Every once in a while a simple idea for sailing technology comes along and one wonders why they didn’t think of that, or in my case why I didn’t think of it years ago. I had been working as an engineer both in wind power and instrument design for over thirty years. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to develop a battery powered weather station which monitored wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, relative humidity and temperature. With a high powered RF transmitter it could transmit its weather readings to a receiver and base station up to 10 miles away.

It occurred to me some time later that a simpler device with a couple of important features would have a more widespread application. I had seen small wireless weather stations, usually requiring batteries or a solar panel to operate. These certainly have their place. But what if a wind sensor could be wholly self-contained, needed no batteries, and wirelessly radio the wind speed data back to a remote receiver? It seemed ideal. And a cup anemometer, in another sense, is the tiniest of wind powered generators. At just a few miles per hour of wind speed, plenty of energy is available in the wind to turn a generator and run a small bit of modern electronics, including a wireless transmitter.

Wind speed sensors, or conventionally, anemometers, are ideally placed at as high a location on a mast or tower as is practical. Once installed, one never wants to revisit the installation again! On the boat mast, on the roof top or up a tower, it’s a job requiring removal of rigging or climbing or both. And conventionally, with a wired sensor, the sensor cable must be attached, routed, and secured. Holes need to be drilled, the wires fished through, and then the holes caulked to properly finish the job. It seemed this new concept of a self-powered sensor eliminated all these drawbacks… and one more. Putting any electrical gear at the highest point on a boat (or house) and then running wires from it to the cabin or house you can see where I am going with this: LIGHTNING. Now it is true the sensor is still susceptible to a strike, but the expensive equipment, be it a display, laptop computer, data logger, or control system, is now totally isolated and protected.

William Stein is Senior Research Fellow at the Wind Energy Center, Mechanical Engineering Department, at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. He can be reached at support@etesian-tech.com The above described sensor is now covered by patents No. US 7,454,968 B2 and US 7,591,176 B2

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