I am trying to find why my wind speed readings are so far out from the actual wind speed, and my investigations have come to thinking about the vertical alignment of the gauge. Mine is fitted to a 4 meter pole, secured against a wall.
If the Tempest is no quite vertical on a pole how much would this affect the acoustic sensor in measuring wind speed?
a few degrees won’t matter much, what is more important, what is around the Tempest ?
If you have a large wall beneath then you can get upwards wind when coming from certain directions that slow down the horizontal speed. Also nearby walls or trees can ‘reflect’ wind and slow down the speed …
Wind is really tricky. I have 3 devices within a circle of 3 meters but let’s say from 1 meter above ground to 10 meters above ground and they don’t show the same speed at all and depending direction of the wind, not the same direction neither due to a garden wall and some tall oaks nearby. Those are enough to swirl wind and give different readings.
Maybe share a picture or two ? Might give some idea …
Okay tomorrow will take a picture.
However I am coming to the conclusion that Haptic and acoustic sensor technology is maybe not the best for me where I am. I was really happy with my old unit, I considered it to be accurate. I wanted the Tempest as it had a smaller factor.
Remember that the acoustic sensor has absolutely no inertia to contend with. It may very well be correct when your previous station was not showing all the nuances of the wind.
@gizmoev So are you saying that if I stand and look at the sensor, then look around nearby and see trees bending over due to the wind, that the wind is wrong, the trees are wrong and the Tempest is correct…That is a strange nuance
No, that is a ridiculous conclusion to take from what I said. If your username means anything you definitely know about inertia and what it is. I get that you are frustrated and are questioning the Tempest’s values. I’m merely pointing out some differences between measurement instruments and that your previous one may not have shown some things due to the inertia of the mechanism. As @eric said, obstructions of any sort in the vicinity can have unexpected effects on the actual wind at a given location. That being said, there still could be an issue with your particular Tempest.
Apparently quite a bit…as your readings are far from actual wind speed. Be sure it’s level and up & away from structure as much as possible. Mine works perfect, very pleased!
Mine is on a pole away from structures, I am now suspecting a poor unit, have raised a ticket.
Note that it will probably take a couple of days for CS to get back to you. Hopefully a replacement unit will be the solution.
Good customer service, they have been in contact and a replacement is on its way.
When you receive it, use the Replace Device option if you want the history to stay linked, otherwise it will be like a new station.
As I have only had it up 30 days I will put the replacement up as a new device and see if there is any difference between the two, I really hope so.
Remember that you will lose access to the prior data that way. Keeping it you can go back in the history and compare.