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It offers a USB port for charging devices and the ability to customize alerts. The frost alert function calculates temperature and humidity levels to predict when frost will occur. The WS-2902C can support a combination of up to eight WH31 thermo-hygrometer sensors, and WH31P probed thermometers. One indoor and one outdoor PM2.5 air quality sensor can also be added to the system.
Stop depending on that limited weather app and discover what the weather’s really doing outside with a fully-fledged home weather station. I can distinctly remember the trees outside the window whipping around in the gusts and the sheets of rain. I was utterly mesmerized by it and sat with my parents, watching the local weatherman give the latest weather reports and what was happening outside. While we’d still steer those looking for accuracy to the WS-5000 or Davis Vantage Vue, the WS-2000 is an excellent compromise for budget-conscious weather enthusiasts.
Best Budget Model: AcuRite 5-in-1 01512 Wireless Weather Station
There seems to be a design flaw with the AccuRite 01012M Station . After 1.5 years, we noticed a degradation in performance. A plastic shield guarding the solar collection surface became opaque due to weathering and sunlight exposure. This forced us to replace the batteries (4 AA’s) on a monthly basis. This involved getting on the roof and taking the machine down etc.
The staff authors have a wide and varied background in yard design and home repairs. In the months since we installed the Vantage Pro2, it’s given us accurate readings, and we’re publishing data to several online weather services, including Weather Underground and PWS. Our mistake, as initially we didn’t attach the included bird spikes.
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In a nutshell, it's a basic device but has just enough data so you can easily plan your day around the weather. Fortunately, we did not encounter issues with this during our testing. With its 10 sensors packed into a small, reasonably-priced package, the Ambient Weather WS-2902 is our best overall pick. It did everything well enough, making this model easy to pick as the one to get. We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process.
The sensor suite does a good job of combining a large number of sensors into a relatively compact package. Built out of white and black plastic, it felt nice and solid during assembly and held up well under heavy wind and rain during our testing. The main issue with the sensor suite is that you typically don't want to measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and rainfall all in the same location.
Internet Connectivity and Smart Home Features
Additional sensors, such as soil moisture and UV intensity sensors, are sold separately. Like other arrays that monitor wind direction, the Pro2 must be set with a reliable compass. Our wireless weather centers give you the ability to monitor the outdoor conditions from either a display or a computer all within the comfort of your home or office.
Classic Tube Thermometers Classic tube thermometers feature a liquid encapsulated in a glass tube that rises and falls with temperature changes. If you are mounting the weather station to a house or structure, be sure to run a ground wire. The information on these apps is often outdated and depends on you having a good signal to get the alerts. Also, short-term forecasts in these apps are often automatically created, which means no human has taken a look at the forecast to see if it makes sense – or matches real-world conditions. The suitability for data collection is important, but so is the way that you view and interpret that data.
This is something which again varies from model to model. Naturally, the faster the refresh rate, the more data you will have available to you. If you’re an enthusiast who needs to get a regular and consistent idea of various elements, stay on the lookout for models that send data to the receiver more frequently. Yoona is a smart home and home tech commerce editor for The Spruce. She has contributed product reviews and how-tos for Lifewire and has prior experience in knowledge-base technical writing, technical customer support, and academic publishing. Jeremy Laukkonen is a freelance writer with 10+ years of experience explaining and reviewing smart home technology, home entertainment gear, and other consumer electronics.
The 5-in-1 sensor suite can measure temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. The display is basic but easy to read with an adjustable dimmer, and it also features a battery backup should the power go out. The La Crosse Technology C85845 is a basic weather station that’s perfect for beginners, and anyone who wants a quick look at the local weather conditions at a glance.
If the high-end Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 is a bit too rich for your blood, stepping down to the Vantage Vue model is a smart move. You’ll still get the accuracy Davis is known for, but in an integrated package that is much easier to set up due to its all-in-one sensor suite. That said, the desktop console still feels dated, and the all-in-one sensor suite means you won’t be able to place some sensors in an optimal position for the most accurate readings.
Whatever your reason for deciding to purchase a personal weather station, we hope that this guide has helped you and can lead you to the right decision. They really are incredible pieces of technology for outdoor enthusiasts, and it helps to bring us all closer to the innerworkings of the environment. It’s a wonderful project that has been in operation for over 20 years, it has a lot of uses and can keep people safe. There are a variety of ways that you can share the data from your personal weather station with the platform, and enthusiasts will also be able to help you out.
These sensors are all rated as being fairly accurate, and that was my experience. This unit doesn't have any way to measure wind direction or rainfall, so keep that in mind if those are measurements that you want to be able to keep track of. Consider your priorities to determine if these readings would be worth knowing—and paying for.
You can also set customizable alerts for temperature and humidity and quickly view the daily minimum and maximum readings on the console. The types, accuracy, and update frequency are the three things to look for in sensors. The most essential basic sensors are wind, rain, temperature, and barometric pressure, and UV, solar radiation, and lightning also quite useful. More accurate sensors are better, and sensors that transmit more often are better. Some home weather stations receive updated data every couple of seconds, while others can go between 30 seconds and an entire minute between updates. We inserted two AA batteries into the outdoor sensor unit and plugged in the display console.
AcuRite 01512 Home Station 5-in-1 Weather Sensor
While you’ll get slightly less accurate ratings due to the lower quality sensors, the console allows you to add all the optional sensors of the WS-5000 without breaking the bank. The Davis Vantage Pro2 is like the gold standard in home weather stations. The accuracy is the best you’ll get, and many Vantage Pro2 stations are used in commercial and research applications. But things haven’t changed in the two decades it’s been on the market, including the console, which looks like something out of the 1990s.
To recommend the best home weather stations, we tested a host to find those that provided accurate data and otherwise lived up to manufacturers’ claims. We tried every function each weather station offered and awarded points based on performance, durability, and accuracy. To qualify the data, we compared it to a nearby official weather station as well as to our own Davis Instruments Vantage Pro2 Weather Station. We set up a temporary online account at Weather Underground and encountered no difficulties uploading the data to the web. In sum, we found that this weather station is straightforward to install , produces accurate weather data, and allows users to publish their local weather data online. Lower-priced weather stations cut corners to reduce the overall cost.
