How Do I Update Firmware on Netatmo Weather?

As the name implies, the Netatmo Atmospheric condition Station tells you what’s going on with the conditions in your area, but it doesn’t cease there. This absurd-looking gadget also keeps tabs on what’south going on inside your dwelling, tracking room temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, noise levels, and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Information technology delivers all this data in a neat fiddling app that offers a snapshot of indoor and outdoor conditions as well every bit timeline charts and an extended atmospheric condition forecast. Additionally, you tin cull to brand your outdoor weather data available on the Netatmo Earth Map and share information technology with friends on Facebook and Twitter. At $179 (direct) information technology’s a bit pricey considering you can get your local weather for gratis via the countless apps and websites that are out there, but it’s worth every penny if you want to monitor environmental weather inside and outside of your home without actually being in that location.

Design and Installation

The Weather Station
($167.xl at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)


consists of ii aluminum-clad cylinders containing sensors and radio transmitters, an AC power adapter, a mounting strap, a mounting spiral, and a USB cablevision. Information technology besides comes with a user guide that uses cheesy illustrations to evidence you how to hook everything up only contains naught documentation. Even the informational video on the Netatmo website is zero more than an advertisement ready to music. Thankfully, the setup process is very simple and the web and mobile apps offer a setup wizard and help files that will tell you lot all you need to know, but information technology would be nice to have an thought of what to look out of the box.

The weather-resistant outdoor cylinder is the smaller of the two, measuring 4.1 inches long and 1.eight inches wide. It takes ii AA batteries and has a groove in its casing that is used to mount it to the side of your house or another outdoor structure where information technology will exist sheltered from direct rain or sunlight exposure. The indoor cylinder is 6 inches tall and has an LED strip on the front that briefly glows greenish when the station is powered upwards. A push button on the top of the cylinder initiates the measurements-on-demand feature that updates your readings and changes the LED color to reflect the current CO2 levels (greenish is good, xanthous means information technology could be amend, and red means you should ventilate the room). The back of the cylinder has a mini-USB port used for Wi-Fi setup and supplying ability.

Installation is simple. Using the included mounting screw I attached the smaller cylinder to a fencepost right below a Honeywell outdoor sensor that feeds information to thePrestige
thermostat. Next, I went to
http://www.netatmo.com(Opens in a new window)

and created an account and downloaded the setup wizard. The first step asks you lot to connect the indoor station to your PC using the USB cable. One time continued information technology went through a firmware upgrade and rebooted. Later a infinitesimal or so a message told me that the station was detected. Now I had to cull a Wi-Fi network and enter the Wi-Fi password. The station connected later xxx seconds. I named the station, entered my e-mail address to link the station to my account, and was done. The entire process took less than 10 minutes.

App and Functioning

You can access your Conditions Station information from a Web browser or log in from the road using the iOS or Android app. On the mobile apps the current weather conditions are presented in a nice graphical user interface that is dissever into indoor and outdoor panes (the browser app presents this information on a unmarried page).

The indoor window tells you the current temperature equally well as the minimum and maximum temperatures for the past 24 hours. Information technology likewise displays humidity, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), barometric pressure, noise decibel levels, and an overall room comfort alphabetize that takes all data into consideration and gives it a number rating. For example, a condolement level of 71 is good but not ideal. Tapping the comfort icon tells you what y’all need to practise to bring the comfort level up (raising the temperature, for instance). Colored coded dots use the aforementioned criteria as the above-mentioned cylinder LED to tell yous if levels are acceptable or need attention.

Y’all can view a graphical timeline of your indoor data past turning your smartphone horizontally, at which point the Netatmo app brings upwards a chart that tracks your information from day one. A dropdown menu lets you choose temperature, humidity, sound, and CO2 charts as well as an outdoor temperature chart.

The outdoor window shows the current temperature and humidity levels, the high and low temperatures for the last 24 hours, and the “feels like” temperature, which takes into business relationship things like wind chill and humidity. Here you lot tin can view a iii-twenty-four hours weather forecast, rain totals, and temperature trends, as well every bit the electric current outdoor air quality index.

Tapping the box in the upper right corner shows conditions notifications for your area, including winter weather advisories and special atmospheric condition statements issued by your local NOAA weather service. The box in the left corner takes you to the Menu where you lot can view account data, add additional stations, and invite friends to admission your data via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and personal email. You can also cull to go a contributor past making your outdoor data public show it tin can shared on the Netatmo Globe atmospheric condition map (you indoor information remains individual). Here you can likewise download 3rd party apps to view your weather data and peruse the aid menu, which offers detailed information on how everything works, charts, sensors, and notifications.

The Netatmo performed well, delivering accurate indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity levels. I compared it with the readings on my Honeywell Prestige thermostat, which also uses an outdoor sensor to brandish outside atmospheric condition, and found temperature measurements to exist spot-on. Humidity levels were very shut besides with only ane or ii pct points separating the ii. Although I wasn’t able to compare Carbon Dioxide levels I did notice a much higher CO2 ppm (parts per million) reading when the residue of the family was home equally opposed to when information technology was just me. However, it never got close to the 1000 ppm level that would trigger an alert, at which betoken Netatmo suggests replacing the dried air past opening a window or running a home ventilation system.

Conclusion

At $179 the Netatmo Conditions Station may be a scrap pricey, but if y’all want to monitor your home’s sound and humidity levels, air quality, and room temperature, it’due south money well spent. Sure, you can alive without knowing what the decibel level in your home is at any given time, and a quick glance at your home thermostat volition tell yous all yous demand to know virtually room temperature, but unless you have a smart thermostat such as the
Nest
($167.forty at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)
 or
Honeywell Prestige
($167.forty at Amazon)(Opens in a new window)

you lot can’t access this data remotely like you can with the Weather Station.