Weather Station To Store Data

[PatPatPatPatPat]

Hello all

I wonder if you could give me some advice. I have read a lot of the threads about weather stations for newbies (like myself) but they do not fully answer my question.

I have a derelict property that I would like to rebuild. I would like to buy a cheap weather station that I can set up there so that I could record weather data and download it once or twice a year.

I would then like to use this data to design the house when we are ready to build in a few years time.

Can anyone tell me where I should be looking for something like this?

I don't know if it would be possible to access this station by mobile phone as it is in a remote area.

Thanks a lot

P

[Dorsetbred]

Hi, and welcome to the board.

I would say that the concept of "cheap and download once or twice a year" might be contrary terms, as your really looking for a data logger.

Some of the weather stations on the market do come with add on data logging units, and you can buy radio data loggers but they are very expensive.

To store that much data I don't think the cheap units will be of any assistance as they store for short periods like days not months.

You might want to take a look here as a starting point

http://www.microdaq.com/data-logger/weather.php

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Something like a Davis Vantage Pro or Vantage Vue with a data logger would do the job, and depending on the frequency of the data you wanted to capture (ie. every minute or every few hours) you could get months' worth stored on its data logger, and download it to a laptop whenever you visited....although you might need to change the batteries every few months. There would be cheaper versions, such as http://www.skyview.c...log/CM2000.html which would probably do the job too? The basic thing is to get a weather station which can be powered by battery and which you can add a data logger to, as Dorestbred says.

[Thundery wintry showers]

I agree, you'll probably need to get yourself a data logger which admittedly are pretty expensive considering what they do. I guess Skyview doesn't have a lot of competition so can afford to charge the prices that it does.

I got a WMR928NX weather station for my 21st birthday and got a Skyview data logger for it shortly afterwards (it was reduced to £125 at the time) as my parents didn't like having the main computer permanently switched on and logging data (and this was reinforced when a new hard drive packed in less than a year after we tried that setup). Oregon Scientific (which does the WMR series) is probably the second-best provider of weather stations out there but Davis is known to be the best, albeit more expensive (you generally get what you pay for with weather stations).

[magic]

If cheap is your primary requirement and you just want a general indication of the weather then some of the Fine Offset units can run for significant lengths of time at longer logging intervals, although I don't know if they'll stretch to 6-12 months.

I will echo though:

(you generally get what you pay for with weather stations)

[PatPatPatPatPat]

Thanks for all the great answers and they have given me a lot to think about.

The main reason for wanting a "cheap" unit is that the property is uninhabited and I am worried that someone may just come in and steal the unit but I will have to take that chance.

I have heard that it is now possible to get a mobile phone signal in the area. Are there any stations that allow data to be sent via a sim card or dongle?