Indoor/outdoor weather station that allows for remote monitoring

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Alaskajohn

Bugged out
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Oct 2, 2020
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2,907
Location
Alaska
I want to upgrade my weather station to something that is WiFi enabled to allow for remote monitoring of indoor and outdoor temps. The remote monitoring would be useful to keep my eyes on things if I am away.

When I look on Amazon I see tons of bells and whistles which are fine and dandy. The important point is that what ever system I get must allow for remote monitoring of indoor and outdoor temps from my iPhone or iPad.

Any recommendations?
 

I see it has an app that can remotely monitor. Do they have censor's for indoor temps as well? I see that the outdoor battery is solar powered. I don't get sun for about 45-50 days each winter. Can the battery be recharged with another method. My current weather station takes AA and I simply replace about once a year. The extreme cold kind of eats batteries.
 
it is my understanding the indoor console has the "indoor" sensors. I don't have that part, mine is outside "internet" only through a hub. All the data was indoor/outdoor was accesable back when I had a working indoor console.
Mine is powered by an optional AC adapter, the optional lightning detector kills the on board batteries in days/weeks. Without the detector, battery life was good.

They have an app, and you can log in via a browser also:
Screen Shot 2021-11-09 at 9.34.59 PM.png
 
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it is my understanding the indoor console has the "indoor" sensors. I don't have that part, mine is outside "internet" only through a hub. All the data was indoor/outdoor was accesable back when I had a working indoor console.
Mine is powered by an optional AC adapter, the optional lightning detector kills the on board batteries in days/weeks. Without the detector, battery life was good.

They have an app, and you can log in via a browser also:View attachment 75179

Thanks for the feedback. I don’t think I would need the lightning detector. I went to the website and played around with a custom kit. I will have to study a bit before I order something.
 
A friend has multi-camera surveillance "system". The cameras for indoors point at each entrance door, and he put a large outdoor thermometer next to each door, mid height floor to ceiling. It is all tied to a computer, and he can check everything from anywhere on earth, that he can get online. It was/is a "custom" system. One thing he did that I thought was clever, one camera sweeps across and pass the back door mini-porch, then also shows the 500 gallon stove oil tank. I guess stealing diesel fuel is a common happening.

A lot of hunters use "trail cameras" that work off a cell phone. maybe something as simple as that, and have the trail camera indoors, pointed at a thermometer, that shows indoors and outdoors temperature, and is mounted next to a window, that would allow you to see the weather outside.
 
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A friend has multi surveillance camera "system". The cameras for indoors point at each door, and he put a large outdoor thermometer next to each door, mid height floor to ceiling. It is all tied to a computer, and he can check everything from anywhere on earth, that he can get online. It was/is a "custom" system. One thing he did that I thought was clever, one camera sweeps across and pass the back door mini-porch, then also shows the 500 gallon stove oil tank. I guess stealing diesel fuel is a common happening.

A lot of hunters use "trail cameras" that work off a cell phone. maybe something as simple as that, and have the trail camera indoors, pointed at a thermometer, that shows indoors and outdoors temperature, and is mounted next to a window, that would allow you to see the weather outside.

The wife has been on my ass to get a camera surveillance system. The price tags have always scared us off. I have trail cams at my two gates that I keep locked.
 
After doing my homework, I ended up spending about $250 for the system, but it will give me temps and humidity on all three levels of my 1500 foot cabin, the outdoor (5-in-1) Weather Sensor, the Color Display with Weather Ticker and the AcuRite® Remote Monitoring system. I ended up getting a lot more than I need and what I intended to get. I was hoping to keep it below $150, so I failed at that part.
 
After doing my homework, I ended up spending about $250 for the system, but it will give me temps and humidity on all three levels of my 1500 foot cabin, the outdoor (5-in-1) Weather Sensor, the Color Display with Weather Ticker and the AcuRite® Remote Monitoring system. I ended up getting a lot more than I need and what I intended to get. I was hoping to keep it below $150, so I failed at that part.
What system did you decide to get?
 
Hey thanks. After seeing it is it worth it ?

It hasn’t come in yet. I know I am getting more than I really need, so “worth it” is subject.
 
The system came in the other day and I set it up yesterday. Simple set up and everything calibrated and connected as the devices should have. Downloaded the Acurite app on our tablets and phones. That was a breeze as well. I love how the data is presented on the app and it’s easy to see and interpret what is going on. The forecasts look accurate and it predicted the night and following days weather.

I am a bit disappointed in the display unit I placed on my nightstand. The lighting makes it hard to read in the day and you can’t read it at night unless you press the night display button, but it only stays illuminated for about a minute and then it goes dark. Not a big deal, and maybe I should read the manual. I need to call the company as they only sent me one of the three indoor sensors. The unit came with an indoor sensor that wasn’t apparent from the product description, so I only need one of the two, but they were less than $20 each. I guess I can have one sensor extra as a backup.

All in all I am happy with this. I think the real value is the Acurite app and the Acurite access module that makes all of the data available on your tablet possible. For that to work you need electricity and an available ethernet port on your router for your internet. There is a lot more current data and forecast data that you can get on your tablet than what you see on the nightstand display unit.

Looking at the app, I see I can set it up to report my data to Acurite and to weather underground. For those who have the system, do you gain any value from reporting your weather data to either of these sites?
 
I share mine to WeatherUnderground, the thing I like about WU is the radar and neighboring weather station information.

Here is my WU page if you want to see what I report: Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground

Cool! So on that map, are all those data points around your location other stations that are reporting to weather underground?

I’ve not really used weather underground as they don’t really cover my location very well. So I will need to snoop around a bit!
 
Cool! So on that map, are all those data points around your location other stations that are reporting to weather underground?

I’ve not really used weather underground as they don’t really cover my location very well. So I will need to snoop around a bit!
Yes, every point shown is a reporting station, if you click on it, WU will pull up the page for that station.
 
I have an Ambient Osprey 2902A and I've been very happy with it. It's been running since Dec 2019 on the initial set of batteries. The indoor console is nice, and if it's plugged in, it's lit up all the time. Does yours have the plug/battery option? Maybe there's a setting there that would make it stay on. I have mine set up to report to weather underground too, and I like how I can compare my station to others nearby. And it's nice to check on how much rain or wind is happening at the house when I'm away. Going over the charts and graphs is fun too. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of your station.
1649730762869.png
 
So here's the remote report. Hot !!!!! Like 85 degree. And the sun doesn't go down enough for it to get dark.
Spring summer fall, all squeezed in to 5 months. Yeeha it's summer in ak. Gardening building fishing hunting processing wood fixing stuff. Drinking whiskey around a campfire in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, nothing but good
 
I used to have a weather station. A small one with only temps, wind, humidity and rain amount. Eventually it died. I was looking to replace it with a better station. As part of looking into that, I started investigating stations that could be put online. And I found so many of them already online around me, that I decided I didn't need to buy my own. Many are high end expensive stations that I could not afford for myself.

In truth, I rarely look at these online personal stations. Sometimes I do. There are a bunch of them to choose from in a three block radius around me. And plenty more as you move farther away (but still close). I mostly use a weather app on my smartphone these days. Much of that data comes from our local small airport, which is about 5 miles from me. So close enough to give me useful information.

I did not end up replacing my dilapidated weather station. It's still cranking out temps and humidity, but wind and rain features are toast. There was no benefit for me to buy a new station. Totally different for those of you who live out in the middle of nowhere. It's probably your personal weather station, or no weather station at all.

I do have a Kestrel mobile weather station. It does lots of neat stuff. I take it to the shooting range. A friend gave it to me when he recently bought a newer model (that has an internal ballistics calculator). This old one he gave me is no slouch - it was their top of the line model a few years ago. "Density Altitude" is a nice reading to have (if your ballistics program allows that as an input). It's a combination of elevation, pressure, temperature and humidity I think. Pretty much all you need to know to calculate a bullets trajectory, in one number. I think pilots use this reading a lot too. You can connect one of these things to a computer for remote monitoring I believe. But that would be a kludge I'd think. Just get a permanent weather station if you want to access things remotely.

Kestrel4500.jpg


kestrel2.jpg
 
I have an Ambient Osprey 2902A and I've been very happy with it. It's been running since Dec 2019 on the initial set of batteries. The indoor console is nice, and if it's plugged in, it's lit up all the time. Does yours have the plug/battery option? Maybe there's a setting there that would make it stay on. I have mine set up to report to weather underground too, and I like how I can compare my station to others nearby. And it's nice to check on how much rain or wind is happening at the house when I'm away. Going over the charts and graphs is fun too. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment out of your station.
View attachment 84316

Yes, the display can operate off of batteries or plug in, and it’s plugged in. I have it set up to where I can reach out and press the button to see the temps at night. I am sure there is a setting to adjust this but I’ve just learned to live with this. For OPSEC I don‘t have mine reporting my weather. I am happy with my set up!
 
So here's the remote report. Hot !!!!! Like 85 degree. And the sun doesn't go down enough for it to get dark.
Spring summer fall, all squeezed in to 5 months. Yeeha it's summer in ak. Gardening building fishing hunting processing wood fixing stuff. Drinking whiskey around a campfire in the middle of nowhere. Oh yeah, nothing but good

85 already? 61 and sunny here. Perfect except we need rain. Almost all the snow is gone and later today I will be tilling my potato beds for planting next week. If we don’t get the rain, the stream will serve as my water for agriculture use until the rain fills up my tanks.

What is your whisky of preference? I am currently working on a bottle of Four Roses Small Batch bourbon which is nice, but I will go back to Makers Mark the next time I run into town.
 
RnR. Crown. We do have a balsam wood weather stick that is always accurate. Sticks up sunny. Down rain. And a little tuff of hair on the back station, if tail wet, rain. Dry, sunny.
Actually I'm always looking up watching what the skies doing
 
I used to have a weather station. A small one with only temps, wind, humidity and rain amount. Eventually it died. I was looking to replace it with a better station. As part of looking into that, I started investigating stations that could be put online. And I found so many of them already online around me, that I decided I didn't need to buy my own. Many are high end expensive stations that I could not afford for myself.

In truth, I rarely look at these online personal stations. Sometimes I do. There are a bunch of them to choose from in a three block radius around me. And plenty more as you move farther away (but still close). I mostly use a weather app on my smartphone these days. Much of that data comes from our local small airport, which is about 5 miles from me. So close enough to give me useful information.

I did not end up replacing my dilapidated weather station. It's still cranking out temps and humidity, but wind and rain features are toast. There was no benefit for me to buy a new station. Totally different for those of you who live out in the middle of nowhere. It's probably your personal weather station, or no weather station at all.

I do have a Kestrel mobile weather station. It does lots of neat stuff. I take it to the shooting range. A friend gave it to me when he recently bought a newer model (that has an internal ballistics calculator). This old one he gave me is no slouch - it was their top of the line model a few years ago. "Density Altitude" is a nice reading to have (if your ballistics program allows that as an input). It's a combination of elevation, pressure, temperature and humidity I think. Pretty much all you need to know to calculate a bullets trajectory, in one number. I think pilots use this reading a lot too. You can connect one of these things to a computer for remote monitoring I believe. But that would be a kludge I'd think. Just get a permanent weather station if you want to access things remotely.

View attachment 86621

View attachment 86622
Don't recall the model number we use. But they are Kestrel's we use at work. We get them calibrated yearly as some of our work requires accurate temp and humidity readings. We had one humidity setting die, out of 3, but the other 2 have never failed their As-Found calibration. We had one for air flow measurements. I liked them so well I bought one for the house.
 
My beautiful wife n me were traveling. Rented a car n were in Nebraska I believe. Walked in to a truck stop restaurant for supper. I, for the sake of conversation, mention how you could smell the rain coming. High humidity thing. Young lady thought we'd flipped
 
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