Just installed my new La Crosse 2317 and having my first challenge. The outdoor temperature is showing about 5 degrees higher than the airport info which is about 10 miles from my home. The thermo hydro sensor is mounted on the north side of a wooded fence. The sun shines on the south side all day and you can feel the difference between the south and north side of the fence.
So I took some Styrofoam and aluminum tape and put it on the south side of the fence to try to insulate the sensor.
Its working, the temp dropped 4 degrees while the airport data went up 1 degree.
If anyone has more advice let me hear it.
North side
That looks like its getting heat off the fence, it looks like the sun is hitting the fence?
The heat will transfer although not as bad with the foam, perhaps a homemade FARS
will do the trick
Your getting radiated heat from the fence. Some folks have home made stevenson screens to put their temp sensor in to minimize the effects of radiated heat sources. Maybe something like that would work for you.
So I took some Styrofoam and aluminum tape and put it on the south side of the fence to try to insulate the sensor.
Its working, the temp dropped 4 degrees while the airport data went up 1 degree.
The foam mod made quite a bit of difference actually, quite surprising…
what’s more surprising is that it actually raised the temperature on the METAR…
It did not raise the temp, it went down and during that time frame the temp reported by the airport went up 1 degree. So while it was going down at my house it was going up at the airport.
Well today the temp at my house has stayed within 2 degrees of the temp at the airport. It started very close this morning and stayed within 1 degree most of the day and at the worst it was close to 2 degrees higher than the airport.
I’m fairly pleased compared to yesterday when it was almost 6 degrees higher at the worst point.
Hi there. I highly reccomend you build yourself a temp shield such as the one i built :
I remember when i got my first lacrosse station, i put the sensor out in direct sun and it always read about 5-10c higher than it should be. Whats even worse is that when they designed the sensor they put the solar cell on the front of each sensor, therefore if i wanted to charge it, i had to put it in direct sunlight #-o . In my temp shield now (which houses my 1 wire sensor) i have a 12v pc fan in the top to draw air in through the bottom (thus reducing infrared contamination).
Another idea maybe to paint the sunny side of the fence white to reflect the heat, if you don’t mind having a white stripe on your fence that is.
This would stop the bottom of the fence warming up and radiating through, then rising onto the Thermo hydro. I’d still keep the styrofoam on there though.
Oh, and I think Bashy meant that your mod’ made the airport temp rise. The airport weather reports are known as METAR’s.
I sure hope you have installed a better cover over that sensor… I imagine the first good rain you get, the sensor will probably stop working… permanently. #-o
It would not have been my choice but i can see where you are coming from,
It looks like you want to keep the, how can i say, a nice appearance in your garden
but im afraid that once the sun hits it it will raise the temp quite a bit…
You really need it to be inside something thats white at the very least but also
must be well ventilated for the air to circulate…
