I use these units for stand-alone logging for potential wind power sites. Can I omit the display LEDs to increase battery life?
Yes. This nearly doubles battery life. With the display, eight alkaline D cells last typically 40 days. Without the display the same last typically 70 days. Six of the seven lines to the LED array must be switched to disable all the LEDs. Lantern batteries or a lead acid with a small solar panel may be more cost effective for protracted logging. The different varieties of 78L05 regulators (U1) have different quiescent currents and dropout voltages. Using an ultra-low quiescient current, low dropout device (eg. LM2936Z-5) increases battery life about 40%. Wind power site assessment using average wind speed I am looking for a simple amemometer for on-site wind evaluation. The requirement is for a complete unit to generate average wind speed data over long term sampling periods. While our unit logs data from which average wind speed can be derived, average wind speed is of little value in estimating a site’s energy potential. The reason is that wind power is proportional to the cube of sp
