FEATURED
Wadebridge-based Internet of Things installer Ver Facil Ltd has successfully fitted and commissioned into service a water metering solution at the Royal Cornwall Showground to track half-hourly consumption, provide a virtual meter reading and to alert the showground management if a leak is detected.
Founder and owner of Ver Facil Ltd, Rob Cartwright, explains: “It is difficult to monitor water meters that are down a hole underneath a steel cover and distant from a building because you either need to dig up the road and install a cable which is costly and disruptive, or rely on power hungry cellular devices which may only last a few months on a battery pack and will not work if there is poor network coverage.
“The advantage of the LoRa radio technology is the very low power consumption which can
maintain a sensor for five plus years and the incredible ‘link budget’ for the transmission
which sends the measured data across miles to the receiving gateway antenna.”
Rob says LoRaWAN technology provides the means to connect to remote battery powered
low power sensor devices over great distances, through walls, steel buildings and even below ground, under steel manhole covers as in this example with the water meter at the Royal Cornwall Showground.
“If you have to visit the meter,” says Rob, “lift the heavy steel cover and get down to the dial to read the latest reading you may only limit this to a monthly reading. This monthly reading will tell you nothing about the profile of your half-hourly consumption and certainly will not provide any alert of a water leak which may cost thousands of pounds in only a few
weeks if left undetected.”
The image at the top right is a snapshot of live 1/2 hourly consumption in litres and the image above is logged, stored data that is graphed to detail a profile of consumption. Owners and managers armed with this consumption profile can make better decisions on water saving procedures and our software can identify a leak and alter the client within hours.
The solution is being expanded to all 11 meters at the showground, the electric meters, security devices, smoke detection, temperature monitoring and many more applications.
During the show LoRaWAN was used to monitor bulk milk storage tank temperature and refrigerant cooling unit temperature/ running status too as well as water tank level.
Ver Facil Ltd based in Wadebridge, established for ten years and is experienced in electrical automation control systems. It provides free consultation on LoRa solutions, can provide presentations to community groups and are a commercial installer of Internet of Things technologies.
To see more examples of applications, visit the website www.verfacil.co.uk
Contact managing director Rob Cartwright iot@verfacil.co.uk
I have worked with Rob for many years, his attention to detail and ability to understand every customers different requirements is first class, this new technology is not only innovative it’s a real breakthrough within this industry. As a passionate entrepreneur myself I am very excited to see how this develops over the coming years
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