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The Good Housekeeping Institute regularly tests home weather stations with a range of functionality at both high and low price points. In tests, we evaluate everything from ease of setup — including placing sensors and programming local information like date and time — to accuracy. We also look at durability (does the unit survive three-foot drops? Do they sensors hold up to driving rain?) and extra features, like comfort level indicators and additional sensors. Personal weather stations are handy gadgets for giving you an up-to-the-minute snapshot of what's happening right outside your door — not wherever your local weather station is.
The array should be securely mounted to a pole, roof, fence post or other immovable item. A home weather station keeps folks informed about temperature, precipitation, and other aspects of local conditions, but not every model will have the features you need. We put a host of different types to the test to help you choose the best unit. However, more complicated stations like the Davis Instruments 6153 have a variety of instrumentation and masts that require a more substantial amount of setup.
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The price of a weather station depends mostly on the accuracy of the sensors, transmission time, the technologies used, and the number of sensors, in that order. When mounting the weather station, ensure to keep it at least 4-6 feet above the ground or at a height of 6 to 8 feet if you are installing it on a rooftop. The outdoor unit would be affected by wind turbulence if mounted too low on a roof. Also, it will not get enough sunlight exposure if mounted too low on the ground, and the heat from the ground could affect the readings of the thermometer if mounted too low. The inside console features a well-laid-out interface that displays essential outdoor and indoor weather readings, as well as, a forecast of the most likely weather condition for the next 24 hours.
The final thing to check is the compatibility with your phone and WiFi. Home weather stations provide information on rainfall and humidity that can be used to help you avoid dangerous weather conditions. In most cases, cheap weather stations are noticeably less accurate than mid or high-range models. While there are some exceptions, the adage of getting what you pay for tends to apply here. Our tests have shown that sensor accuracy increases as price increases.
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They feature solar panels that require sunlight for operation and rain gauges designed to collect rainwater for measurements. Additionally, the wind speed and direction instruments are built to withstand some abuse, and we found all three of these stations to be equally durable. The Netatmo Weather Station is equal parts smart home device and weather station. It’s built from the ground up to integrate with your smart home, with excellent support for Alexa, HomeKit, and IFTTT. It doesn’t include a rain or wind sensor out of the box, but you can add those later if you feel the need.
A weather station with a 3-year warranty on all replacement parts will likely last longer than one with a 1-year warranty that only covers factory defects. In a nutshell, it's a basic device but has just enough data so you can easily plan your day around the weather. The Ambient Weather models come equipped with a rain gauge with a debris catcher.
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It reports any weather conditions to the person concerned via an alarm by SMS, contact output or both. Instead, all your data lives on a full-color LCD screen housed in a 9-by-5.4-inch display, the largest here. The already bright screen has backlighting for nighttime use and other dark conditions. The console and the sensor are battery-operated, and an indicator on the display lets you know when it’s time to swap in a fresh set. 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.
While nearly all home weather stations report temperature, precipitation, and humidity, some have extra features that detail such info as the heat index, wind chill, moon phase, solar radiation, and sunrise/sunset times. Consider your priorities to determine if these readings would be worth knowing—and paying for. Many are wireless, running on solar or battery power, which lets the user place the station virtually anywhere without the need for a nearby electrical outlet.
To gain a deeper understanding of the most important home weather station sensors and features, Laukkonen contacted David St. John, the CTO of WeatherFlow. With St. John’s expert insights, Jeremy looked at factors like durability and extensibility, sensor design and accuracy, and connectivity. The unit can connect to your Wi-Fi network and send data to Weather Underground, which allows you to check the sensors and see a customized weather forecast on the Weather Underground app. The number and type of sensors you need would greatly depend on the reason why you are purchasing the weather station. If it is for professional use, then you might want to look out for certain sensors and the accuracy of those sensors. However, if it is for recreation, then having a 5-in-1 sensor weather station is ideal.
The most attractive feature of this weather station package is the lightning detector. A lightning detector comes in handy for many activities; however, if you are a recreational pilot or a fisherman who wants to go fishing, then the lightning detector would be a useful tool for you. This lightning detector is capable of detecting lightning strikes that are 40 kilometres away, whether it is cloud-to-cloud lightning or cloud-to-ground lightning. The lightning sensor sends an update to the console every 24 seconds or 8 seconds depending on the presence of lightning or not. Similarly to the Vantage Vue, you can easily access all your weather information remotely on your devices by downloading the WeatherLink Data Logger app on your window and mobile interfaces.
The information gathered can be transmitted over a long-range distance of up to 400 feet to the indoor console. The outdoor sensor together with the thermo-hygrometer sensor gives you an extensive update ensuring you do not get surprised by mother nature. The console is simple to use and easy for you to read any information on both indoor and outdoor conditions. Via the console, you can view up to 80 different in-depth graphs of present and past weather variables for up to 24 months prior. You have the option of choosing an alarm for various emergency weather forecasts from up to 70 different alarm settings.
It’s one of the best-looking home weather station displays available, and it can even show data from any additional sensors you add to the system. Some of the benefits of using a wireless weather station are that it is easy to install and maintain. It also saves you money because you don't need to buy a cable to connect the station. It's also more accurate when compared to other weather stations that rely on cables.
Most use strategically placed sensors posted outside your home to capture readings, and may display everything from the outdoor temperature and humidity level to wind speeds and rainfall amounts. All are compact enough to sit on a tabletop, though you may choose to mount yours on a wall for easier viewing. This weather station comes with Ambient’s innovative osprey sensor array, which combines all of the main sensors into a single unit that’s easy to set up and install. It includes sensors for temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, UV and solar radiation, and rainfall. The sensor array has a built-in solar panel that charges a supercapacitor to keep it running at night, and you can also install optional backup batteries just in case. The best wireless weather station is a device that can be used to measure the temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure of your home.
The Vantage Pro2 has a truly impressive transmission range, advertised as being up to 1,000 feet. Ours is located just over 550 feet away and we receive a strong signal. This weather station is among the top choices for serious enthusiasts. It allows users to publish their data online for friends and neighbors to see, and it stores historical weather data.
The Vantage Vue also lacks any internet or smart home connectivity out of the box, so you can't send data to the internet without an expensive add-on. The best thing about the Ambient Weather WS-2902C is that you can add more sensors later on if you feel the need. It has all the basic bases covered right out of the box, but you can add up to eight additional thermo-hygrometer sensors , soil moisture sensors, and even air quality sensors.
Solar-powered units absorb and transform sunlight into power to run the weather station while charging the backup batteries. Most solar-powered weather stations don’t require high levels of direct sunlight, but they do need some, so select a spot in the yard where the unit will receive an average of 2 to 6 hours of sunlight per day. In our last metric, we examine what features each product had to offer. What all the weather stations had in common was they could be used as a wireless device that collected temperature and humidity measurements.
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