Home Weather Stations & Photo Equipment

Enter to WIN - KAROTZ

2011-08-19T04:18:00.000-07:00

LAST CHANCE TO WIN

Enter to WIN a free KAROTZ from Red Onions... simply click on the link ENTER ME for your chance to win!

KAROTZ the Rabbot Robot

The must have gadget of the year is now available from Red Onions your one-stop shop for cool home weather stations and photographic gear – but wait there’s more to this adorable bunny – it not only tells the time and speaks the weather but it also organises your mp3 collection and it has lots of connectivity, including WiFi, internet access, a webcam, microphone, speakers, a USB port and an RFID reader all enclosed inside it’s cute bunny like body.

Free Entry to Karotz Draw

2011-07-29T04:27:00.001-07:00

Click 'Like' on our Facebook page, to enter our free, prize draw to win a KAROTZ
The new Robotic Rabbit.

Understanding Weather Stations

2011-07-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

Our daily lives revolve around the weather and in England it is difficult to plan any outdoor activities in advance because of the unpredictable nature of our weather. It can start out sunny and mild and quickly change to windy and torrential rain in a very short time.

Understanding weather and weather forecasting at home is becoming an ever increasingly popular hobby among all ages from schoolchildren to farmers to almost anyone interested in being able to predict the weather.

OK, so you are interested but don't know where to start or you have looked on Google or eBay and are now more confused than ever - well you have found the right place and Red onions not only sells Home Weather Stations but provides friendly advice and impartial information to help you choose the weather station that is right for you.

Understanding the weather is a fun and rewarding pastime and there are three types of weather station to consider: basic entry level indoor only type; intermediate level indoor with outdoor sensor for collecting weather information that is displayed on a screen; advanced indoor with outdoor sensor for collecting weather information and computer software that stores and analyses the collected data and displays it on a computer screen or website.

So now that you understand the three types of Home Weather Station that are available, Red Onions can provide the following reviews of three weather stations that we can recommend based on our many years of selling and using home weather stations at our offices in Somerset. We have setup our own website www.medipweather.co.uk that provides information and live weather data.

Oregon Scientific WMR80

This entry-level wireless weather station is very easy to install and features an easy to read display console with large numerals and is reasonably priced at under £100. At a glance you will see the time, wind speed & direction, indoor/outdoor temperature and humidity, barometric pressure, and rainfall reading with bar graphs.

The Wind sensor is capable of transmitting data to the base station wirelessly within an approximate operating range of 100 meters (328 feet).

The weather station comes with one temperature/humidity sensor however the console has the capability to collect data from up to 3 channels, this means that you can add two additional wireless sensors so that you can record the temperature from up to three locations.

The Oregon Scientific WMR80 will automatically record and store the daily minimum and maximum readings of both temperature and humidity.

The external rain gauge collects rainfall and takes readings of the rate and the total rainfall over a period of time. The rain gauge works via a tip bucket mechanism - it will only tip once the bucket has been filled with a certain amount of water, for the WMR 80 this has to be 1 mm before any rainfall is recorded, meaning on certain days with only light showers no rain will be recorded, whereas the intermediate and advanced home weather stations like the TFA Nexus and Davis Vue will record small rainfall graduations, the VUE has a rainfall resolution of 0.2mm.

The Oregon Scientific WMR80 home weather station also has a forecast function; the weather display console in the top part of the screen shows the current weather and the weather forecast for the next 12-24 hours within a 30-50 km (19-31 mile) radius. A bar graph function displays historical pressure rate for the last 24 hours, giving a good indication of whether a storm is approaching or good weather can be expected with pressure rising.

The main benefit of this type of home weather station is it’s cost and ease of use, it provides an all round general wireless weather station however it has some limitations, namely it’s range, the sensors have to be within 100 meters of the console whereas the Davis Vantage Vue has a range approaching 300 meters. Secondly the sensors only transmit data to the console every 56 seconds meaning that spikes in wind speed such as wind gusts will not be recorded as gust speeds are rarely sustained for more than a few seconds.

So the conclusion is, if you are looking for an entry level home weather station under £100, and you can sacrifice not having extremely accurate rainfall and wind speed data then the Oregon Scientific WMR80 is the perfect weather station for you.

TFA Nexus Home Weather station.

This intermediate level wireless weather station is for the more serious hobbyist that wants to collect and analyse more data and have more accuracy in collecting data and is priced under £200. This weather station has all of the same basic functions of the Oregon Scientific WMR80 however whereas the sensors on the WMR80 are battery powered the Nexus wind sensor has the addition of a solar panel which will extend the life of the batteries before having to replace them. In addition to weather forecasting this weather station can show storm warning, wind direction and wind-chill factor.

The Nexus Home weather station comes with one temperature/humidity sensor however the weather station will support a maximum of 5 thermo-hygrometers, allowing 5 channels of temperature/humidity display.

This weather station also calculates the DEW point (wind-chill factor) from the temperature and humidity readings. As with the WMR 80 there is a graph function that shows pressure data for the last 24 days together with a pressure trend indicator.

While both the WMR80 and the Nexus show the current moon phase, the Nexus will also show:

- Scans moon phase for year 2000 to 2099

- Moon phase history for the last or future 39 days

- Sunrise and sunset time

- Calculates sunrise/set times with geographical information provided by user (DST, zone time offset, latitude, longitude)

- Over 133 pre-set cities can be selected for automatic geographical information input.

The Nexus display console is a lot larger than the WMR80 making the readings easier to read but the main improvement is in the built-in memory function of the Nexus station, which will store up to 3000 weather records. The interval between records can be user defined from 5 minutes to 1 day to allow weather data for up to the last 8 years to be stored on the station (assuming the record interval is set at 1 day). There is also a USB port, which allows the data to be uploaded to a PC. This in our opinion is a very nice feature and greatly expands the depth of use for the collected weather data.

There are a few draw backs with the Nexus that we should point out: the operating ranges are quite small only 100 meters between sensors and console, the update interval on the wind speed is 33 seconds, an improvement on the WMR 80 but still quite basic, and the software that comes with the station to upload and process the weather data is basic.

Davis Vantage VUE

This advanced level home weather station is priced under £300 and is a high spec top of the range consumer home weather station. The build quality is a vast improvement from both the WMR80 and the Nexus weather station, and this wireless model has a range of 300 meters. The station will record: Wind speed, Wind direct, Rainfall, temperatures and humidity, barometric Pressure, Dew point (wind-chill), and Heat degree days (ideal for agricultural/farm users). All these sensors are built into one sensor head which has the addition of a solar panel which not only powers the sensor head thought daylight hours but will also charge the rechargeable battery, a feature that nether the WMR 80 nor Nexus had (the closest was the solar panel for the wind speed sensor on the Nexus).

The vastly improved update interval between the sensors and the console is only 2.5 seconds allowing more accurate variation in wind speed and direction to be recorded.

The display console features a graph function but whereas the graph function of the WMR80 and Nexus stations was limited to barometric pressure you can view 50 graphs including temperature, rain, rain rate, wind and barometric pressure all on the display console and also graph data for the last 25 hours, days or months.

There is also an alarm function that can set 22 simultaneous, different alarms to warn of dangers such as high winds, freezing temperatures, rain rate, flood warning, and more.

RAIN COLLECTOR

Self-emptying tipping spoon measures rain with .01" (0.2mm) resolution.

WEATHER PROOF COVER

Corrosion-resistant cover provides durability in extreme conditions. Electronics are potted or over-moulded for added moisture shielding.

RADIATION SHIELD

A housing that protects the temperature and humidity sensors and also provides excellent protection from solar radiation and other sources of radiated and reflected heat whilst maintaining a free flow of air over the sensor. This results in a far more accurate reading of air temperature whereas the temperature sensors for the Nexus and WMR 80 are basic wall mounted sensors.

You can also add the Weather Link package, which allows weather records to be recorded and stored at user, defined intervals and later uploaded to the PC and even published on the Internet.

There is a more advanced Davis Weather station, the Vantage Pro 2 which allows the user to add up to 8 additional sensor’s ranging from extra temperature sensors to solar and UV sensors and even soil moisture and leaf wetness sensors.

Karotz the Rabbit Robot

2011-07-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

The must have gadget of the year or just another ultra cool Japanese toy is now available from Red Onions your one-stop shop for cool home weather stations and photographic gear – but wait there’s more to this adorable bunny – it not only tells the time and speaks the weather but it also organises your mp3 collection and it has lots of connectivity, including Wi-Fi, internet access, a webcam, microphone, speakers, a USB port and an RFID reader all enclosed inside it’s cute bunny like body.

Some years ago you might remember the bunny in a different guise as Nabaztag, the French-Armenian web-connected rabbit gadget that could read emails and deliver weather reports.

Now called Karotz, the bunny it has been completely redesigned with a host of new features including Twitter and Facebook updates.

Karotz will play music and podcasts, and even remind you of friends’ birthdays, and keep an eye on your stuff with its built-in webcam – which can even send pics directly to your smartphone.

Accessories include Earz, Skinz and a game called Quizz and it all works wirelessly to connect to the internet and can help you make calls, check up on your social networks, keep tabs on the stock market - pretty much organise your life while performing some really useful stuff.

Understanding Weather and Forecasting

2011-02-23T03:37:00.000-08:00

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods of time. When used without qualification, "weather" is understood to be the weather of Earth.

Weather occurs due to density (temperature and moisture) differences between one place and another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics.The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the jet stream.

Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow. Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to its orbital plane, sunlight is incident at different angles at different times of the year. On Earth's surface, temperatures usually range ±40 °C (100 °F to −40 °F) annually. Over thousands of years, changes in Earth's orbit affect the amount and distribution of solar energy received by the Earth and influence long-term climate and global climate change.

Surface temperature differences in turn cause pressure differences. Higher altitudes are cooler than lower altitudes due to differences in compressional heating. Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location.

The atmosphere is a chaotic system,so small changes to one part of the system can grow to have large effects on the system as a whole. Human attempts to control the weather have occurred throughout human history, and there is evidence that human activity such as agriculture and industry has inadvertently modified weather patterns.

Studying how the weather works on other planets has been helpful in understanding how weather works on Earth. A famous landmark in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. However, weather is not limited to planetary bodies. A star's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind.

Forecasting

Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a future time and a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since at least the nineteenth century. Weather forecasts are made by collecting quantitative data about the current state of the atmosphere and using scientific understanding of atmospheric processes to project how the atmosphere will evolve.

Once an all-human endeavor based mainly upon changes in barometric pressure, current weather conditions, and sky condition, forecast models are now used to determine future conditions. Human input is still required to pick the best possible forecast model to base the forecast upon, which involves pattern recognition skills, teleconnections, knowledge of model performance, and knowledge of model biases. The chaotic nature of the atmosphere, the massive computational power required to solve the equations that describe the atmosphere, error involved in measuring the initial conditions, and an incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes mean that forecasts become less accurate as the difference in current time and the time for which the forecast is being made (the range of the forecast) increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus helps to narrow the error and pick the most likely outcome.

There are a variety of end users to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life and property. Forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture, and therefore to commodity traders within stock markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days. On an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by heavy rain, snow and the wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events, and to plan ahead and survive them.

Home Weather Stations from Red onions

For the serious home weather station enthusiast, Red Onions selection of weather stations will provide weather data from the basics (temperature, pressure, wind speed) to more specialized UV radiation and solar radiation sensors. Wireless transmission means sensors can be placed in more than one convenient location.