How to charge when in PNW and there is no sun for months

Tempest Owners
1

I recently got my new Tempest weather station and installed it outside where there will be sunshine. But in the first two and a half weeks I have had it, we have had no sun. Now my Tempest is shutting down to conserve power.

How to I get the weather station to charge?

2

There are ‘many’ threads and comments about how to use lights to do this (albeit a bit slowly). Search for power booster as one suggestion to find them.

3

What is the “shut down” voltage value?

5

The rain sensor shut’s off @ 2.35V

6

This page lists all the power save voltage levels: https://help.weatherflow.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048877194-Solar-Power-Rechargeable-Battery

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7

I cannot find the system’s shut down voltage. Anyone know?

8

Where is the station located? Wash/Oregon?

9

I’m guessing about 2.15V
It’s a 2.4V Batt’ inside and below 2.35V it starts conserving power or as mentioned powers off if get’s too low

Edit; foundthis
Scroll down a bit to klmukpilotTempest Field Testers

10

I have seen as low as 2.11V as the last reported voltage but that is not always what I have seen. Sometimes it is higher than that.

11

This one I have is in Vancouver WA

12

I’ve been using mine up in Seattle for around a year and a half, and it’s been reliably charging even in our meager winter light. It does have pretty good southern exposure, though.

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13

I am in Scotland at about 56ÂșN my tempest has reached 2.11 volts I was wondering the same

14

Welcome!

From what I gather that’s about the limit
expect shut down soon!

Summary

If you find your Tempest is regularly in Mode 2 or Mode 3, you may want to follow these tips:
Move to Florida

15

It’s shutting down for a while and restarting for 30 mins or so then shutting down for for 1 hr

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16

I’m fortunate in that our Tempest placement seems to not be as problematic as it appears to be for others, but I read all of the related posts just in case the trees conspire against me one day. :slight_smile:

To that end, how well/poorly do you think a laser flashlight (e.g., one of these The ultimate LEP flashlight list (The best of 2021) by 1Lumen.com) would/could bump up the state of charge?

17

Not sure if brightness is all

I think we also need to consider wave length as the solar panels don’t react the same way according what light it gets. Found some details in this article.

18

Oh, great point, eric.

The article you linked to says, “Solar radiation with wavelengths of 380 nm to 750 nm (violet to red) strike the material with enough energy to knock electrons from their weak bonds and create an electric current.”

Guide to LEP Flashlights says, “This Phosphor-Converted LED utilized the blue light to excite phosphor powder, resulting in combined yellow and blue wavelengths to produce a broad spectrum white light.”

If yellow is ~580 nm and blue ~450 nm, seems like those are in the range? (I’m not a physicist, so there may be lots of subtleties I’m missing!)

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