I’ve always been kind of an amateur meteorologist being very interested in the weather. Now as a gardener, I like to keep track as well to better understand issues the garden is seeing such as intense sunlight, high winds, and serious rain downpours. As most people, I also like to keep up with the forecasts. I don’t watch traditional television news channels, so a weather station is what I need. Up until recent, I had a LaCross Technology weather station, but the rain sensor hasn’t worked in a few months. With that in mind, my wife surprised me for Christmas with a new home weather station made by Ambient Weather. This is a product review of the Ambient Weather’s WS-2902D weather station and a sure candidate for being the best home weather station based on quality, data and cost.
Summary
Overall, Ambient Weather’s WS-2902D weather station does everything that you need. It has the display panel which is sitting in the living room. The results can be pulled-up from the native Ambient Weather dashboard, or the even better dashboard offered by PWS Weather. This is great as I can determine the conditions even when I’m not at home. You can even set it up to work through Alexa, Google assistant and even using IFFTT for smart controls based on weather conditions. I do recommend this product and feel it offers everything needed for an amateur or hobby weather person and at a reasonable price.
Ambient Weather’s WS-2902D weather station
Ambient Weather’s WS-2902D home weather station provides wind speed and direction, rain amounts and rates, outdoor and indoor temperature and humidity, date and time, barometric pressure and a forecast based on the change in barometric pressure. Lastly is also includes UVI score and a light level. That’s everything that most anybody needs outside of a weather station.
Inside Weather Station Display Panel
The weather station does come with a nice display panel that shows you all the data mentioned above. I keep this in the living room.
Figure 1: Ambient Weather Station – Display Panel
Weather Station Computer Dashboard Capabilities
All weather data for your weather station, along with all other Ambient Weather stations used and registered by others, is provided in a dashboard format. The picture below shows a zoomed out display of the many weather stations in this network.
Figure 2: Ambient Weather Network: Dashboard
Figure 3: Ambient Weather Network: Dashboard
Figure 4: Ambient Weather Network: Dashboard
Figure 5: Ambient Weather Network: Dashboard
Ambient Weather Network’s Connected Devices
The weather station can display data on it’s own dashboard but they can also be connected to PWS Weather, along with Weather Underground web site as well.
PWS Weather
AerisWeather owns and operates PWSweather – a community that provides personal weather station owners with a user-friendly dashboard to monitor, manage, and archive their data. It really shows the data in a better representation in my opinion that the native app from Ambient Weather.
Figure 6: PWS Weather Dashboard
Alexa, Google Assistant and IFTT
These different supporting apps can be “connected” and configure to do different things. It can be trigged by an If this, do that. For example, if the temperature gets to a specified deg F, then turn on a fan or lower the thermostat on the air conditioner. It’s really pretty cool technology that can help make your home a smart home.
Installation and Unboxing
First, it’s well put together with the box containing everything you need. There is an all-in-one outdoor sensor array , a desktop console to see weather data, a wind vane, wind cups, rain gauge funnel and filter coil, along with mounting hardware to secure the outdoor sensor array. Setup instructions covered the assembly and is easy to understand. Assembly was effortless and simple. Finally, installation of batteries and getting the outdoor unit to talk to the desktop console was easy.
Note: you will need a small Phillips head screwdriver, an adjustable or 10mm wrench and 5 x AA batteries to get everything setup for this weather station.
Now that’s it all put together; we need to get things setup for mounting the weather station outside. I went and bought a 12 ft pole from Lowe’s, painted it black and cemented it about 2 foot down in the ground. You want the mounting as high as practical to ensure the outdoor sensor array captures the actual wind and other sensory data without being over-shadowed or blocked by the house.
Best Home Weather Station – Recommendation
Overall, Ambient Weather’s WS-2902D weather station does everything that I need. I have the display panel which I have sitting in the living room. I also can pull the results up from the native Ambient Weather dashboard or the even better dashboard offered by PWS Weather. This is great as I can determine the conditions even when I’m not at home. I do recommend this product and feel it offers everything needed for an amateur weather person and at a reasonable price. It must may be the best home weather system for your backyard!
Best Regards,
Darrell
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