Trixology

Weather => Weather Hardware/Measurement => Topic started by: wurzelmac on November 19, 2013, 03:51:24 PM

Title: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: wurzelmac on November 19, 2013, 03:51:24 PM

Hi all,
these days I added a Davis Rain Collector Heater (http://www.davisnet.com/weather/products/weather_product.asp?pnum=07720) to my VP2. Snowing the whole day a little and the heater works like a charm. I am very interested how much precipitation it will count this winter. The years before I "only" measured the fallen snow height every day - now I can do both measure the snow and measure the precipitation!  [snow]

Cheers,
Reinhard

Title: Re: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: Steve on November 19, 2013, 09:30:02 PM

Reinhard,

I'll be interested to see how much snow water equivalent you get. I made a heater for my VP2 cone, and get similar results to what I measure when melting the snow that falls in my 4" CoCoRaHS gauge.

One suggestion is to apply a coating on the surface of your cone to help moisture run down into the hole. I find that with light snow, much of it evaporates on contact with the cone's surface. I apply Rain-X, a windscreen rain repellant product on the cone, which helps a little.

Steve

Title: Re: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: wurzelmac on November 21, 2013, 10:46:46 PM

Hello Steve,

the next days we have an interesting weather - snowfalls are predicted. Today we have had light snowfall (ca. 4 cm) and it shows 1.8 mm of precipitation. Thanks for the suggestion with coating!

Cheers,
Reinhard

Update: In total we have had 17 cm of new snow and that equals to 10.8 mm melted precipitation. At least my VP2 says so.  ;)

Title: Re: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: nowait on November 22, 2013, 12:45:26 PM

I also have a heater on my VP Pro.   In addition, I bought a AC thermo sensor that I plug into the AC power that only switches the power on for the heater when the temperature is below about 36=38 degrees.  Saves power and is hopefully extending the life of my weather station and heater.

Title: Re: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: wurzelmac on November 22, 2013, 03:04:40 PM

My plan is to turn on the heater only when snow falls - so it is rather weather than temperature related. But as this is the first winter with this one, I have to do my experiences.  :)

Cheers,
Reinhard

Title: Re: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: Blicj11 on November 23, 2013, 05:23:05 PM

Quote

I bought a AC thermo sensor

What brand and model did you get?

Title: Re: Rain Collector Heater
Post by: nowait on January 25, 2015, 02:53:50 AM

Sorry Blick...  I completely missed your question.  I purchased an "EasyHeat Freeze Free "Thermostatically Controlled Device" model EH38

Nowait