Home Weather Station Maintenance
Now that you've spent your hard earned money and setup your weather station, you need to make sure it's in top working order with regular maintenance. Here are a few helpful hints.
Keep insects and vegetation away from the weather sensors. Mount your weather station away from creeping plants and vegetation that may climb and interfere with the sensors. You must also ensure unobstructed air flow around the weather sensors which is important for wind measurements as well as keeping the weather device air cooled. Insects such as ants can also create problems by creating nests around your ground mounted weather station and climbing up the unit obstructing the sensors.
Some weather stations are powered via small solar panels. The PV panels must be properly oriented to face south and angles approx 22 degrees to take full advantage of the sun. Although PV panels are pretty much maintenance free, if you live in a dusty environment it doesn't hurt to dust them off every once in a while.
Cabled weather stations should have their cables run through conduit and buried in the ground to avoid tripping up or cutting. If mounting the weather station on your home, take the time to also run conduit and proper ties for a professional installation. Ensure cables are not stretched and have some wiggle room, but not enough to get caught up in anything.
Wireless weather stations require unobstructed line of site from the main unit to the console. Although we know the signal will pass through the walls of your home and other obstructions, the clearer the line of site the farther your signal will travel. You may have to trim some brush or trees to get proper signal from your mounting location. If you have missing data or loss signal, check your line of site. Even a swinging tree in the wind can cause signal loss.
Some weather stations have sensor heaters which should be unplugged during warm seasons. Even if the heaters have a thermometer, it's best to unplug them to ensure you don't overheat your expensive sensor in error. Replacing weather station sensors is not cheap.
One last item to keep in mind is to keep a clear unobstructive 360 degrees when mounting the wind sensors. Although not ideal for everyone, mounting on a pole high above obstructions and away from your office or home should limit turbulence and false readings. Keep surrounding trees to a minimum and trim as needed or relocate the sensor.
