Tempest Weather Station - Measure UV, Sun Brightness and Solar Radiation

[JCSchwarb]

Hello DIYSolar Family!

As a farm, we rely on accurate weather forecasts and with our location we were getting up to 10 degrees F swings. Using analog and mechanical systems has also not led to reliable results.

I purchased a Tempest WeatherFlow weather station and installed two days ago and am beyond happy with this purchase. It has built in solar charging, is Wi-Fi enabled, and is very accurate with temperature, humidity, wind, lightening strikes with distance, light illumination, solar radiation and rain. Further, the data is automatically stored in history backed up in the cloud.

The reason for posting here is that the Tempest provides lumens, lux, UV, and solar radiation (watts/meters squared (W/M2)) light level calculations. A lot of folks struggle with determining if their panels are outputting the right volts or watts. With this tempest system, one can easily calculate how much their PV solar array should be producing. The Tempest weather app is free to download that shows others networked systems.

I added some snapshots for your review. Out of all the clunky weather stations used before, the Tempest is far superior in setup (5 mins) and love the networked capability. We were away at an archery tournament and could get all important stats while gone. It also can be networked with automation systems for irrigation, solar blinds, etc.

Check it out and let me know your thoughts.

-Jay

 

[Adam De Lay]

Slick! Have to look into that. Thanks for sharing!

 

[JCSchwarb]

Slick! Have to look into that. Thanks for sharing!

My pleasure! Hope it gives some good ideas.
-Jay

 

[Rednecktek]

How much total out of pocket including mounting and such?

Internet access/service account/app account required or will it work in a complete off grid scenario?

 

[JCSchwarb]

How much total out of pocket including mounting and such?

Internet access/service account/app account required or will it work in a complete off grid scenario?

The system was $329 before tax. I used a 5’ 1” PVC pipe with rebar and 18” conduit hammered in the sand, ensuring level. It has a pipe or post adapter. It took me 5 minutes and no cost using existing materials.

I am connected via Wi-Fi with my farm router connection to the internet. I did not explore using offline or on-prem only. Many of the features need cloud storage for historical data collection.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Out of curiosity... why would you need a weather station when nowadays sites like windy.com will give you all sorts of data pretty much in real time, and things like ansiweather will give you plain text data for collection?
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[JCSchwarb]

Out of curiosity... why would you need a weather station when nowadays sites like windy.com will give you all sorts of data pretty much in real time, and things like ansiweather will give you plain text data for collection?
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Because the Windy app and and all other apps do not capture microclimates and are grossly inaccurate in my rural area. We can have 10 degrees differences using various apps as mentioned in the original post. Further, the point of my post is for folks who might be interested in monitoring solar/sun light levels to check watt outputs on various days, comparing against their inverter(s) measurements. The Tempest Westher Station is a great addition for those who want to monitor their on-site weather and light levels.

I have gone through several seasons trying to rely on Windy due to their pretty interface with tons of data. The problem is the Windy data is totally inaccurate. I verified my concerns through weather forum geeks and there are many complaints. In particular, the wind data is a total joke as observed during tropical/hurricane storms.

The closest “certified” weather stations are typically at regional airports that are 30+ miles and with the open fields, island effects, etc are not the same as my location next to a large body of water. Even 1 mile away here can swing many degrees F. Ask a friend in CA about microclimates, this is where I first learned about this phenomenon. Most weather apps and data collection have insufficient sensors that rely on calculated averages that are often considerably inaccurate.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

I see. Windy is really pretty accurate here, but I guess it does depend on the location.
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[JCSchwarb]

I see. Windy is really pretty accurate here, but I guess it does depend on the location.
-

You would be surprised if you had a calibrated sensor on site how inaccurate and delayed the apps can be. Most folks don’t care about accuracy though.

 

[Shimmy]

How much total out of pocket including mounting and such?

Internet access/service account/app account required or will it work in a complete off grid scenario?

~$300.

Asked the question of tech support, and they essentially said the phone app is required for initial setup and there is a pull api available to aggregate data locally, but the unit only stores data in the cloud otherwise.

 

[Shimmy]

@Rednecktek Honestly, I would say that is better than any other units I have seen. The station I have (AccuWeather) won't accept a wifi connection without first connecting to 3 servers in China. When I get around to it I will see if I can trick it with a proxy server, but it shouldn't be that hard.

I use an old smartphone with all deleted data and a battery that only lasts a few minutes to run some of those apps that can be promptly deleted.

 

[Rednecktek]

It would be useful but there is no cell, phone, or internet where I'd use it. So for my needs it's pretty much useless.

 

[WDB]

Out of curiosity... why would you need a weather station when nowadays sites like windy.com will give you all sorts of data pretty much in real time, and things like ansiweather will give you plain text data for collection?
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Windy.com is 10 degrees off from my station right now. I have had a Davis Vantage Pro 2 for thirteen years now, it is the cheapest station I trust for accurate data. Lots of home weather stations are not properly installed for accuracy. Wind data should be measured at 33’ and temperatures should be measured much closer to the ground, mine is at 6’, also should be over grass. The temperature can vary greatly at ground level vs. normal height for measuring temps. I have seen ice on the ground when the temp is 5 degrees or more higher than freezing at 6’ above ground.

 

[Shimmy]

It would be useful but there is no cell, phone, or internet where I'd use it. So for my needs it's pretty much useless.

oh... well, it has a local display. The app is just needed to set it up and connect it to your network, if you have one.

 

[Rednecktek]

oh... well, it has a local display. The app is just needed to set it up and connect it to your network, if you have one.

Yeah, it sounded awesome until the Cloud got involved...

 

[Rednecktek]

So is there such a thing that's similar but DOESN'T require the interwebs? Optimumly I'd like to see:
Temp
Solar radiance
Wind speed
Humidity
SD card or other local storage
PC app I can import the data into every few months
Not stupid expensive

Does such a beast even exist?

 

[Shimmy]

So is there such a thing that's similar but DOESN'T require the interwebs? Optimumly I'd like to see:
Temp
Solar radiance
Wind speed
Humidity
SD card or other local storage
PC app I can import the data into every few months
Not stupid expensive

Does such a beast even exist?

Such a thing should exist, I agree. Personally I am fine with having storage be via a separate device (InfluxDB or HomeAssistant for me), which should be a slam dunk to provide... but it is stupidly hard.

 

[Rednecktek]

As I mentioned earlier, having no cell service, no phone, no internet, I need things that are independant of technology.

 

[Finca Life]

As I mentioned earlier, having no cell service, no phone, no internet, I need things that are independant of technology.

I have a Davis Vantage Pro 2 (with solar) - Wireless signals to base station, using Cumulus software. Although it can be internet connected you can view / save everything on a PC without cell / phone / internet. Having said that, Cumulus works with most weather stations but I prefer the Davis for it's accuracy and reliability. Most of what it does is here http://costablancaweather.com