Envco – Environmental Equipment

Why Measure Wind Speed?
Wind speed is an important weather parameter to monitor and record for many applications including meteorology, aviation, shipping, insdustry, construction, and many more. Some of the more common applications are for predicting and supporting weather forcasts, determining the saftey of operating mechanical equipment like cranes and lifts in industry, estimating the efficiency of operating power generating wind farms, navigation and safe operation in the shipping industry, aircraft safety, wastewater and landfill odor control, and others.

Wind Speed is caused by air pressure gradients or the regions between weather fronts, air moves in the direction of the low pressure system. The steeper the gradient the stronger the wind. Additionally, wind speed is determined by many other factors including the Coriolis effect, friction, and land topography. Wind speed is typically reported in meters per second or miles per hour in the United States. For the shipping or boating industry wind speed can be reported in knots (a knot equal to one nautical mile per hour or approximately 1.15 miles per hour or approximately 0.5 meters per second).

The wind speed sensor or anemometer produces a sine wave voltage signal with a frequency that changes linearly with the wind speed. The frequency is transformed into a 4-20 mA sensor signal output.Wind Speed sensor specifications.

Type: Three cup anemometer
Threshold:<.5 m/s (1.11 MPH)
Output: 4-20 mA
Range: 0 to 50 m/s (110 MPH)
Accuracy: .2 MPH over the range 11 to 55 MPH
Operating Voltage: 10-36 VDC
Current Draw: Same as sensor output
Warm Up Time: 3 seconds minimum
Operating Temp: -40 to +55C
Sensor Size: 7" diameter x 8 1/2"Weight: 1lb.