Other weather station installations - da' good, da' bad, an' da' ugly!

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat weather station design consultants,

Between my own desperate reconfiguration of my own station and helping xairbusdriver get his station up and running, I've been paying more attention to the diverse ways a station can be put together.  Professional grade stations like Davis Instruments have many more potential configurations than are commonly used and being aware of that can avoid what would otherwise be a awkward installation.

I thought it might be interesting to start up a thread for other weather station installations that we learn about and find interesting for some reason.  It could be an installation described on a web site or another weather-related forum.  It could be something in a book, magazine, or other reference material.  One more possible source are other weather station installations that you encounter in daily life.  This is what I will contribute to get this thread off the ground.  Today I saw this Ambient Weather station:



Yes, the iron bars represent vertical so this poor station is leaning over quite a bit!  I don't know if this counts as bad or ugly, but you'all can be the judge!  The attempt isn't completely misguided.  The owner was trying to get the station as high as he/she could.  Obviously, he/she wasn't willing to commit to a sturdy enough support and the station is suffering as a result.

I thought it would be interesting for us to critique such setups and try to imagine what could be done that would be better.  That way when we get our next station installation "customer," we'll be even more skilled and helpful.

So, does anybody else know of other weather station installations that are either: good, bad, or ugly?

Cheers, Edouard 

P.S. If you find a weather station just out in public show the respect to preserve the people's privacy.  We can learn from other people attempts without being noisy.  That's why some of the photo is burred out, so avoid leaving enough the scene so that the house might be identified.

[xairbusdriver]

It's hard to tell from that image, but if that's a concrete lined pool, I think a good tie down for the pipe/pole could be mounted down/in there. Might want lots of RTV to prevent any leaks, of course... Perhaps some wire coat hangers would suffice on one or more of those iron fence posts and/or the railing.

I suspect that hill top is more than 1,000' away. Still, three or four repeaters should be enough to get the signal back to the house. I'll bet it would take years before the power company noticed an anemometer on one of their towers... looks like there's one at the very top of the hill, also!

[Felix]

<snip>looks like there's one at the very top of the hill, also!

Xairbusdriver, my optometrist continues to report I have better than 20/20 vision but if you can see an anemometer on the top of that hill I guess I need to replace the old Cinema Display hooked up to my weather station Mac mini with a monitor sporting a lot more resolution. 

[xairbusdriver]

... looks like there's one at the very top of the hill

the word "one" is referring to the "tower" just a few words to its left. But I still think that would be a great place to mount a very remore anemometer!

BTW, I'll gladly accept your 'used' Cinema Display when you get the new one! My mini is connected to such a bad "monitor" that I view its screen via Screen Sharing on my iMac! It's also saves me from forgetting which cursor is controlled by which mouse! I'm seriously thinking of mounting the mini below the table top so I can simply throw away the monitor! Besides, my real desktop is running out of space to stack more junk!!

[Bull Winkus]

Someone in that little cluster of houses on top of the hill might already have a Davis Vantage Pro. Be nice to just put up the repeaters and siphon unadulterated wind data off the top of the hill, as someone else takes care of ISS and anemometer maintenance. However, with that area there's probably a larger hill behind that one to screw with the readings.

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat station design consultants,

I've been behind in contributing to this thread, but here is a station that I showed to xairbusdriver when he was trying to set up his station.  I went ahead and took some better photos because I really like this setup.  The ISS is on a pole like Steve and xairbusdriver but is impossible to photograph behind the solid fence.  Here is an overall view of the house and anemometer on the flag-pole:



Because the trees immediately around the house are relatively low, this station is getting better wind data than most folks in California can hope for.  You can also see that the flag-pole is painted the same color as the house so even it if it very tall, it doesn't show that much.

The other feature of this flag-pole that I like is that it is braced against the house:



With this setup, you get most of the advantages of having your anemometer mounted on the roof of the house, but you don't have to climb on your roof to service the anemometer.

You need the topography that works for this sort of setup, but with that topography is an appealing alternative to roof mounted anemometers.

There are a few more weather stations around the neighborhood so stay tuned, and if you see an interesting installation, by all means write it up for us!

Cheers, Edouard 

[xairbusdriver]

With this setup, you get most of the advantages of having your anemometer mounted on the roof of the house, but you don't have to climb on your roof to service the anemometer.

I'm not sure I follow your 'advantage' part. Perhaps the flag pole is mounted on a hinge/pivot that allows lowering the top to ground level? I've seen Ham radio towers built like that. Lots of "amusing" vids on the web showing how that is (not) done!

Otherwise, the sheer length of the pole will make it very difficult to handle by simply removing it from the mounting system. And it is obviously impossible for mere mortals to access the anemometer while it is still 25+ feet above the roof! Maybe the fellow has a highly trained squirrel or raccoon?

It appears that there are at least two sections of the pole. It's hard to tell how high/long the section(s) might be above the edge of the roof. However, even with the very gentle roof slope, it might be challenging holding the upper part after it is separated from the lower. Probably best done on a calm wind day, with at least one person holding the 'maintainer' from behind.

[Bull Winkus]

Boy, that's a long pole? Hope it's made of steel pipe. I'd be concerned about the sheer force being enough to bend the pole in a 60 mph wind. I think I'd even be leery about just the anemometer up there without any guy wires or girl wires.

 

https://youtu.be/vx4k9gXAZEM

[Randall75]

Well I would think it would make an excellent lighting rod


cheers


 

[elagache]

Dear xairbusdriver, Herb, Randall, and WeatherCat station consultants,

I'm not sure I follow your 'advantage' part. Perhaps the flag pole is mounted on a hinge/pivot that allows lowering the top to ground level?

Indeed, I was imagining some sort of either a hinge or even just bolting the pole instead of encasing it in concrete.  We had a Hobie 16 Catamaran for a while.  The mast is 26 feet long, but you could easily bring the mast from the trailer to its raised position with two men.

I haven't looked but I would assume you can get flag-poles in aluminum, it would just be more expensive.

Boy, that's a long pole? Hope it's made of steel pipe. I'd be concerned about the sheer force being enough to bend the pole in a 60 mph wind.

I'm a bit surprised Herb that you would be concerned about the strength.  A flag represents quite a drag at the top of a pole and there are flag-poles that tall.  To just have the anemometer basically that is a tall rigid structure with a very small wind-load.  It should be fine.  Remember Devin's flag-pole installation with a Vantage Vue on top:

http://athena.trixology.com/index.php?topic=1249.msg13776#msg13776

If you can have a flag-pole that tall with a full station at the top, a little anemometer should be no-sweat for any flag-pole.

Well I would think it would make an excellent lighting rod

Well, if you go that route, yes it would probably be a very good idea to make sure it has a suitable ground in case it does get hit by lightning.  Having had our house hit by lightning and had thousands of dollars in damage, I'm all in favor of a lightning rod!

Cheers, Edouard

P.S. As long as we are talking station design, do any of you have a ground for your anemometer mount?  I gave up because it was awkward to do given where it is mounted on the house and it isn't the tallest point of the roof anyway.  However, when you can get your anemometer to be the highest point, providing some sort of a ground, and perhaps even afix a lightning rod above the anemometer to protect it, might be a good idea.

[xairbusdriver]

As for avoiding lightening, I just stick tall metal poles on my neighbors houses. I try to do that behind their tallest shurbery so they don't notice for as long as possible...

My opinion is that the cable from the anemometer to whatever it's attached to will pretty well fry everything along the route and both ends, lightening rod or not. Even if the electricity doesn't get into the wire, the rod will probably melt the insulation on the cable; all bets are off after that. Most of us around here depend heavily on the abundant tall trees to attract all the lightening. It also helps that that there are many water and cell phone towers close by. There is also a major high voltage power line about a ? mile from our house.

While we get plenty of thunderstorms, it's the tornadoes they spawn that concerns us more than the lightening. It's a lot cheaper to replace some electronics in the house than all the electronics and the house and everything in it!

[Bull Winkus]

I'm a bit surprised Herb that you would be concerned about the strength.  A flag represents quite a drag at the top of a pole and there are flag-poles that tall.

My concern has to do with a little thing called shear force and moment of inertia, where the moment of inertia is sufficient to require very little shear force to deform the configuration.

However, I concede that I don't know enough about the materials and dimensions to make any determination. I was just speculating or in the common vernacular, worrying.

Hope he's got it right?