Thought it would be fun to have a ready-made weather station at home. Nothing fancy, and something out-of-the-box. In the past, I’ve dabbled with the idea of having an actual weather station outside that is linked to a Linux server, uploads to a web-site, and is part of Weather Underground. The main purpose is to have an awareness of the weather, observe cause and effect, and be up and running immediately. Until, I really have time/money/dedication for something more comprehensive…
I went to Home Depot and picked up an Acu Rite Model 02098HD “Backyard weather station”.
The device on my desk is quite large, bright, readable, and gives me basically what I want for general monitoring of the weather. Temperature (IN/OUT), Humidity (IN/OUT). The device that is placed outside is a simple brick with battery that I hung from an outside light fixture on my balcony.
It took several weeks for the inside console to “train” with the external device in terms of calibration. End result is that I now have an actual forecast chart that shows if it’s cloudy, going to rain, etc. Right now it’s partly cloudy and 29.93hg level — which is about correct. I would say the barometric pressure is about correct inside and outside.
Because I have an interest in General Aviation, I set the temperature to celsius. I also changed the time to be UTC versus local timezone. That means when I’m checking aviation weather reports, I can glance at my weather console and refer to the UTC time.
As for batteries. So far the outside battery has lasted a while. I think I got this about 4 or 5 months ago. There is a meter on the console that says how well the external device is in-range – no problem. I think there is also a symbol that comes up when the external device battery needs changed.
What I did learn is that it’s advised to both have batteries and external power for the internal console. That way, if the A/C power goes out, I don’t lose the calibration feature on the console.