Low-Cost, Smart Water Meter: Sustainable Water Monitoring and Conservation
Location
Eccles Conference Center Auditorium
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu
Start Date
3-31-2015 12:20 PM
End Date
3-31-2015 12:30 PM
Description
This poster presents a new, low-cost, open-source smart water meter that uses off-the-shelf components to measure water use behavior with high frequency. In our first application of this new technology, we demonstrate use in measuring water use behavior in two public restrooms within a high traffic student area at Utah State University. The design of the meter was motivated by the need to accurately measure and verify the water saved after installing high efficiency, automatic faucets in men’s and women’s restrooms of the business building on campus. We also designed a low cost people counter to monitor traffic to the restrooms. We have integrated the people counter sensors with the smart water meters to correlate measured water use with individual restroom visits. Sensing the proximity of restroom visits to water use events and recording high frequency flow measurements allows us to also identify water fixture malfunctions, such as undesired water leaks. The meter design criteria were: 1) open-source hardware and software; 2) ability to measure total flow (water use) every five seconds; and 3) cost less than $100. Similar proprietary measurement systems currently on the market cost as much as $2,500. We show average water use per person, variability in water use by different fixtures (faucets versus urinals and toilets), variability in water use by fixtures compared to manufacturer specifications, gender differences in water use, and estimated water savings based on data collected before and after retrofit with high efficiency fixtures. Preliminary results show that women use more than twice as much water in restrooms than men and that automatic faucets reduce faucet water use by approximately 33% and 14% in women’s and men’s restrooms, respectively, compared to manually controlled faucets.
Low-Cost, Smart Water Meter: Sustainable Water Monitoring and Conservation
Eccles Conference Center Auditorium
This poster presents a new, low-cost, open-source smart water meter that uses off-the-shelf components to measure water use behavior with high frequency. In our first application of this new technology, we demonstrate use in measuring water use behavior in two public restrooms within a high traffic student area at Utah State University. The design of the meter was motivated by the need to accurately measure and verify the water saved after installing high efficiency, automatic faucets in men’s and women’s restrooms of the business building on campus. We also designed a low cost people counter to monitor traffic to the restrooms. We have integrated the people counter sensors with the smart water meters to correlate measured water use with individual restroom visits. Sensing the proximity of restroom visits to water use events and recording high frequency flow measurements allows us to also identify water fixture malfunctions, such as undesired water leaks. The meter design criteria were: 1) open-source hardware and software; 2) ability to measure total flow (water use) every five seconds; and 3) cost less than $100. Similar proprietary measurement systems currently on the market cost as much as $2,500. We show average water use per person, variability in water use by different fixtures (faucets versus urinals and toilets), variability in water use by fixtures compared to manufacturer specifications, gender differences in water use, and estimated water savings based on data collected before and after retrofit with high efficiency fixtures. Preliminary results show that women use more than twice as much water in restrooms than men and that automatic faucets reduce faucet water use by approximately 33% and 14% in women’s and men’s restrooms, respectively, compared to manually controlled faucets.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2015/2015Posters/13