Every year, trillions of gallons of water is wasted as a result of leaks in toilets, faucets, irrigation systems, and other business and household plumbing fixtures. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), household leaks alone can waste 900 billion gallons of water annually.

These leaks do not need to be catastrophic in nature to create a large amount of waste. Even minor leaks due to defective parts, cracks in equipment, or improper seals contribute to the large amounts of water wasted. What is worse is that most of this waste goes utterly unnoticed by home, business, and property owners.

Not only is water waste an environmentally unfriendly condition, but with the cost of utilities on the rise, it is also a financially unfriendly condition. Implementing simplistic solutions by way of water flow sensors, which we will detail more below, can make a huge difference in both cost and energy savings.

Identifying the Problem

Unless you were to walk around and manually inspect all aspects of plumbing in your home or building, it might not be obvious to you where a leak could be occurring. However, telltale signs lie within the data your water meter is already generating.

A simple analysis can be conducted by checking your water meter at a time when you are certain that no water is being used. Most meters have a water flow indicator – a small, rotating wheel – and can detect even the smallest amounts of water flow. If the indicator is moving despite no water being used, it is a telltale sign of a leak occurring somewhere.

While some leaks may be more complicated to repair and require a professional to assist, many can be fixed with a little bit of time and a trip to your local hardware store. However, without obvious signs such as water dripping or puddling, identifying exactly where the leak is occurring might be more difficult.

What if you could avoid this lengthy process of finding and fixing leaks, to begin with? Technologies and devices such as water flow sensors can help you quickly find and remediate water leak issues, eliminating waste and preventing leaks from evolving from small to disastrous.

LoRaWAN Sensor Technology

In our prior blogs featuring sensors for a variety of business use cases, we detail how technologies that utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) and the LoRaWAN network are of substantial benefit to avoiding all types of waste. LoRaWAN water flow monitoring devices are no different.

LoRaWAN, short for Long Range Wide Area Network, allows battery-operated devices such as water flow sensors to wirelessly connect to the internet. It offers low-cost, long-range communication as well as enhanced battery life.

IoT provides the network that connects these devices together and allows for the transmission of real-time data without any human interaction or intervention.

With these technologies working together, the benefits that can be realized through having devices that consistently check for a variety of problems your home, business, or property could encounter and regularly relaying information about them back to cannot be overstated.

In addition to the waste reduction or elimination that we have highlighted in this article, business owners can automate processes, reduce labor costs, improve service delivery, and gain transparency into their own processes.

LoRaWAN Water Flow Monitoring Devices

When considering the water flow monitoring sensors that are best suited for your business or property, you will want to purchase those that are equipped with LoRaWAN technology. LoRaWAN-enabled devices are, for the benefits listed above, the best-in-class choice for protecting your property.

The Dragino SW3L LoRaWAN Outdoor Flow Sensor, offered by Choovio, not only calculates hourly, daily, and weekly water consumption but sends water flow volume readings every 20 minutes.

This LoRaWAN water flow monitoring sensor is configurable to detect anomalies within water flow status, sending an alert to your preferred device so that immediate action can be taken to avoid waste from a broken, defective, or malfunctioning part.

Powered by an 8500Ah Li-SOC12 battery, it is designed for long-term use for up to 10 years.

Weatherproofed, temperature resistant, and suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, the Dragino sensor can be installed on any water pipe where you would like to monitor flow – toilets, sinks, sprinkler systems – the use cases are truly numerous.

Protecting Your Investments

It is easy to imagine a scenario where a small leak, if left undetected, can turn into a very large and very expensive problem. Unfortunately, these types of water waste accidents happen every day.

According to a recent property management report, water damage emergencies inside a home on any given day affect 14,000 people. Moreover, minor leaks can increase the average household water bill by 10%.

In businesses or multi-unit properties, this cost can be substantially higher. Do not be caught unprepared if or when these leaks occur. Protect yourself, and your investments, by installing LoRaWAN water flow Monitoring sensors today.