Sunshine Recorder

PaulMy · **Posted:** Wed Jun 08, 2011 12:16 am

I have now got the B-L sun shine recorder fully mounted, calibrated and recording. You can see it at http://www.komokaweather.com/weather/sunrecorder/Today_10013.png or from the links at http://www.komokaweather.com. Alan and Ole have done a tremendous job on this unit and the software - bright and inquisitive minds.

I have it installed on a 10 ft pole mounted on an unused chimney but it is still a compromise, like mounting weather stations, when one is surrounded by houses and mature trees. Some pics attached:

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P1000557a.jpg

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P1000563a.jpg

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Paul
Edit new link to Today_10013.png

apenwith · **Posted:** Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:22 pm

Hi
I am now arranging with the Met Office to install a recorder at one of their sites near me.

Previously the price they wanted to charge was prohibitive but by using hourly sunshine data (rather than detailed radiation figures) for a period of a month the price has come down to something relatively affordable (still nearly £500). It looks as though I will be able to install our recorder within a few feet of their Kipp and Zonen device so the comparisons should not suffer from any distance related differences and both will have the same horizon to horizon view.
It's not the most perfect solution but will go some way to validating our method.

Regards
Alan

beteljuice · **Posted:** Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:20 pm

The sooner (both) your hard efforts can validated hopefully you can reap some rewards before 'big boys' nick all your ideas and set up production lines

I don't know how far your technology is 'original' or what protection you may have taken so far .... but they will come. If you are lucky, with a chequebook, but mostly they publish and be damned because they know you can't afford a lengthy court case. Dyson still has an army of lawyers protecting even its earlier patents

apenwith · **Posted:** Mon Jun 20, 2011 11:33 am

Hi
I came across a site that gives daily totals for our local Met Office station about 10 miles away so not entirely comparable but it does show quite a similarity to our data.
(Acknowledgments to 'Weatheronline')
Regards
Alan

RayProudfoot · **Posted:** Sat Jul 09, 2011 11:29 am

Alan,

One thing that occured to me the other day is what happens when it snows? Will users have to wipe the snow off the instrument before it will start recording sunshine again?

apenwith · **Posted:** Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:13 am

Hi
One of the earlier versions had heaters and was aspirated to clear mist and we might use the same system in future but it would add quite a lot to the cost. Because of the curved and angled surface the slightest thaw would clear the present model - however frozen snow could be a problem - it's a cost/risk compromise. We haven't tested it but the light tranmission even through snow/rime might be enough to indicate sun or not.
I now have agreement to start the Met Office trial on August 5th and although the MO cannot endorse a product the comparison to official figures can be published as test results.
Regards
Alan

RayProudfoot · **Posted:** Sun Jul 10, 2011 10:26 am

Thanks Alan. I suppose the chances of you getting snow in Cormwall are quite small but your colleague in Denmark is almost certain to get snow. It will be interesting to know how things pan out.

Well done on getting cooperation with the MO. That's a feather in both your caps! :clap:

PaulMy · **Posted:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:09 am

Quote:

what happens when it snows?

We're still a few months away from snow

but will certainly be able to have a good test here in Komoka, Canada

Quote:

I now have agreement to start the Met Office trial on August 5th and although the MO cannot endorse a product the comparison to official figures can be published as test results.

I had enquired with Environment Canada for such current information and here is the response. Looks like before long I'll be the single-source for this data

:

Quote:

Hello Paul,
Thank you for sending your request to Environment Canada.
In answer to your question, bright sunshine data is available from our archive. Unfortunately bright sunshine observation is no longer a nationally-supported standard supplementary climate network in Environment Canada. It is still operated at some locations on a best-effort basis, but as the supplies run out, equipment require repair and observing programs change, the bright sunshine observations will be phased out. The reduction in this network has been ongoing since about 1999 as is reflected in the diminishing number of archived observations of this element. I have checked our database and there are only 3 stations in Ontario reporting bright sunshine data, Red Lake, Wiarton and Toronto.

Best regards,

xxx xxxxx
Meteorological Inquiry Specialist
MSC National Inquiry Response Team ISO 9001:2000 Environment Canada
Spécialiste en renseignements météorologiques - Équipe nationale de réponses aux demandes du public (ENRDP) ISO 9001:2000

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 10:17 PM
To: Env Canada Weather-Météo
Subject: Environment Canada Ser: F062153B6D

Sent : Tuesday, June 21, 2011 2:17 am UTC

The following information was submitted :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By : xxxxxxx
Region : Ontario
IP : xxxxxxxx
Server IP : http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca
Referring Document : http://www.climate.weatheroffice.gc.ca/ ... h=6&Day=19
Browser Info : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; GTB7.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; MS-RTC EA 2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729)

Contact Info:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Courrier électronique/E-mail :

No de tél./Tel. : xxxxxxxxx

Message :
~~~~~~~~~
Hi,
I have a personal weather station that uploads to Weather Underground, PWS, Ontario Weather Network, etc., as well as to my personal website http://www.komokaweather.com.

I have recently added a sunshine recorder as a test unit for Blake-Larson Sunrecorder (link to their site is http://www.sunrecorder.net). Does Environment Canada have daily current local sunshine records that can be accessed for comparison? I have taken the historical records 1971-2001 from the Ec website and entered those in my computer for comparison but would like to compare current actuals if that were possible. I am in Komoka so accross the City in the oposite direction to London Airport but airport data would certainly be helpful if there is no other nearby sunshine recorder. Thank you,
Paul

apenwith · **Posted:** Thu Aug 04, 2011 8:46 am

Hi All

We now have a recorder almost up and running in New Zealand - see www.sunrecorder.net - and click on SR around the world.
Hopefully the Venezualan one will also not be too long now. It will be interesting to see how it performs at 10° N

My Met Office trial is due to start very soon but the wheels of bureaucracy grind very slowly and I have yet to get the final appointment to set it up.

Regards
Alan

apenwith · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:53 pm

Hi

By an odd coincidence I had an email from MO with the arrangements and the trial is now running.

Regards
Alan

beteljuice · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:33 pm

Holger · **Posted:** Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:38 pm

Good luck with the trial, Alan - hope it'll rattle the MO's cage a bit!
Holger

PaulMy · **Posted:** Sat Aug 06, 2011 2:20 am

Alan,
Is that something we can go to or see on an ongoing basis?

I now have a full month of data for July and we had some sun every day. All be it just a very small amount on the 28th. I had a computer glitch while I was not at home on the 21st and was not able to record for most of the day, but when I got back home salvaged recording a small amount of sun shine, and that was also the day we broke all of the all-time high records in Cumulus.

Paul

apenwith · **Posted:** Sat Aug 06, 2011 7:04 am

Hi Paul
I'm not sure yet when the Met Office will provide me with the data - it may well be at the end of the trial. I have been comparing the daily figures published by the same site for a while now and there is some quite close agreement to my figures but as the site is 12 miles away there are differences. For the trial our recorder is less than a metre away from their Kipp & Zonen pyrheliometer so we can exactly measure like with like.
Interestingly - speaking to the meteorologist at the site - he was of the opinion that there is no totally satisfactory algorithm for converting W/M2 to sunshine hours.
We have an algorithm on trial for converting our measurements to W/M2 but the accuracy is probably only about +/- 10% at present.
Regards
Alan

PaulMy · **Posted:** Sat Aug 27, 2011 5:10 am

Thanks Steve for adding the B/L option and showing Sunshine hours in latest beta :clap:

I notice this is logged in dayfile.txt, monLog.txt, and also in Realtime.txt as mentioned in Help. Unless I've missed it, any plans to add to Graph or Select-A-Graph and is this even possible? I did not notice it as a webtag, and extracting from those files to show on my website in some form is still beyond my ability.

Paul

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