the weather station data available over internet and run some analysis on the data compared to nearby stations.
only gotcha was they want elevation in meters once that was corrected
seems to be inline with the analysis and other nearby stations (missed the meter part)
Pete
 
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