Hand Held Weather Meter

For thousands of people who deal with environmental conditions in the field or workplace, having accurate and reliable weather information is a necessity. Richard Paul Russell is proud to be the UK distributor of Kestrel hand held weather meters.

Kestrel hand held meters were developed as high precision tools. Each instrument is calibrated to strict specifications providing years of reliable use. Kestrel offers a full line of hand held weather meters with the ability to measure and track many critical factors affecting the work environment, including; Wind /Air Speed, Air Flow, Wind Direction, Barometric Pressure, Altitude, Temperature, Relative Humidity, Wet Bulb Temperature, Heat Index and Wind Chill. They are fully waterproof, float and have a large, liquid-crystal backlit display.

Some Kestrel meters also offer data logging capability — a very useful function for hazardous materials spill response, construction activities, outdoor maintenance activities (painting and abrasive blasting), and any other situations where knowing the impact zones (downwind) are important. Steve Verret of the Environmental Measurements Corporation of Baton Rouge, LA, uses the data logging capabilities of the Kestrel 4500 to ensure that projects can be properly documented. These capabilities are of particular use for air exchange rate studies where a running log of weather conditions is required. “EMC’s technicians and industrial hygienists have been using Kestrel weather instruments since the summer of 2000. They have performed flawlessly and are a standard instrument in our tool bags,” says Verret. Kestrel also offers a Portable Vane Mount which allows users to set up their Kestrel 4500 on location to collect accurate wind direction data. The ability to deploy a Kestrel on-site in minutes and store data makes it an ideal solution for Industrial Hygiene professionals.

Mr. Verret also uses Kestrels to evaluate ventilation in hazardous materials remediation (e.g. asbestos abatement and mould remediation) where contractors must set up negative pressure containments using HEPA filtered fan units. “Our specifications require a minimum number of air changes per hour in the work area. By measuring the output of the fan units, we can determine if the contractor is in compliance with our specifications.”

A new feature for 2010, the 4000 range of Kestrels now come with Bluetooth® wireless capability for instant data transfer. In many current applications, the key environmental measurements from a Kestrel instrument are input into other systems – ballistics calculators, fire behavior models, hazmat plume predictors, heat stress models, weather reports, research data sets and more. Now, both real-time and logged data can be transferred wirelessly and automatically to a laptop or PDA, making a Bluetooth Kestrel 4000 series weather meter the perfect tool for virtually any job that requires quick and truly accurate environmental data.