IoT-based Data Acquisition of Clean Water Usage Using NodeMCU

Abstract

Clean water is a major necessity for households and industries. As a valuable commodity, the usage of water needs to be measured accurately so that further analysis of consumer behavior can be done. In this paper, the authors propose a scheme that enables the digital data acquisition of clean water usage, supported by the cloud data storage and a self-developed smartphone application. For the purpose of water usage measurement, a standardized Itron Multimag TM II water meter is used. A TCRT5000 infrared reflective sensor is used to detect the reflection of a rotating metal plate of the water meter’s indicator. A laboratory-scale water cycle installation is constructed to simulate the water flow. A water pump is used to create the closed-circuit water circulation. The water meter is then mounted to measure the water volume that passes through the circulation. Throughout the experiment, the water meter is set to measure water usage quantity in different pump speeds while the infrared reflective sensor is tested to detect the rotating metal plate at various frequencies. Altogether, 3,410 liters of water is flown through the water meter, as it indicates. The infrared reflective sensor is able to detect the plate with 100 % accuracy and delivers the identical water usage quantity as the water meter. The data of the detection counts are sent by the NodeMCU ESP8266 through the internet to the Firebase data storage, where it is saved and further processed. The developed Android application reads the measured water usage data and shows it effectively. The user can monitor the quantity of water usage in various time intervals such as daily, monthly, or yearly. This can be used to perform an appropriate adjustment to the consumption behavior and further saving measures.