Yes, but installing your own weather station is not a requirement for using a Hydrawise controller. The vast majority of customers use one of the 25,000 weather stations already available to each Hydrawise controller. You may have already realized that the Hydrawise irrigation system is driven in part by temperature, rainfall measurements, and predictions sourced from a weather network called Weather Underground.
Worldwide, the network has tens of thousands of privately owned and operated weather stations that contribute data to be shared by all. During setup of your Hydrawise controller, you would normally select three or more nearby stations for temperature and rainfall calculations and decisions. Since Weather Underground is an open network, you have the option of setting up your own weather station to report and share weather data with others. It is relatively easy and inexpensive to do so.
There are a few possible reasons to set up your own station:
- You don’t have any nearby stations to select from.
- You want your observations to be as accurate as possible.
- You have other uses for the local climate information.
There is a wide range of weather stations available on the market suitable for uploading weather data to Weather Underground. The following link provides the most common Stations.
The different brands offer different measurements, accuracy, and build quality. Consequently, they vary in price from about $100 (U.S. dollars) to $1,000. They generally measure the following parameters:
- Indoor temperature and humidity
- Outdoor temperature and humidity
- Rainfall
- Wind speed
- Wind direction
- Atmospheric pressure
You can refer to this link for the exact steps to register your personal weather station. Weather Underground
Please allow 24-48 hours for the weather station to appear within you Hydrawise account. We can upgrade you to the free PWS plan so you have access to your own weather station. Contact Us