My micro weather station

Recently on eBay i bought a micro weather station. I intend to monitor the local weather conditions on the family farm, with particular interest on wind speed. I can read back the data from the control console to a PC and log the data over time , 6-12 months to see what the average wind speed will be. This data will then aid me to decide if my home location suits for installation of a small domestic wind turbine. I will be able to get some portacabins next year at reduced prices, so intend to use them as storage areas and a workshop. I would ideallly like to power them by wind or solar power, or a combination of both.

Fortunately i was able to recycle timber cut-offs and metal to build a platform, so apart from the cost of the station itself (around €100 including postage), the only other cost was for some strips of galvoband and some screws to brace the joints of the timber. Since my brother is a carpenter in the construction industry, there are always some handy bits and pieces stored up in the farm outhouses that i can recycle and use, including using tools for DIY ....

I drove a central stake against which to support the station mast. This is a 5m length of box-iron (square hollow shape) which had been lying unused in the farm yard. Prior to standing the mast i drove four 2 foot lengths of metal bar into the ground, leaving 1 foot above ground and then slid the box iron over them. This would keep the base of the mast fixed at that spot and prevent it from sliding anywhere. I then drove 4 stakes surrounding this so that i could make a platform. This will have 2 functions a) additional heigth so that i can make inspections using a ladder when necessary, b) when fenced around with wire it will prevent animals from going and rubbing/scratching against the support mast.

After driving the 4 stakes i inserted timber lengths horizontally between them and fixed them with galvoband, nails, and screws. I also nailed some pieces of plywood between the horizontal timbers and the upright stakes. All of this is to make the timber frame rigid.

For the floor of the platform i used two 2x1m metal plates that were lying in one of the fields being covered by grass. These were quite heavy so i had to get my brother to lift them in place with me. The platfom floor was 1.6m from the ground. The platform is 2.1m square and i laid the metal plates so that they were either side of the central mast. The plates were fixed in place to the timber around their perimeter with cladding screws.Underneath i ran a horizontal timber on each plate to so that they could be fixed with the main timber frame. This also allowed me fix small timber cut-offs either side of the mast to further fix it rigidly in the vertical direction. A small gap was plugged with a length of timber and strapped with some tying wire. I added hand rails for saftey and support when climbing onto a ladder to attach the station to the top of the mast.

With the platform complete and the mast erected the last stage was to place the ladder onto the platform and climb onto it, carrying the assembled micro station with me. This was fixed in place to the top of the mast, orientating the dial according to the actual compass directions. The station model is W-8681 and has the 4 compass points marked on the wind direction dial, so it was easy to orientate by just rotating station until the North marker faced north.

The closeup of the station itself shows the annenometer at the highest point (which measures wind speed), the wind dial just to the right of it (which shows wind direction); below this to the right is the rain gauge for measuring rainfall and at the lowest point on the left is the temperature/hygrometer which measure temperature and humidity.

I built the platform, erected the mast and mounted the station on the Bank Holiday Monday. It has been working fine since i put the batteries in. Already we have seen some heavy rainfall and between Thursday and Saturday this weekend there were 92mm in total of rainfall. Winds were South to SE for most of the week, but changed lastnight to be N, NW, bringing higher wind speeds. The average wind speed so far has been 4-5 metres per second with light breezes with some the highest gust coming in at 12 m/s. Generally the domestic turbines would start to produce power around 3-4m/s and nominal speed for production would be at 10m/s + . So by summer or autumn next year i should have enough data collected to know if the site is suitable.

The timber posts were 4 inch x 3 inch and 2m long, drive 0.4m into the ground. The horizontal beams were also 4"x3". Hand rails were made from 4x2.