AN INEXPENSIVE ANEMOMETER USING ARDUINO BOARD

In all studies involving wind speed, such as meteorology, wind turbines and agriculture accurate speed information for decision making is required. There are several types of anemometers, with medium and high costs, such as cup, hot wire and pitot tubes, the hot wire being more sensitive and expensive than others. The device developed in this work is the cup anemometer, that is easy to build. The great advantage of this device is the low cost, with an approximate value of US$ 50.00, using simple materials that are easy to find in commercial stores. The Reed Switch sensor is also another advantage as it does not require a sophisticated programming, as well as the open platform Arduino. The use of theoretical aerodynamic drag coefficients and the presented calculations resulted in values very close to a commercial anemometer. The coefficient of determination between the cup Anemometer and the standard sensor of Meteorological Research Institute IPMet/Brazil is R2=0.9999, indicating strong correlation between the instruments. As the reference anemometer (IPMet) has high embedded technology and the prototype is low cost, we conclude that the project has an attractive cost benefit for possible development and production, reaching the objective of this work