How to Cut the Cost of Accurate and Reliable Surface Level Atmospheric Observations by an Order of Magnitude

The building temperature energy monitoring system (BTEMS) project addresses the need for low-cost devices to measure ambient air temperature, humidity, and surface temperature. These sets of data are key in studying heat transfer between a building and its surroundings and in increasing the area over which data can be collected for large environmental projects, especially those conducted in variable terrain. There are other low-cost devices used in the field of study, but their air temperature and humidity sensors are susceptible to measurement errors caused by solar readiation: radiation heats up the sensor causing it to record data inaccurately (e.g. Gunawardena et al. 2018). A major part of the current BTEMS project is to develop a suitable aspirated radiation shield to guard against this form of error.