Evaluation of Errors Caused by Lowering Frequency of Measurements of an Environmental Sensor Station

It has become evident that for low-power design concept to be realized, modules within the system need to be optimized. Consequently, the sensor node architecture also known as sensor station is required to operate in an optimized manner to help contribute in reduction of total power consumption of the system. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) data obtainedin a Brazilian field study were used to investigate the errors in measurements that would have been missed if sampling time of PAR variable was increased from 5 minutes upto 30 minutes. This is required, not only to help reduce of energy consumption of the sensor station but also to help facilitate the integration of lower frequency bands of industrial scientific and medical (ISM) into the system. Results obtained indicate that daytime PAR variable should be sampled and logged every 20 minutes while longer sampling time may be used during the night-time. Daytime sampling of 30 minutes interval is not recommended.