Weather stations that can be used by people at home are quite useful weather instruments to monitor one’s immediate environment. These tools have the ability to provide information that the weather man can’t. There are many different types of weather instruments that offer excellent utility and accurate information for a range of activities, including sports, research, professional photography, adventure travel, and agriculture etc. A weather station at your house can be quite useful especially on the months of fall and winter, during which time the weather can be quite unpredictable. Weather during summer is pretty much predictable, but winter months especially in colder regions of the United States of America and Canada can be quite dangerous.
Unfortunately, even if you buy one of the best brands of home weather stations, it’s the batteries that often pose a problem. The colder the weather, the worse their performance. When compared with car batteries, that give specific warnings regarding battery performance during various seasons, batteries used in these weather instruments are conspicuous due to lack of this information. Since batteries form an important part of the station system, it’s important to not just be able to choose the right battery but also understand the difference between the different types.
Alkaline Batteries: These batteries are good for weather station sensor located outside your home during mild summers to cold winters. However, as it gets colder, below freezing point, the chemicals in the battery start to have a problem and become weak and may stop working altogether. However, new alkaline batteries may still work up to 0 degree Celsius. If your battery is weak, bring it indoors to warm it up and use them again.
NiMh Rechargeable Batteries: If you stay in a really cold region where temperatures during winter months, often fall to below 0 degrees, its best to buy NiMh rechargeable batteries. These batteries work up to -10 degree C levels, however, you will have to recharge them on a more frequent basis to keep your weather station working.
Lithium AA Batteries: A new entrant in the market, these Lithium AA size batteries are excellent for cold weather. They work even in temperatures as low as -30 degrees. However, unlike NiMh cells, these batteries can’t be recharged and must not be used in the NiMh AA recharger.
In case you have a portable weather station that works with remote sensors and has a LCD display, it is possible that even when you use Li batteries the display tends to freeze below 0 degree. The reason for this is because LCDs are incapable of operation in very cold conditions. However, keep the weather meter inside exposing it to outside environment only when you need to check the weather and just trust the device! In any case, weather stations display the data on the screen indoors and will indicate a problem, if it does exist.
