A diary of the projects, hurdles, rewards and family life at we recorded at Wise Acres, our former homestead in Horsefly, BC. (Careers and teenagers have forced us back into the city, at least for a little while.)

Thursday, September 4, 2008

About the Weather Widget

You may have noticed the little weather widget in the right-side column of this page. It is a live weather feed, directly from our own weather station.

Weather Underground PWS IBCCARIB2

The station (an Oregon Scientific WMR-200) has several sensors that transmit data wirelessly to the base station in my office. Here, my PC collects the data and uploads it to the Weather Underground, where it is shared with the world, and you here.

As interesting as this all is (yes, it did drop to 0.1 deg C last night) there's a grander motive: I hope to have enough data collected over time to determine if we'd benefit at all from a windmill to supplement our electricity.

One issue I have is that the weathervane/windspeed post is in our garden, and the wind's less consistent there, as it's quite sheltered by our house, shed and some trees. Still, if I get a second sensor positioned at a more ideal height (30+ ft) I should be able to use the average difference between the two to assess an annual wind rate. (Incidentally, anyone want to sell me an old TV aerial?)

1 comment:

  1. Hi Joanne, I haven't yet received a note of your address, so haven't been able to mail your hat. I have an extra little gift to include in the parcel and hope to hear from you soon. Nicola

    ReplyDelete