Design and development of a sustainable and affordable water and electricity monitoring system through internet of things technology

Abstract

Unmonitored water and electricity consumption and leaks in households and establishments are considered safety hazards, can cause potential damage to properties, and incur high incidental costs. Current interventions are costly to maintain, manually operated, difficult to monitor, inconsistent in performance, and are not integrated into a single system. To overcome these gaps, this paper presents the design, development, and testing of an Internet of Things-based monitoring system that can accurately detect water and electricity consumption and leaks in a real-time manner. The proposed solution features the use of Arduino Mega 2560 and ESP8266 microcontroller units, non-invasive current sensors, YF-S201C water flow sensors, and an alternative transfer switch, and implements it through a scaled prototyping approach. Hypotheses and technical testing results proved that there were no significant differences in the functional correctness of detecting electricity consumption in sampled lecture and laboratory rooms and the water consumption in sampled comfort rooms. Additionally, the system features a real-time mobile application that alerts users of detected water and electricity leaks in the lecture, laboratory, men’s, and women’s comfort rooms, thereby providing an extra layer of safety and reliability. The system is perceived to be beneficial to households, businesses, public, and private entities as a cost-effective and reliable solution in managing their water and electricity consumption and leaks. Furthermore, the outcomes are expected to contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on affordable and clean energy (SDG 7); and responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).