Personal Weather Stations
 

A recent TOTV thread mentioned rain sensors and smart sprinkler systems. It was pointed out that the smart controllers are only as good as the data that they are fed. Not only should the data be accurate and reliable, they have to be hyperlocal to be meaningful.

This piqued my interest in personal weather stations (PWS). If I look at Weather Underground (wunderground.com), I can see that there are quite a number of PWS owners here in TV that graciously share their data.

Would any of you weather enthusiasts care to post about your hobby? What kind of equipment do you use? Does it require a lot of maintenance? Where do you place or mount your stations outside? Please, I am not interested in hearing from the self-appointed ARC police about where the devices should be mounted.

I have an Acu-Rite rain gauge that talks to my wifi. i can see on my phone or ipad how much it has rained and whether the sprinklers came on or not. I also have a $99 Orbit b-hive irrigation controller. This also talks back and forth to my wifi.

So, when we are out of town, I can see how much it rained and turn off the sprinklers, if needed. All contol and setting of the Orbit is thru your iphone or ipad or computer. Want twenty more minutes on the front yard from a thousand miles away, just push a button on the app!

That way if it only rains a small amount, I can still water. If it rains alot, I can turn off my sprinklers for the week.

It is also nice to verify that your sprinklers are working given the limited sprinkling allowed.

I could not understand nor control the various rain switches, solar syncs, or seasonal adjustments on the "smart" Hunter that came with the house.

I do not put my data on the internet, but only use it for my irrigation decisions.

I also make the decisions myself rather than attempting to have the rain gauge talk to the controller.

Excellent reply, PaulDenise. This is the kind of information that interests me... real experience... not sales hype. Thank you.

Good info, was looking for a better controller than the original one that came with the house. Thanks.

I'm very interested in this subject. How were you able to discover other owners and their postings? Thanks.

If you go to the Weather Underground web site, enter your zip code. Once the page is displayed, look for "Change Station" near the top and if you click that you will see a list of all the stations that report. You can then change to the station that interests you.

Hope that helps......

Thanks for the info. I'm exploring...

Thanks, outahere. Good info.

For a little extra exploring, click on this link. It'll take you to an interactive map.

Click here.

Love it! Thank you.

So, you have to think where the weather stations are and If that is local or hyber loca!. One Is The Villages Fire Station Across From Eisenhower.

That Places Thousands Of Homes Within A Mile Radius. Three Miles Thousands More...

Yes. By using the info that I gleaned from wunderground.com, I have found what I would deem a trustworthy PWS located just a tad under 1 mile from my house. There is another one that I would also consider. It's just a little over 600 feet away from me. If I want more hyperlocal than that, I'll just have to invest in my own PWS.

Hi, This is useful information and I plan to use it along with the information about Weather Underground. Turns out there is a station just a few blocks away.

We have a Wi Fi server in our rental home that is unoccupied most of the time. How do you get the rain guage information to the Wi Fi (server) and then access to your smart phone? Our Email access is through an account at our home in TN and I'm having a hard time getting my head around it.

Thanks in advance.

Trials and Tribulations of owning a second home; Lawn Watering Cost... along with the complexity and cost of remotely attempting to avoid unneccessary lawn watering cost.

There has to be some circular irony in there somewhere. :)

Pam and Nick--

acu-Rite sells the usual rain gauge that tells an indoor unit how much it has rained outside. They also sell a gizmo that connects to your wifi router that also can pick up this info. Then there is an app or website that allows you to see this info.

The router gizmo also picks up any acu-rite temperature and humidity sensors that you have insde the house and uploads those data. So, if you often leave your house unoccupied, the temperature data will prove whether and how often the air coditioner kicks on. I can watch my temp go up to 81, then watch as the a/c takes it down to 79, then back up, when I am out of town.

The internet gizmo:

smartHUB with My AcuRite Remote Monitoring | AcuRite