WeatherFlow Tempest Install

spookyghost

• 4 min read
WeatherFlow Tempest Install

I really wanted a weather station for a long time, but I could never find one that was a reasonable price for someone new to the hobby, but had good network connectivity options

The WeatherFlow Tempest looked perfect, so I bought one and installed it. Here is how I did it and my future plans. This might not be the perfect way to install it, but its the best parts I could come up with at Home Depot, and it works

Parts list, mostly from Home Depot

  • 10ft Metal Pole - Home Depot - $13
  • 3 x Braces - Home Depot - $1.64/ea
  • 4 x 4 Post - Home Depot - $12 (Varies due to massive lumber shortage!)
  • Fast Setting Concrete - Home Depot - $5.23
  • Ground Rod - Home Depot - $12.98
  • Ground Rod Clamp - Home Depot - $1.98
  • Wafer Head #10 Screws - Home Depot - $10.27
  • Copper Wire - Just get this wherever, 8awg is overkill for this, so just go for that. Get enough to go from the rod to the pole

I set the post in the ground with concrete and prepared my arms to smack the ground rod into the ground, and crossed my fingers I didn't hit any pool pipes or utilities (You may want to call 811 before doing this, its always a good idea)

After 20 minutes on a ladder with a sledgehammer, I got the ground rod in

I decided what height I wanted the pole at, which ended up at a total height of 13.5ft. I measured where I wanted the clamps and screwed them almost all the way in, got the pole all the way up, and then got them snug

Make sure you put the weather station on first! And also make sure you pair it to the base station

Then I ran a screw through the pole, this means the pole can't spin and mess up the rotation of the weather station

I then attached the ground to the rod and pole. As you can see, I used a make shift copper wire from spare romex...

Here is what it looks like installed, make sure to align it properly

Now I can see all that awesome weather information

And I can get awesome notifications

I do really like this weather station, but it has its issues

  1. No Ethernet. The base station has a 1000ft range to the weather station, but must be connected with wifi. This sucks, I'd much rather it had ethernet!
  2. Rain detection is not good. When I got the unit installed and was screwing in the pole, it thought it was raining and said I got over 10 inches of rain... Uh yeah okay. It also then would not detect rain, when it was raining. I take the rain information with a grain of salt
  3. Limited notification customization. You want lightning alerts? Okay, well you will be getting a notification every strike. I wish you could just get the first one, but thats not an option right now

I do think they are improving the software all the time, so hopefully they fix some of the smaller issues, but overall I really like this weather station.

You may wonder if you need a ground rod, and the answer to that seems to depend on who you ask. I plan on putting more equipment on this pole, so I decided to just do it now

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer