Anemometers or wind speed meters are extremely useful to help gauge the speed and sometimes direction of wind at any given time. However if you’re interested in mounting an anemometer outside your home but you want to be able to know the wind speed before you leave the house, you can get stuck with hundreds of feet of cabling to install. It’s much more convenient to choose a wireless anemometer or wireless wind speed meter instead. Luckily there are several of these now on the market.
The best wireless anemometers on sale today:
AcuRite 00634 Wireless Weather Station with Wind Sensor
Here’s a wireless wind gauge system that consists of a wireless anemometer paired with an LCD display unit that you can keep indoors up to 330 feet away from the sensor.
This AcuRite wireless anemometer measures the wind speed, humidity, and temperature outdoors and transmits this information at 18-second intervals to the LCD base station which you can mount on your wall indoors or set upright on a table or counter. The sensor unit comes with mounting hardware and has a battery life of up to two years on four standard AA batteries. The wind speed meter is self-calibrating and works with wind speeds up to 99 miles per hour and in weather up to -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The easy to read wireless LCD display that comes with this unit gives you a 12 or 24 hour personalized hyperlocal weather forecast that tracks the wind speed, humidity, temperature barometric pressure, and even moon the phase. It can also store records of previous highs and lows in your area. All in all this is one of the best cheap wireless anemometers out there right now.
AcuRite Pro Weather Station with PC Connect, 5-in-1 Weather Sensor
This anemometer wirelessly connects to its indoor LCD base station up to 330 feet away. It transmits a wide variety of weather information like wind speed and direction, temperature and humidity, the barometric pressure, rainfall and distills all that information into a an easy to read personal weather forecast for your area on its LCD screen.
This is more than just a normal wireless anemometer however since it also connects to your computer and uploads the information to the My AcuRite website where you can analyze your historical data and check weather remotely from anywhere using the iPhone or Android app (requires a Windows PC). You can also export the raw weather data to a CSV file where you can do further analysis of trends and conditions.
The easy to read color LCD base station offers information like the outdoor temperature, indoor temperature, and a “feels like” temperature of what the things actually feel like when you step outside (based on wind speed and humidity). Works to measure wind speed up to 99 miles per hour and in temperatures up to -40 degrees below freezing. If you’re interested in gathering a wide array of weather information like rainfall and you want to access this data on your computer and smartphone from anywhere, this wireless anemometer might be the one for you.
Ambient Weather WiFi Weather Station
Here’s another wireless anemometer that captures wind speed information and transmits it to an LCD base station indoors. You can mount the wireless personal weather station outdoors up to 300 feet away from the indoor displays (Note: guaranteed up to 100 feet away; in optimal conditions up to 300 feet).
The Ambient Weather Wifi Weather Station also transmits your weather data (wind speed, direction, rainfall and temperature to Weather Underground, the largest weather station network on the internet. Your local data adds to a crowdsourced view of global trends helping everyone gain a clearer view of accurate weather data. You can also check on your local weather data using the iOS or Android mobile app from anywhere.
Comes with a mounting solution to attach this wireless weather station on to a pole or fence or other object. Runs on three AA batteries which can last up to 1-2 years (not included).
Sainlogic Wireless 8 in 1 Weather Station
This wireless anemometer captures an even wider range of weather data and wirelessly transmits it to an indoor base station. It has a wireless range of up to 328 feet and measures: wind speed, wind direction, temperature indoors and outdoors, humidity, rainfall, dew point, and air pressure. Combined together, all this data can give you an extremely accurate view of current weather conditions in your local area as well as a forward-looking personalized weather forecast based on barometric pressure and other variables.
The weather station itself runs off of solar panel, with 3 AA batteries as a back up power source. Easy to set up, the indoor display panel will give you all the info you need about the weather without having to step outdoors.
Davis Instruments 6163 Vantage Pro2 Plus Wireless Weather Station
This professional level wireless weather station includes a wireless anemometer to measure wind speed and direction, humidity sensor, solar radiation sensor, a rain sensor and an extremely accurate temperature sensor that is shielded from wind by a fan which allows you to get very accurate temperature readings. You can mount this wireless anemometer and weather suite hundreds of feet away from the indoor LCD base station which provides data on an easy to read screen.
Since this is pro level hardware it’s more expensive but the instruments may be slightly more accurate than a consumer grade wireless anemometer or other instruments. It also has a longer wireless range meaning you can mount the weather station outdoors further away than some other wireless weather stations. You can also buy an optional accessory to download your weather data to a PC and upload your data to the user contribute-able Weather Underground website.
What is a wireless anemometer? What are wireless wind speed meters used for?
An anemometer measures the wind speed in a given area and a wireless anemometer measures wind speed and transmits it to a base station with a screen where you can view that information remotely.
One common use case for wireless anemometers is when a person wants to be able to tell how windy it is outdoors without going outside, and they don’t want to have to fumble with cables or wires to connect their wind speed meter (anemometer) with an LCD display. Often times the cables that come with even the best cup anemometers are too short and a hassle to deal with.
Factors to consider when buying a rotating cup anemometer
What is the wireless range of this anemometer?
Most wireless anemometers have a range of a few hundred feet. Since they commonly broadcast on the 915 MHz RF wireless transmission frequency, 330 feet is a very common range limit for these units. A few professional grade wireless anemometers have ranges of up to around 1000 feet.
Are there any drawbacks to making an anemometer wireless?
It’s not easy these days to find a wireless wind meter that only measures the speed of wind and not other factors like wind direction, temperature and other weather factors. These days it’s much more common to find a wind speed meter (anemometer) that’s bundled as part of a larger personal weather station kit. This might have possible downsides like increased cost. But we’d argue that in many cases it’s handy to be able to have all that extra data at your fingertips without needing to venture outside– even if all you think you initially are interested in is wind speed.
How many indoor LCD base stations does this come with? What are the base station’s features?
Some LCD base stations are easier to read than others, and different wireless anemometers will display different types of data on their screens. Be sure to examine the example display readout of any wireless wind speed meter that you are considering to make sure you’re happy with the display since that’s what you’re actually going to be relying on for information. Some LCD displays are in color, some are larger than others, and some distill all their information into a personalized forward looking 12 or 24 hour weather forecast (like “showers likely”).
Can this wireless anemometer connect to my computer? Does it have a mobile phone app that I can check from anywhere?
Some personal weather stations allow you to connect their base stations to a computer to sync weather data like wind speed, temperatures and so on for analysis. This can be useful if you’re tech savvy and some weather stations eve allow you to upload your data automatically to websites like Weather Underground, where thousands of weather enthusiasts contribute data to crowdsource a very accurate view of global weather. Some wireless anemometers also come with a mobile phone app that will let you check weather conditions at home even while you’re away.
It’s worth keeping in mind that all of the weather stations in this article only work with PCs and many will only upload data as long as they are plugged into your computer and it’s on and connected to the internet. One of the units in this list, the Ambient Weather unit does not need to be connected to a PC, it comes with a special wireless relay device of its own that uploads information to the internet for you without needing to be plugged into a computer that’s on.
What type of batteries does this potential wireless wind speed meter use?
Before you buy a wireless wind speed meter, be sure to check to see what kind of batteries it accepts and what the approximate battery life is expected to be. You probably won’t want to be changing the batteries every month for example. Many of the units featured on this page have a battery life ranging from many months to even a couple of years on standard AA batteries.