I initially was looking at the PurpleAir sensor, mostly for the very good online presence and the quantity of deployed sensors.
Looking into it a bit further I found out the PurpleAir was over priced (250 USD) for what is basically a redundant Plantower PM2.5 sensor and a very bad temperature/humidity sensor.
For similar money, it seems I can get a true weather station, and add the PM2.5 sensor to the array. I have a wood smoke brush fire issue here and I really want to quantify the degradation in air quality.
So far I have seen the Ecowitt, and the Ambient Weather products, but I want to make sure I consider every option.
Here are the characteristics I am looking for in a weather station:
-Easy Hubitat integration
-Available PM2.5 sensor
-Solar power (or 2 year plus battery life), desirable, but i could bend and power the station with a plug in adapter if everything else was stellar about the product
-Available soil humidity sensor (for WAF)
-Ecobee compatible (ideally i would like my Ecobee thermostat to pull data I upload to the web from my weather station). I am near a large lake and I know the weather data I am pulling from 3 miles away can be way off depending on prevailing winds.
It would appear that Ecobee is locked to a web weather provider (currently Darksky). I will ask if they can add the feature to support Weather Underground. This would allow the use of personal weather stations, and maybe solve the numerous reports of erroneous current temperature readings (reports of 20-30F deltas...).
Looks like Ecobee compatibility is off the table for now. The ability to add a PM2.5 sensor and to add additional sensors is still critical, and so is Hubitat integration. Solar power option is also a big thing, as I would like to install quite far from the nearest outlet.
I have two Ambient Weather Stations. One has a remote monitor which I use for the pool and the other monitors my PM2.5 air quality, wind speed/directions, dew point, battery, humidity, UV, rainfall and indoor/outdoor temps at three locations on my HE dashboard. I do not have a separate Ambient Weather Monitor for that station because it is not needed.
I checked out the Weatherflow Tempest, looks like a very nice unit. A bit pricey, and I am not sure it supports additional sensors. That's the strength of the Ecowitt IMHO, even though the actual hardware is probably of lesser quality.
i use ecowitt it is great and additional temp/humid sensors are cheap.. i even have one with a probe in the hot tub.. also there are coming out with a new pm 10 co2 sensor .. just released only avail direct from them and very pricey
Yes, the WH45 by Ecowiit, their new 5 in 1 sensor. 159.99 USD. Could be ok, depending on what type of Co2 sensor they used. Also seems the particulate sensor is new, which is a good thing, as the sensor in the WH41 was not accurate.
This particulate accuracy issue, and the 16min! reporting, has kept me from getting the WH41. Anyone know how easy it would be to mod that sensor? I don't mind upping the battery and solar capacity, I need polling at east every minute (every 30sec preferred). And I would change the sensor to a Plantower PMS5003 to mimic data from PurpleAir. Basically I would be getting the WH41 for the case, and easy? integration with the GW1000.
mine reports every 10 minutes,,
i think if on usb it is more often.. it is outside on battery.
why would you even need every minute.. i guess maybe if indoors due to smoke from cooking othrwise it doesnt change that often.
Ten minutes is still not good enough. I need it for outdoor smoke, and wind can change on a whim around here. Not sure if the sensor "sleeps" at all in the WH41, but there are concerns about accuracy for sensors set on a on/off schedule to increase lifespan. Some people were concerned the off period lets dust accumulate on the sensor, which leads to a inaccurate reading on restart. .
