Smart home systems are becoming more ubiquitous every day. Not only can you control just about any light or appliance in your house, but you can also gather data on the various things your home consumes, allowing you to get an accurate picture of the resources used. While it’s been common for people to measure power usage, water usage has been a bit less common. With this accurate Smart Water Meter Reader you can get very accurate (around 100mL) water usage data.
With water becoming scarce in some regions, and with prices rising, it can be handy to know not only how much water you are using, but when you are using it. You might be surprised to find you’re using water at night when you’re asleep! This could be a leak in the system, or your smart fridge making ice, or a million other things. But knowledge is power, and once you know your usage patterns, you can make decisions about how to decrease water usage or change usage to better match your water supply.
This board has a smart trick up its sleeve. Many home water meters have a rotating wheel which has a red segment on it. Every time that red segment goes through 360 degrees, a litre of water has been used. Some meters just use a single sensor to watch for this and therefore have about a 1L resolution. Instead, this board uses three sensors in a circle and illuminates the wheel with a green light. By measuring all three sensors simultaneously, the phase angle between each sensor can be calculated, resulting in a much higher degree of accuracy!
Raw output data from the three sensors, showing the phase relationship
Note that only a few models of water meters have been tested so far. Make sure to check the list, and compare your water meter to the shape and size of the board to see if it will fit. Because this device doesn’t physically interact with the water meter, it’s likely to be no issue with your water supplier, but it might be worth asking beforehand what their policy is. It can be easily removed to allow meter readings and inspections.
