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Stuart Brooks · June 11th 06, 12:34 AM posted to uk.sci.weather

wrote:
Dennis wrote:
How accurate are standard equipment car thermometers ? Mine today,
in a Rover 75 at 4PM in SW Wales, was showing 29 degrees, is this
likely to be accurate, or are car thermometers known to over or
under record ? Thanks

My Mondeo thermometer has an accuracy to around 1 degree, as it
usually agreed with the screen temperature at Cardiff when I went to
work. Mind you, the screen was on the 12th floor roof. However, over
a period of years the car thermometer seemed to perform very
accurately.

It was interesting monitoring the temperature changes on the journey
between Bristol and Cardiff, espcially early mornings. I was rather
surprised that the temperature on one certain stretch of motorway
being persistently lower than the rest of the journey, and
occasionally up to 7 degrees lower in the winter. I wonder if you can
estimate where this was?

Underwood or Greenditch?

I've gone through about 10 car thermometers in the last 20 years! Annoyingly
the last one I got only had a resolution of 0.5C. While absolute accuracy is
only around 1C this varies according to the sample, some are spot on, some
have a bias, this possibly varying according to temperature. This means
calibration is possible, so it is very annoying to find that the latest
Maplin model has been degraded. It should also be easy to add in to the
thermometers memory user programmable calibration factors but noone has some
out with such a product yet.

So far I've just been hanging the wire out the car window, this is why they
don't last long as eventually the cable gets damaged. Those of you who have
run the wire to the front bumper, how have you routed/secured the wire so
that it stays clear of moving or melty bits of the engine?

--
Stuart Brooks
Carluke
South Lanarkshire 223m amsl

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