Academic’s water-saving invention helps schools monitor consumption
EVERY drop counts – not only when it comes to preventing water wastage, but also saving the bank account from drying up. This is especially true for schools with already constrained resources and limited tools available to effect savings.
Saving water and money at schools has been the focus of a project run by Prof Thinus Booysen and his team at the department of electrical and electronic engineering at Stellenbosch University.
Through the use of smart metering technology, they have enabled schools, households and other institutions to limit water usage and minimise expenses.
Booysen said there were already five schools putting the technology to the test by the end of August. He hoped that more schools could get involved as a lot of water could be saved, especially since the cost of
The moment there was a burst pipe at the school an alarm triggered
water for bulk users in Stellenbosch has more than doubled since July.
The smart water meter is simply attached to a municipal water meter and then reports into a web server via cellular, NB-IoT or Sigfox networks.
Information is made available on a web app and through daily emailed reports, while notifications of unexpected events are sent by SMS and email.
Booysen said after the installation of this solution, people became more aware of how much water they use.
This awareness invariably leads to substantial reductions, with as much as 68% observed.
Shortly after the pilot project started at Laerskool Stellenbosch a few months ago, their water consumption dropped from 35kl per day to 11kl per day. The savings per month was equal to the salaries of two junior teachers.
The moment there was a burst pipe at the school during the July holidays, an alarm triggered and the school was notified immediately. They were able to prevent an estimated loss of around 1 million litres, Booysen pointed out.
Jacques Horn, the deputy principal at Laerskool Stellenbosch, said the meter works well. “We have already saved a lot of water and everyone is more aware of saving water.
“We have even adjusted the water supply to the toilets,” he said.
A further solution was to connect the water supply to the toilets with a timer-control system. In this way, the water supply to the toilets could be closed in the late afternoon and opened again the following morning.
The project champion at Laerskool Eikestad Dirk Coetsee said after the installation of the water meter the school managed to save at least 3kl of water per day.
“We picked up that there was water used over the weekends when there was no one at the school.
“Then we discovered a water leakage underground,” he said.
Other schools like AF Louw Primary School, Hoërskool Stellenbosch and Hector Pieterson Secondary School in Wallacedene have also come on board with the project.
The project is being commercialised by InnovUS, the university’s technology transfer office and incubated by the Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab and Stellenbosch University’s business incubator, through Bridgiot (Bridge to the Internet of Things).