Hello everyone,
I just placed the order for my Tempest last night and I couldn’t be more excited to get this thing set up. Today I was sizing up potential siting spots and I thought I would ask for some opinions?
Options:
Metal pole attached to clothes line pole
same but on the other side of said clothes line pole
mounted to the wood pole on my 2nd floor deck (probably metal pole still)
mounted to peak of roof via an antenna eave antenna mast mount (for this I’d probably lean towards a pvc pole?)
I’d go with 3 but use a metal pole to get it up in the air more so you don’t get too much radiant heat off the deck. You’re only going to have good wind from one direction though due to the house. 1+2 would be preferred for temperature if you put a real pole n the ground. I wouldn’t use the clothesline. Definitely don’t use PVC. Most folks love the 10.5’ fence rail top post from Lowe’s. Works great for me here connected to the 4x4 fence corner post.
Choose a temp location with easy access for the first couple of weeks to ensure your Tempest doesn’t have any issues. During that time, you can evaluate the best permanent location.
Something to keep in mind, with either the temp location and perm location, you want to be sure the solar panels receive a proper amount of sunlight from the east, south, and west panels.
The tree near spots 1, 2, 3, looks to be a potential blocker for wind catch and possibly sunlight depending on the location of True North.
As for Spot 3, my assumption this would be mounted to the elevated deck…You may see false rain readings if the deck vibrates from something walking or leaning on the railing.
Please don’t use a PVC pole. The Yardgard 1-3/8 in x 10 ft. 6 in. 17-Gauge Galvanized Top Rail from Home Depot works really well. I used a guy wire kit to make it more stable.
The higher the Tempest, the more accurate data you will get and the less likely direct sunlight will be obscured. You also want to minimize sway (i.e. long masts) as this affects rain and wind measurement. A TV mast tripod on your roof peak (#4) would work well.
Got the Tempest up and running and I’m really excited to put it in its permanent location.
I’m currently debating between #3(Deck) and #4(Roof gable)
#3 would be the easiest to install if I could find a mount that would work on my deck post. My main concern is the wind reading as a 10 ft pole wouldn’t get it even close to being above the house
#4 would mean a roof gable antenna mount. This option would be more expensive but I think would possibly provide more accurate data?
How tall of a pole would you recommend to get it away from the peak of the roof? Currently looking at the yard guard 10’6’’ pole which would make it almost 40 ft off the ground. Is that too high?
There is no wrong answer as long as it’s safe to install and maintain.
Optimize for what means the most to you, temperature or wind. You can’t optimize for both in an all-in-one sensor like the Tempest, especially given your surroundings.
Wind is important to me so mine is as high as I can put it. Here is a post where I compare wind readings at different height/locations.
The higher you put it the faster your wind will measure and the easier your pole will break in a storm.
If it is only 2 meters above the surrounding objects it will get some turbulent rotors and what I do is take the gust value of the turbulent rotor and imagine that is the upper winds pushing down for a moment. Then I assume that gust reading is a similar speed to the actual wind 10m up.
And I then fly up in that wind with my paraglider and I glide in both directions, into wind and down wind and I calculate the average speed which is the actual wind speed.
And I like my temperature reading to be of the wind rather than of what is trapped in different parts of my garden which varies greatly.
So it is your choice what is important to you.
cheers Ian
I placed my Tempest about 8 feet above my deck surface because that’s where I want the measurement, to see how what it’ll be like to lounge on my deck.
