To this end i’ve taken the previous task of building a solar power logger & now we’ve gone one step further and purchased this weather station that has arrived. The weather station itself is made by Watson and is the W-8681, It’ll will measure wind speed, direction, gusts, rain, temp, pressure and the best thing it logs it all wirelessly to a touch pad up to 300ft away so it’ll be safe inside the house. Both transmitter and receiver run on a few AA batteries that’ll last up to two years and the receiver can log up to a years data in its internal memory before requiring downloading… BRILLIANT !!!

Why?
Well i’m trying to solidify solutions for rain water harvesting, wind turbines and solar panels so the fact i don’t have to constantly be around to collect this information is fantastic. The only downside to all of this is the horrible software interface is Windows only however that’s not overly important to me once i get the data out of the thing.

I’ll be installing it the next trip out which is currently scheduled for Christmas and i’ll post some images and some initial data readings but i’ll continue to post readings when i get out on site.

Below is a quick overview of what it does and i’ve linked to an eBay search for the item if you fancy a look. If you’re a store that sells these in the UK, Europe or USA and want a link then just drop me a line.

eBay search link (UK) : http://bit.ly/w-8681

Spec Sheet

Features:

1) Touch screen panel
2) USB port for easy connectio to your PC
3) All the weather data from the base station and weather history data with user adjustable measuring intervals can be recorded and uploaded to your PC
4) Free PC software for transfer weather data to PC
5) Rainfall data (inches or millimeters): 1-hour, 24-hour,one week,one month and total since last reset.
6) Wind chill and Dew point temperature display (° for °C)
7)Records min. and max. wind chill and Dew point with time and date stamp Wind speed (mph, m/s, km/h, knots, Beaufort)
9) Wind direction display with LCD compass
10) Weather forecast tendency arrow
11) Weather alarm modes for: a) Temperature b) Humidity c) Wind chill d) Dew point e) Rainfall f) Wind speed g) Air pressure h) Storm warning
12) Forecast icons based on changing barometric pressure
13) Barometric pressure (inHg or hPa) with 0.1hPa resolution
14) Wireless outdoor and indoor humidity (% RH)
15) Records min. and max. humidity with time and date stamp
16) Wireless outdoor and indoor temperature (° for °C)
17) Records min. and max. temperature with time and date stamp
18) Time and date with manual setting
19) 12 or 24-hour time display
20) Perpetual calendar
21) Time zone setting
22) Time alarm
23) High light LED backlight
24) Wall hanging or free standing
25) Synchronized instant reception
26) Low power consumption (over 2 years battery life for transmitter)
Set includes:
1) Receiver
2) Four outdoor sensors: thermo-hydro transmitter, wind speed sensor, wind direction sensor and rain sensor

Specifications:
1) Outdoor temperature range: -40.0°C to + 65.0°C (-40°F to +149°F)
2) Indoor temperature range: 0°C to + 50.0°C (32°F to +122°F)
3) Humidity range: 10% to 99% (1% resolution)
4) Rain volume display: 0 – 9999mm (show OFL if outside range) Resolution : 0.3mm (if rain volume < 1000mm) 1mm (if rain volume > 1000mm)
5) Wind speed: 0~100mph (show OFL if outside range)
6) Measuring range air pressure: 27.13inHg – 31.89inHgResolution : 0.01inHg
7) Alarm duration : 120 sec Transmission range up to 100m (330 feet)
9) Power consumption: a) Receiver: 3 x AA alkaline batteries (not included) b) Sensor WH7: 2 x AA alkaline batteries (not included)
10) Transmission frequency: 433MHz,868MHz(Europe) / 915MHz (North Ameria

Update Dec 25 2009
We’ve bought this with us for Christmas and i’ve managed to install this, this afternoon. I’ll be starting the data collection shortly and will post up a write up.

We first used LDLines back in Sat 29 August 2009 & I remember twittering at the time about how poor the service was and that they were obviously looking to be the Ryan Air of the English channel. I also said i’d never travel with them again due to the chaotic nature of the booking in process, loading process and the fact the facilities on the boat just weren’t up to scratch and today i eat a lot of humble pie!

I ended up on LDLines this time not by choice but by what turned out to be my own good fortune. I left it late this time to book a ferry for a quick renovation getaway and by that time the main players were asking around £150 / £180 for crossing, so i reluctantly booked with LDLines for £55 return and just figured i’d sit here with gritted teeth..

On arriving this time booking-in was slick, loading was now organised and not like the wild west park anywhere we’d had previously encountered and the boat left only 10 minutes late and zipped across in the promised hour. Previously it was 50 minutes late leaving and it seemed like we limped across in “normal” ferry time (we’ve left dead on time this return crossing).

The ships facilities were all up to speed, the (very) small duty free shop was open & both front and mid facilities were also open. This is so night and day compared to what we’d experienced before and it didn’t stop there!

On arriving at Boulonge you are no longer in town, at the bottom of a round about going through a check-in desk that was a glorified porta cabin, this is all new. LDLines look like they have taken home in a totally new birth and part of the port thats a fair distance away from the old place. By moving to the new facilities they’ve really staked their intention to provide a new quality of service across the channel and from this experience they are achieving that.

Not everything unfortunately is roses, we spoke to more than a few people who either ran later than usual for the boat or were just plain confused that they’d moved. Everyone agrees that this is a lot easier but the website and tickets MUST be updated to let everyone know of the move. For us when we arrived and unloaded we like a lot of people had no idea where we were and you can forget the SatNav having any idea where this place is. To help you and LDLines i’ll be posting my POI (Point of interest) and the long and latitude that you can pump into your SatNav.

I will be writing to LD to see if they want to comment on this post as i’d really like to understand what they did to turn the whole travel experience around and i’ll also be rubbishing my own Tweet saying i’ll never travel with them again…

LDLines now have a guaranteed repeat customer, lets hope they do frequent traveller or positive blog discounts

Links :
www.LDLines.com
www.LDLines.co.uk

New wood burning stove
heat in this house has always been somewhat of an issue. With the old stone walls and rather large gaps in them and lack of a “proper” heat source we’ve always struggled to heat the house. We’ve used paraffin heaters to heat the rooms etc etc but these cost a lot to run and the only other source of heat possible is from an old cooker stove that is very inefficient and doesn’t throw out a lot of heat at all and all that changed today.. Welcome the Poele Godin to the house.

Now Poele Godin isn’t a name i’ve come across while searching for a wood burning stove and that’ll be because it’s a very French brand. This particular one is 40 years old and belonged to the parents of a friend of ours. A quick search on ebay.fr brings up a few available for sale in our area ranging from ¢300 to €500 and given the amazing change in heat this house has i’ll be bidding on one asap (eBay search : http://bit.ly/Poele )…

With the amount of heat kicking off this thing we thought we’d try out cooking bacon on it and since that was a success we even threw in some potatoes! Genius! For the first time in Autumn/Winter since we’ve owned the house i’m sitting here in a t-shirt and not a t-shirt, jumper and a body warmer If i can get one for €300/€500 then it’s really priceless.

Clearing the barn & more hedgehogs
Enough said about this, needless to say another 5 found, i’ve got a bloody hedgehog farm going on here!

Sorting the lawn
Today was full of goodies from Jacque and this time it was the ride on mower. Given the amount of sun and rain we get here the garden grows wild, and since Jacque has bought himself a ride on mower over the summer it was time to put it to good use. I’ll post a picture shortly of me smiling like a big kid riding it (it could be below by the time you read this) and trust me the smiles were involuntary but there is something that makes you feel great riding around on a mower feeling like a cross between a racing driver and a master gardner.. Anyway job done and i’ll be volunteering to do it a lot more i think

PS : The smoke isn’t from me crashing the mower in a hail of flames but still some of the hay from yesterday STILL bloody burning.

That’s it for today, as i said we took a short one and listened to Tottenham hotspurs beat Portsmouth 2-1 (great result) and watched the longest F1 qualifying in history and Jenson Button somehow blow a great opportunity to take the title.. Tomorrow we’ve got a day of lifting, lagging and roof removing if all goes well.

Task 1 – Repair the rear window.

Somewhere in a storm in the last few months we appear to have lost a pain of glass, so Dad has task #1 of fitting a new piece of glass to this rotten old window. Easier said than done as he had to be so careful not to either break another really thin 2mm thick piece or damage the window itself. Time & patience paid off and he got this done. Looking forward to the part of the renovation where we replace all the windows

Task 2 – Get the bloody car out of the barn!

This car is starting to be a right pain in the arse. The owners haven’t turned up, we don’t have the right paperwork to take ownership and we’ve got a guy waiting to take it but we can’t give it to him (at the moment) , plus it’s not been out of the barn in around 8 years we’re told, so starting it isn’t an option.
Now i don’t know a great deal about these Citroens but Jacque Chirac loved them and they have some great funky hydraulic suspension but after all this time it’s sunk and is actually below the level of the barn so getting it out proved to be a mission for NASA, a structural engineer and 2 English guys sheer stubboness..

An hour later, with some pushing, pulling, choice words and creative ramp building it sees the sun for the first time in just under a decade and now the barn clearing can really start.

The barn is full of hay as you’d expect but its not been used as a hay loft for as long as the car has been in hiding and there is a LOT of it.. With the help of the local farmers tractor we cleared most of it away ready for burning.

Take it from me any romance you had about growing up on a farm in Smallville moving hay like Clark Kent well forget it… It’s horrible, itchy, gets everywhere..

Task 3 – Rehome the wild life!

During the move we found a next of hedgehogs hibernating. Now being a city dweller i’m sure i was a little over sympathetic about their plight and rather just turf them out or burn them with the rest of the hay i found the Nature Channel watcher in me and we rehoused them. Seriously we rehoused them! I’m not going to be taking that part of the barn down till next year so we moved some hay, had a new bed then physically moved the rather cute rodents to the new area and buried them again. Not so much as a thank you or an uncurling ( see below ) but it felt really good and a dose of positive karma all round.

And that’s my good karma deed for the day well except feeding the local wild kitten

So a good start to the week, tomorrow is a very busy day of pipe lagging, tile removal, mowing of lawn (my first time with a ride on mower) &  fitting a new wood burning stove, so forgive me while i sit back here put my feet up and have a Leffe beer.

Lots more tomorrow…..