Introducing

A rainwater management system being developed for the home.
Using ultrasonic water level sensors and controllable valves on garden water butts we are looking to deliver benefits to both homeowners and the environment, including reducing water bills and helping to minimise storm overflow events.

Hardware

Sensors & Valves

DIY fitting
Easily fitted to existing water butts.
Multi Tank Monitoring
One app can monitor as many tanks and valves as required – connect multiple tanks easily.
Remote level monitoring
Check your tank level from your smartphone – anytime, anywhere!
WiFi
Both the sensor and the valve can be used as stand-alone items, both offering WiFi, with a connection range of up to 15m.
BLE
The valve can be used in conjunction with the sensor using either WiFi or BLE.
Ultrasonic sensor
The sensor can monitor distances of between 10cm and 3m without coming into contact with the water.
Adaptable power supplies
Sensors available as mains or solar. Valves available as battery or solar.

We are in the process of integrating a weather station into our system to further enhance the accuracy of the data.

Forecasts currently in use are provided by OpenWeather.

Software

Setup of enki-o devices is via our mobile device app using BLE.

The app allows you to locate and define rainwater collection areas and uses local weather forecasts to estimate the amount of rainwater expected.

By monitoring weather forecasts and rainwater collection, the system can either notify the user or automatically open a valve to disperse water prior to a storm event. The water dispersed could be directed at watering the garden, filling a swale or used for household grey water.

By connecting a sensor or valve to our cloud-based MQTT server via WiFi you can manage your water system remotely and have access to history, weather forecasts and notifications.

The readings sent to our cloud database are analysed, compared with weather forecasts and used to trigger actions or notifications and allow us to build algorithms based on learnt patterns.

WiFi connection allows you access to firmware updates whenever those algorithms can be used to improve the efficiency of our system.

We are also developing an integrated soil sensor
to allow automated garden watering based on weather forecasts.

Rainwater Management

The inability of water companies to manage storm events in a way that balances the current economic and environmental situations has led to increased criticism and scrutiny.

It is estimated that 41% of water flowing into the sewer system during an extreme storm event is from roof run-off.

If we collaborate in the positive collection of rainwater and manage it’s entry into the sewer system we can help to alleviate the impact of severe storm events which currently lead to sewage outflows into rivers and seas and save ourselves money from water bills in the process.