>2 for weather monitoring (one directly attached to sensors, one that aggregates the data from a few sources and provides reporting)
So, I hear people doing this alot. However what exactly does this help with? Like, is the extra information really more useful than just the standard old TV weather forecast?
I do this primarily because I'm a weather geek. I don't _need_ this at all.
I do find it interesting to see the differences in temperature (and humidity, etc.) in the microclimate around my house compared to the city and greater metro area.
I also use the data to measure the performance of my home's HVAC system. Doing this _does_ require real-time local temperature and humidity data. But again, this is all for fun.
For temperature only I prefer the 18B20 sensor. They’re very easy to interface with and they can be at the end of very long wires.
Adafruit has a bunch of sensors that work over the i2c bus; they’ve included python code for accessing the data as well, which makes it easy to get started.
There are sensors out there for everything. Absolutely everything.
You can integrate just about any sensor into a Pi depending on your knowledge. (any sensor you find on sparkfun would work for someone with a little determination)
I'm really benchmarking the system against itself, year on year, by comparing the weather outside vs. performance (output temperature of the HVAC unit, average temperature inside the house).
I'm not trying to find an objective efficiency rating so much as monitor performance over time to see if it's changing.
So, I hear people doing this alot. However what exactly does this help with? Like, is the extra information really more useful than just the standard old TV weather forecast?