huggy59
Active Member
You get what you pay for. Figure out what accuracy levels at what report frequencies you need, and what your local weather situation is. A heated rain guage is used to melt ice and snow so you can get precipitation readings in winter weather conditions, not just as a heater for the electronics. A heated anemometer is to keep it from freezing in freezing rain, for example.
You need to understand the way the wireless vs. wired stations take thier readings, too. A wired station is going to take readings much more often than a wireless station. The wireless staiton, by virtue of batteries and.or solar power, transmits data via radio signal, and so it only tranmits info once every few or many seconds. It will also only take readings every so many seconds or so, which is why someone's grill went across the deck on a 6MPH gust.
Now, how often do you need your readings taken? Does the system take discreet readings or average over some time period, how often is that frequency of taking and reporting readings?
I have used both a cheap wired Oregon Scientific system in Florida, and I now have a WMR-968 (I thin k it is) here in Maine. Florida was wind and rainy, and lightning, and Maine is freezing weather. In Florida I used the rian guage to read and schedule my lawn sprinklers. It worked great!
But I'm just a casual user. I only need it for temps and relatively simple stuff, not looking at airport weather or anything to NASA shuttles and such. So if it's -13.9 or -14.7, it's all the same to me - COLD! That and triggers to send alerts on certain temps if the house goes too cold, for example.
So far I have not had any remote wireless (or formerly wired) sensors die on me, but I do protect them and take care of them.
I use VWS, tie it to Homeseer and MRTG, and update stuff every 10 minutes. You can see the weather graphic from VWS at my home at http://www.hiddengemtech.com/weather/ . I also use a TEMP05 (1-wire) unit for temps in the house, also tied to HS. Sorry, my ISP is brain-dead and won't allow incoming connecitons, so no live data.
With your budget, if you can go wired, it would be better than wireless as far as accuracy and update frequency. The Oregon Scientific stuff is ok and good to start learning about all this stuff.
You need to understand the way the wireless vs. wired stations take thier readings, too. A wired station is going to take readings much more often than a wireless station. The wireless staiton, by virtue of batteries and.or solar power, transmits data via radio signal, and so it only tranmits info once every few or many seconds. It will also only take readings every so many seconds or so, which is why someone's grill went across the deck on a 6MPH gust.
Now, how often do you need your readings taken? Does the system take discreet readings or average over some time period, how often is that frequency of taking and reporting readings?
I have used both a cheap wired Oregon Scientific system in Florida, and I now have a WMR-968 (I thin k it is) here in Maine. Florida was wind and rainy, and lightning, and Maine is freezing weather. In Florida I used the rian guage to read and schedule my lawn sprinklers. It worked great!
But I'm just a casual user. I only need it for temps and relatively simple stuff, not looking at airport weather or anything to NASA shuttles and such. So if it's -13.9 or -14.7, it's all the same to me - COLD! That and triggers to send alerts on certain temps if the house goes too cold, for example.
So far I have not had any remote wireless (or formerly wired) sensors die on me, but I do protect them and take care of them.
I use VWS, tie it to Homeseer and MRTG, and update stuff every 10 minutes. You can see the weather graphic from VWS at my home at http://www.hiddengemtech.com/weather/ . I also use a TEMP05 (1-wire) unit for temps in the house, also tied to HS. Sorry, my ISP is brain-dead and won't allow incoming connecitons, so no live data.
With your budget, if you can go wired, it would be better than wireless as far as accuracy and update frequency. The Oregon Scientific stuff is ok and good to start learning about all this stuff.
